In this article, I thought I’d take a look at the phenomenon that is language learning and acquisition – how exactly do we learn languages and what is the process? Is it really possible to pick up a language in mere months? And when exactly does the process end – how do we achieve true fluency, if such a thing even exists?

Languages Are Alive

The first thing to get straight is this: languages are not fixed entities. They are living phenomena which expand and contract, shapeshift, morph and evolve as time goes by. Old words slip away into oblivion and new word enter our lexicons to describe new inventions or problems. In that sense, languages are a bit like our own brains and memories, which are constantly assessing and reassessing what information we need to retain, how quickly we should be able to recall certain words, and what can be filed away into the archives.

The combination of these two facts means that languages are not simply something we can pick up off the shelf and take away with us. No matter what a crash course or a brand new app might promise, and much to the dismay of many a young language learner which aspirations to become a polyglot who can speak six or seven languages. The frustrating reality is that each language we learn needs to be constantly updated, practised and refined. Just like how an athlete loses their skills if they don’t train every day, or how computer programmes become obsolete if they don’t keep up to date with new developments.

Take for example the case of a linguist I once knew who moved from the UK to France at a young age in the mid-90s. By the time he got to university, he was proficiently bilingual, but his English had ossified. He used quintessential 90s slang words like wicked or dope, and half his vocabulary was lifted straight from shows like Friends or The Simpsons. His speech was clunky and cumbersome, too, and he realised that it now took more mental energy to speak what was once his native language than it did to speak his adopted French. So it is clear that language learning is not a cut-and-dried process, but what does this mean for learners of a second language?

Learning at a Young Age

It has long been thought that children are much better at learning languages than adults, and this is largely true. Young brains soak up new words like a sponge as part of an almost automatic acquisition process that requires little concerted effort. Kids are more attuned to different accents and find it easier to mimic and pick up new sounds. Many studies suggest that in order to become truly fluent in a second language, we need to begin learning before the age of ten. Somewhere between ten and eighteen, our natural flair tapers off and language learning becomes a more difficult and demanding process.

This is one of the reasons why Scandinavian speakers have a reputation for being particularly good at English and languages in general. We begin learning at a young age and spend our childhoods absorbing vocabulary from American music and culture. Even despite the unique phonology of Danish, which is notoriously difficult even for kids to acquire, growing up in Denmark gave me some key skills and a good foundation for a lifetime of language learning.

However, language learning does not end in childhood. A recent study found that people do not fully master the grammar of their own native language until around the age of thirty, and that on average we learn one new word – in our native language – each and every day. The same study also found that adults have different tools for learning foreign languages, like better attention spans and crucial literacy skills, but that picking up and retaining new words and grammatical constructions now takes a great deal more effort and dedication – and that it may take full immersion in order to really make progress.

Cultivating & Nurturing Skills

What the above means in practice is that people who speak multiple languages need to constantly cultivate and nurture the skills they have in order to keep them alive. Again, this is a two-pronged process – it is a matter of both telling our brains we still need certain words or grammatical skills, but also checking in with the cultures within which our other languages exist and take shape, so that we can keep abreast of how they change and evolve.

For a professional translator who works with multiple languages, this means constantly finding ways to engage and use all the languages they speak. Perhaps starting the day with a newspaper in Swedish, listening to a podcast in Spanish on the commute to work and phoning a friend in English at lunch time. Many linguists are constantly putting out their cultural tentacles in search of new media to consume and new people to connect with.

That is also one of the major advantages we have at Comunica – our office is a vibrant multicultural space packed to the brim with opportunities to share and connect in different languages all through the day. But for some of our linguists who live in their native countries, keeping their skills fresh can require a great deal of extracurricular effort.

A Rewarding Pursuit

Returning to my question from the beginning it seems clear that, yes, language learning really is a life-long pursuit. Many people who begin the process later in life may never feel able to call themselves truly fluent, while even our native languages can falter over time if we live abroad and lose contact with home. This makes fluency a slippery concept and means that multilingual individuals need to constantly toil and graft so as not to lose what they have learned and acquired.

But despite all that, language learning is a thoroughly rewarding process. Speaking multiple languages means being able to connect with people from all corners of the world, to access and follow developments from certain parts of the globe in greater detail, and to enjoy a broader range of culture and entertainment. So while speaking multiple languages may require continuous effort, it quickly becomes a core part of our lives – and one that we would not soon be without.

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That’s the Danish word for thank you – but it means so much more than that.

In Danish, we sprinkle ‘tak’ everywhere like it’s seasoning. Tak, tak, tak, tak, tak. We say tak for the food, tak for holding the door, tak for that cosy dinner last night, tak for just being in the room. My Spanish husband finds it funny – he’s even jokingly started saying ‘tak for tak’. What he’s getting at is if we Danes keep thanking everyone for everything, then where does it end? He has visions of us thanking each other just for saying thank you.

Then we have the expression ‘tak for sidst’ which is more of a custom or a cultural obsession than it is a phrase. Essentially, it means ‘thanks for the last time’ and it’s obligatory after any kind of social outing. If your friends invite you round for dinner, you call them or text them the next day to say ‘tak for sidst’. If you bump into somebody on the street that you haven’t seen in months, you say ‘tak for sidst’. It doesn’t matter how much time has gone by, in Denmark we feel this compulsive need to call to mind that last time we were together. It might feel odd, but at its core is an appreciation for one of the most important things we have in this life – each other.

The important thing to recognise about all of this, though, is that it doesn’t mean we’re overflowing with gratitude all the time. Tak is not always effusive or exaggerated expression of deep thankfulness. A lot of the time, it’s just a filler word. It’s verbal punctuation.

It can also be sarcastic, or counter intuitive. When spoken with a certain intuition, it can mean – okay, that’s enough. And when we say ‘tak for kaffe’, we’re not saying thanks for the coffee. This idiom actually means that we find something shocking or unexpected. Can you believe she did that? Tak for kaffe!!!

As my husband rightly recognises, it would be ridiculous if we rendered every last tak as gracias when translating from Danish into Spanish. And when we localise content for the Nordics, we’re constantly making these tiny calibrations. How effusive should the gratitude be? What’s the right level of warmth versus formality?

Get it wrong and your Danish customers may think you’re weirdly over-enthusiastic. Your Swedish ones could interpret you as being passive-aggressive. Cultural fluency isn’t about translating words. It’s about understanding what those words actually mean to the people reading them.

Thanks for reading, and tak for sidst!

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But it’s not just pronunciation that sets Danish apart – the way Danes count is also unique. Rather than using the base-ten system we are used to in English, Danish has a so-called vigesimal system, meaning it is based around the number twenty.

This quirk can very quickly make heads spin when learning the language for the first time. For today’s article, I thought I would take a look at this unique feature of my native language and try to unravel its mysteries for you.

What Makes the Danish Number System Different?

To understand what makes the Danish number system unique, let’s start by looking at how one counts in Swedish or Norwegian. Don’t worry – the system used in these languages is pretty simple and similar to English. You just need to take a few seconds to study the basics of these numbers and the patterns between singles and tens.

In Swedish, the numbers one to ten are as follows: en, två, tre, fyra, fem, sex, sju, åtta, nio and ten.

Ten to twenty are: tio, tjugo, trettio, fyrtio, femtio, sextio, sjuttio, åttio, nittio, ett hundra.

And to make the numbers in between you simply smash them together: tjugotvå is twenty-two, for example, and sjuttionio would be seventy-nine.

Now let’s move on to Danish, which starts off pretty simply. The numbers one to ten are relatively similar to their counterparts in the other languages and literally as simple to use as just counting from one to ten. They are: en, to, tre, fire, fem, seks, syv, otte, ni and ti.

Nice and simple, right? Well hold on to your hat, because this is where it starts to get complicated. Here are the numbers ten to one hundred: ti, tyve, tredive, fyrre, halvtreds, tres, halvfjerds, firs, halvfems and et hundred.

A System Based on Twenties

The reason this second set of numbers looks so different to their Swedish counterparts is that the Danish system is based on twenties rather than tens. Perhaps the first number that stands out to you is halvtreds, the word for 50. This word is actually short for an even more complex, whopping mouthful of a word – halvtredje-sinde-tyve. Literally, this means three minus a half times twenty.

Starting to scratch your head? Just remember the base number is 20. So what this actually means is that you take the base number (20) and multiply it by three minus a half, or to put that another way, two and a half. So 2.5 x 20 = 50. Sixty is a little bit simpler. It is short for tre (three) and sindstyve – so 3 x 20 = 60.

Halvfjerds gets complicated again because this once more involves a deducted half. The fjerds part refers to four times the base number and the halv is the half we’re taking off, leaving us with 3.5 x 20 = 70. Firs is more straight-forward, like sixty, and simply means multiplying the base number by four. And halvfems, finally, means multiplying the base number by five minus a half, i.e. 4.5 x 20 = 90.

Easy as pie, right?

Building Back to Front

Okay, so now that we’ve got a handle on the tens, what about the numbers in between, like twenty-two and so on? As we saw at the beginning of the article, Swedish makes this pretty simple – you simply smash the numbers together. You don’t even need to use a hyphen like in English. Danish, however, takes this system and flips it back to front – literally.

Rather than say twenty-one, the Danes instead express numbers like this as yet another little sum. They say one-and-twenty – a system which will be familiar to anybody who has previously studied German. So with that in mind, take a look at the following words and see if you can work out what they mean:

Syvogtyve

Otteogfyrre

Treogtres

Well, how did you do? Ready for the answers? The numbers above mean twenty-seven, forty-eight and sixty-three. The last one in particular is quite tricky to read if you aren’t familiar with the system as our brains can easily mistake that first tre for a plain-old three rather than tres which means sixty (three times twenty).

Why Does this System Exist?

You may be surprised to know that this system didn’t necessarily develop organically in Denmark and in fact, Danes did not always count this way! According to Danish language researcher Johannes Brøndum-Nielsen, Danes counted in tens up until about the 1300s.

Nobody knows for sure why this system was abandoned in favour of the vigesimal. However, there is research to show that counting in twenties was a phenomenon that likely began in Flensburg, a town that was once under Danish rule but is now part of Germany. From there, it spread eastwards over time, at one point even taking hold in the Swedish region of Scania.

It is also worth noting that Danish is not the only language to use a vigesimal system. Other languages to use this method include French, Gaelic and Bretton. It is therefore not implausible that the Danes adopted this system through contact beyond home borders – or that counting in twenties was once the norm before it died out.

If you think about it, most number systems only stabilise once they hit the number twenty. The teens are often unique and it is only after twenty that a more structured system takes hold. For example, instead of saying ten-nine in English, we say nineteen, while fifteen in Spanish is quince, not diecicino. This suggests that twenty may have been a fairly common base number across languages at one point in time.

What Does the Vigesimal System Mean for Translators?

Fortunately, this system does not usually represent a spanner in the works for translators as Danes tend to express written numbers in digit form and these symbols can be universally understood. However, tricky number words may still come up in written records of speech or in more creative texts. In these cases, it is important that the translator has a good handle on the system and also knows how to incorporate any cultural connotations with which they may be laden.

For more facts about the Nordic region and its language, take a look at some of my previous articles, or pay a visit to the blog on the Comunica blog where we often write about fun traditions and linguistic quirks. It shouldn’t take you longer than three times twenty seconds to find an article you’re interested in!

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But at the same time, it is also a vast and diverse region in both cultural and commercial terms. As a business, how can you know for certain which countries and regions you ought to target? And how can you connect with Nordic shoppers and convince them to choose your products over the crowded competition?

Those questions and more are just what I would like to address in this latest article for LinkedIn, so read on below for some answers!

Nordic Super Consumers!

The Nordics are well used to topping the charts when countries are pitted against each other. Whether it be happiness, sustainability or business, the Nordics often come out on top.

And when it comes to purchasing power – or what is known as actual individual consumption – the Nordics are no exception. In 2019, a study by Statistics Norway found that Norway has the second highest levels of consumption in Europe, and it was followed closely by Iceland and Denmark. Sweden and Finland were not far behind either, nestled among economic powerhouses such as Germany, Austria and Belgium.

In some cases, the Nordics even beat countries with higher GDPs on actual individual consumption. Norway, for example, beats both Switzerland and Ireland on this metric, despite both countries having higher levels of market value overall. This is largely because a lot of the money generated in the Nordic economies stays at home, where it ends up as disposable income in the pockets of Nordic consumers.

Ravenous Icelanders and Fun-Loving Swedes

So the fact that Nordic consumers have lots of money to spend is well established, but what exactly do they like to spend it on? What trends can we look to as guidance when contemplating a move into one or more of the Nordics?

Well, food and drinks businesses may want to set their sights on the outer reaches of the continent. The same study by Statistics Norway also found that Icelanders spend more than any other nation in Europe on food and non-alcoholic drinks. Their consumption per capita for this category was a whole thirty-six percent above the EU average. Figures from Statista suggest this is a trend that has been growing steadily ever since Iceland emerged from the economic crisis at the start of the last decade.

Swedes, on the other hand, prefer fun over food. According to a study by Statistics Sweden from 2008, consumers in this country spend more on cultural and recreational activities than they do on groceries. This trend has only continued since then, with figures from Trading Economics showing that in 2021, Swedes spent 11.5% of household expenditure on culture and recreation. This was the highest percentage anywhere in Europe, followed closely by the Danes at 10.9%.

Other trends include a fondness for rosé wine among the Danes and a penchant for video poker and slot machines among the Finns.

What about the Cost-of-Living Crisis?

Despite being in pole position, the Nordics are not immune to the global tremors affecting consumer confidence across Europe and the wider world. Many Nordic consumers have expressed concern about their household finances and traded down to cheaper alternatives.

However, according to research by the Boston Consulting Group, the situation in the Nordics represents more of a spending shift than a spending stop. Consumers are typically looking for cheaper alternatives, and this could represent an opportunity for budget food and clothing brands, for example.

Meanwhile, research by Deloitte suggests that home entertainment services seem poised to remain steady following their boost during the pandemic as Nordic citizens continue to spend time at home. However, this sector has become increasingly fragmented by competition and different brands perform well in different countries.

How Can Businesses Target the Nordics?

Deciding where and when to launch your product is the first step – and hopefully the data above will go some way towards helping you make that decision. However, perhaps even more important is figuring out how to position your product and present it to potential customers.

More than anything, it is important to speak the local language – and by this, I don’t just mean translating text word-for-word into Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish or Icelandic. In order to claim your share of all that disposable income, you will need to connect with potential consumers on a deeper level.

The key to this is a word we have discussed many times before, both in articles for LinkedIn and on elsewhere on our website blog – localisation. It is not enough simply to take your existing texts and run them through a machine translation programme or have a human translate them literally. Instead, you will need to tap into that unique Nordic sense of humour and connect with the Nordic way of life to make your products relevant.

In some cases, it may also be a good idea to reposition your goods and services in line with Nordic values. For example, studies have shown that Nordic consumers are generally more conscious about sustainability and eco-credentials than consumers in other countries, and they tend to select brands that are clear about their goals around net zero and climate change.

Your Guide to the Nordic Market

As you can see, there is a lot to consider when launching a new product or service in the Nordics. Purchasing power is strong all across the region, but certain trends prevail in some countries over others. Nowhere is immune to the seismic geopolitical uncertainties we are seeing globally right now, but that does not mean that these hit each country in the same way.

Breaking into a new market requires an acute awareness of all the above, and a prevailing ability to connect and communicate with consumers. At Comunica, beyond simply translating words, our mission is to keep our finger steadily on the pulse of all these developments and more, so that we can offer guidance to our clients beyond just the words already on the page.

If you would like to read more about how we can help businesses break into the Nordics, explore our range of services or feel free to send me an email.

Together, we can help you conquer the Nordics!

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Midsommar

Midsommar is definitely the most well-known Nordic summer tradition. It has pre-Christian roots as a celebration of the summer solstice and it is also associated with the early Christian martyr, John the Baptist. Although most people link this holiday with Sweden, it is celebrated in one form or another across the Nordic region. In Denmark and Norway, it is called Sankt Hans Aften (meaning St. John’s Eve) while in Finland it is known as Juhannuspäivä.

There are so many different traditions associated with Midsummer, so let’s take a look at some of the most important ones in brief:

• Bonfires are a big part of Midsummer celebrations across the Nordics. In Denmark and Norway, it is traditional to light bonfires on the beach or on hilltops. This creates a mesmerising spectacle against the backdrop of midnight sun.

• Dancing around the Maypole (Midsommarstången) is traditional in Sweden. So too is singing traditional songs (visor) and drinking snaps. The most famous song is called Små Grodorna or Little Frogs.

• Floating wreaths on water is traditional in Denmark. These wreaths, made of flowers and greenery, are set adrift on lakes, rivers or the sea, symbolising good luck and a bountiful harvest.

• In Iceland, Midsummer is known as Jónsmessa and the holiday is associated with lots of supernatural beliefs. It is said that on this night, cows gain the powers of speech, seals become human, and it is healthy to roll naked in the dew-covered grass beneath the midnight sun!

Crayfish Parties

Summer in the Nordics is strongly associated with fish and seafood. Besides all the herring that features plentifully at Midsummer banquets and parties, another fruit of the sea that rightly gets a lot of attention at this time of year is the crayfish.

For most of the twentieth century, the crayfish harvest in Sweden was legally restricted to the late summer and so it became customary to celebrate the harvest with a so-called kräftskiva (kräfta means crayfish in Sweden). The tradition soon spread to Finland due to the close linguistic and cultural links between these countries, and with time it caught on in Norway and Denmark, too.

Besides plentiful quantities of crayfish accompanied by bread, butter, cheese and other side dishes, crayfish parties also involve drinking snaps and singing traditional songs. They are often held outdoors around gaily decorated tables with bunting and lanterns, and you’ll often see that everyone wears over-sized bibs and funny little paper hats for the occasion.

Roskilde Music Festival

Each year in late June/early July, Denmark plays host to the largest music festival in the Nordic region and one of the largest in Europe. Held to the south of Roskilde on the Danish island of Zealand, the Roskilde festival has been going from strength to strength ever since it was first set up by two high-schoolers in 1971.

Visiting the festival is a rite-of-passage for young Danes and the festival’s iconic orange-coloured branding signals that summer is underway to Danish music fans. Some of the biggest acts to have graced the stages at Roskilde over the years have included the Rolling Stones, Radiohead, U2 and Coldplay.

Besides its infectious counter-culture spirit and big-name acts, the festival is known for its annual nude fun-run through the campsite, known in Danish as the Nøgenløbet.

Norwegian Cabin Culture

In much of the Nordic region, and especially in Norway, no summer can be considered complete without an extended visit to the family cabin, or hytte. According to Statistics Norway, there are around 440,000 of these cute and distinctive wooden cabins across the country, located both high up in its mountains and low down by its coastlines.

Some cabins have all the mod-cons while others are more rudimentary. But no matter the type of cabin, they all have one thing in common – their proximity to nature. For Norwegians, summer holidays in a family cabin are a time to go out hiking and to reconnect with the natural world.

The Icelandic Sheep Round-Up

Just as Midsummer marks the arrival of high summer across the region, in Iceland the end of the season is signalled by the traditional sheep round-up, or the réttir. In early September each year, the island’s farmers head out on their horses and ATVs, with their trusty sheepdogs at their sides, to round up and bring in their free-roaming sheep for the winter.

The gruelling process requires lots of able bodies to help out and so naturally tends to be a communal affair, with extended families and villages coming together to lend a hand. Icelanders thus decided to make the most of this social convergence by playing music and picnicking together outdoors in between bouts of sheep marshalling.

The name réttir itself refers to the special circular pens with radiating sections that the farmers use to gather and separate their sheep. Seen from above, they are really quite something.

God Sommer!

So there you have it, from hytte and réttir to Nøgenløbet, Jónsmessa, and Små Grodorna, there is no shortage of fun summer traditions in the Nordic region – and plenty of new words to go along with them! Can you think of any traditions that are missing from the list? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to mention your favourites!

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Sissel-Jo Gazan

Sissel-Jo Gazan is probably my favourite Danish writer. Gazan is a Danish biologist and an author who first gained recognition in 2008 with the release of her book Dinosaurens fjer, or The Dinosaur Feather as it is known in English. In total, she has written around ten books and her work has been translated into sixteen different languages, including English, German, Polish and Japanese.

Given her scientific background, one of the defining features of her writing style is the way she so expertly blends scientific knowledge with thrilling narratives to create stories that are both intellectually stimulating and highly entertaining. But the reason I like her so much has less to do with this meeting of worlds and more with the sense of nostalgia that her writings evoke for me. I especially love Blækhat (Ink Cap), which is set in Aarhus in the 1990s, because I lived in this city for about a decade around that time while studying at university.

The way she so evocatively captures the spirit of this time and place amazes me. When I read her fiction, it strikes me how truly astounding it is that tools as humble as words can make us feel physically transported back to a previous moment in our lives – when wielded expertly, of course.

Hanne-Vibeke Holst

Hanne-Vibeke Holst is another favourite writer of mine. Holst has a background as a journalist and she really brings this to bear on her work, writing stories of great intrigue often set in the world of politics and power. In many of her novels, she explores themes relating to gender roles and what it means to be a woman in the modern world. Her prose is clear and concise, and like Sissel-Jo Gazan, her books have also been translated into several languages, including German, Dutch and Swedish.

Probably my favourite book by Holst is Kronprinsessen (The Crown Princess). It follows the life of Charlotte Damgaard, a woman in her mid-thirties who is suddenly thrust into the political spotlight. It has been praised for its realistic portrayal of the political landscape in Denmark, and I am sure it will also appeal to anybody who enjoyed Borgen – a popular Danish television drama also set in the murky world of domestic politics.

Leif Davidsen

Leif Davidsen is another excellent writer, especially if you enjoy stories of intrigue and espionage. Davidsen began his career as a journalist and was stationed in Moscow for four years towards the end of the Cold War, covering Soviet news for Danmarks Radio. His books often feature Danish characters in international settings, and his writing style is characterised by its realism, political insight and suspenseful storytelling. He has a talent for creating intricate plots that delve into the complexities of international politics and intelligence gathering.

Perhaps one reason why I find myself particularly able to connect with Davidsen’s work is that several of his stories are set partly in Spain. His very first book was entitled Uhellige alliancer (The Sardine Deception) and it is set in the Spanish Basque Country shortly after Franco’s death. My favourite, though, is Lime’s billede (Lime’s Picture), which follows the story of a Danish paparazzo photographer who lives in Spain. The protagonist’s life is turned upside down after he captures a sensational photo of a top politician on a yacht with his Italian lover, and the action is set against a backdrop of contemporary Madrid and Copenhagen – two cities I know well, and which Davidsen describes so evocatively.

Helle Espensen

Finally, I must also mention Helle Espensen, a friend of mine and another Danish author with a strong connection to Spain. Her novel Calima was first written in Danish and then translated by the author herself for publication in Spanish. I read the book in Danish and I am now making my way through the Spanish version and finding it to be every bit as thrilling and intriguing as the original. Plus, as a translation nerd, it’s great to have the opportunity to read the same great story in two different languages and to consider the act of auto-translation, and how one author expresses things in two different languages.

The actual story of the novel itself shifts between Denmark and Spain and even takes us back to the city of Granada in the 15th century, specifically to the mighty Alhambra. It’s a fascinating narrative about two women from different historical periods who share connections and secrets. Not only is the novel highly entertaining, but it also delves into the human experience and explores those innate things that we all have in common, no matter where or when our lives are lived. I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading.

The Power of Language

Looking back on the list, I can see that I enjoy reading about places I have lived and that I know first-hand. As a Dane who has lived abroad for several decades, I also recognise that I enjoy reading literature that reminds me of life back home and helps me to feel connected with that part of my identity. But above all, reflecting on these authors and what I love about them has reminded me just how powerful language can be.

It is easy to sometimes think of language merely as a means of communication, but it is so much more than that. Language can conjure up worlds or record those we know, taking feelings and sensations and transforming them into something tangible that we can share with others. It also speaks to our identity as individuals and our sense of belonging to a particular culture or country. And even if I’m not an excellent writer like the four in my list, I am still so glad that I get to work with languages in my day job and to wield their power every day.

If you live abroad, do you enjoy reading literature from your home country? And whether you’re Danish or not, have you ever read any literature from Denmark? Let me know – I’m curious to hear your thoughts and experiences! And if you decide to explore any of the writers mentioned yourself, all I can say is happy reading, and that I hope you enjoy their work as much as I have!

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