How 2 Live in Denmark

Denmark is a lovely place to settle down for a while, or even permanently if you are ready to do battle with the immigration authorities. 

While I’m no expert on Danish visas or immigration law, I can offer a few practical tips for moving to Denmark.

First of all, make sure you bring money. Denmark is an expensive place to live where you will own less stuff, but better stuff.

That said, there’s no need to bring much furniture, in particular if your furniture is nothing special.

While a car is useful for exploring the Danish countryside, a car in one of Denmark’s larger cities can be a millstone around your neck.

The traffic is terrible, the fuel costs stratospheric, the parking spaces doll-sized. Bicyclists own the road and often ignore traffic rules.If you’re just visiting, don’t feel you need to rent a car when you land at the airport.

Even if the home or business you’re visiting is in the suburbs, there’s a good chance you’ll save money by taking a cab – and most Danish taxis are Mercedes-Benz or Teslas. (There is no Uber or Lyft in Denmark.)

Unlike the Norwegians, Swedes, and some Germans, the Danes don’t show their cultural pride by dressing up in 19th century folk costumes. 

Instead, Danes express their cultural pride through food.When visiting Denmark, you’ll be offered Danish cuisine, and expressing enthusiasm for it will go a long way towards generating harmony with your Danish friends.

Denmark has had two female prime ministers and about forty percent of the people elected to the Folketing, the Danish Parliament, are women.

But when it comes to private industry, Danish women have one of the lowest participation rates in management in Europe.

 According to the OECD, only 26.9% of managers in Denmark are female, compared to 40.7% in the US.It’s not unusual to see a senior management team made up entirely of Danish males, with perhaps a Swedish or German male thrown in for diversity.

That said, the majority of adult Danish women hold paying jobs. The Danish tax system makes it very difficult for a couple to survive on one income, even a hefty one.

I love old books. I love the kind of old books you get at antique bookstores or on the Internet Archive. And I have a good collection of old books about Denmark.

I like old travel guides, most of which are still pretty useful because the Danes don’t tear a lot of things down the way they do, in say, Los Angeles or Hong Kong. 

In Denmark you’ll pretty much find most castles and monuments right where somebody left them hundreds of years ago.

If you want to see a famous church or square or the Jelling Stone, your Baedecker guidebook from 1895 will work just fine for you in most cases.

Anyone who has spent time living in Denmark knows that it’s one of the most expensive countries around. That’s true when it comes to food shopping in Denmark, too.

One Dane who had lived in the US explained it this way: “In Denmark, every supermarket is priced like Whole Foods.”

For those of you who haven’t visited the States, Whole Foods is a high-end grocery chain nicknamed “Whole Wallet” or “Whole Paycheck.”

One reason is that unlike most Western countries, Denmark imposes a full sales tax on food items, adding 25% to the price of almost everything.

And Danish supermarket workers are also paid a healthier wage than their counterparts elsewhere – although if you look closely, you’ll notice that many supermarket workers in Denmark are teenagers, who are paid half the adult rate.

Amerikanerne elsker at råbe i det daglige!! De synes det er awesome! og det er vigtigt at fremhæve, når noget er excellent! I danskernes øjne kan sådanne udråb virke noget upassende i forretningssammenhæng. Og selvom dette måske er en af de lidt sjovere kulturforskelle mellem Danmark og USA, så er det vigtigt for internationale kolleger at huske på, at amerikanerne udtrykker sig i glæde og ikke vrede, og danskerne er professionelle og ikke uengagerede.For danskerne er af natur bare roligere, og det kan amerikanerne godt misfortolke som et tegn på, at deres danske kolleger er uengagerede. Tillige kan dansk sort humor gøre mere skade end gavn, for det er ikke altid, at den amerikanske kollega opdager joken. 

Den relativt lave forekomst af søgsmål i Danmark betyder, at ansættelsesprocessen er meget anderledes end i USA.

Danske virksomheder siger, at de ønsker at ansætte en “hel person”, og derfor er indledende jobsamtaler typisk uformelle, og de kan omfatte ansøgerens hobbyer og personlige fortid.

Den slags samtaler kan amerikanske virksomheder ved lov ikke afholde. Deres personaleafdelinger har sammensat stramme lister med spørgsmål og tests, der skal fokusere udelukkende på ansøgerens evne til at udføre arbejdet. Disse spørgsmål stilles til alle ansøgere for at sikre, at der ikke sker diskrimination på grund af race eller religion.

Amerikanere oplyser ikke deres alder, og arbejdsgivere må ikke spørge, ellers kan de risikere at blive sagsøgt for aldersdiskrimination. De kan naturligvis gætte sig frem. I Danmark er en persons alder en del af personnummeret, så der er ingen hemmelighed der.

CAN YOU MOVE TO DENMARK FROM THE USA?

Yes, and here are some tips

Many Americans ask if it’s possible to move to Denmark from the USA.

The answer is: yes, it’s possible, but it isn’t easy.

A few thoughts about business culture in Denmark. 

For example, talking about personal ambition is less common in Denmark.

Danes are very proud of their “flat hierarchy”, and a Danish bosses do their best to act like the equal of the people who work for them.

Talking about one’s personal ambitions is considered in poor taste, particularly among the older generations.

Denmark has a national animal – the mute swan (Cygnus olor) – but an image of a swan doesn’t provoke the kind of immediate association with Denmark that, say, a koala bear does with Australia.

The answer I get most when I ask “Which animal best represents Denmark?” is not the swan, but the pig.

There are, notoriously, twice as many pigs in Denmark as people, and Danish bacon is prized all over the world. Pig insulin also helped create Denmark’s thriving pharmaceutical industry, although it has long since been replaced by artificially-created insulin.

Even if you don’t own one of the 57,000 pleasure boats currently docked in Danish harbors, you can still get out on the water.

The yellow harbor bus costs no more than a standard bus ticket and gives you the chance to see some of the city’s most famous monuments – like the Black Diamond and the Little Mermaid – from the water.

Or you can upgrade a bit with a DK50 trip on the famous flat-bottom boats, which provide better seats and tourist guide narration in Danish, English, German, and sometimes French.

(If you speak more than one of these languages, it’s always entertaining to hear how the guides tailor their presentations for different language groups. As I recall, the Germans get more numbers.)

A few Danish music acts have in fact broken out internationally. Michael Learns to Rock, a 90s soft-rock band, is still hugely popular in Asia. If you’re in a dive bar in Thailand or a noodle joint in Shanghai, you might hear these guys crooning in the background.

Christopher, a blond, curly-haired Dane from the much-mocked Copenhagen district of Amager, has become quite successful in China by touring the non-glamorous cities there and building up a fan base. He eventually got a tasty sponsorship contract with Huawei Mobile, which may have paid more than his music ever did.

Mew, Lukas Graham, Mø, and Oh Land are all pop and rock acts that come from Denmark and have achieved international attention over the past decade, and a Danish songwriter was behind Lady Gaga’s hit “Born this Way.”

A few thoughts about business etiquette in Denmark, from an American perspective. 

When you enter a room full of Danish businesspeople, it’s important to introduce yourself individually to each person, making eye contact, and shaking hands if possible.

Always be precisely on time. Being late even by a minute or two is considered impolite in a Danish business context. 

A few thoughts on US business culture vs Danish business culture. 

The fact that there are fewer lawsuits in Denmark means that the hiring process is very different than it is in the US.

Danish companies often say that they like to hire a “whole person”, so the first round of a job interview is usually a casual chat that often touches on the applicant’s hobbies and personal history.

US companies are legally prohibited from asking this: their HR teams have usually constructed stiff lists of questions and tests that they must offer on a uniform basis to every applicant to make sure there is no discrimination on racial or religious grounds.

Americans usually don’t reveal their age and employers never ask for fear of an age discrimination lawsuit, although they can usually guess approximately.

In Denmark, an individual’s age is part of their government identification number that everyone sees, so it’s not really a secret.

A few thoughts about cultural differences between the US and Denmark. 

Danes are lucky to enjoy limited working hours and extensive vacations: salaried employees are guaranteed a minimum of five weeks paid vacation per year. 

Americans work much longer hours, and have fewer paid vacations. 

In Denmark, by contrast, the employee’s need for free time is seen to be as important or even more important than customer convenience.

Restaurant kitchens generally close at 9pm, even in the big cities, so last orders usually go in around 8:30pm. Many shops are closed on Sundays, and in the countryside they are often closed on Saturday afternoons as well.

Medical offices in the Danish health system and other government authorities usually have a “telephone time” of one or two hours a day when they are willing to take phone calls. 

And if you need a non-emergency procedure under the Danish health system, you may have to wait a few months until it is your turn.