Overrated or Underrated Danish, American & British Things

[@RobeTrotting]

🎙️ 🔥 Ira joined us for a 2-part episode of the What Are You Doing in Denmark Podcast and you can listen to them both (and all episodes) here: linktr.ee/robetrotting

[@RobeTrotting]

Or search “what are you doing in Denmark” on all streaming platforms 😃🇩🇰

[@PerXX82]

Will the full video be available here on KZbin? I prefer seeing you guys reactions and expressions rather than just the audio of a podcast.

[@phero2]

"in case the queen thing didn't work out" - loved that

[@RobeTrotting]

😂 😂 😂

[@Bjowolf2]

Many people in DK seem to think that Halloween is just a new American tradition in DK, which we have adopted recently, but there was actually a very old similar tradition over most of Europe, which was then brought along with European migrants to the US. We used to have the tradition called "All Hallows Eve" or similar things around Europe - in Danish "Alle-helgens (saints -aften / OE afen! ), which also celebrated the dead ancestors. And until say 80 - 100 years ago this tradition was still quite common in Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia, especially in the rural districts ( my grandmother from Southern Jutland used to talk about it often ), but it had sort of been forgotten about by most Danish people after WW2. And then we suddenly got it back about 20 years ago in a "new" American guise - probably inspired by loads of US TV series and movies 🙄 You guys do have "hygge" too - you just didn't really have a word for it, until you borrowed the Danish word - and the whole "hygge" concept along with it - about 10 - 12 years ago, when some DK TV series with subtitles in English (!) became very popular in Britain ( on BBC ) for the first time ever, which started a lot of sudden interest in all things Danish - culture, furniture, design, traditions, knitting ( Faroese sweaters to be more precise ) and even language 😂 ( many similar words, which the British viewers could sometimes catch a few of or maybe read some signs - like "flytning" ( furniture moving / flitting in the UK ). And after a while the word "hygge" even entered the official English dictionaries in Britain - I am not sure if it has entered the official US "English" dictionaries yet 😂 But "half" of the English folks are basically spare Danes deep down inside anyway ( in two ways even ) - without even knowing it 😂 - , so I guess you can say that they were just returning to their cultural roots for more linguistic aid and inspiration 😂 Check out Langfocus' brilliant video called "Viking Influence on the English Language", if you want to see what I am referring to - and why there are so many very similar words between Danish & English as well as several similar grammatical features ( We "unselfishly" saved ze English and ze other Brits etc. from speaking Old E. along ze very complicated lines of what would later become German 😂 ).

[@sarhtaq]

I still celebrate All Hallows Eve, how ever I am a bit torn with all the Halloween consumerism arrived from America. (and the stores several places have BOTH Halloween and Christmas items up all October. Hate that part) ;)

[@Bjowolf2]

@@sarhtaq Yes, there really ought to be a law against the shops and stores putting their Christmas decorations up already in October - it is so annoying 🙄 One month max before Christmas would be suitable and fair 😉

[@tossedburrito9028]

We Danes like to think that Hygge is a specifically Danish thing, when it literally isn't. I've seen people hygge in other cultures and countries. We just have a word for it. That's all.

[@williamjones4716]

AKA "Gemütlichkeit" The Danes are just too proud to admit that even the Germans have a word for warm coziness.

[@Jonassoe]

"Hygge" is overrated. Not that I don't like it, but it's not really a uniquely Danish thing that Danes are particularly good at. It basically just means hanging out with people and having a good time (it's not even specific to the home, you can have "hygge" outside, at a bar or a pub or anywhere else), and I'm sure lots of people from cultures all over the world like doing that. Also it's not even a Danish word, it's Norwegian, so I'm not sure why it's brought up all the time in reference to Denmark.

[@drumstick74]

Just like Danish pastry originates in Austria, not Denmark. That's why it is called "Wienerbrød", it came with bakers from Wien.😊

[@BenjaminVestergaard]

Hygge exists everywhere, it's just not all that have a word for it. Just like greenlandish has perhaps 30 words for different kinds of snow... doesn't mean that the various kinds only exist in Greenland.

[@Jonassoe]

@@KurtFrederiksen If you don't think it's hyggeligt to hang out with friends or family, I suppose we'll just have to agree that we have different definitions of hygge. Also I didn't say you had to go out, you can hygge in your home too.

[@Jonassoe]

​​​​​@@KurtFrederiksenI was just correcting a typo. It wasn't some sly attempt to cover my tracks or edit the meaning of my comment. I don't think "having out with people" even means anything. And etymology is often very loosely connected with modern, everyday usage. For instance "queen" and "kvinde" originally come from the same root. You seem to subscribe to a very specific yet strangely loosely defined concept of hygge that I don't think most Danes would recognize. If you ask most Danes what they do when they "hygger sig," I don't think it involves reflection or being thoughtful or "conscious of the moment." Having read your comment multiple times I'm still not quite sure what you think 'hygge' means. And yes, I agree that you can hygge alone. But for most people I don't think the right company would be a detriment to their hygge.

[@williamjones4716]

Danes managed to sell "hygge" to the world like magic beans. Ask Danes how cozy they are in January when it is grey, rainy, windy, and they are jumping in front of DSB trains.

[@Lorentari]

Danish person chiming in: -- Can the world please chill the f*** out with "hygge" as a concept! Its literally just a word for chilling and having a good time with, or without, company - and I am so freaking tired a of hearing about hygge being this magical Danish thing. Please lets make a deal: You have to be able to pronounce the word before you are allowed to discuss it. By the time you have learned the pronunciation, You've had enough time to realize that having a good time its not unique to Denmark.

[@RobeTrotting]

Yes 🙌🏼

[@Bjowolf2]

The really funny part here is that you actually did have the cognate word "hycgan" in Old English / Anglo-Saxon, which meant "take time to think / ponder / reflect ". This was also the original meaning of the word "hygge" in Danish ( from Old Norse "hyggja" ).

[@KiwiCatherine]

Totally agree

[@williamjones4716]

Bravo!

[@Purplefishish]

I so agree about the Spice Girls - they are so underrated. I am not mad about their music but they gave us girl power in the best possible way and finally young girls could see that women could also be in a band and be superstars

[@drumstick74]

The girls in the group are underrated, the music is kind of overrated, imo.

[@SuiGenerisAbbie]

The Spice Girls are and always were, a bit silly to my mind but to each their own 😊

[@BenjaminVestergaard]

What's the meaning of stoneheeeeenge! - pure classic 😄 same with the rest of Ylvis, but only the fox became a world hit.

[@marianneeckertjensen4723]

As I am Danish, I think of HYGGE to be more than just woolen blankets and fluffy pillows. To me it is mostly a good time with family/ friends, combined with food, coffee or some other nice stuff to eat and drink. Maybe candles and flowers on the table, however not necessarily fancy. The interpersonal part of it is most important. :)

[@Trendkilla]

There is three parts to Hygge. Doing something you enjoy in surroundings you find pleasant and safe with people you like which hopefully includes your own company if alone.

[@skambim]

omg.... checked out Ylvis 😂😂

[@esbeng.s.a9761]

I used to live half an hour from the nearest place to winter bath with no sauna, trust me you got your cloth on quickly and in layers just to sit in your car freezing

[@RobeTrotting]

Wow, that would be enough for me not to do it 😂 🥶

[@SuiGenerisAbbie]

I love the UK and fish and chips from a proper Chippie.

[@LineMo09]

may I interject that hygge is something we do in Denmark not something we talk about. those who talk about are not danish

[@RobeTrotting]

No, but to be honest - a Dane is the one who wrote that book about it 😂

[@LineMo09]

@@RobeTrotting sure but everyday Danes just live it. Sure we might say oh let hygge tonight but that's the extent of it.

[@williamjones4716]

And HCA was a Dane who wrote a book about Danish kings being gullible idiots.@@RobeTrotting

[@4455thor]

I LOVE fish and chips. But only with salt, no vinegar. In some places you could have only batter. YUM.

[@henningrasmussen3969]

you forgot remoulade and a bit of lemon

[@4455thor]

@@henningrasmussen3969 living in England for over a year, remoulade was not a possibility. But yes to both: 😋

[@SuiGenerisAbbie]

The musical background to the segment on buffalo wings was a hoot. Derek and Mike are a hit comedy act in their own right, I reckon.

[@grethejohansen6989]

What dishes have you been presented with. Where you have asked yourselves. Do you really eat it? But have been pleasantly surprised. Or dishes where you say no thanks.

[@williamjones4716]

Outside of New England, fish & chips in USA is basically fish sticks and a fail, you really have to use beer-battered mature cod or haddock. And in the DK -- rødspætte? Really, rødspætte? You can keep it. All that said, breaded and fried catfish is serious competition for English style fish & chips.

[@SuiGenerisAbbie]

Halloween is over rated especially adults who play dress-up, which is puerile. I always say, leave Halloween to the kiddies, if anyone wants to do it at all.

[@nicolejensen6441]

Now I want fish and chips.

[@SuiGenerisAbbie]

I love NYC. I am from there.

[@SuiGenerisAbbie]

I went to Stonehenge and boy, is it over-rated. Just a bunch of standing rocks, really. intriguing how they might have gotten put where they are or ended up in that locale, but ... the site of the stones themselves was a bit of a let-down.

[@Flum666]

QMII drew the pictures for J.R.R.Tolkins LoTR and sent the drawings to him under a fake name, and he liked them so much that it was published in Denamrk with her drawings in it, and she did archeology in Egypt shile smoking 20 of the hardest turkish cigarettes a day.

[@Bjowolf2]

You could rent a Delaware-house 😂

[@Iceycube1404]

Halloween is way overrated. Denmark already has fastelavn, we don't need another dress up and ask for candy day

[@SuiGenerisAbbie]

I like reading about the Danish Royals. I read Trine Villeman's book about them, written in 2008, that she translated into English and then sent to me. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED it. Trine wrote for the Danish tabs and boy, does she know her stuff. Her book outed Queen Margrethe's second Son, Joachim, who is Gay and had that wretched first marriage to Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg and an equally contentious divorce. Allegedly she came home from a vay-cay and found Joachim in bed with a man. She was not terribly pleased about that. Apparently she hadn't a clue about Joachim's true sexual orientation despite the fact that he frequented Copenhagen's Gay bars quite often, and was often seen doing so.

[@knudsandbknielsen1612]

Everything Is Overrated For two or more reasons. First and foremost because 99 % of us owe money to 1 % of us, for as many reasons. So we have to come up with redundant things, and make them seem very fantastic and important, so we can make eachother produce and consume replacements for real living and playing with eachotherand life, which is yanked out of us by means of the general children's minority complex, when we are tought that we must grow up. And until we do we don't count. Secondly because we all feel small, and everything we ever do can be used as a story to tell Something to prove achievement All in the same frame of owing it all to somebody. Thirdly because of religion. God put us in this world. Now he wants us to take the blame. God created us without first asking permission. Because that would be imposiible. I claim the Victim Card on behalf of any living being. Namba 4 (Far) Boredom and fear of emptiness and death. We have to make sense of it all, so we value this absurd and senseless existence so hign that we dow't care how low we go. Numba Farai - Rastafari Because we nobody know We nobody care We nobody think So we nobody change

[@knudsandbknielsen1612]

And religion overrates itself, for the purpose of making its members feel special, which they are ,but they don't feel like, for the same reasons mentioned above.

[@JokeofAllButts]

halloween is just an execuse for witches to be sexy witches.

[@dgh25]

No wonder the brit loves the MOST BLAND food in the World - fish and chips 😂😂😂😂😂😂 I bet he starts his day with beans on toast 🤣

[@hguldmann]

You might as well just start doing some radio too much talk and too little action.... 😭😭

[@DaxTheOtter]

its a podcast??? the talkings the point. what kinda action were you expecting? lol

[@AlexandraBryngelsson]

That's kind of the point...

[@Niko_229]

???