Since I have moved to Denmark one of the cultural shifts that has snuck up on me is the fact that it is quite common for people to mix languages in everyday conversation as if nothing changed. It seems quite normal to hear or read communications in a combination of English, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish or any the many other languages that are used in this cosmopolitan country.This Scandinavian polyglot nature has seeped into the culture, at least in my eyes as an outsider looking in.
I have been working in a Danish company for 2.5 years now and some of my Danish colleagues ask from time to time why I don’t speak more Danish in the office, since I can read well and write OK. Aside from the problems I have hearing Danish as I am deaf in my right ear and also have trouble understanding spoken Danish, as it is fast and often mumbled, the main issue is one of habit.
I come from a country where to speak a foreign language mid-way through a sentence and then jump back into our mother-tongue might be interpreted as pretentious or elitist in some circles. It’s silly when you think about it, as English is a mongrel language, made of stolen words from every language under the sun. We take them and call them English, we don’t think of it as another language; we assimilate words – resistance is futile!
So really it comes down to attitude. Here in Scandinavia language is embraced as it is needed. Danes are used to the fact that to communicate with the world English and German, among others, are valued skills considering Denmark’s location. In Britain we like to export our values abroad and demand it be more like Britain! (Except for the rain of course, but we will probably still find a way to moan about the weather somehow!)
So I’m the only person in my company who can say that I had only one working language before I came to Denmark. The other two people at work who are learning Danish speak English as a second language, as they came from the Baltics and Asia. So they had at least 2 languages before they came to Denmark. English allows you to be so lazy sometimes, but it is incredibly good at describing things in great detail.
So it is nice to be in a place where I can finally use another language for a change, as it was something I was always good at at school; I learned German for 5 years and Japanese for 2 years. Being able to apply it does make all the difference and in the time I have been here I can definitely see that I’ve improved and have begun to assimilate both the language and culture. For example: when I dream and see money, I see kroner now not pound notes.
So I will carry on muddling through, trying to get used to this cultural polyglot norm that challenges me in unexpected ways. However, I know once Ray has caught up with me we will start speaking more Danish at home and that can help. It’s only a matter of time now, I just have to patient 
PS: Don’t you wish sometimes you could just plug your brain into something and just download it all like in the matrix heh!
[...] a quick post to say I’ve written a new post on my blog For The Hole Inside Everyone called Moving From A Monoglot To A Polyglot Culture. This has been playing on my mind for sometime since the last time someone asked me why I’m [...]