The Non-Native Danish speakers Challenge | Can they solve the mystery?

Did you know there's about 6 milion Danish speakers in the world? 🤓
This is the first episode of the Non-Native Speakers Show. It's a show where language learners can test their language skills and demonstrate what they've learned. Language challenges may differ from video to video, but in this episode the contestants need to solve a situation puzzle by asking yes or no questions to a native speaker. The Danish language is considered difficult by many but not by the participants of today's show.
📝 The participants:
🤓 Alessio - an Italian living in Denmark, Instagram: @toccoalessio
🤓 Antoine - a polyglot from Canada, Instagram: @polyglotting_with_antoine
🤓 Simon - a Danish native speaker from Copenhagen, Denmark
If you want to participate please fill in this contact form → docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA...
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🎥Recommended videos:
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🤗 Big hug to everyone reading my video descriptions! You rock! 🤓💪🏻
#languagelearning

[@_keano]

I'm mindblown with Antoine's accent, he legitimately speaks and pronounces danish better than my dad who immigrated here 40 years ago

[@Thesimon0206]

Thank you so much for having me on! It was really fun and i was very impressed by both Antoine's and Alessio's Danish. As a Dane, i feel espacially moved when non-natives wants to learn our language, as it is quite small and most Danes already know enough English to communicate with most people. Antoine and Alessio proves in this video, that if you just have the interest and the motivation to learn a language, achieving outstanding results is just a matter of time. Both of them have inspired me to keep on learning my other target languages like Japanese and German, and i'm really grateful for their insight :).

[@squirry]

Danish is a wonderful language to learn

[@eckligt]

As a Norwegian, I understood all of this, which was cool. I would have guessed that the contestants were native speakers, if I hadn't been informed otherwise. Well done!

[@carlinberg]

Same as a Swedish here! Although for me it would have been a big hint that they were speaking slowly enough for me to follow haha

[@KlausAlexanderSeistrupDK]

The Brazilian guy spoke almost impeccably Danish, I was seriously impressed.

[@L-mo]

@@KlausAlexanderSeistrupDK which video were you watching? One was Canadian and the other was Italian 😂

[@oh2mp]

I'm a Finn and have studied Swedish for many years because it's mandatory here in Finland as it's the second official language. I understood completely that question when I saw it as a text, but I understood the speech only partly. Same with Norwegian. I have been in your country many times and I always understand all signs, advertisements etc. but people's speech is almost impossible to understand.

[@vladimiradoshev5310]

@@oh2mp because the pronunciation is so different

[@larsblakrasmussen5820]

imponerende at man kan lære dansk i Canada..... Fantastisk vokabolarie og udtale

[@artifact2454]

The native is my friend form discord. Sent me link to vid when it got relased. I'm so proud of him and his riddle! :D

[@Simon.Thornley]

Best line "That was very Danish. It's a Legoland thing," Made me laugh!

[@elgriego74]

The Danish accent is more difficult to pronounce than Chinese! I like the new format but also bringing several nationalities to see if they understand a similar language is also good. I think a little bit of a variety is nice!

[@squirry]

Kom nu, de taler meget flot dansk! Imponerende.

[@Atheol32]

Tak skal du have!

[@jammmy30]

+++! De värsta är att de låter sååå himla mycket mer naturliga i deras danska än vad jag gör. :( for me and Two thumbs up 👍 for them !

[@oskich]

@@jammmy30 Danska är för likt svenskan, så det är ju lätt att man försöker ta bekväma genvägar ;-) Är väl lättare om man har ett modersmål som är mer främmande antar jag...

[@jammmy30]

@@oskich deras ”TH”-ljud, alltså den som typ i ordet ”gade” den tar f*n koll på mig! Det är ju inte helt 100% lätt å ta sig an engelskans ”th”, men den danska?! Det är ju så man riskerar att folk bankar en på ryggen då de tror att man satt nåt i halsen… P.S. Låter nästan lite arabiskt :)

[@marialindell9154]

​​@@jammmy30 samma här för mig. Min danska är på medium-nivå, eller B1-B2 i CEFR-språkskalan. Och jag brukar prata regelbundet med danskar online i videosamtal. 😅

[@booksandthebard8016]

Feedback: It was awesome. This video was great, the idea for the new series is great, your other content is great, its all great! 😄 Really cool to get more non-native speakers involved in the fun language content on your channel. Thanks for all the awesome videos!

[@miriamb984]

Great idea! Looking forward to more videos like this one.

[@ivanjarnberg4220]

That’s a great format to watch!

[@kgkn9215]

This is so good please make more of these

[@Ca11mero]

Great idea! For a Swedish (scanian) it was really easy to understand them all, most likely because people learn the dialect of Copenhagen which is closer to Swedish I would say.

[@dorotheacartwright4762]

Pleeease, do also with Celtic languages! Who'd like to see them here same as me?

[@kylebroberg7852]

Combining native and secondary language speakers is a great way to test things like subconscious association, ability to infer meaning, and guessing cognates that sound different. More videos like this would be great!

[@molly702]

I love this channel so much❤️

[@davidrunge1524]

Godt arbejde drenge! I taler begge imponerende godt dansk med lokale accenter og det hele :)

[@sjoc6162]

As slavic speaker i always thought Hungarian is the hardest but danish dude 😱

[@jammmy30]

+++! Grammar wise Hungarian beats there cr*p out of Danish by it’s difficulty. But when it’s only grammar sooner or later most people master it, but Danish pronunciation?! It is nearly impossible! And yet it is fellow Scandinavian (Swedish) that is writing this

[@sjoc6162]

@@jammmy30 Dutch also, this are top 3 hardest for me.

[@lmatt88]

Danish is probably the easiest language to learn for an English speaker grammar wise. The only tough thing is the pronunciation

[@egbront1506]

@@lmatt88 For an English speaker, even that isn't too bad. English has a fairly varied and complicated phonology, so that Danish doesn't faze us, really.

[@lmatt88]

@@egbront1506 Next to the other Scandinavian countries it is. Not many people can master the Danish pronunciation

[@relaxingology4316]

Co ja znalazłem na YT! Dopiero teraz! Zmieniłeś moje życie!

[@hin_hale]

I thought it was a funeral procession, which in the scandie languages is called a funeral train (begravelsestog), and that the awaiting passengers weren't moving because they were dead. But then Simon said that they weren't even people.

[@marialindell9154]

Hmm... Men jag har då aldrig hört ordet "begravningståg" på svenska någon gång... 🤔💭 Existerar verkligen det ordet på norska och danska? 🙄

[@soniaxxx7262]

I don't understand danish but the guy from Denmark is super handsome!

[@jpat_]

Love it!

[@CommonCommiestudios]

Once you can pronounce "rødgrød med flode" you can automatically pretend to be a native Danish speaker

[@KlausAlexanderSeistrupDK]

Eller "røgede ørreder" :)

[@iupiter.161]

Are there many dialects in Denmark? You could pretend to speak another dialect...🤔

[@CommonCommiestudios]

@@iupiter.161 not a lot I think, considering how small the country is and how universal its education is, so most people just probably speak the standard language

[@vincianepasseiro6357]

Eller "Døde røde rødøjede rådne røgede ørreder med fløde" 🥴 I love Danish 🙌

[@MrMynte]

@@iupiter.161 Yes, there’s around 7 main dialects of Danish with some sub-dialects within. The dialects from Bornholm or Southern Jutland can be very hard to understand for Danes that are not from that area

[@Romanophonie]

I really like the premise behind the new format, Norbert 🤗. However, I felt it was less dynamic for some reason.

[@Ecolinguist]

This format is more slow-paced indeed but when you listen in you'll see that solving the riddle is getting more and more exciting as they get closer to it. :) It requires some lateral thinking.

[@BaffoBronese]

@@Ecolinguist Zdravo Norberte, i ja sam imao isti utisak kao Romanophonie.

[@herdisweins943]

I taler fremragende dansk :-)

[@Atheol32]

Tusind tak! :)

[@alessiotocco1415]

Tak skal du have !!

[@shannimonet]

Which language is this

[@egbront1506]

​@@shannimonet Swahili, of course.

[@marialindell9154]

​@@shannimonetIt's Swenglish language. Mostly spoken some where between Britain and Scandinavia.

[@DoctorlyCargo39]

Alessio having an Aalborg dialect is hilarious and incredible

[@bfguy12345]

A really cool challenge you could do would be between Finnic languages! Finnish, Estonian, and Võro speakers would be easy to find, but a speaker of Karelian/Veps would be very cool to have, Veps especially, as it's pretty much equally as far apart from Finnish and Estonian.

[@nigelwiseman8644]

they both speak really well.

[@pile333]

I don't speak a word of Danish, yet I can understand the most part of the written meaning.

Świetny film, miło się oglądało. Pozdrowienia z lasu ! :)

[@Sanzianabel]

are you gonna make more “guess the language challenge” videos in the future?

[@julesmadison1199]

So happy that Danish is the first one 😊 It’s my main TL! Jeg elsker dansk ❤ Wish I could've been in this video 😢

[@ennuiarduous6446]

Nice quiz ;)

[@Carewolf]

You should try some dialect.. West- or South- Jutlantic would be hilarious.

[@EeveeTinna]

It would be fun to have a non-native speaker like Danish to try understand Norwegian and Swedish for example (and I guess a nativre Dane too!) this was fun :)

[@Weissenschenkel]

When was said "it's a picture" and it was close, I thought it was a painting. Then I remembered that when (old) trains were around, the daguerreotype pictures were already a thing. A diecast (or miniature) train never crossed my mind! And yes, I had English subtitles on, because my German isn't good enough to understand Danish by guessing.

[@maksimychkrutoj]

Cześć,znam polski , rosyjski, ukraiński i angielski języki

[@Lena-cz6re]

8:05 Yes, that's it! The passengers have been waiting for so long that they've dïëd in the meantime, because trains are always too late.

[@herdisweins943]

Det hedder en sneplov.

[@Atheol32]

Nå...ja! Som det engelske ord "snowplough''. Tak!

[@allisongrant3094]

@@Atheol32 I Kanada kender vi dem godt!

[@Dqtube]

Dobrý nápad, Už se těším na díl v nějakém jazyku, kterému budu rozumět rovnou v mluvené formě.

[@jammmy30]

Ah jooo... To bylo by super když bych víc lidi z Česku mohli bych rozumět nějaký Skandinávský jazyk. Tady v Švédsku najít kurzy v češtině je prakticky nemožné. A ja u vás vypadá situace? Těžko najít kurzy nějakých skandinávských jazyků?

[@janapaczka6938]

@@jammmy30 It's not a problem...practice online.

[@frankrault3190]

As a Dutchman I could understand the Canadian and the Italian guy quite well. But not at all the Danish guy ! ;)

[@eeva-mariaojanpera6044]

What did u study in university? I really love languages and would love to study something that includes things like Ecological analysis of languages etc. Right now I’m totally lost with Where to apply and would love to hear how u ended up here?

[@shirogamii.i]

nice!

[@TerencePetersenAjbro]

Tog can also mean a procession.

[@jonathanemslander6896]

Thanks! Cheers to Germanic languages!!

[@jpilegaaard1278]

Iam a native speaker and have no clue what this riddle is. I am also very impressed with the two non native Danish speakers….

[@tomaszpeplinski7337]

in this video, Danish seems as understandable as possible 🙂 The most terrible cases are when sentences seem to be spoken with the throat, not the mouth. I wonder why the Danes speak so, I read somewhere that even in opera singing this accent is used, which is unusual in Europe, especially avoiding the trill of an R letter.

[@peterfireflylund]

The Dane took great pains to speak as carefully as possible. What you heard from him is not normal Danish.

[@ellenstergaardgravesen1011]

@@peterfireflylund I don't think that was speaking carefully - I would consider it pretty normal standard Danish...

[@vladimiradoshev5310]

I dont speak Danish, I was reading the subtitles and I guessed the right answer on the minute 7-8 approx. Well it doesnt have to be a foreign language, could have done the same in a a native lang:)

[@bananan7]

Another answer would be that's a "tog" as a "parade/meeting", another meaning of that word

[@bradsmckay]

As soon as he said its not necessarily freight or passenger train I knew it was a model train

[@aligindahouse7777]

Do one for Spanish

[@slobo1987]

Also as a Norwegian, I was thinking if the solution could be that tog can also mean parade 😆 google 17. mai tog (parade with mostly children on our national day). Cool with the new concept Norbert. Have some more videos ;)

[@MrSuperJensen]

Det hedder et”Optog” det er forkert at bare kalde det et tog.

[@carlinberg]

I wonder what Danish pop music was he listening to? 😃

[@marcusmyge]

Enjoyed it, I do however have an issue with the subtitles. Multiple times “riktigt” which means correct is subtitled as “viktigt” in Danish, and subsequently “important” in English.

[@Ecolinguist]

What the host means is that the answer to this particular question is not relevant for solving the riddle so it’s not a matter of being right or wrong here. :)

[@peterfireflylund]

The subtitles are correct. He says “det er ikke vigtigt” = “that’s not important”.

[@marialindell9154]

It's spelled "rigtigt" and "vigtigt" in danish. While it's spelled "riktigt" and "viktigt" in swedish.

[@hglundahl]

10:32 Jeg har jo _selv_ haft ett Märklin-tog! Derimod har jeg ikke haft dukker som "ventende passagerer" ved siden af sporet!

[@SomebodyBumbleBee]

My guess was that the passengers were getting off at the next station, which would explain why they weren't moving.

[@pierreabbat6157]

Does a heritage speaker whose parents had switched to the local language as home language count as non-native?

[@Ecolinguist]

That's a special case indeed. This show is more for people who had to learn a language by studying it in a traditional sense. For heritage speakers to participate in the challenge, it would require me to adjust the format a bit.

[@marialindell9154]

Det er måske et søvn-tog? 😅 Klokken er nat, eller sent om aften og det er tid at sove. 😊

[@mortenrobinson5421]

Thumbs up til canadieren der bare har lært sproget fordi han havde noget dansk pop på hjernen xD

[@hanric2000]

It’s gotta be a homemade riddle - a eight year old school child can make a better riddle next time you need one of 😂those

[@AlexCouch65]

I've got a riddle for non English speakers (and English speakers): my brother's brother is not my brother, how is this possible?

[@janapaczka6938]

You!

[@hin_hale]

Either your half brother has a half brother who is not related to you or your brother's brother refers to yourself. Or maybe you and your brother has a sister who now identifies as trans and you're having trouble coming to terms with it?

[@janapaczka6938]

@@hin_hale, you made me laugh! ❤

[@vinzent1992]

I don't understand what this had to do with language, as a native danish speaker I couldn't guess the answer.

[@RoseGirlGul]

hello. i'm teacher of ukrainian language. I want to make research about relationships of lculture. in my school we sdudied many foreigners authors like Orwell George "1984", Ernest Hemingway "The oldman and the sea", Gabriel Grcia Marquez "100 years of solitude", Yasunari Kawabata "Thousand cranes ", Goethe " Faust", Balzac '''Father Goriot', Sholom Aleichem, Adam Mickevych "Pan Tadeush" .... etc. So could you answer where you are from and if you studied in school or generally if you know something about ukrainian literature and authors. will be appreciate for any comments.

[@emilbozaandersson5776]

For me as a swede the non native speakers were much easier to understand than the native

[@RoundGirlsBoyfriend]

MAKE A TURKISH LANGUAGE COMPARISON

[@DrWhom]

Danish has phonemes that are otherwise only heard in baby crocodiles, a sort of oo with a throat constriction.

[@rumbleice9467]

Jag kan förstå Svenska men Danskt uttal är svårt att förstå

[@hglundahl]

"outside" - "uden af"?

[@peterfireflylund]

“Udenfor” or “uden for”, depending on the precise meaning and use of the word “outside”. Edit: I understand what you are referring to now. He says “tænke ud af boksen” because he used the (incorrect) word for word translation of “think out of the box”. He should have said “tænke udenfor boksen/kassen”.

[@hglundahl]

@@peterfireflylund mang tak!

[@pullibo]

Jeg forstår ingenting. Det går for hurtigt.!!

[@mikkelcoollinan9285]

I will be suprised if anybody non danish understands this at all.

[@vincianepasseiro6357]

Not all, but I understood some parts thank to my Norwegian learning (I'm a french)

[@mytube001]

I'm Swedish. Understood everything fine.

[@eckligt]

I understand 100 %, being Norwegian.

[@alexj9603]

Native German speaker here. I'm surprised how much I actually could understand. I found the solution a few seconds before the contestants did.

[@jammmy30]

I am completely not Danish inte ens pytte lite! Men jag förstod allt :)

[@joncharles5817]

Most Danes would be like just speak English to me they're not very welcoming

[@lokkggs8631]

do Turkish languages

[@AnnaKaunitz]

The concept of riddles is a bit boring and “old” honestly, to me personally. It tends to be too repetitive with all questions and “nah…not really”. But I’m sure others are into this and it’s your channel, do what you like, Norbert :)

[@uncleTbag86]

Sorry but the question is a little too vague. I was sure it would be a freight train.