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Living overseas

Whether you're considering emigrating or an expat abroad, you'll find likeminds on this forum.

eek, we have to decide whether to move from scotland where we love, or copenhagen...

32 replies

twooter · 07/09/2010 20:42

dP has been offered a job in copenhagen. When it was just in the offing, i was very excited, thought it'd be good experience for the dc etc. now he's been offered it, i'm just wondering if we're mad to consider moving away from what we've got

OP posts:
overthemill · 21/09/2010 10:13

and what job will you both do, why are you thinking about going, why now? those kinds of things to think about

glacierchick · 21/09/2010 11:20

From your OP it's not clear whether it's moving generally or moving to Copenhagen that you are worrying about. My twopenny worth:

I moved to Copenhagen from Scotland 3 years ago, we thought it'd be for three years (for tax reasons) but have decided to stay at least another 2 and probably 3 years as it is a good place for us right now. After that it will definitely be time to be leaving.

Pros:
i) Jobs - we both have interesting challenging, worthwhile jobs with colleagues we like and for a decent level of pay. This was the major factor in coming here.

ii) The city - Copenhagen is pretty small really (more like Edinburgh than London) it's safe, clean, organised, efficient, culturally interesting, family friendly, vibrant, there's nice bars and restaurants and plenty of entertainment. The social provision is astonishing, childcare etc is easily available and affordable. It's worth living as close to the city as possible to take advantage of it all.

iii) Work - life balance is amazing. I have never worked so few hours and the pay levels out to the cost of living so don't be too worried about costs, especially as so much of the social care provided by the state is highly subsidised.

iv)Summer - it's hot, dry and reliable (well in comparison to Scotland - though the locals will tell you different - it all depends on your point of view!). Cycling round Copenhagen and indeed the rest of Denmark is wonderful in Summer, we have a very outside kind of life which is pleasant

v) The people are friendly, most speak some english (though I do recommend learning Danish to help you integrate more) and are generally well educated and interested in meeting new people.

vi) Danish is relatively easy to learn for english speakers to read, though speaking and listening are always tricky.

Cons:
i) It's damn flat. Denmark may just be the most (visually) boring country in the world. I really miss topography and I absolutely miss the kind of outdoors lifestyle I had in scotland. Although saying that, if you're interested in sailing, there's plenty of that, though the West Coast of Scotland it ain't. Southern Sweden is close and a bit more interesting but, though you could consider Copenhagen a base to explore Scandinavia from, you'll always be travelling a long way to get to the really interesting bits. (Norway is an overnight ferry away for instance). OTOH once you've mastered Danish you'll understand the other Scandinavian languages too.

ii) Most socialising is done within the family so it can be hard to get to know Danes well. I have some very good Danish friends here, but mostly socialise with other expats (from all over the world not necessarily the UK). There is no real pub culture or after work going out culture.

iii) Winter is very long, colder (but drier) than Scotland and extremely grey. It's much more depressing than in Scotland (see con 1 too) because it's a kind of non-weather, the clouds come in in November and leave in March.

iv) The Danish language might just be the ugliest language in Europe and I certainly don't want my children growing up being more comfortable in Danish than any other language!

So, although I've thoroughly enjoyed living here and really feel I've made the most of it, when the 5 or 6 years are finally up we'll be heading onwards, possiby back to Scotland, or maybe on to Norway, I would like to get back to nature, but I have to admit, the advantages of living in a Scandinavian society are not to be underestimated.

willow5 · 21/09/2010 11:40

Hi, I second what mystic and QS have said. Having spent 7 yrs in Norway all they said rang true. So make sure it's what you want and that you will have opportunities too. It is a very beautiful city, but a new language and culture means it will be a bid move, especially if you're happy now with your circumstances.
Good luck!

UpSinceCrapOClock · 21/09/2010 19:09

Ooh glacierchick, am oddly excited at the thought of another mnetter in Copenhagen!

We just moved back to Copenhagen after a year in London.

I really think you need to visit and see what you think?

Mostly agree with glacierchick but have a slightly different experience of after work socialising - quite a few workplaces have a sort of 'fredagsbar' with beers etc after work, but that is something obviously dependent upon the workplace.

My other difference to glacierchick is that oddly I found winter in London much harder than winter in Copenhagen, but the reason for this is that in London it was cold, dark, wet outside and it was cold and miserable in our flat and I didn't have any friends and the flat was tiny (I have 2 energetic dcs under 5) and stressful as the bloke downstairs complained if the dc's moved about too much. Winter in Copenhagen is cold, dark, wet outside but flats are generally warm inside and my friends and I seem to spend a lot of spare time going to each other's flats to eat dinner, or drink coffee etc together and make it all nice and cosy with candles, maybe some homebaking etc. So I think something like winter is very much dependent upon personal circumstances.

Expenses wise - salary definitely matches up to living costs. We were actually much poorer in London than here, mostly due to higher rent, council tax (don't pay that here if you are renting) and high nursery costs. Food costs I reckon are similar. You get all ranges of supermarkets from low-budget to high. I actually found my food bills higher in the UK, but again that's personal circumstances - I bought a lot of convenience food (partly for comfort, partly for time as nursery and work for us finished later in London leaving less time to prepare food for supper and partly because our cooker didn't work so we had to buy a cheap table top oven which couldn't really do things like roasting drumsticks etc as it created too much smoke).

You are always welcome to send me a message in my inbox if you have any questions blatantly just want to try out the new inbox function Wink

Good luck - it's not an easy decision to make.

twooter · 22/09/2010 09:41

oh, well if there's mumsnetters in copenhagen, decision made Smile

i think my main issue is with leaving somewhere that we're all happy living. i am quite excited about the thought of moving there - if it didn't have such a supposed high quality of life , we wouldn't consider it.

I'm hoping to use it as an opportunity to get reassess what i want to do, and definitely will have danish lessons - it may be my only social life for a while!

only worry now is when to tell the kids...any advice for that? both infant age

OP posts:
UpSinceCrapOClock · 22/09/2010 09:55

Our dc's were 3 and 1 1/2 when we moved to London and 4 and 2 1/2 now we've moved back.

I talked about it a lot in the run up. Before we moved, they didn't really understand at all. When we left our old flat, dd (the eldest) and I said goodbye to our empty flat, so that she could see it without furniture (so it wasn't like we were going away on holiday and would be back soon) and talked about the 'London house' and 'London nursery'. We did the same when we moved back and I think that helped. I wanted to be up front and honest with any questions etc.

They were both pretty clingy around the times of each move, so we did lots of sitting on the sofa cuddling and reading / watching telly etc. It took a while for them to settle in London - moving back, we have pretty much settled back into our old life already (moved back to the same area) and we only moved just over a week ago. I think just follow their lead and listen carefully to how they are reacting to things and take it from there, if that makes sense?

Danish lessons are good for social life and if you are a trivia genius like pub quizzes, we sometimes go to an English-language one and you're welcome to join our team :o

twooter · 22/09/2010 17:15

I LOVE pub quizzes! hope you take it seriously though...

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