Jayjay Salinas - QLD to Denmark

Wed 22 Jul 2009

Jayjay Salinas from Queensland is currently in Denmark on a one year student exchange program. He sent us this update to share his Danish experience with us:

“Hej fra Danmark (Hello from Denmark), where the cold and almost unpredictable weather does not dampen the fantastic and fun loving nature of the Danes. That basically sums up what I think of Denmark as a whole, unpredictably awesome!

After something like 36 hours of travelling from home, I arrived in Denmark wondering why I even considered doing something like this. That was a few months back. At present I live with the Surry family, a very nice family with three children, Amy (9 years old), Alex (5years old), and Thomas (2 years old). Matthew, the father, is English and the mother, Annika, is Danish. They speak both English and Danish at home so it makes it a bit easier to learn the language even though, I was told, Danish is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn – I agree .

Family life is a whole lot different from what I’m used to (since I’m an only child) but most of the time it’s fun living with three children. Other than the usual household activities, sometimes I even help in some do-it-yourself construction work – my host dad is building a shed and they’re planning on adding decks to the house. There’s never a dull moment at home .

The town I’m living in now is called Sengeløse which is a small town surrounded by farms – cows and sheep watch me while I’m walking to the bus stop. Jokingly, people say that all people in Sengeløse sleep in hammocks or on the floor because Sengeløse literally means “Bed-less.” It’s not as isolated as it seems, though, because the major train station, Høje Taastrup, is only about 10 minutes by bus from town and from the station. It takes about 15 minutes to get to Copenhagen (the capital) on the fast train. I’ve been to Copenhagen quite a lot of times now and it’s just beautiful. Another city I go to quite often as well is Roskilde, about 10 minutes by train from Høje Taastrup station, and though more laid back than Copenhagen it has that other uniqueness to it. Recently, I’ve started biking to the train station, once in a while.

The school I’m going to now is called Høje Taastrup Gymnasium and I have to say, in my opinion, the gymnasium is just wow! Imagine learning Spanish in Denmark! Yes, that is one of my subjects and it’s helping me learn Danish easier for some reason. The Danish education system has 10 years of required primary education and three years of gymnasium which is similar to year 11 and 12 in Australia. Gymnasiums are very liberal in that students can do things which I don’t think are possible in most other schools. I mean, in my particular school there’s couches where we can hang out during break times and no permission is required when going out of the classroom, when you’re late, or when you can’t make it to school because you’re sick. And did I mention no uniforms? Group work and oral examinations are a big deal and, because of the system’s liberal nature, a huge amount of personal responsibility is required, as some of my friends here realized.

Regarding student life, Danes love to party! On my second week in the school, already, I had to attend the school formal and although it initially was a formal occasion even before the DJ started playing everything went wild, in a good way! The school itself sponsors a lot of parties other than the usual, such as the formal, as well as concerts. Though typically reserved, Danes are very helpful and friendly once they get to know you. It took about two weeks, I think, before everyone in class talked to me but after that, everyone was trying to teach me Danish, showing me around, and even translating lessons if they can. Next thing you know, you’re being invited to parties and football/soccer matches which is a uniquely different experience in itself. Sports fanaticism here is intoxicating – after about half an hour into the game, I soon joined the shouting and chanting crowds whenever the home team scored a goal.
Danes generally have a very good grasp of English even though most of them are very modest about it. It’s quite easy to go around since, even in a small town like where I live in, most people can understand English.

Other than the gymnasium I also take Danish lessons in a language centre which is just 15 minutes by foot from school. Students in the language centre come from very different places such as Nigeria, China, Poland, Turkey, Iran and the Philippines. It’s interesting because you see another face of Denmark; immigrants, Au Pairs, refugees, other foreign students, something not in the mainstream. I meet people with interesting points of view about events and circumstances around the world which I might not have even cared about.

Though I am quite used to living away from my parents I still experienced a bit of home sickness and a bit of a culture shock, especially with my background – one of the first things I looked for were Asian grocers . (Don’t get me wrong, Danish food is great, especially desserts!).

Danish society is very liberal and though there are some issues, they are also very accommodating of other cultures and lifestyles. I’ve been living here for about four months now and I absolutely love it! I think no bad experience can persuade me to stop this life changing path I’m on right now. The amount of things I am learning and experiencing is too much of an asset for me to walk away from. Jeg elsker Danmark (I Love Denmark)! That’s it for now because it’s the summer holidays!

Hej Hej! Held og Lykke! (Goodbye! And Good Luck!)”

Jose Timothy Voltaire S. Salinas

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