Jeg kan ikke tale dansk

Danish is a difficult language. Many of you probably have no idea what it sounds like. It's kind of like German, but more related to the other Scandinavian languages. Pre 17th century, Denmark was a larger power than it is today, and actually controlled parts of England, so Danish influenced English, not vice versa. Sentence structure is somewhat similar, as are a few of the words. I think the most difficult part of this language however are the sounds. There are vowels that are added to the end of the alphabet: æ, ø, å. Try pronouncing them ;-) When a word is written, you don't pronounce half the word. This makes listening to the cd and writing down the dialogue EXTREMELY difficult.
In class we learned some basics: Jeg hedder Lizzy. Jeg kommer fra Californien. Jeg kan tale engelsk og a lidt hebraisk. Jeg elsker mælk chokolade. (My name is Lizzy. I come from California. I can speak English and a little Hebrew. I love chocolate milk). But really, how useful are these sentences? I figured out how to say 'tak' (thanks) and 'undskyld' (excuse me) immediately, words I think people should know in every country they visit. I can tell people to speak to me in 'engelsk' when they mistakenly start speaking Danish. Of course, most people here speak English, and they don't mind speaking English to the confused American student. But it is very frustrating to be in the supermarket and to be unable to read packages, and irritating when I get a letter in the mail, all in Danish. And when I tried to tell the policeman my street name the first night I got lost, I mangled the sounds so badly he couldn't help me.
But like most things, the more I'm around them, the more familiar they will be, and maybe by the time I come home, I can say a few more things.
Hejhej!