Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
No, it wasn't.

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Basic phrases
My level after: At ease in most situations

Personal comments:
I was really keen to learn Danish (I still don't know why). I did some study before arriving in Denmark and then took advantage of the free courses offered by the government (and co-ordinated with DTU to make it really easy to get involved). I reckon I studied Danish harder than my university subjects and it paid off. After studying at DTU I took 7 months work experience in Aalborg where I met a lot of Danes and I found they were much more friendly if you at least *try* to speak Danish. By the end I passed the government exam (Almenproeve 2) and it just helped me feel a lot more at home in the country. I remember one time when I simply said "Tak" to a waitress and she gave me a big smile--they love it if you just make a little effort to speak the language. The courses offered by the government were great. Completely free and very helpful although you still need to do private study and practise as much as possible. Some people I know have had bad experiences mostly through having a bad teacher but I was very fortunate.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Did not speak it

Personal comments:
Denmark is almost a bilingual country, so it was not a problem to speak English there in the most of situations. About university, they offer courses in English language specifically. In fact, I was surprised some courses were in English but not in Danish, so Danish students have to do these courses in English if they were interested in them. This means this university really cares about English language skills of its students.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
the taught language in my study in DTU is English. Before I came here I passed the TOEFL and GRE with the scores 607 and 2280 separately.so the language is not a problem for me study here. for the social life, it seems that most danish speak quite good English, so I can totally enjoy my life here. And for Danish learning, just for interest, always be broken up by other "important" things.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: No problems in any areas (including slang)
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)

Personal comments:
I had a funny language experiece during my time in Denmark, bacause everybody there speaks verry good english there was no need to learn the local language. So there where different developments in English and danish: ENGLISH: Before I came to denmark Iknew english quite well. So beeing among not english-speaking-native-speakers it was hard to improve my english. So I took the chance to learn a bit DANISH: This appeared pretty easy to me as it is verry familiar to german and I seeked to use danish in my everydaylife. In terms of learning Danish it was a real success. But for English it has just been a refreshment.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
Learning Danish was a challenge but not a necessity, thank god because it's a really hard language. After two month of courses I was able to understand some ideas listenind to the radio and also to understand some writing things. For the language of instruction (English) it was not really a problem before arriving and it was even easier after the journey.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: Basic phrases
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
my english is becoming better and better each day I spent in Denmark since I lived with 5 other internationl students and we spoke english together. After the first days, when I was sure I would not speak to anyone for the all year, because of my bad english, I found out that try to speak english can be fun and it helps a lot to get new friends

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)

Personal comments:
Everybody speaks english in Denmark, the problem is that if you don´t look struggle to practice it with foreign students or loca students you never learn anything.I mean you have to be an open person, not shy at all.My experience was pretty good as I didn´t haVE PROBLEMS WITH ENGLISH.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Did not speak it

Personal comments:
Few times in Danish institutions people refused to talk with me in English. They told me that they are in Denmark and the national language is Danish and they don't have to use English.Generally in other cases I didn't have any problems with communication

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning French a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my French

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your French?
My level before: No problems in any areas (including slang)
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)

Personal comments:
The Danes speak realy good English. The Danish tongue is too difficult to learn in 6 months only, especially since the pronounciation can be a lot different from the written version of the word (more so than in other languages, in my humble opinion)

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
Danish is very dificult to learn. It's a language spoken by only 5 million ppl over the whole world and it's verbal language is quite different from the written language. You should try to have an introductory course though, it's always helpful.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: No problems in any areas (including slang)
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
Everyone speaks English very well in Denmark! The problems are more related to social interactions. At university, as well as when interacting with the authorities (or public services), it is not a problem at all to rely exclusively on English.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning Danish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Danish

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your Danish?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
When there were difficulties in understanding danish, the danes spoke slower. When the danes couldn't understand me I spoke slower, tried to find the danish word (if it was not the same in swedish) or said it in english.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
Almost everybody here speaks english so if somebody speaks english then there is no problem. And after the Danish course I took there was no problem at all. Some very old people or for example the person ijn the Pizza place next to our house didn't speak english but after the course it was fun to ask for a pizza in Danish and listen how much did it cost.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Did not speak it

Personal comments:
I wanted to have my courses in Engish but I did not want go to England. So I decided Denmark. On the streets, for example, everyvody talk danish so it is a problem because I did not understand anything.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
I was afraid because of the language at the beguinning but once there I realize I had no problems to comunicate. I also thought of learning more Danish but it happened to be quite a difficult language

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
In Denmark EVERYone over the age of 10 and under the age of 85 knew English so instead of getting an opportunity to practice my Danish, all the local people wanted to practice their ENGLISH on me...

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
I still need to improvise my communnication skills a lot. Sometimes I give a false impression is that I am a too serious and closed man. Thus, this erects an initial barricade for socialization.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: No problems in any areas (including slang)
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)

Personal comments:
Danish is an amazing language. It is quite difficult to learn. I think it is becasue you keep on learning new words and sentences, and you still cannot understand the locals. It is very frustrating, and takes some time to adapt one's ears to the spoken Dansih. Lots of people give up learning Danish because of this frustration.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
Danish is a very difficult language specialy for latins. Everyone speaks english fluently. However, if you want to be part of this culture and meet some Danes you should learn their language.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my knowledge

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: Basic phrases
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your local language?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Did not speak it

Personal comments:
The best thing to learn enlgish is to live with other international students. At DTU it is possible to meet people everyday, at the lectures, for lunch, in the evening. A great opportunity.