Your experience of culture shock in Denmark

I was in Denmark for 3 yrs but had to come back home in Kenya cause had a son who was tissed all the time because he was black and I was integrated in the Danish language school. Danish 3 level but I did not finish it because some of the teachers were not helpful.... Sometimes I used to ask myself, should I paint myself white so that i can conform with others??? Anyway something must be done. This not the century of those practices which I experience...

I was prepared, having been here many times before I immigrated.  On the other hand, I had a full time job waiting for me and picked up a danish wife and her sweet and tolerant family a couple of years after i arrived.  In the process, I found out that one didn't need to adopt all "danish norms and customs" to thrive in Denmark (as if i could even tell what they are)!

I came from a country where children are seen but not always heard; where we never call anyone older than us or those who are in authority by their first name but instead use "terms of respect" e.g. Sir/Ma'm; where you have to be cautious of what you say (and how you say it) lest you hurt people's [overly-sensitive] feelings; where men would rarely be seen doing any household chores or take care of the children because they are something a woman should do; where we wore uniform clothes in school, colleges and even at work.

Being a progressive thinker and liberal-minded, I find it refreshing to see that children in Denmark are encouraged to express their thoughts and feelings without fearing that they will be reprimanded for it, although I still have to get really used to children calling their uncles and aunties and other older people by their first name.    Likewise, I feel more at ease and equal with everyone when I don't have to address them Sir or Madam or when I don't have to censor what I wanted to express. Of course there are some rare moments when I still get taken aback by someone's straightforward comments. Other than that, I am learning to integrate with the Danish culture and society.

I don't think I've suffered from culture shock as such. Luckily the UK and Denmark are similar in some ways. Of course there's aspects of home I miss, such as some of the food and people, but I seem to be settling well here.

And I, after remaining there for almost one year, that is what I retain of Denmark ...

"Oh no. Not that. Not yet, "writes the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten. But if. Once again, a Danish zoo will open - literally - an animal to an audience that surely will have children.

The last time was there a year and half in Copenhagen, when the zoo of the city had shot a giraphon named Marius, sparking a controversy well beyond the country's borders.

That does not scare the zoo staff Odense third Danish city. Here, it is expected to dissect a young lioness this Thursday, October 15, during the autumn holidays small Danish, on the grounds that dissection is a good educational tool. The head of the zoo keepers, Michael Wallberg Sørensen, explains the Danish newspaper Berlingske:

You can see the claws, teeth, skull and large muscles used for chewing. All these adaptations that make the lion is one of the most important predator of the savannah. And it is important to learn thatthe death is part of life. "

The lioness in question is already dead, she was shot in February, as the population of cats in the zoo was too large and no other zoo could take charge. Since then, she has been kept in the freezer.


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Denmark: a zoo criticized after the public dissection of a lion



A lion was dissected in public Thursday in a Danish zoo as part of an educational activity for children, to the chagrin of animal rights activists who denounced a "macabre show."

Nine months old, the lion was killed in February by the Odense Zoo, which had too many lions and found no other place to host it, and his body kept in a freezer.

In February 2014, the Copenhagen zoo had attracted criticism by ending days of Marius, girafon a year and a half before it reaches sexual maturity.

The animal was dissected in public and its meat given to the lions. Park management was the subject of death threats.

Thursday, between 300 and 400 people of all ages gathered to attend the lion dissection.

An employee of the zoo, Rasmus Kolind, began cutting the animal by removing his tongue and then stripped under the curious gaze of the public who did not hesitate to hold their noses when the smell of the corpse began to be felt.

"A dead animal smells the dead animal. There is not much to do," said Mr. Kolind.

Some visitors, some had four, were a few centimeters from the dissecting table.

"I do not want to see it," he told a boy to the DR public television while a little girl acknowledged that the event was "fun to see but also a little disgusting".

Lotte Tranberg, also guardian of the zoo, explained that the lion had been killed to prevent inbreeding.

With his colleague, they tried to imitate the roar of the lion by blowing into a tube that had been inserted into the neck of the dead animal.

Mr. Kolind did not hesitate to ask if "someone (in the crowd wanted) an eye" before decapitating the lion.

Dissections in public are common in Denmark which considers education.

A spokesman for the Association of Animal Welfare, Humane Society International, Wendy Higgins, accused the zoo to stage a "macabre show."

For his association, the event is a consequence of the mass breeding of lions and thousands of other animals in zoos.