I used to live in Berlin, long before I moved to Denmark, and I still confuse the languages. No Bundesflagge on birthday cakes Of course, there are differences. Danes are wildly and openly patriotic in a way Germans are not, for obvious historical reasons. And Germans love their hierarchy, in a way Danes do not. In Denmark, just about everybody uses his or her first name — teachers, doctors, bank officers. Germans, on the other hand, love their titles, and even pile them on top of each other.
Herr Doktor Professor von Schmidt. The dominant neighbor? Now there is one irony in the Danish-German relationship. For many years, Germany has been the dominant partner. Danes drive into Germany to buy beer and soda pop, not the other way around. And Germany has invaded Denmark several times, most recently in the s, when Germans were buying up all the summer houses in Western Denmark, driving out the Danes.
This is true — Denmark got a special dispensation from the EU to prohibit Germans from buying summer houses in Denmark. But in recent years, the flow of influence has gone in the other direction, particularly when it comes to Berlin, the German capital. Locals there have been complaining because foreign investors are buying huge blocks of apartments, driving up the prices.
Many Germans are openly critical and are not afraid of a critical discussion — even if it leads to professional conflict. Such a conflict would be factual and based on sound arguments, and the discussion can be used to analyze the basis of the problem.
Be well prepared, have the details ready at hand, and be very precise about what you want to achieve. Many Germans appreciate the security you get from having a perspective on what will happen if you agree on the initial terms.
Nothing should be left to chance. You can also be open about the price of a product and be honest in regard to the market and the conditions. In Germany people generally want the facts on the table. That way you will appear more professional and it will help you gain respect.
Hierarchy is very strong and it plays a huge role. Also, status is extremely important. Whether you hold the title of manager or president can directly impact what office and car will be made available for you, as well as how your cooperation with colleagues will proceed. Hierarchy is much more explicit than in Denmark, where everyone in a meeting can typically contradict each other and even contradict the manager.
You would need some really sound arguments to do that in Germany. You might also have to accept that even if your idea is implemented, you might not necessarily be the one implementing it. The organizational structure is much clearer, and the division of responsibility is very clear. So, if you enter the German labour market as a Dane with a lot of innovative and creative ideas, remember to ask your German boss about the framework, before you embark on something by yourself. An important exception is that many young women work part-time.
A lot of women leave the workforce for a couple of years after having kids and when they return, they typically work fewer hours than before. That means they have a lot of work to do in the time they have at work.
That leaves less time for small talk and less room for socializing because they have to get home to pick up their child from daycare. Other than that, colleagues usually stick to a formal tone during weekdays. If you, as a Dane, enter a German company, start by having a talk with your German colleagues about their expectations and how they work. Listening to your colleagues and adopting a curious and investigative approach gives you the best basis for cooperating with your German colleagues — and across cultures in general!
Remember that Germany is a big country with a diverse history, which includes recent history, so there can be vast regional differences, as well as cultural differences between different generations.
The Germans you meet each have their own personality and their individual mix of cultural influences. This article offers some general takes on how German culture differs from the Danish culture, but remember to use your own observations, ask good questions, and always be prepared to adjust and nuance your cultural knowledge! Learn more about how to ask good questions in a culturally intelligent way i n our article here. At C3 Consulting we believe that all cultural understanding begins with self-understanding.
So, begin by digging into your own cultural background so you have an informed basis for finding differences and similarities with other cultures. It shares a lot of vocab with both. Danish is Germanic, but a totally different branch from German, Dutch or English.
That said, the grammar is really easy. It only conjugates verbs for time, not person, so for instance, the word 'har' is all the present tense versions of have, 'er' is all the present tense versions of 'be' and so on. It only shares some of the most basic vocabulary with English.
That Norwegian spelling will all carry over and make Danish easier if you study them in that order. They are also both fairly related to Swedish. If you learn one, the other two become very easy very fast. Danish is a North Germanic language, descended from Old Norse. I'm told that speakers of Norwegian, Swedish and Danish can understand each other fairly well.
Dutch is West Germanic, along with German, English, etc. Dutch and Danish speakers would need to learn each other's languages, though they're closely enough related that it would be easier than learning e. Dutch and German grammar are quite similar. I would add that there should be more common vocabulary between Danish, Dutch and German, because English was strongly influenced by French stronger than any other germanic language.
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