From Jesper
17 May
Hello Crossfit Portland.
This will be the first in a series of blog posts about my home country the Kingdom of Denmark.
Map of Denmark (not including Greenland and the Faroe Islands)
Denmark has a population of 5,5 million and it is situated in northern Europe and in the region of Scandinavia. Normally Greenland and The Faroe Island isn’t considered as being a part of Denmark but actually both countries are officially members of the Kingdom of Denmark, even though they also both have home governments.
The climate in is much like in Portland during the winters, cold, windy, grey, cloudy and it rarely snows. During the summer it usually is quite humid and it often rains but temperatures are approximately the same as in Portland.
Common Danish summer weather
A nice Danish summer day
The currency is called “kroner” and a hundred American dollars is equal to approximately 575 Danish “kroner”. Denmark is a welfare state and the welfare level is one of the highest in the world, this also means that we pay, depending on income, somewhere between 40-60 % in tax. A normal gross income of 4500 dollars per month will result in an approximately 50 % tax claim. Despite this fact Denmark has actually been ranked as “the happiest place in the world” from 2006-2008.
Danes now and then boast about the Danish language being one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn, if this is true or not I will it leave up to individual judgment. What is true though is that Danes tend to reduce and assimilate both consonants and vowels leaving the listener with the impression that the Danish languages sounds like “speaking with a potato in your mouth”.
Agriculture and fishing was the main occupation for most Danes During the 19th century but over the last 20 years Denmark has been transformed into a country that aims at making “know-how” it’s most valued export good. Along with this transition and the general development in the world, Denmark has experienced a rise in sedentary lifestyles and this has lead, as in the rest of the world, to an epidemic increase in overweight and obesity.
Thank you for using your time and I hope you’ve enjoyed the post and gained some interesting facts about Denmark. See you next week
JJ
Thanks Jesper for sharing with us about Denmark! Feel free to post questions you may have for Jesper to comments and he will address them in next week’s post.
If you missed it, we replayed Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday morning. Hockey in the sun brings out the chalk daises in everyone.
Jesper-
Welcome! It’s been great to meet you. Looking forward to learning more about you and your country. Hope you are having a wonderful visit to the NW
Karen P.
Welcome to the United States and to Portland Jesper!
Thanks
Although it is true, that both the Faroes and Greenland share status in the Kingdom of Denmark, there is an enourmous difference between those two areas.
The Faroes is a part of Europe and due to the Gulf stream is quite warm and is a normal Western society, while Greenland is still a 3. world country in the Arctic with huge problems like alcoholism and child abuse.
Hello Martin.
Interesting fact about the gulf stream.
One thing though. I’m quite interested in hearing if you have been living in Greenland or know people there?
The reason is that it is not my impression that Greenland still is a 3. world country and that conditions have inproved greatly over the last decade.
Kind regards
Jesper