This past week, the community participated in an international exchange program with Nørre Gymnasium, an upper-secondary IB world school located just outside of Copenhagen, Denmark. By immersing students in the cultures of both the U.S. and Denmark, they witness a wide range of cultural differences with regard to the everyday life of people in each country.
Each Marshall participant pairs up with a student who typically has the same gender and similar interests as them. Last year, roughly 30 Danes from one class at Nørre Gymnasium traveled to Marshall, but this year 60 Danish students participated in the program.
While the Danish students were on the trip, they had a full itinerary. On some days they attended classes at Marshall with their host student, and on other days they explored Washington, D.C. and local attractions.
“We went to Top Golf, the mall [and] National Harbor,” Danish exchange student Ali Toufeq said.
Like most tourists of D.C., the exchange students saw the major landmarks in the city.
“[We saw] the White House, Georgetown, the African-American history museum,” Danish exchange student Silja Brask-Hald said.
Because D.C. is a major metropolitan city, the Danish students experienced a city very different from Copenhagen in Denmark.
“It is so much different than Denmark,” Danish exchange student Magnus Levin said. “The streets, and busy life here in Washington. Also, the buildings are just that much bigger.”
Other Danish exchange students were impressed by the size of everything in America.
“Everything is so big over here,” Danish exchange student Daniella Jacobsen said. “The buildings, and the cars, everything.”
However, the culture shock was not a one-way experience for the Danish guests and their hosts. The American hosts found their guests to be societally unfamiliar.
“There’s a big difference between our cultures, how we dress,” junior and host Stephanie Haner said. “[Silja Brask-Hald] didn’t know that Danes all wear black and white and grey.”
Other American hosts echoed similar sentiments, even remarking on the differences in the way that the Danish exchange students carried themselves.
“They’re less casual than we are,” junior and host Owen Keightley said. “The way they dress, the way they carry themselves around. They’re professional almost.”
Owen hosted Toufeq, who is interested in soccer, and and looking forward to his first basketball game.
“Denmark is very quiet and boring,” Toufeq said. “America is very loud.”
Ultimately, the program intends to expose students from both countries to the large disparities between their cultures, of which there are many, ranging from the size of buildings to the simple air that follows people around.
“This is a small school?” Jacobsen asked. “In Denmark, our big schools are smaller than this. We are only eleven hundred students, and you are two thousand.”
Danish exchange students had a diverse range of responses to what they considered the biggest difference between the cultures.
“The curfew and the drinking age,” Danish student Malou Granskov said.
All groups valued the opportunity to spread cultural diversity.
“It’s pretty cool actually,” Keightley said. “It’s good to see multiple cultures. It’s good to see their reactions to different things.”