Shift in attitude

I have recently moved out into the world surrounded by Danes. I spent my initial one year in Denmark in a student hostel (called Campus Village) inside the university. This hostel was meant for international students; basically those coming on exchange studies, and for one or two semesters. For students who wished to stay longer, they would have to find their own accomodation, since this hostel permitted a contract for uptil a year. Now since it was a residence of international students, the environment was extremely lively. Spanish, Italians, Turks were among the majority, and then there were people from other parts of Europe like Greece, Hungary etc. Hardly one could see Indians or Pakistanis; for that matter non-European nationals (which is solely because of the heavy tuition fees charged by the Danish government for higher education, starting from 2006 academic year).

Then, I stayed for one semester with some "desi" friends here. I moved out from there in January this year, and now I am staying in another student hostel, which is private-based, and not affiliated with any university. It can be considered to be more like an open student hostel, where any kind of "student" can come and stay if there are vacancies. And expectedly, these hostels are home for Danish students.

This has been my very first experience in the core Danish environment, and I would say that its not been the most pleasant of experiences. In addition, since I have just started working on my Master project, I have been spending time in the Mathematics department in DTU, where I have got a desk. As expected, there are Danish students working on their respective Master projects, around me; and once again, the experience has not been pleasant.

During one of the introduction lectures we were given on Danish society when I arrived here, it was told that Danish people are usually shy, and they would very rarely take the initiative in talking with you. Though, once you start a conversation, they are more than happy to speak and share their views. I thought so until this time, and now I think this might not really be the case. There are incidents with me and some friends of mine, which have been more than clear in indicating that Danish people (specially the younger, and supposed to be an educated class) are prejudiced.

Danish people are the least social people I have seen in my life. And the more I see them, the more I realize this. In my department, some people just do not respond when I say 'Hello' to them in the morning. They are just students like me, and I am just a student like them. If you would know Danish, well then maybe they would like you. But, since you not one of them, and know no Danish; well why would they care to know anything about you.

This is a very surprising learning for me. In the last 3 months, these two places - my home, and my workplace, have shown me a completely different picture of Danish students' attitude towards foreigners. Now, to misjudge this attitude as shyness would be a completely ridiculous judgement.