Being an exchange students brings along a lot of obligations and activities to immerse myself in, which is now my excuse as to why I haven’t written anything in a while. I recently just got back from a week in Tønder, a small town on the border of Germany. Although I found myself eager to get home I did enjoy most of my stay. I have been sick for a few weeks now and I did not manage to get better before my 5 hour train trip to Tønder which managed to put a damper on things. I got to go to Germany and spend an abundant amount of money on cheap food, and like I mean cheap.. (Pringles were $1, so obviously I had to buy 5 of them). Unfortunately school was just as uneventful as it is in Helsinge, counting to 20 and introducing myself in Danish doesn’t get me too far in the learning aspects of things. I saw a lot of things that we don’t have over this side of Denmark, for example enough flat land to see for miles. Where I am living there are forests everywhere and the hills are still big enough to make me tired biking up and down them (also the fact that I am rather unfit compared to the average Dane) but in Tønder you could bike effortlessly for as long as you wanted, no matter how unfit you are! I had never seen a place so flat before. I did get to meet a lot of other exchange students that are living near me which was a great bonus.
“Do you know Danish yet?”
I get asked this question so much and it just makes me so uncomfortable and I thought I should share why. It is unrealistic to expect to learn a language fluently in less than 3 months, let alone 46 Days. 3 months is the estimated time to start having an understanding of a country and the language they speak. This is because of the things you accomplish in 3 months. If you are on holiday you are usually not going to be there for longer than 3 months, visas usually run out before 3 months. Until you have been somewhere for longer than 3 months and have established a routine, friends and a sense of surrounding, its hard to start feeling as though you are a person who lives there rather than a tourist living a short temporary lifestyle. This is why it makes me so frustrated when after 46 days people start expecting you to know a whole entire 2nd language. I understand why I get this question a lot, its frustrating having a student in your class, or a person sitting next to you that still after 6 and a half weeks still cant communicate like everyone else and its inconvenient which I completely get. Although I can’t help but feel upset at this constant expectation that I can not accomplish no matter how hard I try. I am so proud of the Danish I know so far, being able to count to 20 was huge for me because rewiring your brain in a completely different way was something I felt was a huge deal. I am working on the alphabet which sounds easy but my god its so different and confusing and there are new sounds and new letters which is just bizarre.
When you know completely nothing about another language and the sounds sound foreign and you find it physically hard to make certain noises and say words it can be rather embarrassing and intimidating talking Danish out loud. I don’t think people understand that speaking this language out loud to people who are fluent can be very hard as its rather mortifying to me that a 3 year old can pronounce the language better than I can.
It has become apparent to me how happy little things can make you. Today after a cold bike home, I was welcomed with a box sent from New Zealand (shout out to my mother for spending $75 / 376DKK to send me over some random stuff I asked for). I never would have thought that I would get so exited over a bottle of shampoo and conditioner that I am used to and that I love. There are so many things that I miss that I never would have expected and its these little things that make all the difference. Being able to simply wash my hair with something that’s familiar is so comforting, I just cant even comprehend it.
also a quick side note, guess who is atten (eighteen) in 5 days.. ME
So my next post might be in a while because I have camp next weekend on my birthday, how depressing I know. So until next time…
Keeping up with Kezia 