Chapter 3: Understanding Denmark
D
enmark is culturally similar to the other Nordic countries but di erent from most other countries. Even senior diplomats with a long record of deployments can nd Denmark a challenging country to work in. The diplomat’s biggest challenges regarding advocacy in Denmark can roughly be divided into three categories: culture, language, and media. There are signi cant cultural di erences between their home country and Denmark for many diplomats, both on the social and administrative levels. This can create tensions and challenges. Diplomats and expats can use the speci c knowledge and insights given in the section on culture below to overcome the cultural challenges. The language is also a di cult barrier to overcome. Learning Danish can be di cult considering that many Danes have excellent English knowledge. However, learning the language can be worth the e ort as there are not many media or parts of the central administration that communicate purposefully in English, as will be addressed in the section about Language below. Finally, the media has a di erent form in Denmark than in many other parts of the world; it is independent, critical, and proud (Marcussen & Nielsen, 2019) and not always interested in other than national news. The section on the Press can give a better idea of how to use the media. Civil servants can also form a challenge when working in Denmark. These civil servants come from di erent ministries and municipalities, so diplomats will have to learn and accept how the administrative system works in Denmark. This will be addressed in the section on
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