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Hello everyone!
My name is Christian and I am from the U.S.A. I am not sure if this post will be allowed here (but I hope it is)! I am currently reading the book mentioned above and trying to learn Danish as well because I hope to move to Denmark one day in the future. I was wondering if anyone on here would be willing to help me learn Danish and would be open to skyping/facetiming for some of the lessons so I could make sure my pronunciation is correct.
I would also love to discuss this book with some of you who either have read it or want to read it to see how accurate it is of Denmark.

Hope to hear from you guys!

Wow, Stephan ... that is a bit harsh, isn't it?

Christian, nice to meet you. :-)
I saw your post, but didn't reply as I don't have the time to help you out, not with a fulltime job, family and author-career at the side.
I think it is wonderful that you plan to live in another country and even want to make the effort to try to learn the language beforehand.
And I wish for you that you will find somebody who can help you out. If you want, I can post your request on my facebook wall?

I can't relate to Stephans point of view of Denmark. At all!

Danes are a scandinavian and nordic people, but that doesn't mean that they are cold. But we are probably a bit reserved, until we get to know you. :-)

I don't think it is true, that we have no freedom in Denmark. In many ways we have more freedom than in the US, in others way not.
We have the freedom to take whatever education we want (paid for by the state) and we have the freedom to work with whatever we want (if it is available).
We have the luxury of being treated at a hospital no matter what your income is, because its free for everyone. No insurances here that will not cover. We are secured if we loose our job (at least for a while)
But that comes of course with a price, which is a high taxrate.
To compare a DK payslip to a US is horrifying for everyone (especially the danes paying it :-)). But the taxes pay for the wellfare. For everybody.

Granted ... the wellfare has seen better days and right now we have problems with how it is best spend, but that will hopefully work out.

Christian, write a PM to me, and I will be happy to answer any questions you might have about living here in Denmark. The Facetiming/skyping I can't help you with, but like I said ... I will happily try to find somebody in my network for you.

I just don't want you to be scared out by people who think that there actually is such a thing as the "Greatest country" in the world. Denmark is not. But US isn't either.

All countries have their good and bad things. The question is just where you thrive the best.

All the luck,
Anika

PS. Another reason for the missing replies is maybe this group. There is not much activity here ...

Hi Stephan
I don't know where the idea of Denmark to be the greatest country in the world comes from. Somehow Denmark has been a part of the presidential campagne in USA, but it is not the Danes who has put it there (at least I don't think so).
Denmark is - like most other western civilised countries - full of good things and bad things. If "you" want, the world is open to you, like it is in the US. Yes, we have free education and do not have to pay for our colleges, but if you are a product of your environment and do not have the ability to raise above the anchors that some people have in their lives, you will go nowhere. Like I assume it is the case in the US or other countries.
What "rubbed me off" in your remark, was the fact that it seemed you wanted to put down Denmark. I think it is a very common thing, I am allowed to say bad things about my country, but you are not. :-)

Most of the time I don't even think that it is fair to "compare" countries as we have different ways of living, and thank God for that.
For example the whole thing about what a McDonalds employee earns. Why is that even an issue? Yes a McD-employee earns more here, but when I look at an american payslip (I am a chiefbookkeeper with several subsidiaries in different countries in Europe and the US) I notice that you hardly pay taxes. Of course it is not possible to make state-funded wellfare in the same order as in Denmark, where a regular employee pays 42% in taxes, 8% extra work taxes and after that pays 25% in Salestaxes of EVERYTHING we buy. Plus the additional taxes on candy, fuel, and other things that the government thinks is bad for you.
I like the american concept of that YOU are the one taking care of YOUR life instead of the mislead concept of the government thinking for your. But I also kind of like that I know that I always can be treated for any disease I might have, no matter what kind of insurance I have.

Sorry for my rambling, but like I said ... I think the whole discussion is mislead and misplaced. It's simply not comparable.

/Anika

Ehm ... I am not even sure I bother to answer, but apparently I can't help myself.
Of course you can have an opinon about what ever you want. My objection was to the fact that there has been a lot of americans (as DK has been (mis)used in "your" presidential campaign, which have a whole lot of meanings of DK, even though they never had any facts.
And I really resent, when people bear themselves with that "know-it-all-attitude" and have a strong opinion about things they have just heard about.

Like I said ... I don't think it makes any sense to compare countries, because there are so many differences between not only the way of living, but also the culture. What works in DK doesn't necessarly work in the US. And vice versa.
In my daily job I have colleagues in many of the european countries, and also in the US (Georgia), and I can tell you that there is a great difference in they way we think, work and concieve things. And the humor. Maybe especially the humor.
Maybe I expressed myself poorly, but english is not my native language, so if I did, I naturally apologize.

And regarding to pork ... DK's greatest export is pork, so I think that you can eat both bacon and pork. Even though ... in some muslim areas, that would probably be frowned upon, but that is a local discussion which seem to go on everywhere in Europe nowadays.

Oh ... I just now checked out your link. Yeah, exactly. But those are not the danes. If you notice the article says "other ethnic origin" because the so called free press in Europe apparently have difficulties by addressing the problems by it's names, and because our governments are afraid to react to the problems that some muslims are causing.
That is - I'm afraid - a general problem in the world right now, especially in Europe. :-/
Something that you hopefully don't deal a lot with.
BR
Anika

... you can eat all the artichoke you want in Denmark. Also on pizza. You can also be a vegetarian. Rest assured that we will not assault you just because you don't want to eat a saussage ^^

No worries :)

Dude, she just wanted to talk about a book she likes. Why are you turning this into a political discussion about integration? Have you read the book? Do you have anything relevant to say about the BOOK? Not just about how you feel Denmark is a shitty country - what does that have to do with the book?
You're really going out of your way to push your own political agenda in a forum that never had anything to do with politics.

Stephan, if you hate it so much, why do you live in Denmark, then?
Why this onesided blind critism?
Like I said in reply to your first replies, which are now gone, every country has their flaws and every country has their good parts.
But let me then ask you ... which country do YOU think is doing a good job?

hi all, I am also one of those who wants to learn Danish. This discussion, would be much interesting and funnier in Danish (not, that it's not in English:)

Title1,

That's not quite true.
The Swedes and Norwegians have also ä, ö and å.
The Germans for example has also ä, ö and ü, so does the Swiss and Austrian people.
Besides the "normal" vowels, that is.

But it is true, Danish is often being compared to sound as if you speak with a hot potato in your mouth, and surely I can relate to that. :-)

An other frase, that Danes love to ask foreigners to repeat is:

Rødgrød med fløde.

The d'es are pronounced softly.

Good luck with that. :-)

Stephan,
I don't know which world you live in, but maybe you are answering something from another debat. I never said anything about knowing a lawyer/being one/or knowing their reasoning.

Yes, you have found some bad examples from our society, but that is not necessarly the same as the truth. The media loves to enrage their viewers/readers and often succeed.
Recently I heard the truth behind a story, which has been very much in the media, and let me just say that it changed my entire view of it. We have a frase here in DK, as you might now, "porn for feelings"? That is what the medias do.
I think you look at things very onesided, and that is your right.

And be also aware that it takes a mighty good writer to use sarcasm and irony. It will often be misunderstood, if not used clearly.

I wish you all the best, and hope that you will change the things, that touches you so deeply.

The hell's going on in here

Jacob wrote: "The hell's going on in here"

Lol, Jacob, that comment just made my day

Jacob wrote: "The hell's going on in here"

Indeed... My best guess in involuntary troll feeding :D