OppositeFlow546 at 2024-03-26 07:00:54+00:00 ID: kwly0pa

I lived for a while in a Easter European country, where even attempting to speak their language made people excited that you are interested in their culture, and they helped you improve it. They never switched to English if you spoke their language, even if they spoke English themselves. 

I had babushkas stop and have a conversation with me in my barely comprehensive spoken language, and the fact that they were joyful and patient (you could see it in their eyes) encouraged me to speak more often, therefore learning faster. 

So, I managed to learn that language faster in a few months of living there, while it took me years to reach the same level with Danish. And eastern European language are a million times harder grammatically and phonetically. 

Integration takes two, and Danes hate to even think about it: it takes an immigrant willing to kntegrate and put in considerable amount of effort, naturally. 

But it  also take a patient local population that is willing to integrate the newcomers, and that understands that it is naturally going to be a bit awkward at first. Eventually, the effort will benefit the entire society. 

The way humans learn is by making mistakes. Switching to English when a foreigner tries to speak Danish actively hurts integration, because they never get the chance to make these mistakes to begin with.