I found that it's reasonably easy to start being able to puzzle out what (simple) written Danish is trying to say.
It turns out that, in addition to the pillaging and looting, many Vikings settled down in England, got married, and contributed lots of Old Norse words to Old English. This makes for a lot of cognates.
On the other hand, I find the pronunciation to be very difficult. As kxh points out, they do love to swallow consonants, and they seem to be speaking from the back of the throat, which I find baffling. So I have a very hard time understanding even simple sentences, even in highly-constrained contexts, like ordering a coffee. "You want milk in that?" is pronounced, apparently, "Wil mmmph glerg bjlghhj?"
Denmark is indeed an extremely cool country. You should go anyway, regardless of language fluency, since pretty much everybody speaks excellent English.
I found that it's reasonably easy to start being able to puzzle out what (simple) written Danish is trying to say.
It turns out that, in addition to the pillaging and looting, many Vikings settled down in England, got married, and contributed lots of Old Norse words to Old English. This makes for a lot of cognates.
On the other hand, I find the pronunciation to be very difficult. As kxh points out, they do love to swallow consonants, and they seem to be speaking from the back of the throat, which I find baffling. So I have a very hard time understanding even simple sentences, even in highly-constrained contexts, like ordering a coffee. "You want milk in that?" is pronounced, apparently, "Wil mmmph glerg bjlghhj?"
Denmark is indeed an extremely cool country. You should go anyway, regardless of language fluency, since pretty much everybody speaks excellent English.