The prospects for Danish and other foreign languages in Denmark

Denmark has almost become a bilingual nation, with English and Danish competing for attention. This is in principle a good and practical thing, but I am sick and tired of those management people, politicians and marketing employees who think that English s smart and Danish is not, and who are too dumb to see that we need more than one foreign language to be truly globalized. The cure against this is not to become monolingual again, but to recognize that there are other foreign languages than just English in this world - and we should larn them. The summary in English comes around 13.12' ... yes, even a warning against the English linguistic dominance has to be formulated in English.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• English
• losing ground
• foreign languages
• home study

[NJLIversen]

I can't answer everybody, but thanks for all the comments.

I used an English title because that's how I do it for all my videos - and half the video is actually in English.

If you visit Denmark you will actually find that most Danes understand and even speak English, but by knowing our own language you place yourself in another cathegory than the casual tourist or lazy member of an expatriat community. Besides you get easy acces to Norwegian and Swedish as a an added bonus.

[NJLIversen]

I don't think Danish will disappear the next hundred years or so, bu it has already lost ground to English. For instance more and more Danish companies and institutions now choose English names for themselves and for their products, and most scientific articles are now written directly in English. We have already gone far into the direction of making Danish a purely domestic language - too far in my opinion. And purely domestic languages may end up as dead languages at a later stage.

[boabysands123]

English definitely seems to be taking over in the sciences and technology in many language communities worldwide. It is a very significant and worrying negative step for the full dynamic health of a language if it stops being the medium for advanced education, discussion and the professions. Denmark seems to following a pattern seen in the other Scandanavian countries.

[Fasulye2009]

Hvorfor har du vaelget titlen pâ engelsk? Din video er talet pâ dansk! Fasulye

[esplob]

I live in London and if anyone says to me “everyone speaks English” my answer is “Listen and look around you”. If people in London do not speak English then the whole question of a global language is completely open.

The language imeperialis of English is completely unacceptable - I say this as a native English speaker!

Impractical because communication should be for all and not only for an educational or political elite. That is how English is used internationally at the moment.

[roedgroedudenfloede]

I hope it's not endangered, as I've spent the last 6 years learning the language! :-) Ironically enough, as another poster has already mentioned, the success of Forbrydelsen (and now Borgen) here may result in more people learning Danish in the UK, who knows?

[Fasulye2009]

Tusind tak for du taler så langt(!) på dansk i den meget interesante video! Jeg synes at du har ret at sige at engelsk er for meget vigtigt in den danske samfund. Du presenterer interesante eksempler for taler på Bahasa Malayu og også Plattdüütsch. Fordi jeg hører meget dansk in mit dankse kursus i aftenskolen, jeg kan nu bedre forstå din dansk. Måske 20 % kan jeg forstå! Den lange video hjælper mig at asimilere din danske sprog. Jeg håber at også andre dansklærende lytte din video. Fasulye

[silent0watcher]

When I was a student I wanted to learn Danish, but many people (including my tutor) told me: "It would be a complete waste of time - in Denmark they all speak perfect English!"