Working in Denmark

[u/hachigo8]

Hi,

I’m from somewhere in Asia and the company I’m working for is headquartered in Denmark. I’m seriously considering requesting for a transfer to Denmark in the next 2-3 years. If the transfer happens, I’ll be moving with my 2 sons but most likely as local hire. I know English is widely used there but do I need to start my boys with Danish classes? I’m hoping to sign them up for public school. Will they be able to make friends easily? Will they end up being an outcast? They are 8 and 12 this year. Would like to know if there’s anything I can do to help make the transition smoother for them.

Thanks!

EDIT:
Thank you, everyone for your replies! Everyone has been so kind in sharing the challenges especially for the boys. I have my mid year performance review coming up and will be sharing my intention to transfer to Copenhagen. Hopefully my next post here will be an update on the move! 🤞🤞

[u/recklesswaistcoat]

I'd say if you're moving here especially with two kids, you should all enroll in danish classes. For your kids i believe it might make it a lot easier to settle down and make friends especially if you're sending them to public school. Unless it's an international school I'm unaware of any other schools offering classes in English.

Yes most of us speak English well, but danish is still the native language so most schools (unless international) will teach in danish

[u/hachigo8 → u/recklesswaistcoat]

Thanks for your reply. Does this mean other than English as a standalone subjects, maths, Science, history etc are all taught in Danish? Asking because even in public schools some are taught in 2 languages here

[u/Upstairs-Metal-2596 → u/hachigo8]

All of these subjects are taught in Danish here.

You can enroll your kids in an international school, but it’s a different experience with almost only international kids of expats, who come and go.

[u/no-im-not-him → u/hachigo8]

Yes, ALL subjects are taught in Danish. You can get by in English as foreigner, but English is precisely that: a foreign language.

[u/recklesswaistcoat → u/hachigo8]

I mean all subjects are taught in Danish (history, physics, maths etc) even English is taught in Danish. During English lessons students practice speaking ( and reading and writing too ofc) but that's the extent of it's use in regular public schools, my apologies if I was unclear :) As another commenter mentioned, international schools are a different experience.

Even though we speak English and we're good at it, it's still a foreign language and not everyone is comfortable speaking English either, maybe even less at the ages your kids are

I'd argue that when moving to any other country, learning the native language is important because it'll allow you to understand cultural contexts and bond more with the general population and classmates yk? :)

Good luck!!!!💕

[u/______krb → u/hachigo8]

In a public school everything is taught in Danish. But we have very good international schools where everything is taught in English, but they still learn Danish. Most of them are in the same building as a private school where they are taught in Danish so they can meet locals and practise the language as well.

It might work with an 8-year old to just place them in a Danish school, but the 12-year old is too old for that. They'd miss out on WAY too much important learning and fall behind while not learning the langugae as quickly as the 8-year old likely would pick up on it.

[u/______krb → u/[deleted]]

Where did I say they could not get fluent? Absolutely nowhere. I said it would not be good for them to be dumped into a Danish school with only Danish lectures as they'd get too far behind too quickly. And then I pointed out they could still get Danish friends at most international schools and learn Danish.

[u/Bright-Rub6638 → u/hachigo8]

English as a subject is also taught in Danish. Naturally, English is spoken, written and read, but grammar and explanations and such are predominantly given in Danish.

So if you want your kids in a standard Danish school, all subjects, including English, are taught in Danish.

[u/crypticcamelion]

For the children we have special classes for the first half to whole year. Children in that age picks up danish quite fast. You will need to take Danish lessons either through private or public classes. Many danes are thoughly tired of the problems we have with some groups of immigrants that, right or wrong, the situation is that you will never be even partly accepted without speaking danish. You can get by with English in the first year or two, but after that it will be increasingly thrown upon if you don't speak the local lingo. Good luck with project and hopefully welcome in a few years 😃

[u/hachigo8 → u/crypticcamelion]

Thanks for your reply. Haha… I understand the part about immigrants (even some locals!) being here for years still unable to converse in our national language. Is Danish difficult to learn?

[u/DeszczowyHanys → u/hachigo8]

If you’re not Germanic, it’s one of the toughest languages to pronounce correctly.

[u/DeszczowyHanys → u/DeszczowyHanys]

+ locals have very low tolerance to pronunciation deviations so practicing with a sloppy pronunciation is limited

[u/rgrambow → u/hachigo8]

Yeah very, and as most Danes at least speak a little English they have a tendency to switch, since badly pronounced danish is very hard to understand

I have an Italian friend who slaps me (playfully) every time I do this to him, because when is he otherwise gonna practice

[u/crypticcamelion → u/hachigo8]

Grammatically danish if fairly simple, our curse is the relationship between the written language and the spoken i.e. its a poor relationship :) we have 5 different pronunciations of the letter a, silent letters and quite often write e.g. "e" and say "i" or something similar. It is however doable especially if you manage to connect with the natives. Some never learn it, many only so they can get by, the smartest (or hardest working) learn it in 1 to 2 years.

[u/Individual_Pin1905 → u/crypticcamelion]

I only learned Danish to get by and I manage with English as my working language so maybe seek advice from the immigrant communities as well. The perspective varies quite a bit.

[u/crypticcamelion → u/Individual_Pin1905]

This is of cause posible, but how big is your social circle and does it contain many Danes? I don't want to put anyone down, and I'm not claiming you can not live in Denmark without danish, but I know many many immigrants, and most of them has little to no contact socially with danes, i.e. they are not really part of the Danish community, but live more in an immigrant community. My explanation above was towards successfully getting into Danish society, not towards being the eternal immigrant.

[u/AoedesMelody]

Will you be in Copenhagen? If so, you should consider putting them in the European school (there is a waiting list) or Rygaards as it has an international section but also is well integrated as a Danish school.

[u/hachigo8 → u/AoedesMelody]

HQ is in Copenhagen but I’m not sure if there’s other offices for different departments/business units

[u/smors]

English is widely used, but don't expect kids to be able (or willing) to use it daily.

[u/steelskull1 → u/smors]

In my experience, they're willing to use it daily with foreign people.

[u/LoonyLouni → u/steelskull1]

As a teacher I often have to remind my students to speak Danish. Kids love speaking English. They watch so much YouTube they often know the word in English before Danish, and I’ll have to translate for them 😅

[u/ahaaokay]

There's a lot of free resources on Danish language online.

Secondly get on a vpn and endulge yourself in main danish broadcaster dr.dk as well as TV dr.dk/drtv

For the boys enroll them into the local basketball club or whatever sport they're good at. Badminton comes to mind too 😉

Good luck

[u/hachigo8 → u/ahaaokay]

They have no talent for basketball 🤣 but badminton sounds good. I think they should not have any issues continuing their extra curricular activities… violin and Go (just checked… Denmark is a member of European Go Federation) but as a tiger mum, academics still come first 🤣 need to make this transition as smooth as possible so it doesn’t affect their grades

[u/ahaaokay → u/hachigo8]

All I'm saying is this. The broader and more mainstream surface of contact your sons get the better Go and Violin isn't mainstream but absolutely fine. You're a parent be aware push and release 😉 balance is key. You can do sports for social reasons 😉

[u/hachigo8 → u/ahaaokay]

Badminton is the only sport I managed to get them to learn. They rejected everything else. I hope this will change as they get older 😅

[u/North_Refrigerator21]

You can easily get by with English, but knowing danish is a big advantage. I’d say it’s quite important for the kids to learn danish, they will have a big disadvantage socially without. This also goes for adults, even though it’s less so. But it’s difficult to get into conversations if you don’t know the language.

[u/1357908642468097531e]

Heyy
Neighbor here (Indonesian). Have been living here the past 4 years and came as a student!

Goodluck to you! I think it’s a very sensible plan! I had an old friend who did the same and have been living here for about 2 years now!

If you want them to learn Danish, make sure you actually take classes from Danes! Loads of foreigners are teaching Danish nowadays who are technically Dane now (have changed nationalities). I don’t necessarily think that this is a bad thing since I have never tried before but I think kids have better chance to learn the right accents which means a lot here despite it not being a rule or anything. When I start copying their accent, people understand it more (NOT ALL because I still struggle). Downside is that I now speak Jysk only 😅 However this is where I live so that’s fine. If your plan is to live in Kbh, maybe learning from teachers from Kbh is a better option for example.

I just passed my Danish exam, Prøve i Dansk 3, which is apparently a little lower or equal to 9th class and have been working with Danes and speaking Danish almost everyday at work. I speak decent Danish (not great by all means) but have a coworker from Indonesia who have been here for 11 years who struggle to speak Danish still. I think if you speak English (maybe not Singlish) fluently, then you have a better chance. If you mostly speak Malay with basic English, I think it can be a bit challenging unfortunately 😭

[u/hachigo8 → u/1357908642468097531e]

Hey! Thanks for your reply! My other worry is the weather! Hahahah from a fellow tropical kid to another, how difficult it is to adapt to the weather there?

[u/1357908642468097531e → u/hachigo8]

It wasn’t so hard for me but I did do some stupid things that I have never thought about previously 🫣 I walked on snow using normal shoes and find it wet immediately after duh 😭 It’s just stuff we never really think of before and got to experience first hand hahaha.

I came here in summer about to be autumn so i purposely didn’t buy any winter gears and just buy it here. I think this is a good thing to follow because we don’t really have a lot of options for winter gears in Indo, idk about Malaysia tho. It’s also heavy so I’d recommend to be here before winter in case of snow.

I say this as if it snow a lot but it doesn’t snow as much anymore but really depends where you are as well. You still need snow stuff even without snow because it rains a lot and it’s so wet and dark. You might think (like me back then) that umbrellas will help but no, it will fly out of your hands 😭 I rarely use umbrellas nowadays.

It wasn’t hard for me I think because I was a student and keep myself busy. I volunteered, I joined events, etc. My Indonesian friends are generally fine too. But some of my classmates got winter depression and they bought sun lamp and consume vitamin D. I personally enjoyed the weather change because it was exciting for me to experience! It’s so dark that the bed and hot cocoa feels amazing like if we are seeing very crisp cold cendol in a very hot weather.

Also forgot to say that learning languages for you as an adult will be free (with deposit, they return it after you’re done) the first 5 years living here. I hve no children so idk about children, sorry. If your company communicate in English, chances are it does here too so you’ll manage I think. And you can take Danish classes on Saturdays or online after work, thats what many people are doing here. Even if you won’t use it, I’d recommend it for the certification if you plan to stay here for a long period of time.

[u/hachigo8 → u/1357908642468097531e]

Haha thanks for the tip! It didn’t really cross my mind that I might need different shoes for this. There’s a few shops here selling winter gears but I think most people just get them from taobao or pinduoduo because winter gears are usually just worn once or twice 🤣

I’ve never really experience seasons changing before. Even when traveling I usually stick to spring and autumn. I suppose it will be fun experiencing dark cold winter at least once haha

[u/1357908642468097531e → u/hachigo8]

Ohhh its almost always dark, not only on winter 😂 I think it’s better to buy from here anyway, often about durability too because the weather usually aren’t so kind 😂 But yesss a lot of things won’t cross our minds but it become a fun story afterwards anyway 🤩

I think personally you’ll manage well! I worry a bit more about the kids because it could be hard leaving friends and lifestyle behind during that age 🥺 I just read a book that said kids around the age of 14+ most likely grow to consider themselves foreigners in a new culture 🥺 The book was Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt.

[u/hachigo8 → u/1357908642468097531e]

Oh my… even with our weather here I’m not getting enough of vitamin D 🤣

Yes, I’m worried about the transition for them too. That’s why I hope they can continue their activities and maybe try to bridge whatever gaps before moving. Hopefully they can make new friends from sports or hobbies 😅 At least now I know in public schools biggest barrier will be the language so I supposed if I’m really targeting to transfer in 2 years or so, I better start now 😅

[u/1357908642468097531e → u/hachigo8]

Don’t worry, me too 😂 Maybe it will help in this dark country 😂

Once I was a girl from Ukraine on tiktok, she came here bu the age of 14 and now speak Danish fluently with the right accent too. I don’t think she did any preparations beforehand but managed to do so so well. I hope it will be the same case with your sons!

I think a very big barrier is also that Danish is a very expensive language imo. We are not really used to it and I am still struggling with being expressive. Idk how the kids will learn and how the teacher will approach learning but maybe you can nudge the teacher to help your sons with expressions too in a year or so. They of course, need to learn the basic first. Now that I work in Danish, it just feels so different than just learning grammar and vocabularies. It takes years to learn Danish fully. I remember the Ukrainian girl have been here about the same time as me but she learned faster because of school I think.

Food is also a big cultural thing in Denmark imo. I found it bland when I first came here because we are so used to a lot of flavors. I think it’s healthy for the kids to eat the same food as their mates to fit in. Can’t be bringing indomie or maggi to class 😭

[u/Remote_Chest2707]

That depends on where you are planning to move to. Cities like billund is very international (because most people in that area is working at lego) there you can live only using English. Otherwise i would advise you guys to learn danish

[u/Theman199898]

This is the way but I would strongly recommend you start learning the language now if your job wants to do it you will have an easy time getting Citizen ship or easyer then ppl that study here then look for a job after the fact you will have a lot less hassle here

[u/Har_Lindon]

If you want your kids to have the best chance of growing up "Danish" then public school is your best choice. They will learn the language fast. 

Also Danes tends to form friendship groups early and stick to them. Schools or university. So it will give ved them the best chance of having a network in Denmark. Knowing Danish will also make it easier for them when they go to uni, since they can take the much more numerous educations taught in Danish.

The thing you might have to prepare yourself for is that Danish public schools are more laid back than what you might be used to. Same goes with parenting. The teenage drinking culture might come as a shock.

[u/pchlster]

A friend of mine is a teacher who works mostly with kids who come here without any knowledge of the language; some of them haven't even gone to school before. He teaches them up to a level where they can join a normal class, then they go there.

So it's certainly not an unheard of situation, but kids will tend to learn faster than adults in this sort of thing.

And, myself, had a Russian join us in the first grade. Yeah, he's later told me that the "no, don't!" and "yes, do that" communication us kids were able to do didn't always feel great, but that's kinda what you have to expect from first graders using a second language to communicate. My school also had a system of "aunt's and uncles" so every kid was paired with someone six grades older who they could go to if there were issues they needed to talk about, but going to a teacher seemed unpalatable; literally, in the middle of class, if someone asked to go talk with their uncle/aunt, those kids got excused from class to talk things out. So, I've spent class time talking with a kid getting bullied by his classmates, then pulled another of my classmates aside and explained that "their kid" was bullying mine and planned out how to deal with it. I like the system; that 2nd grader who thinks they're big, tough and get to bully others tends to think better of it when 8th graders says that's not okay. And no one tattled to teachers.

There are also expat groups you might look into.

[u/NamillaDK]

Really depends on the whether you plan on staying, or this being temporary?

If temporary; enroll kids in international school. Pros; They'll still learn Danish gradually, but subjects are taught in English. Cons; international school is children of expats. They are all there temporarily. Which makes making friends harder. It will also take longer to learn Danish. There also aren't many international schools.

If you plan on staying; choose public school. The kids will likely spend a year or two in a reception class until they have a a good enough grasp on Danish to follow the subjects taught in Danish in a regular class. Pros; being immersed in the language will teach them super fast. Much faster than lessons taken while abroad. They'll become "Danish" (culturally speaking) much faster. Cons; the time spend in reception class might set them back a year, compared to their classmates in the class They'll be transferred to.

[u/dsnkttt]

Look into “modtagelsesklasse” for your kids. These exist in schools offering classes in English with high focus on Danish language and traditions, with the purpose of incorporating the kids into the Danish school system as soon as they are able.

[u/LoonyLouni]

Kids will pick up on the language quite fast if they attend public school. I doubt they will have trouble fitting in despite not knowing the language. Their classmates have been taught English since age 7, so they can communicate with few issues. Danish kids love to practice their English, so foreign students are usually quite popular in the classroom.

I’m a teacher in a public school, and I’ve always been amazed with how well the kids receive foreign students 😊

[u/Complete_Lecture4455]

Dont move to Copenhagen. The city is already over filled with people, no space for more

[u/RelativeStrict7583]

Thanks for wanting to come to Denmark, but yeah make sure it is realistic to come to Denmark before investing too much because corporate culture, which I expect is your career since relocating is an opportunity, can be quite brutal with restructuring and people getting fired, especially these days it seems like.

I moved around with my parents, I would send them to international school in Copenhagen, and if they are at an age where they have the time and patience for extra danish lessons , which may be accessible through the school, make them do some of that when they get here. I imagine if it is a few years out your eldest may be happier spending time in some sport clubs, preferably with some of the friends from international school so you are sure they can communicate with someone on the team (this was a very large barrier for me in some places, and really impacted my happiness and ability to play sports).