[dba-Tech] R.I.P. Guinevere

[Gustav Brock]

Hi Arthur

You are always so kind. I just try to do my best - checking with translators and dictionaries when I'm in doubt. Also I'm "old school", meaning that when I went to school we actually learned how to write near-perfect Danish with all the syntax in Latin. In those days - with no SMS and chat - there was no use for sloppy language, only abbreviated for Telex.
Actually, for some years I made a living as a copywriter on some of the larger international agencies like McCann and DMB&B. Those days were fun but, to be honest, not that intellectual challenging - the horizon was never further away than the upcoming Friday afternoon beers.
It also matters that I enjoy the English language. Watch "The Night Manager" 

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1399664/

and you will know what I mean. The dialogue is often so sharp and tense that it nearly hurts - it must have taken hours and hours for the writers to polish it to this level. Well deserved, it won two primetime Emmys.

As for your Danish, you will have a hard time, though not at all comparable with the challenges of Chinese which you also study. For example, y is a vocal on its own, and we have three extra vocals and characters, æ, ø, å (also written ae, oe, aa), which cause most foreigners serious trouble.

Anyway, for a starter:

Hello. The direct translation is "hallo" used for calling a person's attention. As a greeting, it is "Goddag" which is formal as (old) English Good day, or "Hej" which is informal and equal to your Hi and pronounced nearly the same.

How are you? Could be either "Hvordan har du det?" with the attention to the person's general state of health, or "Hvordan går det?" which is more general and broad - you are interested in the overall situation of the person. If you reverse-translate it, the closest is the British "How do you do?"

Mange hilsener
Gustav
________________________________________
Fra: dba-Tech <dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com> på vegne af Arthur Fuller <fuller.artful at gmail.com>
Sendt: 28. oktober 2016 19:47:41
Til: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Emne: Re: [dba-Tech] R.I.P. Guinevere

Gustav,

Your command of English continues to amaze me. I think that I speak English
pretty well, but you continue to amaze me with your command of the
language. And I don't even know how to say "Hello" or "How are you?"" in
Danish. I'll Google it right now and try to catch up, but you're
embarrassing me. I can speak several languages, but Danish is not included
in the list. I'm going to work on it, starting today.

A.
​
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