A number of years ago, when our oldest son, Stan Adam, moved from Seattle to Denmark to find his way with Microsoft, that created an opportunity for us to travel long distances to visit him.<\/p>\n
We alternately flew and drove to Washington State when our son lived there. But soon, after relocating in Copenhagen, he met a woman who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now the mother of his two daughters, ages 5 and 3. The Danes take baptisms seriously, and accordingly it was difficult for us to turn down an invitation to Ellen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s baptism. So we flew there \u00e2\u20ac\u201d some time in the late fall \u00e2\u20ac\u201d only three months from our earlier trip that year.<\/p>\n
Our visits there amazed me at how well Danes speak English. Often, Bonnie and I stopped strangers on the street to get directions. Without hesitation, the people pulled out their best English and made it clear how we should proceed. But the rest of the time? They seem to speak Danish among themselves. Ask me how many Danish words I know. Danish originated from Old Norse and Icelandic, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quite a distance from the Romance and Anglo-Saxon tongues I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m somewhat familiar with.<\/p>\n
At the baptism, a group ceremony that included the dampening of a half dozen babies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 crowns, we Americans heard 10 minutes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 worth of Danish, which we surmised was like what we hear in American baptisms. We assume the priest admonished all to follow the commandments and resist evil.<\/p>\n
And we beamed as we heard our son speaking fluent Danish. (Of course, it was only one word, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ja,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the same as the English \u00e2\u20ac\u0153yes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Danish congregations like to sing. One of the few things I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned about the language is that what you see is seldom how it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pronounced. For the most part, Danish characters resemble the English alphabet, but there the similarities end. The word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153slot,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which is the Danish \u00e2\u20ac\u0153castle,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sound at all the way we think it should be pronounced.<\/p>\n
I scored a bit of a coup when it came to singing the closing hymn. I joined right in, belting out the Danish song. So impressed was the priest that she asked my son after the ceremony, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Does your dad know Danish? I saw him singing our closing hymn.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0Touch\u00c3\u00a9! I simply had recognized the tune to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The words flowed easily as I belted out the hymn, singing it in English. But to others, I might have passed for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153one of them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Of course, I observed proper ecclesiastical protocol \u00e2\u20ac\u201d no showboating or silliness. And besides, if a person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sincere, does it matter what language one sings in?<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
In about a week, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be welcoming our Danish coalition. For several years, Ellen Vestergaard, the older and more vocal granddaughter, chatted in Danish, probably assuming we were able to follow her right along. I found myself agreeing with Ellen (others might call it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153patronizing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d). If she spoke to me (in Danish), I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d answer with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How nice!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But now that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s becoming fluent in both languages, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a pleasure to converse with her.<\/p>\n
But only in my language.<\/p>\n
That makes me regret that so many Americans have lost the language of their grandparents. I wish they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d realize that bilingualism opens so many doors.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happened to Raton, our northern neighbor? A vibrant downtown now features a procession of vacant, boarded-up stores. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For sale\u00e2\u20ac\u009d signs dot neighborhoods. Lacking a racetrack and an active mine, residents have moved to find employment elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Even the erstwhile Raton Daily Range, which went from a penta-weekly years ago to a bi-weekly more recently, has shut down. Some people still think of Raton as part of the boonies.<\/p>\n
But when we checked Saturday, we noticed that at some gas stations, a gallon of fuel is about 20 cents cheaper than in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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