What is Danish as a second language?

At UCPH, Danish is a second language for staff and students who have a different mother tongue and who use and learn Danish in order to be able to take part in Danish-language contexts at their workplace or in a study environment. Many people are also interested in learning Danish in order to be able to contact Danish public institutions, follow Danish media, or communicate with others in their local environment.

Saying that a speaker uses Danish as a second language refers primarily to the way in which they have learned the language, and to the fact that the person can also speak other languages. However, this does not mean that we talk about a second-class level of language or poorly developed Danish by definition. On the contrary, a second-language speaker may use the language at a very high level, but they may also of course be a beginner.

The acquisition of Danish as a second language can be supported by taking Danish classes, which means that teaching Danish as a second language is methodically similar to teaching other foreign languages to adults.