Hi
Just a piece of advise ; in denmark you shuld consider if you want to learn the language, if so be very strict towerds danish english speaking acturly there are a risk, ending up sort of language-invalide as danes often want to brush up their english language , untill polished ; guess what chance this give you, learnig this acturly simple language.
Beside it's the native language for say Kirkegaard , so please don't fall in the other ditch that you don't need know a single danish word ,it will work for a time but life go on. So be very strict about not speaking english othervise you end up with a english with danish accent or danish with an english accent.

like Meryl Streep

I once studied there as well, and Patrick's last comment is a pretty valid cultural evaluation. The way I remember it, they do seem cold and distant to strangers, not drawn to small-talk and the like, but once you get to know a Dane, they open the flood-gates.

Not a superficial culture at all...so although it'll be socially challanging at first, it's worth the effort. Genuine.

Hi
I will say that the best architects in Dk. made cold concrete houses with steel frame windows ,houses that could have performed better in not so wet climat , but the ones owning such houses seem ever happy, even knowing the leaking edges and other silli design foults .
They are the best of danish architects but ofcaurse, back then there was a compleatly different aproach a more experimental one , one where knowing the materials and fysics was more important than knowing the lyrics.

"...knowing the materials and fysics was more important than knowing the lyrics."

damn, that's profound. i've flipped through other threads over the last few minutes, but i keep coming back to read that line. it's poetry.

...and, despite my username, i'm not even poking fun.

Wonderful Copenhagen

Sort of ammusing to read Patrick's post since I, as a Swede, find Denmark to be not only the home of Lego but also the part of Scandinavia where the warm and social people live, hehe.
All a matter of what you're used to I guess...

Per should write a song.

maybe you can work for per...
better learn about 3DH right now!

patrick..
what would you suggest re: working in norway...and learning
norwegian for that matter...i learn a bit every time i go...
especially now that my relatives are getting older and more
and more are refusing to speak english...

how would you go about gettin into norway?

and i agree about the social aspects of the different countries..
norway-sweden-denmark..from most conservative to least..

patrick,

i am also curious where you picked up the norwegian language? i have been trying to teach myself for about a year now but i haven't got much past chapter four of my self-learning book.

jeg kommer fra michigan. kommer du fra? jeg forstår lit norsk og jeg har amerikansk aksent men jeg synes at oslo er en pen by og jeg elsker norge. også, vil du ha et glass øl? jeg vil gjerne snakke norsk.

ha det bra!

work for Plot!

Thanks everyone for your comments and advice. Denmark, Findland, Norway and Sweden seem to be hot spots right now (In a way - they have always been) for young architects and designers.

Anyone trying to learn danish, norwegian etc?...I've been attempting to learn danish. Quite hard, yet I find it a very intersting language.

has anyone worked for plot?

you've renewed my interest in learning norwegian...
sadly the only place i know that teaches it is nyu and it
costs something like $700 to take a class through them..

and i know the norwegian 1 would sort of be a waste since
i've basically already got the elements down...danish seems
tough..i've heard danish is basically like speaking norwegian
with marbles in your mouth..everything sounds garbled...

larslarson,

i see that you were interested in working in norway. i have spent some time looking into this myself and, generally speaking, norway seems to be a tough nut to crack. assuming that you are an american, your best bet is applying to firms with american partners such as snohetta or space group. i have some pretty good connections in oslo but i haven't been able to draw much interest and i have also seen some people with much stronger credentials than myself get nowhere in the job search.

if you are still interested in scandinavia and you happen to know icelandic, i'd suggest studio granda. i got a very polite rejection from steve christer in which he noted that because of the language situation they "regrettably have a very some pool to draw from."

ha det veldig bra!

Yeah, Danish, Norweigan and Swedish are in essence very similar languages, especially in written form, and stereotypically they relate to one another as follows (if you ask a Swede):

** Swedish is basic scandinavian spoken when sober
** Norweigan is Swedish spoken when merry after 5 beers (when you're almost singing instead of talking)
** Danish is Norweigan spoken the second before you pass out from too many beers and/or shots of Gammeldansk

(no offence to you Danes and Norweigans out there - I love both your countries)

Being Swedish I understand Norweigan almost as well as I understand my own language, but it probably would sound a bit silly if I tried to speak it. I understand Danish if spoken calmly (like on the news or if someone tries to speak comprehensably with me) but should I try to speak Danish it would probably just be plain insulting to whomever I was talking.

I can't speak for Denmark, but here it's not too big a problem to start working for an arch. firm without knowing the language beforehand... although I suppose you may be expected to learn the basics once you've gotten settled in.

aemkei..
parents are:
dad - third generation swede
mom - first generation norwegian...

love both countries although i've just started to become
familiar with sweden...basically stockholm...beautiful
country. have been to norway about 15 times...including
this past march...and love it there.

puddles...i'd love to work for snohetta..have considered
writing craig dykers (right?) several times to ask for a
job here in nyc (they're doing a building at the wtc), but
just haven't gotten around to it...we'll see.

larslarsen

yeah, its craig dykers but you're probably late for the project. they do seem to be an ambitious firm though and i would think that dykers would continue to seek work in america so you might as well go for it.

puddles...
i was thinking more in terms of job site coordination and such
during construction..which is probably a couple years out..
but would be fun/extremely stressful to say the least. but
may get me over to norway every once in a while on the
company dime. and if it could help me meet the nord of
my dreams...well all the better.

aemkei.
one question..how do you note your drawings? is it just
in swedish? or is it in english/swedish or just english?
i imagine that would be a huge problem for those that
don't speak the language, obviously..that and redlines...

Well, I've always done everything in Swedish since there hasn't been a reason for anything else but I'm actually one thesis away from being active in the profession at this point.

A friend of mine who's from the UK and works at a firm in Västerås (middle of Sweden) however works solely in English, and if necessary they translate it I guess, but he says it's not a problem for him. He does understand some basic Swedish after 18 months in the country though.

I have a friend who was recently booted from Denmark after working at a school there for over 18 months. Not sure of the specifics but, essentially, her visa just up and got rejected one day. She was lucky that she was given a couple of months notice, other Americans were given about 3 weeks. I have also heard that it is quite difficult to get a job there for a variety of reasons.

stall-it- I work at Plot, and I can warmly recommend you to apply for a internship at Plot. There are a lot of international students working there also...Since there are so many english speaking people (including one of the bosses) we speak english more or less all the time.

And then the norwegian - swedish -danish - topic - I´m Danish, but I have lived in Norway for 19 years, so I think I should add to the discussion, we are pretty mush the same kind of people, but the norwegians are by far the most reserved people...but on then again - when they get drunk - they are the sweetest little trolls in the whole world... (happens every friday and saturday - go to norway for a weekend)

peace

One thing though you must know is danish car drivers and the "laws" around how cars and bikes bicycles behave ; what is the duty for car drivers where just the slighest chance of a bicycle around and how this work so different.
In Berlin if you go by bike , the cars respect your choice, even make room take care, when the bike chose to give the road to the car traffic he uses a part of the sidewalk, where a single line tell, where you walking must know that people on bike can show. The bikes care about the walking and everything work in peace and harmomy --- now compared this copenhagen are a war zone.
A very poverfull org. "The united owners of motorcars" decades ago won their greatest battle against the stupid cyclist, who alway's was in the way when you wasn't looking ahead or just temp. drunk. To "protect" them a new law was securing the cyclist by the action of the car driver ; he shuld make sure , that at crossroads, for the sake of the poor cyclist himself, that there was no room for a bike beside the car.
The law say that before a crossroad, the guy in the car must squeeze his way , to make sure that he is close alongside the side of the road, so no bike can come between, this way ( the genious of it ) it is impossible to run over a bike as you activ made sure there was no room ---- and the bike shuld know this behaviour and be prepared ; he shuld know it is the duty and right of the car, to do what he can, to make sure the bike, are not beside him but after the car ; denmark have a premiour amount of killed bike drivers no wonder.
------- Eh I say no wonder, ask a danish driver and you will hear the most stupid claims acturly and even the danish traffic for same reson are so dangerous, most danish car drivers find this law sense.

The united owners of motorcars , who are to blame, force the goverment with new laws about extra mirrors on trucks, while the truck driver act as he do in his daily small car, squeeze the bikes as they shuld know they shuld not be there and ,just asking if it realy are worth the many killed every year are not the problem, bikes are stupid they shuld know or buy a car so they can learn it.

If this was just a joke.

We have the same problem in Chicago- I applaud the Bicyclists choice but they are not obeying the rules of the road and unfortounately paying the price for their ignorent actions.

Yes but in Berlin ----

i heart them cyclists

for some reason, I have a craving for a shot of Akvavit and a Tuborg, while lighting up a Prince

in response to the person learning norwegian who asked if anyone else is learning a scandinavian language: my wife and i are taking a swedish class starting next month. we already have some bits down like "jag älska dig" and "hej då" but not much else. we have also been renting a lot of swedish films, which leads me to something i will post elsewhere but: songs from the second floor is an incredible movie.

i love danish women
if only they love vado