Students will develop the basic elements of communicative competence in both spoken and written language within a cultural context.

Danish is spoken by about six million people, principally in Denmark, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and in the region of Southern Schleswig in northern Germany. Modern-day Danish developed from Old Norse, the language of the Vikings, and Viking visits to England made a lasting impact on the English language. This is why English words such as knife and egg are similar to their Danish counterparts, kniv and æg. Today, on the other hand, many English loanwords have been adopted by the Danish speaking community, and words such as weekend, job, okay, computer and film are now all commonly used as part of Danish everyday vocabulary. This course teaches elementary Danish. Classes meet for three hours of Danish instruction per week. Students will acquire basic communicative competence in all four foreign language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) within a cultural context. The aim is to enable you to express yourself in regard to topics such as hobbies and interests, food and grocery shopping, family and friends, and everyday life. In this course, we will also explore Danish society and popular culture by watching films and reading newspapers and magazines, to further students’ abilities to interact with cultural competence and understanding. We will discuss how Danish language skills can be used beyond the classroom through conversations with Danish speaking visitors invited to join us in class. More details about Danish language here: https://scandinavian.berkeley.edu/languages/danish/ Option: Students at other UC campuses than UC Berkeley can join this class online. Danish 1A is a Distance Learning Course transmitted simultaneously to specific UC campuses. UCB is the home campus with live class instruction; other UC students will participate through a live video feed. Prerequisites: None. Elementary Danish is open to all students without prior knowledge of Danish. The course is not open to native, near-native, or heritage speakers of any Nordic language. Course cannot be repeated without prior consent from the language coordinator. Textbook: F. Slotorub and N.J. Moreira: Puls 1 (2013), Alfabeta (available on bCourses)

This class is currently taught in-person. Students will be notified in advance if this class switches to remote teaching.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.