Top 10 anecdotes about Denmark! Hello young padawan, if you read this article, I hope you plan to do your internship in Denmark! If it is not the case, I am shocked, and disappointed. Come on, top 10 things you probably did not know about Denmark!
1) The figure eighty (not octante or eightant as logic would like) comes from the Danish base counting system of 20. Eighty is firs in Danish, abbreviation of firsindstyve, in other words, four times 2
2) In 1711, one third of the population of Copenhagen was killed by the plague, killing 60,000 people.
There are Scandinavian words in the French language: of course the words designating Scandinavian things like Fjord, Viking, Viking, but also many words of the maritime language, unsurprisingly. On the other hand, I did not expect to see a bitte (not the mooring one, the other one) in the list (derived from bitter in normand and bita in Swedish).
3) The Copenhagen International School, CIS, is covered with 12,000 solar panels, satisfying more than half of its energy needs
4) The Danish monarchy is the oldest in Europe.They are all old anyway!
5) In 1971, a band of squatters and hippies set their sights on an abandoned military base in Copenhagen’s Christianshavn neighborhood. She established her own community: Freetown Christiania. It operates as an autonomous society in the city. Its 1000 inhabitants even have their own currency. If you do your internship in Denmark, I advise you to go take a look!
6) The first women allowed to wear trousers in Denmark were the librarians of the Royal Library, because of the scaffolding from which one could see their petticoats.
7) A tradition in progress since the 1970s: the Danes have set up a system of paid invitations that allows everyone to dine with and with locals! “Meet the Danes” organizes nearly 3,000 dinners a year.
8) The Danes are crazy about handball. Copenhagen has several professional men’s teams, and in 2013, the first women’s team made its appearance.
9) There are Scandinavian words in the French language: of course the words designating Scandinavian things like Fjord, Viking, Viking, but also many words of the maritime language, not surprisingly. On the other hand, I did not expect to see a bitte (not the mooring one, the other one) in the list (derived from bitter in normand and bita in Swedish).
10) Always in relation to Copenhagen: the origin of his name! It was originally a fishing village called havn or port. Herring was abundant, but the village was vulnerable to pirate attacks. In the late twelfth century, Bishop Absalon, advisor to the Danish king Valdemar the Great, settled and built fortifications on Slotsholmen (Castle Island), an island located in the inner harbor of the city. As trade increased, it became known as Køpmannæhafn, or “merchant port”, as Germanic translations shortened to København or Copenhagen.
Top 10 anecdotes about Denmark: it’s over my friend! So if you want to do your internship in Denmark, do not hesitate to contact us! You are more than an email to go to the land of mermaids!