Cultural Differences

So one of the major things you talk about when you talk about your exchange is cultural differences. Therefore I think it was fitting for me to talk about the cultural differences I have experienced here.

Denmark and the U.S. are not so different culturally, sure we have different holidays and political opinions, so it has been hard for me to find big cultural differences, but there has still been a few that struck me.

1. Adolescents and teenagers are treated more like children in the U.S.

One difference that I have seen frequently with my friends is that American teenagers have less freedom than Danish teenagers, they are watched more and protected more by their parents and they have way more curfews. For example on weekdays teenagers under 18 are not allowed to be driving after 11 o'clock at night, and then 11:30 on weekends. And one of my friends, his mom even have camera's in the house so she can watch her kids. In Denmark teenagers party, drink and generally just have more "freedom".

2. Being grounded

This is not something I have experienced personally but most of my friends here have been grounded at some point, for something silly. Either being going somewhere without telling their parents, throwing a party or drinking. And being grounded can be everything from a couple of days to a month.

3. More freedom (Cars, guns)

As I have learned American's love their freedom. Freedom's such as being able to drive at an early age and guns. It is way different since most teenagers here can drive wherever they want, cause most of them have cars, and they can even shoot and own guns.

4. Humor

One of the biggest things you have to get used to is the different humor, not so much because the American one is weird, but more because the Danish one is weird. In Denmark we use a lot of sarcasm, and here there is little to no sarcasm. It was hard for me to learn the American humor, and let the sarcasm go. American humor is more insulting jokes, which is what me and my friends do amongst eachother (it is of course only for fun).

5. Music

When I first arrived last summer I listened to a lot of pop music, American music and American artists, but just the wrong genre since most of the American adolescents listen to rap and hip hop. I am still not a 100% into the rap music, but my music playlist have changed a LOT!

6. Manners and courtesy

The European stereotype is that Americans have no manners, but that is not true, they might not use knife and fork as much as Danish people, they just have different manners. American's for example care a lot about "titles" such as Sir, Mrs., Mr. or Ms. I've had to grow used to saying Mr. And Mrs. when I meet people for the first time, and with my teachers. It has only happened once where I called my teacher by his first name, and that was extremely awkward so I'll make sure that wont happen again.

7. Patriotism

They love America in America. There is American flags everywhere, you are expected to say the 'Pledge of Allegiance' every single day in school and most Americans do genuinely think that they live in the greatest country on earth and that all other country's are just bad. Meeting those types of people is of course pretty rare, but I have met a few during my year. They always ask me "are you a communist?" and then I have to explain the whole socialism thing for them.

8. The American 'metric' system

One challenge has been in school, in my cooking class, when the teacher says we need 1 ounce of milk, and I just look at them confused and say "whaaaaaat?". Even worse is it when my friends ask me at what time we should do something and I reply with 18:00, and then I have to translate it and say 6 pm.

9. Politics

I had to talk about it at some point, Europe just tends to be generally more liberal than the U.S. so I have had many debates with people about politics and what is the best.

10. Religion

Americans are much more religious than Europeans. Church going is very popular in the US, where it is seen as an indispensable way of socialising. In Europe the practise has almost entirely disappeared and is mostly limited to the elderly, or special events like weddings or Christmas.

That is what I could think of right now, I will definetly make a second extended list when I have more differences. Nevertheless, Denmark and America are still very similar even though there are some few differences.