“The school fulfilled my expectation. I was barely able to say “thank you” in Danish when I started. My Danish got a lot better, and I am now able to, slowly, read Andersens’ fairy-tales, books for learners or talk about new with my classmates.”
That’s how it sounds from 27-year-old Sonia. She moved from Italy to Denmark in 2019 and began shortly after her Danish Education at CLAVIS in Aarhus. She started with regular class tuition, but now, with a baby in her arms, she has joined with CLAVIS online.
She knew the Danish language was hard to learn, and before she started she was a bit worried, because she thought it sounded almost impossible to pronounce.
“I still remember the first time I heard about the famous Danish dessert “rødgrød med fløde.” It was not easy to pronounce,” Sonia explains and continuous:
“But what sounded impossible at that time, became totally possible after some months. After a couple of months, I was able to tell people where I was from, what I was doing in Denmark, how my everyday life was. And it got better and better, lesson after lesson,” says Sonia.
READ tips and tricks for improving your Danish skills
Sonia explains, that during the lessons they work with the pronunciation which is also what Sonia finds most difficult about the Danish language. The help from the teachers combined with practice in her everyday life among others with her Danish boyfriend, have also helped her a lot.
Learn by your mistakes
“Lesson after lesson the teachers always guided us to the exams, which I didn’t find difficult at all because I always tried to follow my teacher’s advice to use the language as much as I could. I am listening to Danish podcast, even if I couldn’t understand anything in the beginning, reading the news and trying to order food in Danish,” Sonia explains and continues
“And I am trying not to be ashamed of making mistakes. It is by making mistakes, and laughing it, that I have learned so many words.”
Right now, Sonia is attending module 3, and she is almost ready for the next exam, and she is happy that she chose CLAVIS – for several reasons.
“The teacher is always stimulating and always gives us well organized study material and exercises about grammar or written assignments which I always learn a lot from, especially from the feedback that we receive. Again, making mistakes is the best way to learn.”
