A couple of months ago I completed two of my primary integration projects in Denmark: learning Danish and watching Matador. The former of course is a never-ending project and I’m far from truly completing it, but officially I should be speaking, writing and reading Danish quite fluently now that I’ve passed the final exams of my intensive ‘Danish for foreigners’ language course. But the latter was a more defined project – watching the entire TV series from start to finish, which I’m now proud to say I did.
So the other day I was trying to think which of the two gave me better insights into Danish society and culture. Learning Danish undoubtedly solved some of my earlier puzzlement over the choice of certain words in English typically used by Danes (for example, the interchangeable use of ‘fun’ and ‘funny’ or the funny expression ‘I don’t hope this happens’, not to mention the frequent use of the word ‘sparring’ in business contexts, or using ‘back-side’ when wanting to say ‘flip-side’; I now finally get the origin of those funny – and fun! – mistakes).
Learning Danish has also provided its fair share of frustrations and entertainment, the two often being inextricably linked. For example, the fact that there are four different words in Danish for ‘think’ (I still get my mener, tænker, tror and synes confused sometimes). Or the annoying abundance of words for ‘probably’ (still waiting for someone to explain to me the difference between sikkert, nok, vist, muligvis and sandsynligvis). Or the very curious fact that the Danes officially don’t have a future (tense, that is). Of course one can use ‘skal’ or ‘vil’ but those are apparently not often used, with the present tense prevailing when referring to the future, as a rule. You can only imagine the juicy discussions and giggles this triggered among us foreign learners, seeing an opportunity to draw parallels between the language and the country. But I digress.
Despite all this learning from my Danish classes I realized that watching Matador probably taught me more about this society. For years I’ve been hearing about this TV series that started having a mythical aura in my mind as over the years I observed many a Dane soliloquize about it with misty eyes. I’ve come to expect Matador to do nothing less than embody Danishness. Having now watched it I can say it doesn’t quite do that, but it is for sure a superbly-acted well-written drama that can teach foreigners a lot about the history of Denmark – and more importantly, Denmark’s own interpretation of it – during an important period in the development of this nation (1929 to 1947). For the sake of those poor souls who haven’t had the fortune of watching Matador I decided to share with you my main observations from the series:
1. Danes like to drink coffee. Maybe not the biggest message in the series, but I couldn’t get over the fact that the majority of the dialogue through the series takes place over a cup of coffee (rather like the way alcohol and cigarettes are used in Mad Men). I never actually counted how many times the characters were seen drinking coffee in an average episode but I would place my bet on approximately 10 times an episode. In fact, there was only one activity that could compete with coffee drinking in Matador, which leads me to the next observation.
2. Danes like to read newspapers. I know this was a way to communicate the characters’ political and social viewpoints in the story, but it still made me laugh sometimes that almost every scene opened or closed with a close up on someone reading a particular newspaper. I guess if the series was shot today they would all be carrying iPads around.
3. The only truly happy Danes are farmers. Every character in Matador seemed to have their share of fortunes and misfortunes, but somehow the only ones who came across as more or less happy with their lives were Oluf and Kathrine Larsen, Ingeborg’s parents. Was that an intentional subliminal message, or is it me?
4. In Denmark, business ambition and family life don’t go together. Be it Mads Skjern, Hans Christian Varnæs or Agnes Jensen – it seems that commercial drive entails marital or children problems in the Danish narrative.
5. World War II was a strange period in Denmark. That one is naturally an obvious one – the war brought havoc and destruction to most European countries. But having grown up in Israel I was trained to believe all Danes were saints during that period because of what they did for the Jews. It was interesting to see a more realistic portrayal of that time, which also helps explain the complexity of the relations between Denmark and Germany today.
6. People from Jutland are not welcome in Zealand. OK, that one I knew even before watching Matador.
So these are just some of my take-aways from this important series, more on the superficial side I must admit (you can find a more serious analysis here). And to all the newcomers in Denmark, I do unreservedly advise you to learn the language. But I also warmly recommend watching Matador – it’s a thoroughly fun and funny affair!
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