John Gunther Dean
Dean speaks four languages: English, French, German and Danish. He was the first U.S. Ambassador to Denmark who learned and spoke Danish, thus gaining significant respect from its people. He is married to the French-born Martine Duphenieux, and they have three grown children. He now lives in Switzerland and France but remains active on foreign affairs issues and comes to the U.S. often.
Danish language
Like all Germanic languages, Danish forms compound nouns. These are represented in Danish orthography as one word, as in "kvindehåndboldlandsholdet", "the female national handball team". In some cases, nouns are joined with an extra "s", originally possessive in function, like "landsmand" (from "land", "country", and "mand", "man", meaning "compatriot"), but "landmand" (from same roots, meaning "farmer"). Some words are joined with an extra "e", like "gæstebog" (from "gæst" and "bog", meaning "guest book").