The climate in copenhagen is fine? It’s the daylight of the colder 1/3 of the year that’s shit. “social scene” sure, nordic people can come off as rude and it’s difficult to make friends with them sometimes. but the worst part of copenhagen is surely the cost of living, which is absolutely ridiculous. just live in Malmo, they have $4 falafel rolls and “free palestine” brand cola
I think she was fine with climate, but not the daylight hours
ah, I only read the overview because i didn’t want to risk brain damage
Totally separate from this article, but I’ve met a bunch of people who grew up/live in the mild Mediterranean climate on the west coast of the US who have next to no ability to exist outside of the absolutely perfect weather they’re used to. So while this author wasn’t doing so, I can bet there are people from Seattle or whatever who would be miserable in Copenhagen because it has the possibility of getting below like 10°c
I lived in LA for a year and the weather was just boring. I like seasons. LA was a pleasant sunny day every single day. Drove me nuts after a while. I want a thunderstorm! Or maybe a tornado alert! The moment it drops to 60 everyone in the city puts on a black leather jacket.
Copenhagen (and most of Denmark) also gets hit with the North Sea winds quite often, which results in high humidity. It’s not that cold most of the time here, but 5 degrees celsius can really bite when it’s wet and windy.
That sounds like the most reasonable weather for a coastal area in northern europe, and exactly the kind of conditions someone I know would represent as positively arctic and uninhabitable
It’s completely fine, but if you’re not used to dealing with humidity, even if you are used to cold temperatures, then it can mess you up.
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this is literally just Seattle lmao
Groceries are cheaper in Sweden as well. And their candy is a lot better.
this was written by an extremely stupid and self-centered person, like holy shit.
The whole thing about maternity leave :(
Maternity leave, which directly benefits all of society by giving infants a good start at the most critical period of life and thus creates the foundations for a healthy society, isn’t something that I personally can make use of so and that’s a thing I take major issue with.
You can take an American out of a culture steeped in hyper-individualism but apparently you can’t take the hyper-individualism out of an American.
I think of something Bill Maher (ew) once said, while contrarian meant being a social democrat: “Sure I don’t want to pay a lot of taxes, but I also don’t want to live somewhere where sick people are dying in the streets!”
Pretty succinct way to explain to an individual list how “it doesnt mean you dont benefit, just because you don’t directly benefit”
Likewise for Ch*msky:
You can get a good measure of the sentiment of the masses towards the government based on how they feel when it comes to paying their taxes.
There are other, better people who have talked about why they support things like free education and welfare programs for early childhood development when they themselves do not have any children. Turns out that a well educated, well supported society makes the whole country safer, happier, more productive, and all round better for everyone in it regardless of whether or not they are receiving those benefits directly themselves.
I swear some of these people have a mentality so backwards that it’s not even on the level of the Europeans living in the era of cholera who demanded better sanitation infrastructure. Though I guess that’s obvious since American infrastructure is crumbling, septic tanks are a common feature over there, and they made a fucking folk hero out of a guy who went on a rampage because he was told multiple times over years that he couldn’t dispose of his shit into the local groundwater supply because it was not Europe in the middle ages where you can just dump your shit in the streets.
Remembering the un report from 2016 about the quality of life in the us that detailed conditions usually only seen in third world states suffering from civil war.
The comments were full of people saying their state was worse.Wasn’t the killdozer guy also forbidden from improving his wastewater condition? I remember something about him offering to pay to fix the water system at his place, and it was denied.
No, the neighbora offered to pay to get it fixed up. He wanted the city to pay for his sewage hookup while he was pumping his shit into a concrete mixer he buried in the yard.
I hear so many different things about the killdozer guy. I wish I had an article with actual sources instead of just 500 cracked top ten lists about him
oh yeah. contrast these two parts:
For example, I didn’t have kids, nor was I expecting any, so Denmark’s generous maternity leave and excellent childcare were of no use to me.
Looking back, my time in Copenhagen taught me that independence has its limits. Community, balance, and a sense of belonging matter more to me than I realized, and if I were to live abroad again, I’d need to know I’d have them.
This loser couldn’t help telling on himself lmao. I’ve found more community on a 10 day trip to a city than this chud was able to in nearly two years. He was probably always complaining about everything and being a miserable prick all the time.
There are people out there who are not happy unless they are complaining. Living in a foreign country gives them plenty of opportunity to do it, all the time. I’ve had to cut friends off because they wouldn’t shut up about how stupid the people are and how much it sucks here. I came out and asked one who complained she couldn’t leave, “oh, you can leave right now! Nothing’s stopping you!” Without missing a beat, she answered, “student loans.” I supposed part of being educated is making intelligent choices about which major to pursue that would get you a lucrative career afterwards. Unfortunately they let in anyone with a degree and so many are wildly unqualified, feel frustrated, and complain all the time. Another one, a good friend, tried my patience too many times and I told him the same thing. He looked downcast and said, “what am I going to do, go back to Holland and be a clerk in a convenience store?” He did eventually go back home and last I heard he was managing a children’s amusement park.
There are people out there who are not happy unless they are complaining.
They are called Germans.
Eh, as a person who has had the privilege to move around the world for work and to live I kind of agree with their take up to the point they moved back to the US. I don’t like being in Northern Europe either. I really don’t like places that get cold and I had a similar experience in Northern European cities where it is very difficult to make friends. Fine to visit and work but not somewhere I’d personally want to live when I can live in a hot place with warm people and food more to my taste.
Nothing wrong with not wanting to live somewhere. It’s her reasoning for moving there in the first place and then her reasons for not enjoying her stay are kind of vapid.
I’d say your reasons are very valid, but also you didn’t uproot your life to move to Copenhagen based on a fairy-tale idea of what it would be like.
I’m considering studying in china, and you can bet I do more than just Google “how cold china?” And look at postcardsTo be honest, and maybe this is a form of racial bias but like I don’t want to live anywhere that is 75%+ people of European descent. I find they kind of don’t like people that look like me lol
China seems cool I’d like to go there some time.
maybe this is a form of racial bias but[…]I find they kind of don’t like people that look like me
sounds like your survival skills kicking in more than anything tbh
That would be racism is it weren’t supported by how racist the laws in Denmark are. Also good luck getting into a nightclub here with all the racist bouncers we have.
That’s not to say it’s terrible, at least in copenhagen. People aren’t going to call you slurs on the street and there’s a significant ME diaspora whose shops are becoming very chic at the moment. I just go there for cheap spices, but for some reason the bazars are becoming sort of an instagram hotspot.
Also if you’re a woman you might enjoy it as a change of pace from a lot of other countries. I’ve a lot of female friends who tell me they feel much safer here + no catcalling.
The cops are racist as fuck though. The common refrain is “at least we’re not america” which is true, but you’re still going to get profiled.
China isn’t the old China, not even the street vendor China you watched all those youtube videos about. China is highly regional and every city is different. Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen aren’t much different from Dallas, except sparkling clean and no crime. I guess you’d study Chinese, there are private language schools that do that all over and give student visas. It’s basically a 3 month party time. As long as you paid, nobody cares if you show up for class or not.
I’d be going with a university programme and studying in the outskirts of Beijing
OOf, boring, Beijing is like Houston, it goes on forever. And the city kind of sucks, it’s not China enough to be China and it’s not western enough to be Shanghai. Plus there are a lot of diplomats, journalists and other unsavory types in the foreign population there. And it’s a stinking lie Beijing speaks the most standard Mandarin, they sound like they have marbles in their mouths. It’s a desert climate, hope you enjoy dry windy cold winters.
Fuck
I think very famously if you move to a new place with a new culture it’s hard to make friends writ large. You’re an unknown unknown and getting to know you is not the path of least resistance.
I was at a foreign MMA gym one time. I attended a striking class for my first day nobody paid me any attention (I’m a mediocre striker). But after the grappling day, because I’m a BJJ brown belt, everyone wanted to know my name, where I’m from, and they were impressed with my knowledge of the language. I come back the next day and the front desk person asks “you’re the brown belt, right?” I don’t think they were basally curious that a foreigner was there, but the second I showed that I was exceptional at this hobby they had it was, by some mechanism, enough to want to talk to me. I’ve rolled with a visitor at the gym only to find they were a UFC fighter and only at that point wanted to learn more about them, so it’s mutual.
But here’s the thing, I think if you want to do something and you can then that’s reason enough. Even if your motivation is silly. Even if you get BTFO, nobody likes you, it wasn’t a max win, and you have to move back moving abroad is a romantic and adventurous thing to do. If you tell me that you moved to China because you’re a leftist, you saw a cool postcard, and you weren’t doing anything important in America I’d think you were rad.
hello fellow b-jay-jay person (blue belt)
Hello! You should ping me funny stories from your gym, questions, and the like. I’d always like to blab your ear off about it
Is this also a case of an American thinking that Europeans are Disney attractions and not actual people?
Happens more often that you’d believe. My bachelor’s thesis was in part about how foreigners treat Copenhagen as an amusement park on bikes, because they associate bikes not with traffic but with childhood games
My bachelor’s thesis was in part about how foreigners treat Copenhagen as an amusement park on bikes, because they associate bikes not with traffic but with childhood games
That’s funny if Americans actually do that. Can I read about this anywhere?
You could, but I’d dox myself. It’s not uniquely American, it’s moreso part of people coming from car-centric urban planning to places where bikes are an everyday part of traffic.
It’s also not very well sourced it’s basically on the basis of 40 tourists I interviewed. I was looking for an older study in the field of “the study of how people behave in public space” but I couldn’t remember the name for the field in time and that made it nearly impossible to find the study. It studied how western tourists moved, physically, in India
This is Paris syndrome. The Copenhagen she imagined was not the Copenhagen that exists. She felt let down and betrayed. Just like those Japanese tourists in Paris who come there thinking it’s the city of love but find this instead:
And worst of all, she was forced to the conclusion that going back to the US was the best choice. That’s going to hurt any liberal. Imagine the twinges of cognitive dissonance she’s going to get the next time the Air Force jets fly overhead at the stadium.
I spent two periods of my life in Copenhahen as expats. First from 5-8 when my parents worked abroad. Went to international school; they teach Danish specifically for bilingual kids and some Danes also send their kids there. This was before ipads and video games, kids touched grass, we were feral and had the freedom to freely explore the city on our bikes, got invited to many birthday parties and my parents got invited to several of their colleagues summerhouses. Best period of my childhood. Went back to the US as 3rd grader, immediately miserable, got bullied in school, had no freedom of movement because bad public transport, relationship with parents deteriorated and became a g*mer.
Went back to Copenhagen from 2020-2023 as covid refugee and to do a postdoc. I took some effort to learn Danish up to conversational level, and told my coworkers to persevere with Danish for a bit while we were communicating and correct my Danish, instead of going the easy route and speak English. Apparently people appreciated your effort to learn their language. It also helps that in academia there are many fellow expats. Enjoyed free healthcare, free covid test, and hygge in the winter. Unfortunately had to go back to the US because my postdoc ran out and I got a job here.
tldr, skill issue
expats
You mean “immigrant”, cracker.
Propaganda so the intelligentsia and academic class doesn’t jump ship when they need slaves for the slop mine.
Leave the country. Any place is better than the United States and what’s to come.
Please no I don’t want more yanks stinking up the town. They make it miserable. “Oh I’m an expat” Bridgette you’re an immigrant, but you’ve got no cheap spices for me, you’ve just got yank mentality and a car that’s too big. Yes this is specific
Amerikans should either stay in Amerika or in a shallow grave
Exactly the type of take I’d expect from firstnamebunchofnumbers
I also have a Measurrhead profile picture he’s takin me over like the symbiote
It really adds to it
She didn’t like the weather, cost of living, that people wouldn’t only speak English around her.
The daylight hours, the culture, the taxes, and more.
Woah, you’re telling me a Nordic country has a Nordic climate!?
Yankee go home.
most Americans can’t stand living anywhere but America. They’ll say they hate it and want to leave, but they won’t. If they do, they have a glorious honeymoon period, and after that is over, the reality sinks in and they throw a temper tantrum the first time they can’t get Froot Loops[tm] at the grocery store.
“My recipe calls for duck fat, where’s the Whole Foods?” There isn’t one. Then you get to see liberals turn into raging racist bigots before disappearing and never coming back again. We even had a term for it, “doing a midnight run.” They feel they’re not in control and can’t stand it. Written over 20 years ago but still applies:
“The expatriate mentality is a tough thing to explain easily. Any affluent or even middle-class American who renounces the good life of sushi delivery and 50-channel cable television to relocate permanently to some third-world hole usually has to be motivated by a highly destructive personality defect. Either that, or something about home creates psychological demons that in turn create the urge for radical escape.”
– Mark Ames, The Exile: Sex, Drugs, And Libel In The New RussiaI get what youre trying to say here but that comic is fucking nasty dude get it out of here
This comic is just racism. No argument. Just racism and slander.
The comic is a rule 5 violation and undercuts the rest of your post. I’m giving you an opportunity to remove it before I remove the post entirely.
Jesus dude get that shit out of here
The fuck is that racist comic
Lmao this got removed for racism? If that’s the bar then every user in the Italian food traditions thread from a few days ago need to be banned.Edit: apparently the comic was bad
you can still see it if you grab the link from the modlog. it is absolutely fucking vile. calling it “just this side of nazi propaganda” would be doing it a wholly unearned kindness
Sounds like im not missing out on anything
depends on how you feel about intentionally boiling your own blood, but most likely not
