Visitors from Denmark

by: Anna Stec

On the date March 29, 1999, we had visitors from Denmark. They came from far away just to visit us. When they came it was the most exciting moment for us to get to know them. In the class when I came in, I saw everybody standing in the back of the room and all of them seemed to me very nice since I saw them.

When the class began we all started to introduce ourselves to each other. First the Denmark class introduced each other to us. It was very interesting because not everybody was in the same age. Some of them were 17 and some even 14. However, not everybody was born in Denmark. For example, one of the girls was from Poland. It was very great idea to introduce each other because we could at least get their backgrounds.

Then our New York class had to introduce ourselves to them so they can get to know who we are too. While we were introducing ourselves we were also asking many different questions. They all tried to answer the questions as well as they could. I have to mention that their teacher was very nice and funny. He made the whole class interesting. Anyway, here are some ideas about the Denmark students and what they do.

From what I can remember I know that their native language is German. However, some of the students study French and Spanish too, but not everybody. It only depends on who wants to study other languages. They have many different clubs like we do. They have basketball club, volleyball club and so many different activities that they do. However, the most popular things in Denmark are the computers. They said that every house has a computer and they also chat. Some of the students from Denmark were very furious about, why do NYC schools and especially ours have Security Guards. They were very furious because they don't have security in Denmark schools. Anyway I asked them if they have any parties in their school or anywhere else. To this question there were many interesting facts which I was really looking forward. They told me that they don't have that many parties at school, but they go to many clubs and discotecs where they love to hang out, dance and do lots more things that teens are doing. They told me that in Denmark they didn't have any laws like we have here in New York. Teens could even buy alcohol and lots of things that we can only buy when we will be 21 or more. So as you can see they have more freedom in Denmark then we do here in NYC. On the discotecs they have alcohol and lots of things. However, they said that now they made the law that only people who are 15 years and older can buy an alcohol or cigarettes, but they said that still people don't look on the law they made. Some stores still sell whatever they want and they don't care to whom. Here in New York, people look at the law and they have to keep it because nobody will sell to a 15 or even 18 years old kid an alcohol or any drugs. We have many different immigrants in NYC so we want everybody to keep safe. That is why we have these laws. The students told me that in their country they also have immigrants. Maybe not that much like here in NY, but they do have. They said that they are from Russia, Ukraine and even they said that there are Chinese people. It must be very interesting there. They told me that the most popular meal in Denmark is potatoes with the pork and a skin on it. They have lots of interesting answers to our questions. One girl said that studying English is not that hard for her because her mother helps her.

We spent the whole period asking and answering our questions and still we didn't have time to do all of the questions. It was just great having somebody from different country and get to know incredible and many stuff about them. I really enjoyed having them in our class and I hope they liked our school. Therefore, thanks to them I know lots of stuff about their culture. I have to tell that all of them were great.