Working in Danish Supermarket： Northern Europe Is not \"Cold\"

Shanshan has studied in Danmark， majoring in Journalism. Her working career began in a summer vacation. At that time she did not want to go home， because she thought that is was not easy to come to a foreign country and come across a vacation. She wanted to make use of this period of time and experience the country and the society. Therefore， she thought the best way was to find a job， in that she could be independent and also have in-depth understanding of local customs.Thus， thanks to her excellent spoken English， she got the opportunity to have a part-time job in a supermarket in Aarhus， Denmark successfully.

In the beginning， she started by learning cash registering. Nevertheless， without similar experience， she encountered many difficulties. First of all， she should be familiar with the currency values of Danish Krone， in addition， she should understand the layout of cash registers， Shanshan said： \"A lot of buttons on the cash registers were in Danish， I needed to remember their meanings. At first， every time I have to operate it， I got flustered easily. What seemed to be easy in daily life could be found difficult when you do it yourself. Even when I practiced and became experienced later， I still got flustered when customers walked to me.\" In the beginning， Shanshan made several mistakes， and shed tears for them， being angry at her stupidity. Later， stubborn as she was， she was always the first one to go to work and the last one to leave. She kept practicing for a long time and finally mastered the skills.

In Denmark， though English enjoys high popularity， in the second largest city， Aarhus， Danish is still the main language. Labels on supermarket shelves are in Danish， for which Shanshan spent a lot of time learning Danish， including how to greet customers. She said， she remembered that at first she was too nervous to open her mouth. Once， in a difficult situation， she even spoke Chinese， which made the customer and the manager laugh. But she said that the experience of working in the supermarket allowed her to feel the politeness， respect and warmth which were rooted in the Danish culture. Some customers were so kind that they gave her great encouragements. For practicing， Shanshan was always the last one to leave. Once a regular customer came to the manager especially to tell him that the Chinese girl was very good and hard working. Though these are simple words， they were very important to Shanshan， she said， she was almost moved to cry. \"It is true that， sometimes your efforts and your perspiration become worthwhile just because such few words.\"

Afterwards， Shanshan adapted herself to the working pace of the supermarket. In the face of customer’s dissatisfaction and doubts， she was able to respond smoothly， she said， she was lucky to met a very kind manager who gave her the opportunities to correct when she made mistakes， taught her patiently and encouraged her. Such kind of warmth she felt in an unfamiliar country will be kept in her mind forever.

Now Shanshan have returned to China and found a formal job. However， thinking of the days when she worked in Denmark， she is still very touched， \"Those days are precious memories for me， and the warmth I felt in Denmark will be something I will always miss.\"

Note： Denmark allows students to work no more than 15 hours per week. During this time， no taxes need to be paid. If they want to work more than 15 hours， they must apply for a work permit and pay taxes. Students get high wages from part-time jobs in Denmark， the statutory salary for part-time job is 80 Krones per hour （about 110 yuan RMB）.

姍姍曾在丹麥讀書，學(xué)習(xí)新聞專業(yè)，她的打工生涯開始于一個(gè)暑假。

那時(shí)她不想回家，覺得好不容易來到國外，又值假期，她想要利用這樣的時(shí)間來感受這個(gè)國家、社會(huì)。于是她覺得最好的方式就是找一份工作，因?yàn)檫@樣既可以自食其力，又可以深入了解當(dāng)?shù)氐娘L(fēng)土人情。就這樣，姍姍憑著較好的英文口語優(yōu)勢，順利找到了一份在丹麥奧胡斯超市打工的機(jī)會(huì)。

剛開始，她是從學(xué)習(xí)收銀開始。但是從沒有過類似經(jīng)驗(yàn)的她也遭遇到了很多困難，首先她要熟悉丹麥克朗的幣值，還要了解收款機(jī)的布局，姍姍說：“收款機(jī)上面的很多鍵都是丹麥語，我要記住是什么意思，剛開始我手一往上放就心慌，平日里覺得非常簡單的事情，到了親自去做的時(shí)候，真不是想象中那么容易。就算后來練習(xí)得很熟了，但是真正有客人走過來了，瞬間還是會(huì)慌亂。”最開始，姍姍出錯(cuò)過幾次，也曾為此而流淚，生氣自己怎么這么笨。后來倔強(qiáng)的她，總是來的最早，走的最晚，不停地練習(xí)，時(shí)間長了，也就終于上手了。

在丹麥，盡管英文普及度很高，但是在奧胡斯這樣的第二大城市，畢竟還是以丹麥語為主，超市貨架上貼的標(biāo)簽都是丹麥文，為此，姍姍花了大量的時(shí)間去學(xué)習(xí)丹麥語，包括怎么跟顧客打招呼。她說，記得最開始自己緊張得不敢張口，甚至有一次情急之下居然蹦出了中文，惹得顧客和店長都笑了。但是她說，在超市打工的經(jīng)歷讓她深切感受到了丹麥文化里的那種禮貌、尊重和溫暖。有些客人非常不錯(cuò)，給了她很大的鼓勵(lì)，為了練習(xí)，姍姍總是走的最晚，曾有一位經(jīng)常來的客人專門告訴店長說，這個(gè)中國小姑娘挺不錯(cuò)的，工作很努力，這些話雖然簡單，但是對(duì)于姍姍來說卻很重要，她說，她當(dāng)時(shí)感動(dòng)得差點(diǎn)眼淚掉下來，“真的，有的時(shí)候你付出的努力，你留下的汗水，都會(huì)因?yàn)檫@么一句話感到有多么的值得。”

注：丹麥允許留學(xué)生打工，打工時(shí)間限制在每周15小時(shí)。在這段時(shí)間內(nèi)打工，不需要上稅，也不用申請(qǐng)工作許可，超過15小時(shí)必須申請(qǐng)工作許可，交納稅收。留學(xué)生在丹麥打工的收入很高，留學(xué)生打工的法定收入每小時(shí)80克朗（約110元人民幣）。

[The original series of articles are available on UE app. 該系列文章原載于UE app]