LOVE MY JOB! The people I work with are awesome. I think I will eventually be able to really help out with the cause I was hired for and am so passionate about - helping international students who can't speak Danish find relevant, study-related jobs. I am still learning everything, but I actually look forward to going to work, and the money is totally necessary. I realize now I could not have survived over here had I not found this job...too many bills to pay back in the US.
They speak English with me predominately. Their levels are different, from amazing to okay. I can communicate with every one of them. Susanne, the one I have totally bonded with, is the best by far! Her vocabulary and pronunciation is amazing. She is one of the few Danes that I don't find myself choosing 'smaller' words with, if you will, when I speak to her...and she is the second Dane (next to my soccer buddy Line Madsen) to understand my sarcasm and sense of humor! I have noticed over here that I don't speak the way I would back home because people who speak English as their second language don't understand some of the words I use naturally, yet don't stop you to tell you they didn't understand why you said.
We have a lot of fun at work together. For Halloween (Danes don't really celebrate Halloween), Susanne was a sweetheart and carved a pumpkin at home the night before for me and brought it to work! She also brought in Danish candy for me to try (yikes...its funny because they all stare at me when I try it and watch my face, which is not always a good sight to see - lets just say Turkish peber and I don't mix, and licorice should NEVER be salty!); I brought in American candy (they sell Twix, Snickers and Mars bars over here) and made them say trick-or-treat and tell me a joke before I gave it to them.
They love to teach me Danish words, and watch me try to pronounce them. We always end up laughing. So my attempt at internationalizing them is my concept of the word of the week. I pick a word of the week, give them a definition and two example sentences via email. Their task is to use it in a sentence to me that week. Thomas and Susanne have definitely gotten into it the most. We just started the concept - I am going to try to pick funny words and stronger English words they hopefully don't know and likely don't use already. Last week the word was 'posse.' This week, my word is 'provisionally.' You don't even realize when words fly out of your mouth that others may not know what they are. Susanne is the best at stopping me and saying, "Hey, what word did you just use?" She practices saying them to me, uses them in sentences...she even has a list written down next to her computer of new words she has learned from me. I think some of the words on the list are plethora, disconcerning and her absolute favorite (she uses it all the time!) is applicable. So it is my way to teach them, which is fun.
At any rate, sometimes they get caught up and start speaking Danish, which is hard for me because what they discussed is not always translated. I am a perfectionist and like to perform well with everything I do. It is sometimes hard with them because I feel out of the loop. There is even an issue with our Microsoft Outlook calendars - they put all their events and information in Danish. I either have to copy and paste everything into Google translate to know what is going on, or else I don't know. We have a staff meeting coming up and I am going to address that.
But again, it is not for my lack of trying! I am not coming into their country, their culture, their work environment expecting them to change everything they do to accommodate for me. I am enrolled in an intensive Danish course every Tuesday and Thursday for 2.5 hours. It is broken up into modules, and you have to pay $100 to take a test to pass one module and move on to the next one. My test for module 1 is coming up in early December. I am a bit nervous, but have learned a lot so far. I can even semi-read emails now, and I pick up on little words in their conversations. Real Danish speakers speak very fast and blur a lot of the words together and drop a lot of syllables, so it is hard for non-natives to catch, but I am trying. They also speak from the back of their throats, where Americans speak from the tip of their tongues. There are a lot of sounds that sound almost like hacking when it comes to pronouncing words that it are sooo tough to pronounce.
Anyway, our Christmas Julefrokost is this Friday, so it will be fun to hang out with everyone in a social environment.
Here is an updated link to my website at work. Click on the link for a surprise!!!!! And PS, all of the wording on the English website, I have proofread and edited...kind of nerdy, but fun for me, because I love that kind of stuff - thank you Grandpa Y!
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My coworkers: (Left to Right) - Line Fristrup (student aid); Kira (student aid); Susanne Hejlsvig (consultant); Jette Hammer (consultant); Ann Cathrine (student aid); me (student aid) and Thomas Jensen (consultant). All really awesome people!
Susanne and I after the ASB Annual Celebration (think Homecoming weekend...though not the same AT ALL!!!) Alumni is a fairly new concept over here....
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