Simple Danish Newsletter #37

Hi friends,

Today we have posted a new episode of the Simple Danish Podcast.
You can find the new episode here: 5 Unikke Danske Juletraditioner​

Rather than go through every single detail of how Danes celebrate Christmas, we thought we’d cover five of the traditions we think are the most interesting or the most surprising if you don’t know anything about Denmark. In the episode, we cover the following five traditions:

1. Risalamande: The Danish Christmas dessert made from rice, involving a hunt for a lone almond hiding in the dessert.
2. Dancing around the Christmas tree: Yes, Danes dance around the Christmas tree. It is quite a sight.
3. Christmas Calendars: In case you’re not sure how many days are left until Christmas Eve, Danes have a special calendar for keeping track of the 24 days leading up to Christmas. These are small calendars with little openings, behind which either cute pictures or chocolates are hiding.
4. Pakkeleg: A chaotic dice game Danes play to win presents—and steal them from other guests as well.
5. Julefrokost: The Christmas Lunch. Usually hosted in the days before or after Christmas. Often, companies will host a Christmas lunch for employees as well, and it has been known to lead to a regret or two.

This week, we unfortunately didn’t have time to work more on the content for the newsletter, but that is because we have also been working on a new format for the podcast:

​Videos with Follow-Along Transcripts​

If you are more of a visual learner (I am, personally), if you are more of a beginner, or if you are just in a hurry, we have uploaded this week’s podcast episode as the first video on our YouTube channel in a karaoke-like format, where you see the words on screen as you listen.

There are ups and downs to every format: With a text-based transcript, you can easily copy/paste, we can mark difficult words, and add footnotes, links, and much more. But at the same time, it requires more effort for you to pull the transcript up alongside the episode.

With a video, we can sync the transcript and the episode so the two are paired. It is much more convenient for you, but you can’t as easily look up difficult words or follow links.

We have tried it out now for the first time with the most recent episode, here.

Please, please let us know what you think of the format!

Is it something you think you would find useful? Should we create similar videos for older episodes? What do you think?
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That’s all we had for you for this week, and as always don’t hesitate to reach out if you have comments, suggestions, or otherwise have questions 😊

Kram fra,

Antonina & Rasmus

Denmark&Me