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Shelby Cornett
OGL 350
14 Sep, 2018

Module 4 Interview Paper

Questions:
What is your definition of “culture?”
How do you define “family?”
What is the most important meal of the day?
Do you have any eating habits that are specific to your culture?
What are your holidays and traditions?
Define and describe the most important holiday in your culture.
What is a woman’s role in society? How do you see it as compared to here?
What of government system do they have in Denmark?
What kind of health care system do they have in Denmark?
What is the best thing about living in the USA? The worst?

Within the first few seconds reading the instructions for this paper I knew who I would

ask to help me. My coworkers name is Betina and she is from Denmark. I have worked with

Betina for a little over two years now, and she is one of the most interesting people I have ever

known. She is soft spoken and kind, but will also surprise you with blunt honesty, sharp wit, and

even unexpected daring behavior. I have never met anyone from Denmark and over the last few

years I have learned little things here and there about her, her family, and her culture. However,

sitting down with her with the specific purpose of learning about her culture and the way of life

of Danish people was truly enlightening.

This being an assignment with the purpose of learning about another culture, I first asked

Betina to tell me what her definition of culture is. I was not surprised that her definition is very

similar to mine in that she considers culture to be norms, values, and traditions that people who
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are similar to you raise you with. She stated that culture also has to do with expectations. This

was interesting to me and when I asked her to expand on the idea of expectations being a part of

her definition of culture she stated that people have certain expectations of themselves, families,

society, government, and the world as a whole and that those expectations are a part of a

person’s culture. I know that Betina is very close with her family, and I wanted to learn more

about her family and her idea of family. Her definition of “family” is the people, biological or

non-biological, who care about you as much as they care about themselves, and vice versa.

I am a huge “foodie.” I love eating different kinds of food and learning about meals and

food from other cultures. I also believe that food is a big part of a culture mostly in the sense that

it has a wonderful power to bring people together. I asked Betina what in her culture is

considered the most important meal of the day. She stated that dinner is the most important meal

of the day because it is a time when families sit around the table, share a meal, and talk about

their days. I learned that dinner parties are a regular happening in Danish culture and that the

Danish often have large dinner parties in which friends and family are all invited. I wanted to

know if there are any eating habits that exist in her culture that are different than here. She stated

that in the Danish culture, you do not start eating until everyone at the table has food on their

plate. She also stated that she finds it interesting how here in America, a dinner salad often

comes before the rest of the meal. We had a laugh when she told me about a time she was out at

a restaurant here and she was served a salad by itself, and she sat waiting for an extensive period

of time to start eating her salad because she thought she would be receiving the rest of her food

shortly after. I joked that the server was most likely waiting for her to finish her salad before he

brought out her entrée and was wondering what was taking her so long to eat her salad.
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After the few years working with Betina, I have noticed that she makes a great effort to

get time off of work to go home and be with her family in Denmark for a few weeks surrounding

the Christmas holiday. This intrigued me to learn about holidays and traditions within her

culture. Betina described a few holidays that are celebrated in Denmark that are not celebrated

here in the states, one of them being a day called “Morten’s Aften” (She said it translates to

Morten’s Evening). Morten’s Aften is a day in which they gather and have a big meal which

involves the cooking of a duck. Although she could not describe the history of the holiday in

detail, she said that is derived from a tale of an old Danish saint. I did a little research of my own

on the holiday and found that “the first documents of the celebration in Denmark are from 1616

but it is believed that since the Middle Ages people ate goose and duck as an offering to the

saint” (Millan, 2015). She also told me about a holiday celebrated around Easter called “Store

Bededag” wherein they eat warm buns, and it is a day of prayer.

When I asked Betina what the most important holiday celebrated in her culture is, she did

not hesitate to say not only Christmas, but the entire month of December is easily the most

important time of year for Danes. She stated that because Denmark is such a homogenous nation,

everyone celebrates Christmas the same way and eats the same meals. She said that it is a very

important celebration that lasts three days, Christmas eve, Christmas day, and the day after

Christmas. Christmas eve is a day in which they cook a big traditional meal, and the days after

are spent enjoying quality time with one another and eating leftovers and other traditional meals.

She said that not only are those three days important, but the entire month of December is a big

celebration because you spend lots of time with friends and family all throughout the month.

Groups of friends get together for Christmas lunch, and workgroups as well have big parties

where there is lots of food, alcohol, and games. I asked her if gifts were an important part of the
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Christmas holiday and she said that some people exchange gifts, but gifts are not nearly as

important as spending time with one another.

After discussing family, food, and holidays, I was intrigued to know about the role that

women play in the Danish culture especially because I know that she is one of three sisters,

raised by a working mother and father. Betina stated that there are dramatically more working

women in Denmark than there are here in the states. It was interesting to find out that being a

stay at home mother in Denmark is a rarity, and is not necessarily looked down upon, but

definitely has a negative connotation attached to it. Betina believes that the Danish are “ahead of

the curve” when it comes to gender equality because women genuinely wish to be a part of

society and wish to contribute just as much as men do. This led into the topic of immigration and

how people who immigrate to Denmark sometimes struggle to adapt. Betina said that there has

been an influx of Muslim immigrants entering Denmark and they sometimes struggle because

“Muslims do not assimilate as easily as Europeans or some Asians, said Denmark’s culture

minister, Bertel Haarder, partly because, as he put it, their patriarchal culture frowns on women

working outside the home and often constrains freedom of speech” (Zucchino, 2016).

Betina went on to describe how relationships between men and women are different here

in the states and that she considers them to be more “traditional” because men do things like

opening car doors, and they are expected to pay for a meal on a first date. Betina said that while

she appreciates the chivalrous nature, she also believes that it contributes to the inequality

between men and women here. She stated that when her American boyfriend opens the car door

for her, she appreciates it, and has learned to enjoy it, but she also finds it to be unnecessary and

a little strange.
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The educational system in Denmark was also interesting to me and I wanted to know how

important education is in the Danish culture. Betina explained to me that education is very

respected and valued in her culture. She said that although people in society mostly have the

same status as one another, having a quality education will definitely earn respect. She said that

she was encouraged and supported throughout her life to do whatever she wanted to do, and that

her parents would be happy for her as long as she was happy, comfortable, and could support

herself. She said that the educational system in Denmark is very generous to those who wish to

gain an education. After some research I have learned that the educational system gives free

student aid to all beginning at the age of eighteen and can be used for up to six years. The only

requirement for the aid being that you are not living under your parent’s roof (Noack, 2015).

The government system and social structure in Denmark was the next thing I wanted to

learn about. I asked what kind of government exists in Denmark, and she described it as a

socialist democracy. She said that it works well in Denmark because there are only about 5.5

million people in the whole country, and that people are very similar. She was reluctant to say

this, but she admitted that unfortunately it is sometimes easier to help your neighbor when they

are just like you because you feel like you understand them better. She stated that that form of

government she feels would be disastrous here in the USA because people are so dramatically

different. The government is headed by a prime minister, and while there is also a Queen of

Denmark, she has no political power. I was very interested to learn that Denmark is the oldest

kingdom on earth, and that it is officially called the Kingdom of Denmark.

The next thing I wanted to learn about was the healthcare system in Denmark. Betina

shared with me that everyone in Denmark is covered under a government health care system. She

said that private healthcare is available for people who do not with to be covered under the
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government health care. She said that Danish people in general have a lot of trust in the

healthcare and government systems because the people who run them and make the decisions are

not “high ups” who are out of touch with the common Dane. Health care in Denmark is free to

all Danish residents. Everything from check-ups, physicals, school health services, ambulance

rides, in home health care, rehabilitation, an child dental services are all free (Pedersen,

Andersen, and Søndergaard, n.d.). Betina told me that all of these services are able to be given

for free because of the extremely high tax rates.

Lastly, I was curious to know her favorite and least favorite things about living in the

United States. She stated that her favorite thing about living in the states is that she is allowed to

keep some of her own culture. She appreciated that being here in the states she is surrounded by

a lot of people with different backgrounds. In Denmark, everyone has generally the same

opinions, same lifestyle, and watch the same shows on television. She emphasized again the

homogeneity of the Danish population. She also said that she appreciated that here in the USA

there is a great appreciation for success.

More interesting to me was what she explained to be the worst part of living in the United

States. She stated that what she liked least is American’s relationship to money. She said it seems

that a lot of decisions of individuals and companies are all based on receiving a profit, and do not

keep the human factor in mind. She stated that while she appreciates how much we admire

success, she feels that we base the idea of “success” on money and how much a person has or

doesn’t have. She went on to share with me what she describes as a “core belief” that is

embedded into every Dane called the “Jantelov.” The Jantelov basically says do not think you

are better than anyone, do not think you are smarter than anyone, and if you are successful, do

not be too proud of yourself. She summed it up to meaning “stay humble.” She said that this idea
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is something that the younger generations are trying to get rid of and she believes that this is

because they are influenced by other countries, primarily the United States.

This was an enlightening and rewarding experience for me to learn so much about

another culture and how it feels to be a Denmark native living in the United States. This

experience has given me the desire to speak with more people of different cultures to learn more

about the outside world. I found that learning about another culture has a funny way of helping

you learn more about your own culture as well. Seeing a new perspective is something that every

person should experience. When I asked Betina if there was any additional information she

would like to add about Denmark and/or Danish people she said that she wants people to know

that you can trust a Danish person. They truly value honesty and you can almost always trust and

believe what they say. She also said that to a foreigner looking in, Danish people may seem cold

and distant, but once you get to know them they are actually very warm and welcoming people.
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References

Millan, A. (2015, November 10). What the duck is Mortensaften? Retrieved from

https://www.thelocal.dk/20151110/denmark-mortensaften-traditional-dinner

Pedersen, K. M., & Andersen, J. S. (n.d.). Kjeld Møller Pedersen. Retrieved September 14, 2018,

from http://www.jabfm.org/content/25/Suppl_1/S34.full

Why Danish students are paid to go to college. (2015, February 04). Retrieved from

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/02/04/why-danish-students-are-

paid-to-go-to-college/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.72bbf28e7850

Zucchino, D. (2018, January 20). 'I've Become a Racist': Migrant Wave Unleashes Danish Tensions

Over Identity. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/06/world/europe/denmark-

migrants-refugees-racism.html

e232043f-fb78-42c8-9fc1-3ff24ed7f079.