Marie's Danish Lessons

[Jo of Palatine]

Originally Posted by pamk

It may be a good thing that Joachim and Marie will be living far away from Copenhagen - the temptations of the city might hinder Marie's learning of Danish.
Couldn't she have purchased a Berlitz Danis language program - used tapes or CDs?
Pop those into a tape or CD player and listen to them night and day - that would help!

You cans ee in the Tv documentary that she has in addition to her language lessons a learning program on her laptop with an accompanying book.

[randomlyKeira]

I was wondering, in "Danish Lessons" wouldn't she be learning a bit more than just the language? Shouldn't she be learning history, culture, etc?

I only ask because I know that from country to country curriculum changes, so even though she was educated in international schools, shouldn't she know a bit about the country? I woudln't want her coming into my school and speaking in my classes becasue I would be thinking that this woman knew absolutely nothing about our lessons (as I said: history, culture, etc.)... Maybe I'm a bit more obsessive about it though...

[Amelia]

If you watch the documentary about Marie you can see her learning, and talking, about the history of Denmark, the Royal Family etc.

> dr.dk tv - Det vil jeg se!

[Jo of Palatine]

Originally Posted by randomlyKeira

I was wondering, in "Danish Lessons" wouldn't she be learning a bit more than just the language? Shouldn't she be learning history, culture, etc?

I only ask because I know that from country to country curriculum changes, so even though she was educated in international schools, shouldn't she know a bit about the country? I woudln't want her coming into my school and speaking in my classes becasue I would be thinking that this woman knew absolutely nothing about our lessons (as I said: history, culture, etc.)... Maybe I'm a bit more obsessive about it though...

No, she thinks so as well, you could see in the documentary. She told the interviewer that she thinks it is really important to learn about the Danish culture and history, mostly from books, but Joachim took her to a lot of historical buildings where she had a guided tour. You could see on more than one occasion that she had previous knowledge learned from books because when the guide started explaining a detail, she provided additional and correct information of her own, so she had read about the place before actually visiting it. She really was happy when she was presented with a DVD eg of the Danish main cathedral and found that the explanation was both in Danish and French. She said she wanted to listen to the text in both languages in order to practise her Danish. It really sounded genuine.

Plus you could see from the questions she asked that she is genuinely trying to learn about Denmark - she explained that she really wants to become a part of the Royal family and thus a part of Denmark, so she has to learn as much as she can. As she said, she is going to become a Danish citizen and as thus she must have the knowledge of a Danish citizen.

While I think it is sad that Nikolai and Felix don't yet speak a bit of French, as their father is half-french. Marie has to speak in English with the boys, so I guess they don't understand French. But her English is really good, like many French living in Switzerland she speaks a bit slowly but very correct English.

[Jo of Palatine]

Obviously Marie already speaks Danish im public:

Marie talte dansk

[randomlyKeira]

Thank you! I haven't seen the documentary yet, but I'll definitely watch it...

I'm glad that she seems genuine about learning the language and the culture. I think that just that will prove her a good princess, if she is genuinely in love with the country...

[Angeline]

I think she has plenty of time to learn the language and the culture and I hope she enjoys the journey with her new husband and family. She obviously has had so much to do and maybe language is not so easy for her? Daily use will be great!