There is one question that every expat in Denmark addresses- How to make the Danish dream come true?
Carla is from Mexico. She is fun. She is smart. And she is full of energy. Disclaimer: This article is full of positive vibes!
What brought her to Denmark? Love. They met back in 2016. Before moving here, she visited Denmark several times. Carla moved to Denmark in 2018 to start her Master’s education in the field of Agriculture. Recently, she landed a job she’s been dreaming of. To facilitate the communication process with her colleagues, she decided to make the effort of learning Danish.
The Educational system is quite different from the one in Mexico, starting with the studies’ duration. In Mexico, a bachelor alone takes five years to be completed. Here in five years, you can manage to complete both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree. I finished my Master’s degree last September and have tried to find a job since then. I am really happy with landing this position in vertical farming.
Adapting to a new country
She is extremely happy to be here, but of course, she had to get used to certain things to adapt to this country’s reality.
I had 0 expectations before coming here. In Mexico, you don’t often hear about Denmark. The only thing I remember hearing is a comment on a radio show on how happy people are in Denmark and how the system is built in order to make that possible. People work fewer hours a week to spend more time with their family, when in Mexico, everyone works more than 40 hours weekly, and no one questions that. People are used to working six days a week and going home at 6 pm.
Developing a network
Making friends and building a network for some expats takes time. Especially when you are part of an international community. Everyone comes with his cultural baggage, habits and understanding of how friendships are built, what you can expect, and how much you should offer.
Finding your people can be a long-term process. It always depends on how lucky you are and, of course, on your personality type. Extroverts have it easier. Getting further from communicating at a superficial level requires some effort too. But we know for sure! Your people are somewhere out there, waiting to be found.
I am so happy when people I know and have visited Mexico tell me that locals are so friendly and open. That’s one of the things I missed. As a matter of fact, I spent two years already in University, and I didn’t really meet any friends. I did meet lots of people and had study groups, but once school ended, that’s it. You try to keep in touch, but what happens is that things don’t naturally run their course.
Here people are used to planning everything ahead, and when you ask someone when they’re free, they are like: “Oh, I have time in week 54”. I managed to make some friends at the language school. For some reason, I felt that it is so much easier to contact other foreigners. At least at the beginning. Another thing is that, in general, people are walking around with their headphones and don’t really notice each other when in Mexico it is so common to smile and say hello even to those you don’t personally know on the streets.
The Danish weather
There are no Internationals who didn’t talk about getting used to the Danish weather.
The weather is so…” grey”. In the beginning, it kind of depresses you, and you think: how can people be so happy in these weather conditions.
The beloved Danish language
And don’t you dare to think that we forgot to bring the Danish language into the conversation. Once again, not every expat in Denmark decides to learn the language of the locals. At the same time, the reasons, methods, and resources used differ. Carla joined the language school as soon as she could.
I joined language school soon after coming here. The first group was quite small, around ten people, so it was easy to concentrate and follow. When I changed to another school in Copenhagen, I got completely lost. I was in the third module at the time. There were so many people in the same group, making it impossible for all the students to get involved in the lecture. It was hard to learn anything, and I gradually lost motivation. Motivation is VERY important for a language like Danish, a language with such a hard pronunciation.
Then I tried to continue studying by myself, which is a bit complicated because of time management. There was the option of joining an online language school, but the ones I could find then were way too expensive. The result is that I took a long break from learning Danish. Of course, you still expand your vocabulary little by little. Each time you get to the supermarket, you get to memorize some of the categories and the products’ descriptions.
Learning the language for employment reasons
After getting this job, I felt really bad about the fact that everybody speaks Danish and I don’t. The fact that even my International colleagues have a good level motivates me to take action too. As I cannot be part of a physical class for now, and I saw an Ad for Swaplanguage, I decided to give it a try. My first thought when I visited the website was- “Ok, this seems fun.” Additionally, I use flashcards.
The live lessons are so vivid and dynamic. I love when they go out, and they record themselves. The fact that I am alone in front of my PC allows me to scream and repeat new words and phrases. The good thing is that you can also use it everywhere. As my job is one and a half hours away, I will try to use this time wisely and learn some Danish also on the train.
We are happy to offer an alternative to the classic language learning solutions. And yes, we do give our best in order to make it fun, to teach not only vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, but also the Danish culture. Join our free weekly live Danish lessons and give it a shot!
At this stage, I feel that I need to learn Danish because I want to fit in. You don’t feel this while being in University, it’s like being in a bubble, but this really makes a difference. I now see that my future colleagues have internal jokes in Danish, so I really want to understand and be part of it.
Practicing the language
It’s nice to practice with my husband’s family. I usually initiate small conversations about food or shopping, and they appreciate it and encourage me. Usually, we switch to English pretty soon, because if you want to talk to me about something other than food, I might get lost. At the same time, my husband and his father already speak Spanish, and my mother-in-law also tries to learn it so we can communicate better. I think Danes are pretty good with languages, and it’s so nice that they speak so many of them.
I also try to communicate in Danish with the cashier while I’m shopping. It’s easy when you only have to greet them and then answer them if you want or not the receipt- Ja tak, Nej tak. Once the cashier was telling me something, and I was just saying Ja,ja. Then he switched to English and told me I am missing 50 cents. And then I was, “Oh, sorry, here they are.” At least you get this kind of story you can tell later and laugh about.
Another challenge is to deal with the words that sound almost the same. Sometimes you tell a phrase to a Dane and they ask you to repeat it several times. Eventually, another Dane joins the conversation, repeats the very same thing (at least, that’s how it sounds to you), and is out of a sudden understood.
Now, isn’t that a bit discouraging? We know how difficult it is to differentiate those words that sound !almost! the same and it does take years to understand how to cope with them. To make it a bit more clear, in the Danish language there are words that sound similar (as hun: she and hund: dog) and there are words exactly the same. In the case of the last ones, you have to be really attentive to the context. Here are some of them.
Carla has big plans for the future in regards to learning Danish, but starting small is a wise way to follow in order to get there.
For now, I want to be able to hold basic conversations and maybe even to get to understand when natives speak it at a faster pace. I want to be good enough, so they are not tempted to switch to English.
Held og lykke!
Thank you for sharing your story!
