Course Syllabus

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Danish Language and Culture Section 102

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Semester & Location:

Spring 2026 - DIS Copenhagen
Type & Credits:

Elective Course - 3 credits
Prerequisite: None
Major Disciplines:

Language, History and Culture 
Faculty Members:

Anne Vibeke Gross  - please use the Canvas Inbox!
Time & Place:

Monday & Thursday, 10.05-11.25 in N7-C21

Course Description

This course is an integrated language and culture course which serves as the ideal entry point for your studies abroad in Denmark. Offering an introduction to the Danish language while also exploring key themes in Danish culture and society, this course will help you navigate and make sense of your new environment. It also supports a growing sense of place and belonging during you time abroad.

Language learning focuses on spoken, everyday Danish, reading and listening comprehension as well as basic grammar, allowing you to interact in simple and practical ways in your local surroundings. This functional approach is reflected in classroom interactions, hands-on exercises, and experiential learning through field studies in Copenhagen and surrounding areas.

As an integrated language and culture course, we will examine how culture is embedded in language through common and distinctive expressions and concepts. We will also engage openly and critically with the values, symbols, and both dominant and marginalized narratives in Danish culture and history, exploring how these elements continue to shape identities today. An important part of this process will be your own observations of Danish culture and society during your study abroad experience. With Denmark as your case study, this course will enhance your ability to reflect on and engage with other cultures from an intercultural perspective.

 

Learning Objectives  

  • Acquire knowledge and understanding of Danish culture and society
  • Ability to speak, read, and understand Danish on a basic level
  • Gain an understanding of connections between language and culture
  • Enhance intercultural awareness and critical reflection
  • Develop a sense of belonging

 

Grading

Assignment

Percent

Engaged Participation

30%

Cultural Assignments (1+2)

35%

Online Worksheets*

10%

Oral Exam

25 %

Total

100 %

 

*Online Worksheets are part of the final grading and can be accessed in the "Danish at DIS" Canvas course. Please see Guidelines and assessment criteria for worksheets.

 

Faculty

Anne Vibeke Gross, M.A. in Russian Language and Culture and Danish Language and Literature from University of Copenhagen (2006). Lecturer at Sisimiut Gymnasium (2014) and Copenhagen Adult Educational Center (KVUC) (2014-2015) and teacher of Danish Language and Culture to Foreigners (2015) at Language Center Nordsjælland. Lecturer of Danish Film History at Workers' Educational Association (AOF) (2014-) and at Nordisk Film (2015-). Teaches four Danish Language and Culture classes. With DIS since 2016.

Contact: use Canvas inbox

Office Hours will be scheduled with students individually.

Readings

Required language material

  • Textbook: DIS DANSK I

Required readings for Culture - all texts are in Canvas- Files:

Danish Identity:

  • Aksel Sandemose: “Janteloven” / The Jante Law (1933)
  • Hans Christian Andersen: “The Ugly Duckling” (1843) in: “Andersen´s Fairy Tales” (Wordsworth Classics 1993) p. 386-394
  • Henrik Pontoppidan: ”Eagle´s Flight” (1894)

 

Danish History:

  • “Factsheet Denmark” (Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2003) p. 1-3
  • Bo Lidegaard: “Prologue 1849-1901” in Bo Lidegaard “A Short History of Denmark in the 20th Century” (Gyldendal 2009) p. 15-27 + 32-47
  • Bo Lidegaard: “The Rescue” in: Bo Lidegaard: “A Short History of Denmark in the 20th Century” (Gyldendal 2009) p. 171-177
  • Bo Lidegaard: “Keeping it running” in: Bo Lidegaard: “A Short History of Denmark in the 20th Century” (Gyldendal 2009) p. 177-182
  • Information paper about Hvidstengruppen - texts from The Danish Film Institute and The  Webpage of the movie

 

Danish Literature and Thinking:

  • Knud J. V. Jespersen: “The Enlightenment” in Knud J.V. Jespersen: “A History of Denmark” (Palgrave Macmillan 2011) p. 108-112
  • Anne- Marie Mai: “Introduction” in “100 Danish Poems” ( Museum Tusculanum Press and University of Washington Press 2011) p. 25-31
  • Adam Oehlenschläger: “Der er et yndigt Land” – The Danish National Hymn in: „Højskolesangbogen“ (FFD’s Forlag 2006) p. 347
  • Adam Oehlenschläger: „There is a Lovely Land“ in „Songs from Denmark – A Collection of Danish Hymns, Songs and Ballads in English Translation (The Danish Cultural Institute 1988) p.5
  • Bo Lidegaard: “Mobilizing the People” in: Bo Lidegaard: “A Short History of Denmark in the 20th Century” (Gyldendal 2009) p. 28-32
  • Jørgen Carlsen:”The Folk High School, Freedom and the Living Conversation” in “Learning in Denmark” (Danish Cultural Institute 1997) p. 85-88
  • Anne Marie Mai & Jørn Henrik Petersen: “Introduction” in “Easter Flower! What Would You Here?” (Syddansk Universitetsforlag 2013) p. 7-20
  • F. S. Grundtvig: “Langt højere Bjerge” / “Far higher are Mountains in Other Lands Found” (1820) in “Easter Flower! What Would You Here?” (Syddansk Universitetsforlag 2013) p.28-29
  • Niels Ingwersen: “The Modern Breakthrough” in “A History of Danish Literature” (University of Nebraska Press , Lincoln & London and The American-Scandinavian Foundation 1992) p. 261-272 + 280-283
  • Henrik Ibsen:” A Doll’s House” – Act 3 in “Henrik Ibsen: A Doll´s House and other Plays (Penguin Classics 1987) p. 207-232
  • J. P. Jacobsen: ”The Plague in Bergamo” (1882) in: ”Mogens and other Stories” (Books for Libraries – Arno Press 1979) p. 87-102
  • Lars Peter Rømhild: “Foreword” in Henrik Pontoppidan: “Sad Tales from Denmark” (Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd 2015) p. 9-15
  • Henrik Pontoppidan: “On the Parish” in Henrik Pontoppidan: “Sad Tales from Denmark” (Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd 2015) p. 16-22
  • Henrik Pontoppidan: “The First Gendarm” in Henrik Pontoppidan: “Sad Tales from Denmark” (Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd 2015) p. 135-141
  • Herman Bang: “As Trains Pass by” (Katinka) from Chapter 3 (Dedalus 2015) p. 84-107

 

Danish Art and Culture:

  • Ebbe Mørk: “The Wold´s Oldest Ballet Tradition” in “Danish Journal The Royal Danish Ballet and Bournonville - Centenary in Honour of August Bournonville” (Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs 1979) p. 8-13
  • Kasper Monrad and Peter Michael Hornung: “The Modern Breakthrough in Danish Painting 1870-1890 – Part 1 - (Golden Days in Copenhagen 2002) p. 1-20
  • Patricia M. Berman: “Skagen and the Modern Breakthrough” in “In another Light – Danish Painting in the Nineteenth Century” ( (The Vendome Press 2007) p.133-165
  • Mette Hjort and Ib Bondebjerg: “Danish Cinema – A Small Nation in a Global Culture” in “ The Danish Directors” (intellect 2001) p. 8-22
  • Parick Kingsley: “More than just Chairs” + “Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen” in: “How to be Danish?” (Marble Arch Press 2014) p. 55-65 +125-131+ 133-141

 

Danish Society:

  • Read Knud J. V. Jespersen: “The Danish Model of the Welfare State in ” A History of Denmark” 76-82 (Palgrave Macmillan 2004)

 

For Assignments:

  • Bo Lidegaard: “Prologue 1849-1901” in Bo Lidegaard “A Short History of Denmark in the 20th Century” p. 15-47 (Gyldendal 2009)
  • Knud V. Jespersen: “Church and Culture from Luther to Postmodernism” in “A History of Denmark” p.91-122 (Palgrave Macmillan 2011)
  • Anne Marie Mai & Jørn Henrik Petersen: “Introduction” in “Easter Flower! What Would You Here?” (Syddansk Universitetsforlag 2013) p. 7-20
  • Niels Ingwersen: “The Modern Breakthrough” in “A History of Danish Literature” (University of Nebraska Press , Lincoln & London and The American-Scandinavian Foundation 1992) p. 261-272 + 280-283

 Online sources

Nikolaj Hubbe explaining Bournonville style

On Canvas, you can find podcasts that you can use to practice vocabulary, phrases, and pronunciation. In the textbook DIS DANSK, they are marked with a little headphone symbol. The podcasts can be found on Canvas under Danish Language Resources, Modules.

DIS has a subscription to Ordbogen, a Danish-English/English-Danish online dictionary. Go to http://www.ordbogen.com and follow the instructions received by Ordbogen.com. If you are outside the DIS-wifi you can use this link: https://go.openathens.net/redirector/dis.dk?url=https%3A%2F%2Fordbogen.com%0A

 

Field Studies

 

Field Study 1: WW II and the rescue of the Danish Jews during WW II and Resistance during WWII

This Field Study will focus on WW II, including the Resistance movement and the rescue of the Danish Jews. It will include a guided tour or a guest lecture focusing on WWII and afterwards we will watch the movie about the Danish resistance group Hvidstengruppen.

Objectives: To gain an insight of living in Denmark under WWII and to understand the work of the Resistance and the rescue of the Danish Jews.

 

Field Study 2:

The theme of the tour is Danish Art History from the romantic period to the Modern Breakthrough. It includes a guided visit to a relevant Danish Art Museum or Exhibition and a related film

Objectives: To gain insight in Danish Art History as an important part of Danish Culture – concerning the specific role of paintings of the Golden Age supporting the forming of national identity and art as a part of The Modern Breakthrough  - one of the most important periods of Danish Cultural History and forming of the Danish Identity of today.

 

Field Study Social/Cultural Event: Ballet at The Royal Danish Theatre Old Stage

Objectives: To become acquainted with the Royal Danish Theater and The Royal Danish Ballet – one of the oldest and most highly esteemed ballet companies in the world and a great part of Danish Culture.

 

Approach to Teaching

The ambition is to create a classroom culture in which everyone feels at ease trying to pronounce the unfamiliar Danish sounds and words.

The teaching will include professor's lectures for inspiration and clearing up questions. But it is also interactive. You are expected to actively participate in exercises and class discussions, to have done the readings and other homework, and come to class with notes, questions and relevant observations.

More over group work and student presentations will also be part of the learning process. You are expected to be as attentive to presentations by other students as by the professor.

Laptops or phones are only accepted in class as tools for the teaching process (many texts are to be found on Canvas and you may like to have them in front of you, when we talk about them).

Expectations of the Students

Engaged participation is an integrated part of class and will be a large part of the course evaluation. Participating in class discussion requires a high level of preparation and a voluntary contribution of knowledge and ideas. In addition, when speaking Danish or discussing the connection between language and culture it is important to meet the level of preparation required to be an active participant.

Learning a language is hard work and requires a lot of commitment.

 

Evaluation

It is expected that you make your homework for each lecture including studying language material, making the worksheets and small experiental exercises for language and reading the texts and answering the questions in the reading guides for the cultural themes and the questions for discussion in class.

In most cases we will not go through the questions in the reading guides, but you will need your answers for understanding and being able to participate activily in discussions. Furthermore you will also need them for the cultural quiz at the end of the semester. And some of them would also be helpful, when you make the two Cultural Assignments.

The group presentation in literature and the art presentation will be highly valued. But also smaller exercises and small language quizzes that will conclude each chapter of the DIS Dansk language book, will be part of your participation grade.

Do notice that engagement in group and pair works will also be noticed.

But of course most important is your general activity and engagement in discussions in class, where the combination of knowledge, reflections, personal engagement and ability to express yourself is the ideal.

Notice that the more free exercises, where you can do more or less, often gives you the best possibility to show your engagement - and that bigger efforts are valued!

Assignments:

  • Cultural Assignment 1:  (The History of Denmark Told by the Gobelins in Christiansborg Castle))

      Objectives: Through observing, analyzing and discussing the Gobelins in the Queen’s ballroom at

      Christiansborg obtain a hands on knowledge and experience of the Danish history.

 

  • Cultural Assignment 2:  (Spirituality in Denmark and use of Churches in Copenhagen) 

    Objectives: Through observing, analyzing and discussing various historic churches in central Copenhagen and through interviewing a Dane you will obtain ‘a hands on’ and up to date experience of the Danes’ relationship with religion and spirituality, which you will have  the chance to combine with your knowledge from class and from background texts about Danish history and cultural history with a focus on religion.

    Consequently, you have a much deeper understanding of the Danish perspective on religious and spiritual matters, and you will also gain a deeper understanding of your personal  perspective on religion and spirituality.

In general late papers will not be accepted. 

 

Academic Regulations  

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on: 

DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.orgLinks to an external site.

 

Course Summary:

Course Summary
Date Details Due