Denmark One - Text
Subject is a twenty-three year old male born in Esbjerg, Denmark where students begin learning English at the age of twelve. He has spent one year in New Hampshire, and four months in Kansas. Notice how he sometimes has very strong vowel sounds, and in longer words, almost always stresses the second syllable. Sample recorded on March 6, 2000 by Tim Hansen and edited on March 12, 2000 by Paul Meier. Running time 00:03:23.
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
OK. I was born in 1976 in Esbjerg in Denmark, which makes me 23 years old now. I'm...our family...my immediate family is...consists of me, my older brother, who is 25, my younger sister, who is 20, and my mom and my dad who are...well I don't even know their age. Both my parents are dentists. My brother works at Lego in Italy, and my sister is a senior in high school. Myself, I'm a business student. I'm a graduate student at KU for one year as a foreign exchange student. I'll be going back in May and then I'll wrap up my master's degree, hopefully, within a year or so. So I can get out and get a job. In Denmark we have English from the sixth grade until you get out of high school, which in Denmark is the twelfth grade. In '94, '95 I was a foreign exchange student in the U.S. living in New Hampshire, and then I've been here at KU since August of '99. Esbjerg is located in Jutland, which is a peninsula which makes up the main part of Denmark, and it's located on the west coast. It's the biggest fishing harbor in the country, and it's one of the biggest fishing harbors, actually, in Northern Europe. It's a city of 85,000 people. It's extremely flat, extremely flat. It's...all of Denmark's extremely flat. The highest point is about 600 feet. So Denmark is very flat. This city and that area is no exception. The capital is Copenhagen. The second largest city, which is the largest city on the peninsula is Jutland (or Jutland in English). It's called Arhus where I study at now. The fifth largest city, which is where I was born is called Esbjerg. The third largest city is called Alborg ...it's also in Jutland. The fourth largest is Odense , which is in Jutland. No it's in Fyn which is an island between Sjaelland where Copenhagen (or Copenhagen) is located and Jutland, which is the peninsula and so on and Odense, the fourth largest city is famous for being the place where Hans Christian Andersen lived...famous Danish fairy tale writer was born...where he lived.[SPEAKS IN DANISH AND THEN TRANSLATES] In the East the sun rise...It spreads sun on the sky...The sun is spreading over town. Over country and towns...Over hills and fields.
Transcribed by Tim Hansen in March 2000.