Hilsen

When I arrived in Copenhagen, I signed up for a visiting family. That means that a Danish family will have me over for dinner, or other activities a few times during the semester. The other day, I was contacted by the mother in the family. She wrote that they would love to have me over for dinner this week and was very welcoming. She signed the letter:

''Sincerely/ Hilsen Helle''

Merely thinking that the '/' was a mistake, I assumed her name to be Hilsen Helle. Not too weird right? So I wrote back: ''Hello Hilsen,'' and so on. As it turns out, her name is Helle. 'Hilsen' means 'sincerely' in Danish! So I had said ''Hello sincerely.'' Great start to my Danish language adventures. . .

Above The Law

At first, Danes and Americans can often appear very similar. Danes in fact speak English very well, often with little or no accent. But when you approach an intersection, the first differences appear. The walk sign is on and everybody walks. Sounds normal right? But then the light turns red, and everybody (and I mean everybody) stops. The Danes do not believe in jaywalking, even if there are no cars in sight. According to guidebooks, if you walk on red you appear cocky, or above the law. That might take some serious getting used to for New Yorkers, who notoriously walk whenever they want, but in a way, it adds some nice order to the big bustling city that is Copenhagen. Do you jaywalk at home? Or do you prefer to follow the rules and wait?

Welcome to JOpenhagen

Hello! My name is Jonah and I am a student at Tufts University. For the next few months I will be studying psychology and a bunch of other fun stuff in Copenhagen, Denmark. On this blog I will be writing about my travels, adventures, and new exciting experiences. I will also be talking about something that I find very interesting: the cultural differences between Americans and Danes. While the nations have much in common, there are quite a few very interesting discrepancies between their cultures. I hope you enjoy reading!