Vignettes

So, I’m taking a new elective in China Studies and I’ll be having a full year’s preparatory language studies (propædeutik in Danish). Mandarin is hard. Right now, I’m trying to learn some basic pronunciation – tones, all four of them and especially the retroflex consonants ch, zh, sh, r. However, I really like the sound of Mandarin and learning such a radically different language is absolutely fascinating – especially since the last language I studied for some time was Finnish, which is just the opposite of Chinese – no tones and a much much flatter pitch than English or Norwegian, even the Swedish spoken in Finland has lost its pitch-accent (Anden and anden, “the spirit” and “the duck” thus becoming homonyms) .. and off course, it’s intricately inflected with outrageous amounts of cases, verbal conjugations, more suffixes and infixes than I care to imagine, and also, it has no fricatives, while Chinese has tons.

So I’ve been listening to podcasts from ChinesePod, which is more like talk radio than education. It’s fun, has some quality banter and it’s very pedagogical, using English examples and slow-motion recordings to illustrate the tones of Chinese. It’s great – and free :) – here’s the link

What else? I’ve had a birthday and I’m now 20 years old. Happy Birthday me :). I had a nice dinner with my mom, sister, uncle and grandmother at a local Thai restaurant, got presents (webcam, digital camera, special magnifying glass with a built in light, a luxurious foot treatment gift card and I’m even getting book from my uncle, he said. I’m a happy camper :). Then yesterday I went to the Diary of Dreams concert in Albertslund, which was undoubtedly worth the 150dkk. Such a great atmosphere, fantastic music, it was just great. Read the rest of this entry »

of Danish cafes, bars, restaurants and diners. Yes, diners, no matter what 'wannabe' restauranteers trying to cater to the cool, young scene with taxpayers' money burning holes in their "punk royal"-pockets. First of all, I'm sick of sloppy terminology. Let's review

•  Nowadays, everything is a café. Set up a ridiculously small, round table, play "younger" music and raise prices 50%, and … magically… your whole restaurant/diner/bar is instantly filled with metropolitan charm and that ever stylish, "touch of (leftist) class". I've been to nightclubs called cafés, mexican-restaurants that Didn't Even Have Freaking Coffee called cafés, and teenage soda-parties called… cafés. That pisses me off. I absolutely love actual cafés, that serve actual coffee, and … (wow)… aren't any of the multitude of other things people lable cafés. Café Ritter in Vienna is charming, as are a few places in Copenhagen, but I'll be damned before I call any place with little round tables a café. In fact, a café should have a French or atleast continental feel – like a bistro, or brasserie, taverna, etc …… well, atleast they should serve coffee.  Also, I'm against activities being called "cafés". And I get annoyed with sloppy spelling of coffee-types, the fact that any waitress is now a "barista". Good grief – half of them can't tell the difference between day-old nescafé and a prime, single-estate Ethiopian. I'm also sick of them not having proper coffee, any choice as to coffee, and being ridiculously overpriced for substandard coffee.

• I am also sick of the fact that any and all small, expensive, pseudo-Mediterreanean dishes served in Diners, Bars and/or "Cafés" now have the lovely title of "tapas". 

Basically, I'm sick of faulty advertising and most of all, popular (lack of) culture. 

Now leave me alone and hand over that mocca-orange-frappe-latte-spresso-cino….

"barista"!

And after that, some quality!