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
