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I spent a year in Copenhagen but I'm from the US so I can comment on some of the differences. There are obvious ones - the language, the humor, the flatness of the land, the role of marriage, the likelihood of seeing nudity in a given day's newspaper, etc. But there are a lot of small things that I think really get to the heart of it. Of course I know Copenhagen is not most of Denmark. It's those outer bits where I think the difference gets really stark. For instance, I remember reading in the paper while I was there about towns full of old people where younger people moved out and the remaining people just have trouble getting the bare necessities. In Denmark the solution is obvious - close down the town and move the old people to a place where the government can more effectively take care of them. That would never ever fly in America. Not everyone has guns but the weirdo old folks out in the woods who have seen everyone move away? You bet they have guns and are not going to be too happy about government folks coming to take their house. There was also the apartment waiting list scheme. Of course if you had money you could just find a place and call it a day. But most people had to be on that waiting list. Nothing like that is ever going to exist in the US except for very poor people. People in the US will just figure that no relief is coming and they're simply going to have to live further out and have a longer commute. There's also the whole collective decision-making thing. Certainly Danes like a good heated discussion, but there does seem to be a good sense of agreement on when it's time to discuss things and when it's time to get things done. And they do! In my opinion, Copenhagen's cycle infrastructure is way better than Amsterdam's and the work that surely needed to get all that done must have been massive. I think this shows up even in little things. In the middle of the night people will wait patiently at a crosswalk for the light to turn because that is the agreed-upon walking time. I personally rather liked that much more than the relative free-for-all one finds in the US. In spite of how much I liked the country though, I don't imagine I could have stayed. Denmark is not super-great at dealing with immigrants, even if they are white as snow and highly educated. I don't know what I would have done for a long-term job there, given that I work neither on shipping/oil nor on medical products. Anyway, it was nice while it lasted. Good luck fending off the Danske Folkeparti!
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Jan 31, 2017 02:10
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 09:41 |
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