TECHNICAL FOREIGN WORDS

One of the things about living in a foreign country (as opposed to just visiting it) is that you get to learn lots of technical words. The Danish word for clingfilm probably won't be in the set of useful phrases outlined in Baedeker's Guide to Denmark. But if you live here for a while, and do any sort of grocery shopping, then you'll get to learn it eventually (it's husholdningsfilm).

The obvious areas for technical words are in your hobbies. So I have learned the Danish words for shuttlecock and racket (badminton), squeeze, finesse and endplay (bridge), derailleur, brake pad and puncture (cycling), reel, aperture and splice (film). Learning these words are easy, because you hear them again and again; and if you forget, then you can always ask in a roundabout way, as in "what's that thingie you use to change gear with?".

More problematic are technical words where you learn a new thing that you haven't done before. This applies to most of my building work, where I now know lots of Danish words, yet have know idea what the English equivalent is. Sure, I know that a hængsel is a hinge; but what's an anverfer, a funny sort of hinge that I have only ever seen on Danish windows? And I know that a bræt is a board; but what about a stjernebræt, one of the two boards you put at the end of a gable in a v-shape in order to finish it off? No idea.

I was reminded of this this week when I went to buy clothes pegs for my newly established outdoor washing line. They are called tøjklemmer, if you're interested. But I had to ask my wife first before I went to the shop.

Walter Blotscher