13 Things that Confused Me when i First moved to DK
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- Опубликовано: 6 фев 2022
- Hi! I'm Kelly, an American mom living in Denmark. In this video, I will tell you 13 things that confused me when I moved to Denmark. The culture shock was massively real 6 years ago when everything in Denmark was completely new and hard to understand.
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My New Danish Life is a lifestyle and travel blog and RUclips channel telling about my American life in Denmark. I love to share my thoughts with you to help bridge a gap between two cultures and see just how we can all learn from each other! Thanks for watching!
Being a Dane I'm actually quite embarrassed by the way the locals have "welcomed" you in your new town. You deserve better than that. I'm living in a similar town in the middle of Jutland. We've got plenty of nationalities here. As far as I know they're just part of our community with Danish friends. My best mate is actually a Londoner.
I've known several foreigners throughout my long life( old man), and I've never done the " rødgrød med fløde" thing. I feel a bit proud when someone is trying to pick up our difficult language. My wife and I've had several foreigners for dinner, lunch or brunch. Knowing people from different parts of the world has actually enriched my life.
Maybe you've simply settled in the wrong town.
When I retired I decided to brush up my English. My teacher is an American X pat, by the way.
I wish you the best of luck, and hope things will change.
Thank you!
As a Dane i also hate when people ask foreigners to say rød grød med fløde, i also hate when people ask Germans how they feel/think about ww2
Yep og som dansker bliver jeg let krænket over andre bliver krænket ikke !!.... Nu stopper det.... Det er ikke ondt ment at vi driller lidt med red porridge with cream......
Folk bliver så let stødte, krænket, fornærmet, pigesur over ingenting... Vor helt nye folkesygdom..
@@benthansen6961 Det er bare pinligt og uintelligent, ikke andet 🙂
@@sismofytter Nemlig... Dansk humor er både pinlig og uintelligent..
Vi burde lukke ned for vores danskhed og blive amerikanere...
My daughter just completed a study abroad program in Aarhus. We came to visit her over thanksgiving holiday. It so interesting to hear your list because she has told us so many stories of the same exact list (less a couple). I noticed the the same regarding licorice. When tasking the Christmas beer, I loved it, but later realized… wait more licorice flavor in another drink?
That said , we loved our visit to Denmark. The people are very helpful and seemed welcoming to us… nice country with good values! My daughter is back now and she loved her stay so much!
It is rude to get foreigners to mispronounce things. We should not do it. Pure meanness.
True... But it's so fun...
True! It’s impolite and alienating.
Very interesting video.I just came back from USA, where there are things I did not understand. Thanks for sharing. Hope to see more from your channel.
I used to get the rød grød med fløde treatment back in the day. I've since perfected my pronunciation and use it as a pre-emptive strike on Danes now. They are impressed. And your pronunciation is very good too. I'm surprised about Aarhus rolling up the streets at night. I've always found downtown Aarhus to be very lively every night of the week. The suburbs not so much. I recall a meal at someone's house many years ago where the first dish came around the table. Everyone ate it and then the cigarettes came out. Then the second course etc. Worst night of my life. At least that's changed. Ask anyone new to DK that has gotten a job and mention vacation pay. That always causes confusion and anger.
I can only imagine what is like moving to Denmark. Especially when it's not one of the 4 big cities. The woes of being a very small country, who really didn't know foreign cultures being in the country until the late 1960's. And a language that is near impossible to master for if you haven't learnt it as a child. And as you mention, all of our little cultural quirks. Especially the one with making new relationships as an adult, is really one I wish we as culture would get better at.
When I was in language class I asked the teachers what English word they thought was the most difficult for them to pronounce, I was amazed they all said 'squirrel' lol
I have hear that too! :)
The most difficult are words that sound similar, but mean different things. I've found it very difficult to use voice recognition in english for this reason, such as "their" vs "there", which is easy to understand in context, but something that voice recognition didn't use to understand with my accent.
Funny - Germans can't say squirrel, and English can't say Eichhörnchen.
@@mekanikerpetersen4876 🤣🤣🤣
That’s kind of funny. To me it’s more the words or names with silent letters. Like in Huntington. the double r sound like squirrel came relatively quickly. Oh, Americans say C or zero but we’re taught in school to say Z as they do in the UK. It was confusing in the beginning. And the many local dialects in America takes some time to learn to pronounciate correctly. I had a distinct generic British accent (as I’ve lived in the UK) when coming to the US but I had 3 months in PA, 6 months in WV and 6 weeks in NJ while having traveled 12 other states. That I tried to mimic the best as I could. I found 5 easier to be taken seriously with the least amount of a Danish accent. I also just love practicing different languages, their origins and how dialects shape perspectives and experiences.
Kelly, you had me in stitches! Hot dogs on pizza, American flavored Doritos! I love the dinner parties custom. Loved this video!! Love them all!
Danish-Australian here. I just want to say that I found your channel and I pretty much enjoy your every video.
Thanks, Marc!
I as a dane have never heard someone use "rød grød med fløde" to a Foreigner who was meant badly, but I have heard many Danes who have said it to foreigners and said "wow you were so close" when the foreigner tried to say it. Love your content btw, i have watched IT for maybe 2 years 😊
Thanks for watching! :)
As an American who wants to live in Denmark, I think you have to get to know a foreigner before you ask them to say rødgrød med fløde. If you are a complete stranger and ask me to say it, I'm gonna feel patronized and othered. If we develop a connection and you are feeling cheeky and wanna take the mick, I'll play along and hope to impress you with my pronunciation. I accept the challenge.
I can easily understand that, and I didn't mean to everyone either. but if you have a friendship with, for example, an American Then you can throw it into a conversation. But there is Danes who will taunt Foreigners for saying it, but if you really wanna Impress a Dane say it before they say it. Hope you get to live here, have a nice day😄🇩🇰
Oh gosh Kelly I can relate to the last one. It was on my then-bf-now husband's fam's 2.juledag (the 26th dec) and it's so stupid of him not to tell me that there will be like 10 more dishes coming, so I almost ate the entire plate of SILD! 🙄 (That was the first "course". Then they had to make me taste the SNAPS afterwards 🙄😅 - oh and the RISALAMANDE? 😣🥵 I'm from a rice eating country but milk on rice? Nah man. 😆 Btw your content is so entertaining, Thank you and keep it going! Let's continue on the road to being danish together 😆 subbed 😊
I remember that special day of the week where my brother and I each got a little bowl of candy in the evening ❤ I watched "Bamses Billedbog" on TV and ate the candy very slowly, because I wanted to really enjoy it. My parents made sure to feed us healthy food, no fast food or soda. But once a week, little me got candy 😊
Hi from USA. This sure is an eye opener for me. Danes seem pleasant but the culture sounds very different.
Being Icelandic (a former Danish colony), Danish was my second language - in theory. I learned to read and write Danish before the age of 7. Meeting actual Danes and trying to understand - let alone speak Danish was a rude shock! Fortunately I happened to work with a couple of Danish professionals for 4 years, starting at the age of 16, and I found that I had actually become fluent when I visited Denmark for the first time at the age age of 21. This was 50 years ago and, alas, then English took over. Now I find that I need up to a week immersed in Danish to a) dig up my old Danish vocabulary and b) get the hot potato in the correct place in my larynx. Otherwise, I'm fine...
PS. We Icelanders have a far nastier version of the "Rödgröd" practical joke to torture foreigners with: We fool them into trying to eat our traditional fermented (spelled ROTTEN) shark! Full disclosure: Very few modern Icelanders are even ABLE to touch the stuff themselves!
I grew up in Denmark and live in Germany since 1984....still there are things that I wonder about if I come to Denmark. Last I noticed that there are a lot of things called "Royal". The love of Kim Larsen is still with me. And good Lakrids is not easy to get outside of Denmark. And that shops are open in Denmark on Sundays is almost shocking to me. We used to have a nice long Weekend with shops closed from 14.00 o'clock on Saturday and closed on Sundays. Only tank and train stations and bakeries were open on Sundays..
"Customer needs". Started in the early 2000 with the shops opening at those times (Big stores). Smaller stores had to follow their opening times to have a chance to keep up. Quite a lot in the business don't like the new opening hours - Guess thats why they use so many teenagers.
👍 funny stories 😊
I love how your hair shines, what products are you using for your hair?
My English husband also had the “rødgrød”-test when he first arrived in dk more than 40 years ago, but I haven’t heard it for years.
I’m surprised it was still a thing when you arrived in 2016. Sorry about that.
(I live in West Jutland, our closest town is only about 8000 people.)
I think that many foreigners want to be liked that they don't say anything about it, but it just makes me feel very sad for them. Thanks for your comments! :)
I live in California, but you can come to my house anytime you want!! 👍❤
Now... I think Americans should perhaps not get offended so easy and Danes should maybe be more open to new friends! It is a fair trade. 👍
As an exchangestudent in the States back in 1991, a lot of Americans asked me to say "Squirrel". I still can't pronounce it. 😀😁
You should have asked them to say Eichhörnchen! 😀
Moved to Copenhagen last year I'm 45 Danish gonna be mine 3rd language ...wish me luck 😂
Tillykke med fødselsdagen ☕🍰🇩🇰🥰
Thank, Nina! :)
Hey Kelly. I am so sorry if you’ve been laughed at for the “rødgrød med fløde” thing. I think it is more of a “this’ll be a help/guide for you, to get a sense of the language at it’s hardest”. But you defintely shouldn’t be mocked for it! 😕❤️
I can relate to every single thing on your list of 13 lol.
It seems I am not alone. ;)
Fredagsslik for many families is a way to limit sugar. So you limit it to one night a week
Doritos "American Flavor" is actually Ranch Dressing flavor. They're quite tasty!
I would say that is also my favorite! :)
It's strange, as a dane, I like peanuts but I hate peanutbutter. As you said, maybe because I didn't grew up eating it.
The american section is really more to cater to products danes that have visited the US miss when we get back home, or iconic things known from TV and movies, of course there's virtually none of the stuff I want that I learned of visiting the US, such is my luck.
I am an American who wants to move to Denmark and while I am sure it will get old when people asking me to pronounce rødgrød med fløde, I'll embrace it. Make fun of me...only when I talk about Red porridge with cream. 🤪Anything else I say is off limits to your laughter.
Maybe I feel this way because I don't like raspberries.
👍👍👍
We even play Kim Larsen songs to graduation 😃😄
My experiences:
Not inviting: This also happens for Danes
Kim Larsen: Who is that? 😆
Rødgrød med fløde: I totally agree with you! Rude!
Candy: Not too often is fine
Small town: That's how small towns are ;-)
Shop openings: Short openings in the countryside
Marcipan: Danes love it. There are probably stuff that works the other way, just what you are used to
Lakrids: Again, Danes love lakrids!
Sing a long: We love singing
Grocerys: In US I got 'danish' food. Was not any Danish, so works both ways 😄
No lights: That's how it is, usually no one want to own anything of earlier owners, except kitchen/bath.
Dinners: Danish traditions, we sit and enjoy the meal, while talking and having a cozy time.
Happy to hear you now are getting used to these crazy things 😂
"US food" or "Danish food" is just marketing and often does not have anything to do with the actual food from that country.
Candy lol. My partner's mother offered me candy and I politely declined and explained to her that in my entire life I have never liked candy. She leaned forward and looked at me like I had assholes and elbows coming out of my head lol. The first time we went out to eat here in Danmark, I was shocked when I found out the stores closed at 5 pm. Everything is open 24/7 back in the states, that was a big surprise to me.
Very true
I follow an itallian cooking guy, there complain about americans there ruins pizza and that they use something called itallian spice......and here is an american there complain about someone there ruins what they ruined in the first place, and about american spices. Funny how things work sometimes.
Dr. Oetker came out with a pizza that is actually very good but it's called 'Big Americans' I cracked up when I saw that.
Do you have an idea why it is so quiet in the villages? Don't they have hobby s, sports , shopping to do?
I think it is because they have groups and people they spend time with outside of the home. I need to get some of those things. LOL
Ok, but why are the streets so quiet? Lol, where is everyone??
I never say or eat (rødgrød med fløde) , so that's weird ! Maybe you should say to "them" , what's the purpose ? or Why should i say that ? or Do you eat that often ? I think that would work !
You are right , danes have an issue with that !
Good idea.
As a Dane, I absolutely hate marzipan. It makes me queasy.
Marzipan can be great, but cheap marzipan is usually terrible. You get what you pay for.
The tongue twisters are annoying, but we're just as bad against each other. We have around 10 dialects in Denmark (with sub-dialects), and we tease each other about those too.
Some companies may have called something "American", but you call some weird thing from the baker a "Danish". How is that different?
And Kim Larsen sucks. So many clichées, so little time....it's almost impressive.
I don't know anyone in person, who likes Kim Larsen. I know OF people, who likes him.
Yeah, the Rødgrød med fløde is just lame! It was something that was fun, asking my American second cousins, when I was 10.
And I actually thought it was just something kids found funny, but I've come to know, that quite a few adults find it amusing. When I point out it's a lame thing to do, I get attacked (on the internet). Which just makes it more lame!
About the "American" Danish variants of food - that's also a thing in the US. They also makes variants of e.g. European food, like a German dish, that is not eaten anywhere in Germany.
And I've heard that "Danish" (wienerbrød) in America, has very little to do, with actual Danish wienerbrød.
The light fixture thing, is probably because Danes likes to put their own style on how their lamps looks. It's almost an art form to many, including myself.
I've seen American homes on RUclips, and they almost entirely use these standard 3 or 5 light fixtures, with an embedded fan. Looks so boring.i
😆
Rødgrød med fløde is basically a test if you can laugh at yourself. Its not about hurting feelings at all.
If you cant laugh at your own shortcomings, itĺl be a long life
I disagree...big time. Massive cultural difference. People can laugh at themselves, but it should be something they point out. Not something that others point out.
Enig. Nogle får ondt i af ingenting. Med al respekt Kelly, når du siger rød, stikker du tungen lidt ud af munden, og så trækker man på smilebåndet. Man kan ikke sidde som et stoneface og lade som ingen ting, fordi man lægger mærke til det.
Jeg husker Villy Søvndal i en tale på engelsk sammen med Obama, sagde gulerod istedet for mod. Jeg vil væde min bagdel på, en amerikaner ikke der ville trække lidt på smilebåndet.
Men jeg er grundlæggende enige i, man ikke skal spørge udlændinge om de kan sige rød eller grød.
Bare husk, vi har vores humor, som også indeholder ironi og sarkasme. Og vi intet ondt mener med det..
Nå, men for at ramme lidt tilbage. Nå en amerikaner spørger en dansker 'how Are you' spørger man faktisk HVORDAN vi har det, og så "tvinges" vi af høflighed til at fortæller at vi måske har ondt eller har det ad helvede til osv. Uhøflighed ligger vist på begge sider, eller rettere... kultur.
Going to the american grocery section abroad and being startled at the non legit american items... italians chuckle : " lady don't tell us about it 😅"
So funny,I do not like Peanuts of any form,but love Marzipan.
Ha ha 😂 ha so interesting really
You should learn to enjoy marcipan, seeing as how you're into being healthy. Marcipan is a very healthy candy, it's made of almonds (and sugar), and contains ingredients that make you feel full sooner. Get one of the bars with thick dark chocolate as well.
People don't like it ok. I can't even eat almonds without bad stomach cramps. In that sense they do make me stop eating sooner
@@syntrilliumc.e.p.9326 fat is not unhealthy in and of itself, especially fat from almonds. Its majority monounsaturated, aka, healthy fat. The sugar is the problem here. If you're eating more than you can handle, yeah it's going straight to visceral fat.Time will tell if this top down public nutritional measure will be a disaster like the others.
@@syntrilliumc.e.p.9326 Fat is not unhealthy.
Challenge them to peter piper. They can't
do you ever hear cars with booming sound systems drive down the street late at night or boys pretending they're in Fast & the Furious movies by racing down the street?
I miss Kim Larsen.
Røde knap. Ikke røde knappen. ☺️
777 på svensk er den ondeste udtale opgave jeg kender :-D
Are Danes "penny pinchers" , not generous on themselves or on
their friends and relatives ?
the rød grød frase i think is meant as frindly teasing. but i get u. its not funny to u. we do it to each others too "fem flade flødeboller på et flat flødebollefad" i cant get though it. but this is why its importent for new danes to make videos liek this. how r we (old danes) surposed to know? theres two kinds of macipan, the real stuff made from almons and the fake/cheaper stuff made from peach pits. i dont like the cheaper stuff.
Hi kelly...
I am a Syrian refugee in Iraq and I wonder if you can help me by any way to go Denmark, and sorry for troubling u.
Marzipan...yeccchhhh! I read an article in a Danish magazine once, a Danish Chef made salmon with a black licorice sauce, I gagged looking at the picture of it.
That is a new one. LOL :)
I would love it if you would consider shortening your points. I'm genuinely fascinated by Denmark 🇩🇰 but am looking for a more condensed, bullet point form of your topics.
I get lost in all the filler words dragging on for 20 minutes and unless I'm a truck driver on the road for hours at a time I just don't have time to wade through all the extra stuff to get to your valuable points.
Lakrids er godt. Meget lakrids er meget godt.
Rødgrød med fløde. No one think it's funny. Maybe except the odd hilbilly from northern Jutland
It's rude in any language correcting someone's talking.
Makes it kind of hard to be a teacher. 😀
I sometimes feel like danish isn't a language but a collection of clichees, such as the one with rød grød. It sometimes feels like conversations with danes are scripted with these "funny" clichees that have to be said.
Fredagsslik is an abomination. When my kids were little, they would get candy occasionally, if they wanted some. But not because it was Friday.
I think it’s giving ppl an unhealthy relation to candy. It’s FRIDAY. You MUST stuff yourself with candy, whether you want it or not. That’s silly. What if you’re craving candy on a monday instead?
Røde grød med fløde, it's not to mock foreigners, we are not making fun of you as much as we are making fun of our ridiculously difficult language. It's us giving you permission to laugh at it, the learning process and a little at yourself.
Seriously. I was literally born with a bottle of Coke in my mouth. My blood is 70% soda.
It's funnier to ask an Englishman or American if he or she can say anaesthetic.
I wonder why
@@MyNewDanishLife Cause it's English and many English speaking people have got problems with the sth pronouncing it as if it's st. An American I know tested me many years ago and said that most people, even native English speakers, have problems pronouncing it correct.
I have tested it and it seems Scott is right.
Besides that (or is it apart from that?) I find it a little silly and childish to ask people to say something you know they've second to no chance to pronounce correct. Like "rødgrød med fløde på Rødby, or Rødovre, Rådhus"
Especially when there are sooo many people on this planet speaking tongues Danes have no chance to pronounce correct.
@@chosen_ones777 True! We can barely pronounce swedish words, or Norwegian, and our languages comes from the same origin and are very similar 😂 I speak a little bit of Icelandic, I have an icelandic friend and love learning new languages, and even the simplest words I know in Icelandic, and find easy, is tongue twisters for most! Danes suck at pronouncing stuff. We can barely agree on how to pronounce our own words 😂😂
American flavored Doritos??? WTF LMAO!!!!!!!! I wonder what American flavored Doritos.
LOL Right?
Also, black licorice is disgusting!!!!! I'd literally die from starvation there.
Rød grød med fløde is funny. Its not because we are mean. 😃 try to test us danes in some dificult english sayings and stuff. Then we are even. 😃 we should not remove it because some dont Think its funny or Think its hurtful. We all have different boundries, but its not the Way to just stop doing it. Just smile and say “he he ok” or something, just like everyone Else does in other areas 😃 if we should stop all that because of someones boundries, we would not could say anything. That is just wrong. 🤭
I will be visiting friends in Denmark in 2022 (1st time there) and they are waiting to make me say Rod grod med flod (I have been warned 🤣) But I will also make them say squirrel 3x without stopping. Then we all get a good laugh!
It is a fun way to break the ice and I get it... BUT some non-Danes might interpret it as being laughed at because they slaughtered the Danish language. But most often I think it is just meant to be fun and not offensive. My Danish friend Merete told me to go with the flow while in Denmark and expect some teasing. She says laugh at the jokes and teasing and enjoy it or you might ruin the fun... because it is only meant to be fun, not mean. Good advice! And I have always been able to laugh at jokes and teasing directed at me. 👍
You often talk about Danes trying to make you say "Rød grød med fløde" and that it is condescending. I agree with you. But you make it sound like it's special Danish, which it definitely is not. Go to Sweden and they will ask you to say something with the number seven repeated many times. Go to the US (I doubt it has changed since I was an exchange student in 1985/1986) and you will be asked to say "Fossy Wossy was a bear..." or "Peter Piper ..." or other tonguetwisters.
Could it be that you were less aware of it while you were living in USA, as at that time it was your own language this was happening in? And you had not jet experienced it you selv?
I can tell you that it isn't normal for Americans to make foreigners say something silly. I don't think it is me being unaware. You probably were just around some real jerks. I have had many loved ones (parents, girlfriends, cousins) of friends who came to the USA and couldn't speak English. I would say that the biggest thing that many people would do is just ignore the foreigner. I also think that is rude, though.
I Norge har vi en setning som er slik: Ibsens ripsbusker og andre buskevekster. Som du skal prøve og uttale så fort du klarer.
Marzipan is awful. Its grainy and sticks in your teeth. Not comparable to peanut butter
I agree.
I love marzipan! Maybe because my father was Danish and my mother was Norwegian American and we had it for holidays.
Marcipan is the best….
Marcipan is great and very healthy. It's almonds and sugar. As far as snacks and sweets go, it doesn't get better.
@@erich9177 >healthy
>sugar
Sorry but you gotta pick one. Lol natural peanut butter is literally just peanuts
Danes are so weird, haha. The funny thing is most danes think its everyone else that is weird, while danes are an outlier in a lot of things particularly in how they talk to each other and how rude they are.
Thank you ever so much for lumping an entire people into your weird stereotype. Now that's rude.
If you don't think that Rød grød med fløde is funny, then your missing the point. It's about humor, and apparently you just don't get it yet. The very foundation of a lot of Danish humor is to make you a little self conscious, and then be able to have a laugh about it. Nobody gives a F whether you can say the sentence or not.
I would hope that they could at least give a F that people from other cultures don't find it funny. I am not the only one.
@@MyNewDanishLife Humour is like food and fresh water - Not everyone gets it...
@@Hr.K Yep. Again, I'm not alone in completely "missing the joke" when it comes to Danish humor.