Working in Danish

(written by Lindsay)

My command of the Danish language is very shaky, yet somehow I manage to get through each day at my new job as assistant teacher in a vuggestue (day care for children up to 2 1/2 years). It helps that children I work with have a average working vocabulary of about 4-5 words. Of course, there are many things I have to negotiate and communicate with my co-workers on a daily - scratch that - minute-by-minute basis: So and so needs to be changed. Who's going to get the food cart from the kitchen? What time do you leave today? So and so just woke up. We can't rinse the hard-boiled eggs because the water has been shut off while they're fixing the washing machine down in the basement. Little things like that, over and over again all day long.

So to say the least, I'm getting in some good practice. My co-workers assure me that it is not too irritating working with me, my American accent, and my limited comprehension. I get what they say for the most part. By the second time for sure. They understand me for the most part, by the second time I repeat something usually. It's a little trickier talking with parents because I never know what they're going to pull out of the air to talk about. Mysterious illnesses or rashes that I have never heard of, references to lost articles of clothing, specific instructions for what so and so can eat because his tooth is loose after a fall. And then there are lunch breaks in the staff room, which surprisingly haven't been too hard for me to follow. We talk about vacation, other day care institutions, the weather, how long I've been in Denmark and how long I plan to stay.

All in all, I like going to work. Being with small children, there's rarely a dull moment, and it's nice to have a real experience observing learning in an institution after so many years of studying learning in institutions. After just three weeks, most of the kids have grown fond of me, and sometimes fight over my lap. It's a good feeling to give and receive so many hugs in the course of the day. Certainly more tangible rewards than sitting and writing a dissertation alone in my house. Throw in the free snacks of rye bread and banana slices, hot lunches of beef stew and rice, and an income to support our traveling habit, and I figure I've got a pretty sweet job (for now).