Apparently...Speaking Danish Is More Difficult Than Making It

 A few weeks ago, while shopping with my wife, I came across a box of Junket Danish Dessert. It caught my eye immediately. Anything "Danish" does, except when danish is spelled with a lower case "d," which only describes food. I picked up the box and read the hook that would made an average consumer want to buy it.

I think it's the first time I ever read the word "Rødgrød" on an American product.

That word, rødgrød, well...it can conjure nightmares.

Nightmares may be a little strong. Maybe emotional scarring would is more apt.

As a teenager learning to speak Danish, saying the Danish word for red porridge correctly is like a rite of passage, a test to see if you can contort your mouth and tongue and produce sounds that a Dane might recognize. Since this is a blog--a visual method of communication--and not a recording--an audio method of communication, you won't hear the word being pronounced here. Let's just say, the sound of rødgrød being spoken sounds like the speaker is literally swallowing the words.

It sounds that way because that's where the sounds come from, deep deep in the throat. 

My Danish (when at its best...) was okay. I didn't "wow" anyone. The Danes love when people put in the effort to learn their language and they are quite forgiving. I know this because they put up with a bunch of young Americans spouting Danish words with an American accent. The Danes have a little test for those trying to learn the language. They say, "How do you say, 'rødgrød med fløde på?'" (red porridge with cream on top...).

And how those words exit your mouth is a barometer of how good you speak Danish.

I practiced saying those words over and over. I think I got pretty good. I think I'm still pretty good even thirty-plus years later.

The rest of the words...that's a different story.

I loved seeing "rødgrød" on that little box. The instructions gave me the impression that making rødgrød is much easier than actually saying the word.

Because you can make food without saying a word...

It doesn't work the other way around.

Can You Say...Rød Grød Med Fløde På?

It's been over thirty-three years since I stepped foot on Danish soil. Even though I had studied and taken classes about Denmark, the people, their customs, their food, I had so much to learn as a young American teenager leaving the boarders of my home country for the first time.

And one of the first things I learned was how to say:

Rød Grød Med Fløde På

There's a support system for young LDS missionaries when they arrive in the area where they'll spend the next eighteen months to two years. Other missionaries and members who live in the area take the newbies under their wings and show them the ropes. It was the same for me. I was taught about some of the customs they didn't teach in the classes, what's considered rude and unacceptable in social situations. I learned about how different the food is. Now, considering Denmark is in Europe, their diets are pretty much the same as ours (unlike my brother who went to Japan...). 

There was one dish, however, that was not only distinctively Danish, but it was also used as a test on just how well us non-Danes spoke their language. The dish--red berry pudding with cream. And to hear a native Dane say those words--Rød Grød Med Fløde På--it's as foreign and complicated (to pronounce correctly...) as some of the toughest languages on earth.

I found a video on the Embassy of Denmark in the United States Facebook site. You can access the site: HERE. The video shows you how to make it, but doesn't give you a recipe with specifics. You can click: HERE for a recipe. I've had it with both strawberries and rhubarb. It's how I came to love rhubarb desserts.

It's been decades since I spoke Danish for any length of time. I'm rusty with the language. I've been told if I returned, I could get back into speaking it fluently. I hope that's true--I'd like to think that's true. I wasn't the best Danish-speaking missionary, but I did okay. I can say, however, that I did master this one phrase, the one thing Danes asked us Americans to say to see if we really could speak Danish without that American accent.

So, if you read this and you know me and you see me and you remember that I once wrote about my ability to say, "rød grød med fløde på," ask me to repeat it. I'll be glad to do it. Better yet, if you are brave and try and make the dessert yourself, I'll be more than happy to taste test it to see how you did. Because if you made it like the Danes do, I'm sure you'll love it, too.