5 Strange Facts About Denmark part 2

Hej everyone!!

Some time ago I wrote a post called "5 strange facts about Denmark part 1" ( <- Read it there) and lots of you loved it! Even Denmark.dk shared this post on their facebook page!:) I knew right away, the continuation of that post will be needed :)

Again - Some of these facts may be normal to you, however those are the things that surprised me personally, if there are others that surprised YOU, don't forget to share them with me here :)

1. The danish accent + written and spoken form of the language

The one thing that stayed in my mind was one situation where my danish friend asked me if I knew the danish man : Andersen and I replied .. NO. Why? Because in polish we say his name directely as it is written, together with 'D' and 'R', so when she asked me about him I had no idea, who is she talking about!

The same is with other words that I am trying to learn in this video down below (another written form and spoken one, as you can hear:) )

 

2. There is more pigs than people!

You can of course interpret this however you want to, I am just saying.. :) There is around 5 mln people and over 13 mln pigs!:)

3. The tax is in avarage 49%

Of course there are some exceptions, as for the students - 8 % , but whenever you reach the earnings over some kind of limit you pay much more… and most of us do reach that and it feels so bad to pay half of your money to the state.. :( (And yes, I know what we are getting for that - education, health insurance etc, but the thought you need to pay so much is just depressing! :) )

4. Equality of men and women

I know, everything is great - women can go to work,  drink as much alcohol as men and nobody's judging, perfect - I agree, but there are some things that are just making me upset, as for example men walking first through the door, not letting the woman first… GRHHH I hate that! I still feel that a woman is a lady!!! :)))) and it is not acceptable in Poland when a man goes first, he is then treated as he was raised in a "bad" manner.

Another surprising thing is that you can see a lot of women working in a job that in Poland for example is considered only for men :) As in building construction or painting the houses:)

Also the one thing, I was told in the first year of my education in Denmark though my teacher - The head of the family in Denmark is the woman - not the man as in any other countries :) For example most men doing shopping or taking care of children when mother is coming back to work after the pregnancy :)

Can you also guess the toiltes are common is some buildings? Both for men and woman - even at my school :) In Poland - not acceptable hahhah :)  I am used to this one, but I still find that as quite interesting fact :)

5. Renting the apartments

First of all - almost everyone does that. In Poland its mostly students who rent, and directly after finishing their studies, they are getting a loan and trying to buy something. Denmark, among other northern countries are leading in the statistics of renting apartments in Europe.

Second of all, when you rent the apartment you come in to the totally empty one. You just see white walls and just a kitchen ( sometimes you even need to get your own fridge.. ) and what is the most funny is that you need to pay a deposit for that empty space, that is equal to 3 times the price of your monthly rent :) So speaking more straight - most of the times the deposit for these empty apartments is minimum 10. 000 KR (min. 1.000 Euro) of course depending on the price of the rent, in my case it was always 15. 000 for two rooms. Imagine bigger apartments and bigger rents :)

( I will write something more about renting apartments in Denmark,since it was highly requested:) Ask questions if you have any)

That are just some of the things that really surprised me and are creating Denmark as it is:) I am not judging here - those are just funny/surprising/strange/interesting facts to me:) Share yours if you found any!:)

All the best for the New Year!!

Aleksandra

Do Danes believe.. ?

Hello Everyone!!

My favourite spot in Winter:)

How are you today? If you ask me, I can tell you that my mood is much better, since the weather today is so good! When I went out from the school today, the sun was shining onto my face and my mouth just moved to a great smile. You can see many people outside and the town is reborn after last weeks' grey skies.

Last sunday I decided to go to the .. church. Actually it was polish mass and I found out about that, on the website for polish people in Denmark. By the way. I am here 3 years and I discovered this kind of polish community thing 2 weeks ago. Clever.

Anyway, it was very strange for me to hear polish language so naturally in Denmark. I was quite amazed of amount of people who share the same beliefs and are living abroad, just as you. You can all meet them in at least, one place - church.

But here comes the question. Do you know anything about danish religion? It is propably good to know something  when you come to the new country, where YOU need to respect different culture.

Of course there are different individuals with different beliefs, but as written in a Danish Constitution, Paragraph 4, official religion of Denmark is Evangelican Lutheran. The curiosity - is that the queen of Denmark (Post about Royal Family soon!:) ) has to belong to Lutheran church, but one-third of the government ministers are not members of the church, simply called Folkekirken.

Temple of Aalborg – Church of St. Madonna 

But. What excatly are the Evangelical Lutheran doctrines and practices? Lutheranism was founded by German Priest Martin Luther in 16th century. ( More info here ). As Christians, the Lutheran believe in three-in-one God, work of Jesus Christ who became a human being to suffer and die for the sins of the world. Among the central beliefs in Lutheranism involve good works, grace and faith as a means of salvation.

As an interesting fact for me that I would love to share with you is that 5% of Danes attend church services on a weekly basis, 80% are the offical tax-paying members for the upkeep of the state church. In 2011, this amounted to 5.9 billion kroner. However in practice all taxpayers in Denmark - including no-members as well - pay for the state church, because it also receives a state subsidy equal to approximately 130 kroner (~17euro) per year for every single taxpayer (www.cphpost.dk)

As you can see, there are not so many "practicing" Lutherans and over the last few years the membership rate of the church has dropped, so there are some more frequant discussions to seperate church from its state (As Sweden did in 2000). And just to give you some comparison - there are 97% catholics in Poland and as international statistics say - 55% attending to church - but believe me - there is more, statistics just haven't lived in Poland.

As a second religious community we can highlight muslims who represent 2% of the population (this is around 100,000 believers) and here is quote of Queen Margrethe about Islam challenge in Denmark : 

"We have let this issue float around for too long, because we are tolerant and rather lazy," 

You can read the whole article here :)

So. I shared with some information about religion in Denmark and in Poland, but now I am waiting for your statistics! I am very interested how it is in your countries guys and what do you think of Lutheranism in Denmark? Don't hestitate to write comment or email :)

Remember to LIKE the Facebook Page! We are 36 now! (23.03.2012) Great guys, thank you so much for your support, YOU ARE THE BEST! :)

Have a great weekend because I am gonna have one!:) 

Aleksandra