First Call with a Dane

I had my first conversation with a Dane today: a receptionist with accounting services at my Danish Doctor's office. She was a good teacher; her first words to me taught me that language barriers can a) be intimidating and b) be amusing to navigate. When she picked up the phone I was stunned because---big surprise?----conversational Danish was incomprehensible to me.

She probably said something like "I am Miss____ speaking from the _____Department. How can I help you?" Because I could not distinguish the individual vowel sounds of her speech, I became fixated in an "oh my G-d" moment. I worried, what if she'll be unable to understand me? Irrationally, my concern escalated to "what if all Danes will be unable to understand me?" The thought overcame my intention to clearly communicate and my first conversational Danish came out as gibberish. Oh well. I meant to say "Mit noun air Lara Cohen" followed by Danish for "Do you speak English." The receptionist responded with a word: Danish for 'whaaaaaaaaaaaaat.' I switched to English, but my confidence remained low. Although I am pretty good at networking and communicating to get things done, I paused and 'erhmmed' and 'ummed' my way through the rest of the conversation. I was processing the new thought that many English words may be unknown to Danes. For instance, when she asked me my Doctor's department name I wondered would she recognize the English word for the Department name? I certainly did not know the Danish name. She recognized most of the words I provided, but we did come to somewhat of an impasse when I attempted to spell out my email for her. Although the English and Danish alphabets are similar, because our words, sound combinations, and accents differ I had to provide a word that represented each of the letters in my email so that I made sure she heard me correctly. It seemed that she did not always know the words I provided, or maybe I didn't enunciate enough--in the end we went through the email a couple of times. " Luckily it worked out, but silly me, it wasn't until I went running later that I calmed down. Whether this is culture shock or silliness I think I deserve a gold star for effort and perseverance, even if I was the worlds greatest goof. :)