Just ask:
1. Margrethe-- QUEEN of Denmark-- her husband is French.
2. Frederik- Crown Prince & Future KING of Denmark--his wife is Australian
3. Joachim- Prince of Denmark (and brother to the future king!)--his wife is French
4. Lars Løkke- Prime Minister of Denmark--his wife is Icelandic
5. Helle Thorning-Schmidt- most likely the next Prime Minster of Denmark-- her husband is English
6. Mads Norgaard-- The sweetest and most handsome Danish man in all of Denmark--his wife is Texan.
Yep, foreigners are everywhere.
And we are not going away anytime soon.
And from what I can tell from the above list.... lots of important Danes are pretty ok with that....
9 comments:
I've thought exactly the same thing with the discussions around foreigners in Denmark- half the monarchy is foreigners and obviously in their government as well...but when this is apparent then it's obvious to see that the "foreigners" they are wishing to keep out but can't directly isolate and say "we want you out" are the darker skinned foreigners...so everyone gets thrown together under one word...
5. Welsh, actually.
a little comment from an Icelander...Lars Løkkes wife is from the faro islands ;) I had to comment on this, wich else i find a really good post (and on that subject I really enjoy reading your blog so please keep up the good work :) ) then I don't want Lars Løkke and his policy on foreigners linked to Iceland ;) I think we have enough of our own problems :)
Thorning Schmidt's husband, Stephen Kinnock, is not English. He's Welsh.
I stand corrected! Substitute English with Welsh. And Icelandic with Faro-ish. Lol. Not sure of the proper way to say "from the Faroe islands". ;-)
Either way....not Danish.
I think it's Faroese.
Kelli:
The Faroe Islands are Danish, with some limited self-government. Along with Greenland - which also now has some limited self-government - the Faroes are the remaining Danish possessions. As of course you know, at one time Denmark had an extensive empire, of which these are the last bits. So how you talk about the Faroese will definitely illuminate a lot about a person: a DF or Venstre type will definitely say a Faroe person is "Danish," while people more on the left will be sensitive and say they are "Faroese." In short, it's a minefield no foreigner can win :) Everyone knows what you mean and they should just lighten up! :D
Should I understand from this post that French are the best lovers? ;-))
Anyway it seems that bi-national couples are really a big tendency in Denmark. In a Danish company I know (30 employees), more than half of the 25 Danish employees have "foreign spouses or boy-girlfriends"... That seems to me a huge percentage and makes the company gatherings really international and fun!
I do think it's true that Danes are more likely than many other European nationalities to be open-minded towards relationships with other nationalities. It's a sign of their willingness to travel and their general tendency to tolerance. I've always felt in Denmark that people look at your more as an individual, unlike the United States, where people are more likely to judge you by where you live or where you went to school. (Oh, *she's* a New Yorker! Or, oh, *she* went to Yale!) :D I've always felt valued as a person in Denmark.
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