Overall Scandinavian people speak English very well and in everyday conversation you would hardly notice it wasn’t their first language. While their grammar and sentence is very good, I find their vocabulary is limited.
When reading various reports about the construction of these wind turbines, I have encountered some technical aspects that I needed clarification on. When I ask one of my co-workers for some clarification on a technical aspect of the project, my questions are always met with questions about what various terms within the report mean.
For example, there was a reference to a corrugated duct in one report. So, the first question was, “What is a duct?” Once I established it was like a pipe, it was no longer a problem. Then came, “What does corrugated mean?” I tried explaining it was ribbed, or had bumps, but this was not getting through. So then, I made a reference to corrugated cardboard. However, this was not very successful, because I now had to answer, “What is cardboard?” Thankfully there was a box in the room that enabled me to show the corrugations in the cardboard. After all this, I could tell the concept of a corrugated duct was still not clear. It was only at this point that I had a mini brainwave and turned to Google for a picture.
In other instances, I will explain a term and my co-worker will then look up the Danish equivalent in the Danish-English dictionary installed on every computer in the office. The dictionary will often return three words in English. One I have never heard of and doubt is an actual word, one that is commonly used, and the last word being a word that isn’t commonly used or is more of a British English word. Or the dictionary will return a couple of different words and it is my job to explain the slight differences and in which context to use each one.
Since people for whom English isn’t their first language write most of the reports associated with the project, reading these reports is lots of fun. I will often come across a terms I am unfamiliar with and I have to pause and try and figure out what they are trying to say then determine whether the word is not at all an English word or just one used more commonly in the UK than North America. Initially all the errors drove me nuts, but I have gotten to the point now where I don’t fully read each sentence. Instead I just skim it for the general meaning. As a result of this, I don’t think I will be able to actually properly read and edit anything for a long time. When I accepted this job, I did not realize that English Tutor would form a significant portion of my job description.
When I am with the other students I am also kept busy explaining English words and serving as an interpreter. Since I have arrived in Denmark, I don’t think I have had contact with anyone who speaks fewer than 2 languages. Many people are actually able to speak 3 or even 4 languages. As the only person who speaks only one language, you might question my ability as an interpreter. However, I am actually quite useful. Often in a conversation one student will say something that I understand perfectly well, but another student won’t understand it either based on the terminology used or the accent, so it becomes my job to restate it in another way.
In the car on the way back from the mid-summer gathering I was rather tired and wanted to get some sleep, but it was a lost cause. Just as I would start to drift off to sleep I would hear, “Natasha, what does this word mean?” So I would explain the term and would just start to drift back to sleep when I would hear, “Natasha, what is the English word for this (pointing out the window)?”, I would just close my eyes once again when, someone else in the car would speak up, “Natasha, am I saying this sentence correctly?”
Despite using my English all the time, I find that my ability to properly form sentences is quickly degrading from not speaking to many native English speakers. I often find myself saying things in the most backwards ways. When trying to describe the location of a town, I found myself saying it was, “More north than Oslo”. While I immediately realized this was incorrect, it took me 5 minutes to think of saying the location was “North of Oslo”.
This weekend was a very relaxing weekend. It was great to finally catch up on some of the sleep I missed last weekend. Saturday, I explored a bit more of my neighbourhood and discovered two more grocery stores. This means that I now know of 4 stores within a 10-minute walk of my apartment. However, if you put all 4 stores together, they still wouldn’t be as big as a regular Safeway in Vancouver. Since I get a full, hot meal at work at lunch I really don’t buy too many groceries since I just need breakfast and a light dinner. The weekends are a bit more troublesome since I need to have food for 3 meals per day. The stores close at 5pm on Saturday and typically don’t re-open until 9 or 10am on Monday.
I am starting to try and stock up on groceries since Shawn and Erin are apparently coming to stay with me next weekend (provided they make all their flights while flying standby). They are planning on arriving sometime on Saturday afternoon, which means I need to have food for three people for Saturday night, all of Sunday and at least breakfast on Monday.
On Sunday, I went and saw the changing of the guard ceremony. In Copenhagen the Guards march through the streets (stopping for the traffic lights, when necessary) from one castle (home of the crown jewels) to the Queen’s palace for the ceremony. Apparently when the Queen is in residence, a live band accompanies them. Unfortunately, the Queen wasn’t in residence on Sunday. It was a very orderly affair with no fences or gates. The police just get everyone to form a line behind some dark marble stones set in the road and the guards actually speak (at least to tell people to stand up, if they sit on the road or lean against a lamp post).
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