Last week, I learned that a class from North Carolina is coming to my gymnasium in Denmark around March or April. Apparently, it's part of a program in which third year students from my school visited North Carolina in the fall and the American students visit in the spring. My English teacher welcomed me to join their class and participate in events with them, but he also asked if I could prepare a few words to answer the question: "What's it like being an American living in Denmark?". I thought this to be an interesting question, because I just always thought of being an exchange student in Denmark, not necessarily an American, so I was thinking to first answer this question on my blog with a few thoughts:
Hej hej,
Sophie
- It was weird to me at first, how on public transportation or in places like the supermarket it is frowned upon to start conversations with strangers. The first time I tried this, I received a really weird look and all of a sudden nobody wanted to sit next to, in front of, or behind me. This greatly contrasts Indiana, where it's acceptable to have conversations with strangers in line at the supermarket or while waiting for the bus. It takes time to get used to, but what I realized is that in Denmark, it's considered polite to give people space and silence.
- SCHOOL IS JUST SO DIFFERENT. I wrote about this in an earlier blog post, but it's worth mentioning again. It's a good kind of different but being an American in Denmark, I feel a lot more responsible yet a lot less stress when it comes to school.
- Some people can just tell you're not Danish. There's even been people who, without speaking to me, could tell I'm American. I'm not sure how or why, as I don't purposely try to act specifically American, but it does tend to happen, especially when I first arrived.
- The first question you will be asked by someone you meet: Do you own a gun? The second question: Are most Americans really fat? I don't judge these questions, though, because the way people learn about America is through media and the media loves to emphasize these things.
- Everything in Denmark is expensive compared to the U.S. You can pay 2-3 times the amount on clothes or food than in the U.S.
- Parents here have a lot more responsibility and trust in their kids overall. For example, curfews don't exist; that being said...
- Denmark is a very safe country. That's probably a big reason of why there's not curfews don't exist for teenagers. I love the idea that I can walk around in Copenhagen without being afraid. I walk home from the train station alone without fear. It's nice and sadly, contrasts cities in America.
- Being multilingual is common and expected. Most Americans only speak English fluently. Here, people are fluent with an average of three languages. My host cousin from my first host family can speak Danish, French, English, and Spanish. Danish, English, and a choice between a third language of French, German, or Spanish is required in gymnasium students.
Hej hej,
Sophie