Welcome to Danish Language Meetup!

We are a well-established, social group for Danes & other Scandinavians that founded in Dec 2003. With around 325 members, we are by far the world's largest Danish Language Meetup group.

A Meetup is very relaxed night out, just a bunch of people sitting down, having a few drinks or a meal & a chat in whatever language they feel most comfortable.

By clicking on the calendar section of the website you will get a good idea of the sorts of things that the group has done in the past .... Films, restaurants, pubs, bars, concerts, bazaars, exhibitions, picnics etc etc. In addition we hold a regular monthly sit and chat Meetup which is usually on the third Monday of the month from 7.30pm onwards at

LOOM
Basement
Bolsover House
5-6 Clipstone St
London
W1W 6BB

Directions and pics can be found at http://www.loombar.co....

At our Meetups you will find the customary red Meetup signs prominently displayed in several places outside the venue. There will be more signs and Danish flags inside on the walls and on our tables. It's not a huge place, almost hyggelig in fact, with small alcoves, low lighting and candles on all the tables.

As far as the meetings go we get about a 50 / 50 mix of English and people from other countries (not just Danes). We have had Swedes, Irish, Scottish, Icelanders, Sri Lankans, Maltese, Germans, Spanish, Brazilians, antipodeans etc etc.

Many of our members also belong to other Danish related clubs or organisations. I could mention the Danish-Society-London, DK-Network, the Danish Church in London and numerous Danish related Yahoo and MSN groups We also have students who attend the Danish classes at Morely College, Key Languages and the University of Westminster.

A nice blend of Danish and English is spoken but because we get quite a few beginners, about 75 % of the group conversation tends to be in English. Everyone is welcome.

The "students" generally chat about their reasons for learning Danish, their progress (or lack of it), courses, books, Danish TV and radio stations, holidays and business trips to DK, CD Roms, dictionaries, accents and their Danish boy/girlfriends, partners and relatives.

The native Danes tend to discuss their jobs in London, reasons for being here, differences between DK and UK, Danish friends and families back home, what they miss about Denmark such as old Danish TV shows, Danish food and sweets, their summerhouses etc.

Recurring themes often discusses are immigration to DK, Denmark vs England / Sweden football matches, Scandinavian discos at the Zoo Bar, where to buy Danish food in London. We have chatted about various Danish rock stars who have performed in the UK such as Kim Larson, Mew, TV2 etc.

We chat about everything and anything really - There is no set agenda.

In addition to our normal monthly Meetups at LOOM, some of us have been on trips to the Zoo Bar, Ruby Blue where Scandinavian Party hold their discos.

On many occasions we have visited the Nordic Bar in Newman Street. We have tried both Lundums and Dansk Taste Danish Restaurants and there have been 2 or 3 trips to the restaurant at ILVA, the new Danish furniture store at the Thurrock Lakeside Shopping Centre.

This year, a new Scandinavian Restaurant and shop opened just 5 minutes away from LOOM. It is called Scandinavian Kitchen and the owners Jonas and Bronte have become good friends with Danish Meetup, offering us special deals and discounts, when we hold a Meetup there.

Danish Meetup is hoping to form a similar alliance with Nick Worthington who is of Danish origin and who runs an excellent pub in North End Road Fulham called the Arbiter. Nick offers a good range of tasty Scandinavian food at his pub.

Good friendships are easily forged within Danish Meetup and recently some of us met for a picnic on Hampstead Heath. We have also expanded our horizons further into Scandinavian and have been to Swedish bars, restaurants, films and other events.

In 2004 and 2005, several of the group managed to meet up in Århus, Denmark for the festival week. (See Photos Section) 5 members attended on the first occasion, 9 came on the 2nd. But this year 2007, we have teamed up with the Danish Meetup groups in both Århus and Kolding for a joint venture. We are expecting between 20 and 30 people to attend. Amazing !!!

We have seen several films as a group hope to arrange further trips to the cinema in the future. In Sept 2006, the group was invited by the distributors to the UK premiere of a new Danish film called Allegro, starring supermodel Helena Christensen. In fact nearly every time a major Danish film is released somebody from the distributers calls us or sends press releases or information packs.

Both in 2005 / 6 and 7, we twice attended events at the Danish Church - a bazaar and also the Skt Hans Aften celebrations.

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Although 7.30pm is officially the start time for our monthly Meetup - It really does not matter if you cannot get there until later (or even much later) - People come and go all evening and we will definitely be there until at least closing time.

No matter what is says on the RSVP section of the website, we are currently averaging about 10-15 people a month - All ages and abilities and about a 50/50 split of Scandinavians / other nationalities and also about a 50/50 for men / women. The average age of members is 25-35 but we have several who are much younger and much older. All are more than welcome.

Finally, if you have read this far and you are thinking about becoming a member of this group, that is fantastic. It's all free and we hardly have any Meetup rules. BUT we do ask you to do one very important thing every month and that is regularly to RSVP to the meetup invites you will receive by email. In other words, let everybody know whether you are coming or not, each month.

Look, it's no big deal if you say "yes" and something crops up and you can't make it. Far better to do that, than show up month after month but never bother to RSVP - Newcomers don't know that LOOM is always full of at least 15 meetup regulars who never RSVP. All they will see is that 3 people have RSVP'd with a yes and 2 people have said maybe. They will become discouraged and not bother to attend.

To RSVP, simply go to the website, sign in with your email address and password and just below (and to the right) of where it says London Danish Language Meetup Group, click on the link in red saying "Monthly Meetup: Third Monday @ 7:30 PM" and RSVP accordingly. There is a space for you to leave a comment, such as "Looking forward to the Meetup" or "Sorry, on holiday, see you next time" - I am sure you get the idea.

I very much look forward to seeing you at the next meeting.

Mike Starr
Meetup Organiser

Please feel free to call me if you need any help or further information from 10.45am-16.30pm on 020-8594 1320 / 2150 or anytime on 07967 044282 - If you are lost ring LOOM itself on 020 7436 0035 - My mobile will not work once I am inside LOOM as it is a basement bar.