Tips and tricks for improving your Danish skills

Danish is a hard language to learn. However, you can get some help, if you want to be good at speaking Danish. If you have a great vocabulary you have already come a long way. But as everything else you must practice on a daily basis.

We have collected some tips and tricks/pointers to help you get better at speaking Danish. They are a useful supplement to your Danish Education at CLAVIS and easy to use in your everyday life, and make it easier to learn Danish.

1. If you want to learn Danish, you have to speak Danish – not just in class. It is tempting to speak English when you are visiting grocery store or cafés. However, it is important, that you practice your Danish at all times. At CLAVIS we have Studies and language cafés in our departments, where you have the opportunity to practice reading, spelling, writing and talking Danish as welle as meeting your peers from literally all over the world.
2. Find the Danish keywords. Every language has some keywords, that are used frequently, which is why it is a great idea to find these words, if you want to learn Danish.
3. Socialize – you can attend sports activities or events in your children’s institutions. Besides the fact that you will join new networks and speak Danish, your vocabulary will be extended, and you will become much better at understanding Danish.
4. Take notes of new words. If you want to learn Danish fast, it is a good idea to take notes. You simply remember new words better if you have put them in writing.
5. Record yourself and listen afterwards. If you listen to yourself and your pronunciation, you often find out where to focus your training.
6. Practice real life situations. Imagine you are ordering food at a café or asking for directions. Ask the questions and answer them yourself.
7. The Parrot method: If there are any sentences or words you find difficult to pronounce, then repeat the words a lot of times. You can have your teacher, or a Danish speaking friend record it, so you always know how to pronounce it correctly.
8. Watch Danish movies. Especially movies you already know. Choose eg. a well-known cartoon, where you set the language to Danish, so you know the plot/story, but now you get it in Danish. Also watch Danish news and other Danish TV programmes.
9. Read magazines or cartoons when you are at the waiting room at the doctor’s, get the free newspaper in the train or seek for Danish news online eg. dr.dk
10. Use online apps such as Duolingo. It is a great method to learn Danish.

If you are already a student in a Danish Education, but want to learn more Danish, then FVU Danish might be a great supplement to your learning. FVU – Forberedende Voksenundervisning is for free and it is for you who want to get better at reading, writing or spelling.

At CLAVIS wo offer FVU Danish, FVU Mathematics, FVU Digital and FVU English. If you want to join FVU it requires a certain level of Danish, but a preliminary test will show if you are ready.