Notes on Danish culture

I’ve recently had to study a lot of stuff about Denmark for a test I had to do. So I decided to put some of it here, in point form. Here’s a bit of Denmark’s history.

• Denmark is a small country today (over 220 times smaller than the USA), but during the Viking era (ca. 750 to 1035) it was the center of a bigger kingdom that included today’s Sweden and Norway.
• The word “Denmark” comes from “daner”, which was the name of the people, and “mark” which means border area or field. So it literally means “field of the Danes”. The name dates back to the end of 800, when the Danish area bordered that of the Saxons of northern Germany.


Danish negotiations

• The Danish writing system in those days was based on runes (which back then meant “secrets”). The use of runes later spread to Sweden and Norway.
• Viking ships were exceedingly seaworthy, so they could cover great distances. This allowed the Danes to have contact with merchants from Russia and Arabic countries.
• Knud the Great (King Canute) conquered and ruled England from 1016 to 1035. He also ruled Denmark and Norway during approximately this time. This was the high point of Danish rule. From here everything went downhill.

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• Denmark went through a series of events during which it had a well-defined class system, became protestant and lost a lot of wars and land area, mostly to Sweden. During one of these wars (1658) Sweden wins, but then, later that same year, the Swedish king thinks, “Wait a minute, why not conquer the whole of Denmark?”
  Sweden attacks again, but Copenhagen pulls through by the skin of its teeth.
• During this time the Danish economy is in tatters. The Danes decide to abolish the nobility, who until then had been running the whole show (the nobility elected the new kings). It is decided that the kingdom should be inherited (go from father to son), and the official Danish royalty is born. The king was now autocratic, which means that he could call the shots.
• King Frederik the 3rd establishes a foundation for the current Danish model, including a royal constitution and rule of law (1660). Things begin to look good for a while.
• During the Napoleonic Wars England attacks Denmark (which at this point was neutral). Denmark sides with France, but it is an expensive war. In 1813 Denmark goes bankrupt.
• The French revolution had given everyone in Europe a lot of crazy ideas about individual freedom. The Danes decide that they want a free constitution. King Frederik the 7th agrees, and the first democratic constitution is signed on 5 June 1849.

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• England was the world leader in industrialization with the invention of the steam engine. Denmark and many other European countries only began to catch on about 100 years later. It was only after WW2 that Denmark went from being an agrarian society to an industrial one.
• A workers’ movement, the social democrats, begins to emerge in the 1870s, and becomes an independent party in 1878.
• A historic agreement is made between workers and employers in September 1899, in which they acknowledge each other’s rights.
• Other political parties are Venstre (literally: left), who represent farmers (today they are conservative and represent business) and Højre (literally: right) who represent the conservatives (today they are called the Conservative Folk Party).

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• During WW1 Denmark is neutral, but Germany forces Denmark to lay mines in the Baltic Sea in order to prevent ships attacking from there.
• The USA worries that Germany will build military bases on Danish-owned islands St. John, St. Croix and St. Thomas in the Caribbean. So it buys the islands from Denmark in 1917 for $25 million.
• The constitution is amended in 1915, and women get the vote.
• The constitution is amended again in 1920. The king loses all political power.
• During WW2 Denmark is neutral again, but Germany doesn’t respect it. Germany invades on 9 April 1940 and occupies Denmark for the duration of the war.
• An underground resistance movement is formed. Of the 8000 Jews living in Denmark, 7000 of them are successfully moved to Sweden.
• Denmark comes through WW2 mostly unscathed. After the war the old political parties are soon back in business.
• At the end of the 50s Denmark becomes an industrial powerhouse, and the economy sky-rockets.
• In 1953 there is no male heir to the Danish throne, and the constitution is changed to allow women to inherit the throne (though only if there is no male in the family to do the job). This is the 4th and last time the constitution is changed. Margrethe the 2nd becomes queen and regent in 1972. When the constitution is amended in the future, it will most likely allow for eldest daughters to succeed to the throne, irrespective of male siblings.
• The welfare system begins to take shape.
• In the 70s there is a short supply of manual labour. Many workers are invited from Turkey, Pakistan and Yugoslavia.
• Many things happen in 1973. Denmark joins the EU. The economy is experiencing a downturn because of high oil prices. Foreign workers are not needed any more, and immigration is stopped. Until this point there were only 4 parties in parliament. During a historic election, two more parties join the government. One is the Progress Party (they don’t like income tax, the EU, foreigners and the bureaucracy of the welfare state) and the Christian Folk Party (they don’t like the new abortion law).

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• Denmark doesn’t have many natural resources besides oil and gas. Today it has moved from being an industrial society to a service-based and knowledge society (excelling especially in alternative energy and medicine).


30% of Danes cycle to work (ca. 1% in the US)

• Education in Denmark takes much longer than in other countries, so Danes are a bit older when they begin to work. There is also a tendency to retire younger, which is beginning to challenge the welfare model.
• In spite of a bit of a rough history, Denmark is today one of the richest countries in the world, and one of the few countries that meets the UN’s target of giving 0,7% of its gross national product to third-world development.

Danes are extremely private and reserved. If you happen to come from a village in Kenya where everyone knows each other and greets each other on the street, Denmark will seem cold, hostile and desolate.

Meeting new Danes can be a challenge

This seems to be the general consensus among newcomers in Denmark. It is not easy to get to know a Dane. Friendships take many years to foster, and most lifelong friendships among Danes will have started in kindergarten. This doesn’t mean that Danes are averse to the idea of being friends with you; you just have to put in a bit of extra effort if you are serious about the friendship.

Keeping it real
You will find that Danes are quite direct. Or, to put it another way, they are generally not superficial. They won’t fawn over you with sugar-coated compliments and honeyed tones in order to win your favour, and they will resent it if you do. Nor will they necessarily pretend to like you if they don’t, and if they don’t like your joke, they simply won’t laugh. Simple as that.

Danes generally neither understand nor do they appreciate fluff and hype in people’s attitudes, so the direct and honest approach is always advised. Basically, avoid small talk if you can, and just say what you really think.

A sack of salt
This might all sound terribly demanding, and you might get the impression that Danes are humourless and dour, but you will soon discover that Denmark is full of paradoxes. Yes, Danes are aloof and are often described as ‘cold’ by foreigners, but the tricky thing is that they actually are sociable, warm and funny. It is a mind-bender that has taken me a long time to unravel, and even so, I can’t really adequately explain it.

Much of it has to do with an implicit understanding of Danish culture and language, something the Danes call being indforstået. It literally means being ‘in-understood’, and it is a series of unspoken codes and registers that exist among people.

Another part of it has to do simply with knowing people for long enough and having eaten the proverbial sack of salt together, nurturing a common understanding for each other.

It helps if you are a sociable and open person yourself. Danes love extroverts. If you are an extrovert and have no problems at all expressing what’s on your mind, you automatically jump to level ten and graduate with honours.

Language
While almost all Danes speak perfect English, language will always be a barrier to some extent. Your Danish will be non-existent in the beginning, and your communication will be totally dependent on others’ confidence with speaking English. Most Danes never really get the chance to practise their English, so they might feel a bit shy about it. It might help if you consider this for a while, and not take it too much for granted.

Being able to utter a few words in Danish is usually a good icebreaker. Try a few phrases like Rødgrød med fløde or Jeg vil gerne have en øl. Go to the phrases section of speakdanish.dk to see how they are pronounced, and memorize 2 or 3 phrases to get you started.

It’s all about structure
By now you probably get the impression that you can’t just start chatting to someone on the bus or on the park bench. And you’d be dead right. It is no exaggeration whatsoever if I tell you that people will think you’ve escaped from the mental institution if you do.

Even if you already know someone and want to drop in for a quick chat or a cup of tea, you will find yourself in a very awkward situation. Your Danish host simply doesn’t know how to handle unexpected guests, even if you are friends. Everything in Denmark is structured. If you want to meet your friend, you have to make an appointment at least a week in advance. Again, that is not an exaggeration! Your now-very-inconvenienced friend has probably had something planned for the day, even if that means having planned to do nothing, and you are intruding on his do-nothing time.

The booze factor
So, where do you go to meet Danes? You meet them in the usual places: bars, nightclubs, social clubs. Danes brew their own beer, and probably consume most of it themselves. Their alcohol consumption is among the highest in the world, and is perhaps frowned upon by their more serious neighbours, Norway and Sweden (who themselves often make trips to Denmark to load their cars full of cheap booze and make spectacles of themselves on the streets).

Danes are considered the party animals of Scandinavia, which again flies in the face of the common perception of the archetypal level-headed and reserved Dane.

Attitudes towards alcohol are extremely relaxed. The legal drinking age is 16, but it is not unusual for Danish kids to have started much earlier (sometimes as early as 10). Moral and religious connotations to alcohol are completely absent, and most Danish parents have no problem whatsoever with their children drinking.

Sober youth cause for concern

(This image is from a news story about a teetotalling tendency among Danish youth. There is some concern that some youngsters might get alienated from their drinking peers. The headline says “Alcohol habits: Sober youth cause for concern”)

But far from being the rowdy and chaotic drunk, the average Dane is jovial, talkative and usually quite lucid (note that I always invoke averages and non-absolutes here). A Danish pedestrian will dutifully stop at the red traffic light, no matter what time of day or level of intoxication. And never mind if the only traffic on the street is a lone plastic bag pirouetting to the low, dark howl of the early-morning wind.

In the absence of alcoholic lubrication, however, your neighbour would never dream of just striking up a conversation with you. Because Danes are such private people, they will consider themselves presumptuous if they do, and think that they are intruding on your privacy. So, it is your responsibility to make the first move. You will usually find that most Danes will welcome the initiative.

Social clubs or associations (foreninger)
No matter how unusual your hobby or interest, Denmark probably has a social club to accommodate you (Denmark has the most number of these clubs per capita in the world). These are perfect places for you to meet people with similar interests.

So, the Danes take a bit of figuring out to really get to know them, but how successful you are socially ultimately depends on you. There are plenty of opportunities to get to know the Danes, and most of the drawbacks are easily overcome with the slightest bit of effort. As I mentioned in the introduction, forget about everything I said right here and everything else you’ve heard, and walk into every situation with a receptive and open attitude.

If you’ve just arrived in Denmark – welcome! And if you’ve just discovered that there are no igloos here – congratulations!

An important milestone

The reason you’re in Denmark and planning to stay is most likely because of a Dane you’ve met in your home town. Danes are extremely proud of their country, and for good reason. If you’ve already made it so far as to have to decide about living in Denmark, you are probably already convinced that the only reason the world has not long ago descended into complete mayhem is solely thanks to the efforts of the Danes. You look back at your own country with new eyes, noting its inadequacies, and based on what your Danish friends have told you, conclude that you’d be foolish not to embrace this veritable utopia as your new home.

I have to concede there is much to be said about the hype that is so generously dispensed around the world by Denmark’s young emissaries. It probably is one of the best-organized countries in the world (like Carlsberg probably is the best beer). Its current social, cultural and ideological roots all trace back to Renaissance Enlightenment ideals of reason and common sense, and while it essentially is a Christian country, religion features very little in its government, schooling and everyday discourse. A socially progressive country, its focus is less on the individual and more on the common good – which in economic terms means high taxation, free education, free health care and a good infrastructure. While some might disagree, its governmental and bureaucratic structures are generally efficient and well-oiled, with very low levels of corruption.

On the other hand, it is not quite home for you, and settling in can be hard, especially if you’ve never left your beloved country before. While Denmark is very organized and the people very friendly, you might find it a bit rigid in places and lacking a bit in imagination. There will always be pros and cons for you to contend with.

The point I want to make is that, yes, Denmark is in many respects a great country, but when you come to Denmark for the first time, your perspective of it will be completely dependent on impressions you get from your Danish friends and stuff you read in travel books, which might not always be quite objective or accurate. Sometimes you read something about a place, but your own experience of it happens to be completely opposite. An important thing to remember when coming to Denmark (as with visiting any new country) is to keep an open mind, and not to take completely to heart everything you’ve heard about the place, even from Danes themselves. No, especially not from the Danes themselves!

So, you will be prone to unrealistic and possibly even some overly-grandiose expectations during your first few months in Denmark. This is fairly common. It is a perfectly natural response to the exotic and unknown. This is what is known as the honeymoon phase, where everything seems wonderful and magical. Enjoy it while you can; it will soon be replaced by a sequence of other, lesser-pleasant phases.

Typical Danish girl watching pedestrians go by

Denmark is not a fairytale land. Crime, although relatively rare, does exist. Your stuff will get stolen if you’re not careful, and while the vast majority of Danes are much nicer than people I’ve met in some other countries, you will most certainly meet some unsavoury and downright nasty people as well (as the laws of averages and common sense well dictate you should).

If you’re ethnically different from the Danes, you might on the rare occasion experience some racism, but again, the overwhelming majority of Danes are pleasant, tolerant and well-educated. It is certainly a non-issue in deciding whether to come to Denmark or not.

The following submissions will pertain to the lessons (at speakdanish.dk), including topics such as socializing, shopping, visiting the doctor, and so on. Much of it will be based on my own opinion and experience as a foreigner in Denmark, so it will by no means be an authoritative or definitive guide to Danish culture – but I hope that it will be enough to generate some lively discussion. I will try to add a new entry as often as I can.