Saturday, June 7 – Day 4 – Copenhagen is the Capital of Denmark and it’s largest city. It was founded in 1167 and became the capital in the early 15th century.

Denmark lies between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. It is the only Scandinavian country connected to Europe. It is the smallest nation of northern Europe and is comprised of the main peninsula and more than four hundred islands, many of which are uninhabited.

Many of the inhabitants of Denmark speak Scandinavian languages other than Danish. The Danish language belongs to the northern group of German languages and is similar to the other Scandinavian Languages. Many of the Danish people speak three languages.

It is important to note here, that often Europeans often speak of the Americans inability or lack of interest in speaking different languages. Geography is the reason for many things. The ability to speak or the necessity to speak several different languages is the direct result of geography. America is geographically  isolated, except from Mexico and Canada.

I speak passing Spanish for a few reasons and luckily, it is one of the languages that is spoken in slightly different ways in many countries of the world. It is a Romance language and therefore I can understand a little of the other Romance languages also, which is a help when traveling.

America is geographically separated from much of the world. Europe is nestled together and those countries have had trade and wars among each other forever as a result of geography. Thus, they speak several languages.

Think of Poland in World War Two and of all those other countries which had the bad luck or geographic misfortune to be located around Germany. Geography is very important in world history and in the ability of different cultures speaking different languages.

Cut us Americans a little slack please. It’s just the luck of the draw that we were located where we were.