Simple Danish Newsletter #39

Hi friends,

We hope you have all gotten a good start to the New Year <3

In last weeks newsletter we talked a bit about the Kings New Years Speech, but did you know that the Danish Prime minister also gives a speech every year on the 1st of January? (You can the 2025 speech here).

A recurring theme was that the world is changing, and that we should not expect things to go back to the way they used to be. She mentioned the war in Ukraine, inflation, a divided America and a stagnating Europe. But that’s not what we want to talk about today. Instead we want to focus on the last part of her speech, the optimistic endnote, where she chose to speak about Danish values.

I think that is certainly an interesting and slightly controversial topic, because what are Danish values? Does such a thing exist?

Danish politicians certainly seem to think so:

Previously, “infødsretsprøven”, a test you need to pass in order to be eligible for Danish citizenship, consisted of 40 questions, but was expended to 45 questions by the addition of 5 questions about Danish values. But if you ask those same politicians, it seems that a true Dane eats pork and always eats 500g of minced meat per week (450g due to shrinkflation).

One contribution to the debate of what it means to be a dane that I really like, is Isam B’s song “I Danmark Er Jeg Født” (YouTube). The lyrics are taken from H.C. Andersen’s poem of the same name. The original from 1850 is a love-letter to Denmark after the 3-year war where nationalistic feelings peaked. Isam B, was born and raised by immigrant parents in Denmark, but still some people insist on labelling him as “2nd generation immigrant” instead of just “Danish”.

So when are you Danish? What are Danish values? I would be hard pressed to come up with some myself, but despite my dig at politicians in the introduction, I think Mette Frederiksen actually came up with a good set of values. At least, Antonina herself pointed out some of these as standing out to her, when she first moved to Denmark.

The first she mentions is trust (tillid). Trust in our institutions and in each other. That’s why you’ll see unmanned booths selling strawberries, eggs and honey along the road, trusting you to pay, even if you could steal with zero consequences.

I think it also could be seen during Covid, where Danes largely trusted that the government wanted what was best for us whether that was lockdown or vaccines, and so largely stuck to following the manddates.

Next she mentioned “Foreningsliv” (directly translated to organisation-life). The word encompasses a lot; but I would describe it as the daily work behind the scenes by volunteers in organisations to ensure our kids can attend sports after school, a why you can join a running club in the new year pretty much no matter where you live in the country.

She mentions a Danish saying: “ Når to danskere mødes, så drikker vi en øl. Og når tre danskere mødes, stifter vi en forening” (When two Danes meet, we drink a beer. When three Danes meet, we found an organisation). We actually talked more about this phenomenon in our podcast on sport in Denmark, because we think it is a large part of Danish life that is not talked much about elsewhere.

She mentioned a few others as well, but I think the two above are the most interesting.

What about you? Have you noticed any values or practices that seem distinctly Danish? Do you agree with the two above?

Our Favorite Things ❤️

Idiom of the Week: At være på den grønne gren

Literally; To be on the green branch

This idiom means to be in a good or fortunate situation, often financially or in terms of well-being. The image of sitting on a green branch suggests being in a thriving, healthy place, as opposed to a dried-out branch that might break. It’s used to describe when things are going well for someone, whether in work, life, or relationships.

Example:

A: “Hvordan går det med jobbet efter forfremmelsen?”

B: “Det går virkelig godt, jeg er på den grønne gren nu!”

A: “Det lyder som om de har købt et sommerhus ved havet.”

B: “Ja, de må være kommet på den grønne gren.”

​

Subreddit We’re Looking At

A year or two ago, a trend emerged on the unofficial subreddit for Denmark (called r/Denmark) where people would share their monthly payslips (lønsedler) in an anonymised version. If you are following any of the Danish subreddits you might already have seen them. These posts became wildly popular, and a subreddit dedicated to this sole purpose emerged: DKLønseddel. Here you can browse salaries from a wide range of Danish companies and seniorities (however, there are mostly young professionals sharing their numbers). We are big fans of salary transparencies, and we quite like that you can get an idea of salary levels in specific companies which is data that is otherwise quite difficult to come by.

A few things to keep in mind though; 1) People with higher salaries are more likely to want to share their salaries, 2) People tend to share “record” months. As in months where they got a bonus, or got their overtime paid out, but these things are quite transparant if you read the full payslip. If you want to read more about average salaries in Denmark, “Danmarks Statistik” is the most reliable source out there. They have a report from 2023 and average monthly salaries in Denmark you can read here. In short 50% of all Danes earn between 35.600 kr.-56.000 kr pr. month including pension and all other benefits contributed by employers.

​

Word of the Week: Øjesten

Literally: Eye stone

This charming Danish word refers to someone who is very dear to you—your favorite or your “apple of your eye.” It’s often used to describe a beloved child, partner, or even a treasured possession or project. Actually the comparison to the english phrase “apple of the eye” is more spot on than you might first think. Because why might you call someone you like your eye stone? A stone in your eye seems pretty much the opposite of something you would like. But there’s an interesting story here:

From 1500-1700 in Denmark, the word øjesten (or øynesten/øwesten/øghensten) were used to refer to a stone with spots on it, or with a hole through it, resembling an eye. After this, the word was also used to refer to your actual eye, your “øjenæble” – literally your apple of the eye.

We don’t often refer to stones with spots as øjesten, but we still use words like eyelet (øje in Danish) to refer to holes in Danish.

Example of øjesten in a sentence:

A: “Hvem er den lille dreng på billedet?”

B: “Det er min øjesten – min søn!”

A: “Hvordan går det med katten, du reddede?”

B: “Hun er min øjesten. Jeg kan slet ikke forestille mig livet uden hende.”

​

That’s all from us for this week. We hope you enjoyed this weeks post. As always don’t hesitate to reach out if you have comments, suggestions or otherwise have questions 😊

Kram fra,

Antonina & Rasmus

Denmark&Me

​