DENMARK II

Before coming to Aarhus which is known as the secret Copenhagen of Denmark I read about danish people being very nice and welcoming people. Not only do they value a warm atmosphere in terms of comfort and respect, their places and surroundings also com- municate that gesture. I was mainly looking  forward  to experiencing another place in the world on my own, see, absorb, and relate to it. After a few weeks at uni- versity and after getting to know the other students a little bit, I had the feeling that there is a certain barrier between me talking to a danish person in comparison to communicating with other exchange students. May- be time will solve the mystery.

Our study trip led us to berlin. So picture a group of 43 students visiting places in a city like Berlin, eager to explore the living and the built. We visited the "Teras- senhaus“ a very well known piece of architecture in Berlin, where we had the pleasure to be shown around by the client Lobe Block, an extremely strong inde- pendent woman. She had a lot of expectations and innovative and personal ideas for the place of hers.

During our tour to me, it was very clear that she and the architect collaborated a lot, it seemed almost that she was part of the design team and she clearly knew her path. Later we talked to the architect. One student asked If it was easy for them to work with a client like that? - No! of course not, I mean what do you think, that certainly was a pain in the ass. I answered the whole group not even giving the architect a chance to say a single word before. Later my tutor starts talking to me saying, I like that you are in our studio, it‘s so liberating if students just speak their mind, says out loud that everyone around has in mind but does not dare to say.

Since he works in Aarhus he misses many brave open minds. He tells me about how he has experienced the danish way of communication. It is like a sandwich, he recalls. This means to communicate something rather negative or rude or something that might be un- comfortable is framed into neutral, positive, and nice things you can say in advance of the "bad“ and after the "bad“.

Natalie Krieg, SS20

I was not aware of that at first I think cause I  thought  it had to do with being new to them and not everyone is as openminded as others. And I experienced danish people being respectful and nice. But after realizing the danish way of communication is so damn true,   as  I started to see the structure of how they talk in many moments I started reflecting on it. What makes the situation more clear is for you to know that I am a very openminded person, as you know now I do speak my mind no matter what. People inspire me no matter if we talk about how we love sitting on the beach feeling the sand in between our toes or if we talk about how this whole corona mess makes us feel uncomfortable in so many ways and affects us mentally. I think I act very true not hiding behind words, in contrast, the deeper the words you speak relate to your thoughts the better.

Which is interesting to think about cause the sand- wich has a whole other context than me speaking to individuals. It cultivated a whole society that tries to provide the most comfortable atmosphere of everyone. So I think all of that experience has something which we can also learn from.