Frans plays smart and wise because he is, but he is also humble and has the indelible gift of the teacher that constantly seeks to help and inspire, sometimes with only a few words. The other mark of the teacher is also his: he has the ability to make things that are complex appear simple and enticing, without them loosing the intricacy that they may or may not have. He also has a wicked wit, so, in short he takes all things seriously, but none too much.
I've just emerged from a five day course on linguistic research traditions (quite a Danish focus, and if one saw Per Stig Möller's field questions from an international press gallery in the wake of the Mohammed cartoons, one would know that Danes are formidable linguists). Frans speaks in the now. He maneuvers the debate, but there is always room for comments and new ideas. Frans isn't afraid of new ideas and it is possibly this fearlessness that qualifies him most as a professor.
At another occasion he lectured on Copenhagen, the city/country town and the transformations that ensued after the re-building of the citadel in the seventeenth century. It was riveting. Of course, there is the exhaustive publication list in top tier journals, the regular academic laudations and membership and leadership in the pertinent scientific and research bodies. Many others have acknowledged that Frans is a competent polymath and an encyclopaedic mind.
After a week with him, are there any negative character traits that I can point to, apart from Frans' occasional sporting of the socks and sandals: emphatic no. His article God og dårlig eklekticisme (good and bad eclecticism) has changed my life, forever.
