Every travel guides of the Scandinavian countries will tell you the same: everyone speaks English!Great! But what happens if it's not the case?
This is what happened to me the other day: Back from work, I run to the laundry room. There, I meet the caretaker (Dk: vicevært) - f****, forgot to book a time! Failure of the sneeking attempt. Ah well! Trying to convince the guy I couldn't make it, have to do it now, blablabla- all that in English. He looks at you in a strange way. Then you realise he doesn't understand a word of what you are saying. Suddenly he mumbles something in Danish. Hehe, sorry but I don't get you. I might have understood some things regarding "...Don't you speak Danish?..." - " ...Nej, Jag talar lite svenska...". Ok, this wasn't going anywhere. Thinking to myself- let it be you'll do laundry later.
Back in the appartment. 10 min later- knock, knock- the caretaker! Mumbles in Danish, AGAIN!! So I tried to remember the few Danish I learned in the first semester: Vask? Nu?! (Laundry? Now?!) He understood and replied 'JA!'. A small step for A. but a giant one for the Danish culture.
A.
/ Amager's stories
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