High School Reforms, Cash Payments & Rising Food Prices in Denmark: LWID S2E3

In this episode, we discussed upcoming changes to the Danish education system, the state of STEM, cash and food inflation in Denmark, as well as Arun and Narcis' personal dreams for home improvement and travelling.

Topics covered in today’s podcast:

• Introduction (00:08)
• The introduction of Epx, a new type of gymnasium education (01:35)
• STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in Denmark (20:35)
• Cash payments are still a thing? (23:01)
• Switching banks will become easier in future (30:34)
• Inflation of food items in the past 2 years (38:35)
• Corporate Christmas gifts (44:26)
• Sauna and gym facilities (45:54)
• Home improvement dreams (47:46)
• Travelling (50:21)
• Wrapping up (53:05)

Transcript Editor: Stephanie, https://www.linkedin.com/in/dstephfuccio/

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Transcript

Arun:

After having a nice vacation in India and finally have the time for our episodes to resume.

Narcis:

Yeah.

Arun:

How are you?

Narcis:

I'm looking forward to see you back. I know you, you, you were looking forward to that, to that break. And to be honest, it was quite hectic the September for us. We were traveling around the country to have all these welcome September events, so we didn't really have much time for side projects. But now things have settled, we are slowly, slowly getting into the winter mood. And winter mood also means a bit of extra time for projects like this one, for example. So looking forward to see what we can do with this project up till Christmas. Now it should be a weekly occurrence, so should be fun.

Arun:

It definitely should be. I. I think I enjoyed the first two episodes and I guess we have some interesting topics for the episode three. Before we get into the episodes or topics, I wanted to just remind the audience this episodes are focusing on topics that happened last week, and that is why it's called Last Week in Denmark. So we chat about the current affairs, we talk about stories or news that experts could find interesting and also make informed decisions about it. And we make sure that we cover the most important topics as we speak. So without further ado, Narcis,  let's talk about. Let's start with the most important topic about high school education reforms.

Narcis:

What do you know about the high school? Arun, what do you know about high school in Denmark? Have you ever met anyone in high school in Denmark?

Arun:

I've actually had a number of neighbors whose children are actually at high school, if I understood correctly. It's. Is it gymnasium that they call in Danish?

Narcis:

Well, that's, that's the thing because they actually have the word high school as well. But that's a bit, let's just say confusing because high school in Denmark and high school in, well, most of the rest of the world probably. It's different/ Here high school is a place where you go after you turn 18 and it's more like to find yourself to study, I don't know, some strange subject like archery or, I don't know, game design or fantasy book writing or whatever fits your desires. It's most a place to find yourself. And it's, it's there literally called højskole. It's, it's a whole thing about it. If you're looking for the direct translation of the word high school. But yeah, as you said correctly, there is gymnasiums and there's also obviously vocational schools in, in Denmark. So either one or the other, they can go. But your neighbors kids. What, what kind of. Because you know, you, you always hear these numbers. Stx, hx, htx, whatever. What, what about your neighbors? What, what letters were they going to.

Arun:

So they are currently pursuing stx, which is a general theoretical education for. And they are aiming to go for university at some point. But they are at stx. But. Well, I actually don't know what STX mean. First of all, could you put some words on what is exactly stx?

Narcis:

It's just general education. Literally when you don't know what to study further and you just know that you want to go to university later on you go to stx. Usually it's the hardest one to enter. Usually you need. Like today you need a minimum grade or average grade of 5. And if people think of 5 in the usual 0 to 10, which would mean half, it's wrong. In Denmark you have this 7 scale grading which starts from minus 3 and it ends at 12. So a 5 is actually pretty good. Above medium grade. Above, above medium. A 2 will be a passing grade. So 5 is pretty good grade actually.

Arun:

Yeah. I actually remember it from my Danish language exam where I actually scored and I could recollect even a two is considered to be a good number because two is the pass mark I guess per minimum grade you require required to pass the Danish exam. So I get where you come from and the examples are clearly pretty. I mean clear.

Narcis:

You really have to be bad, bad, bad to get the minus three. Like I, I have never. Not necessarily. Then you just get an absence from the exam, right? You don't get a grade. You. You should actually give in a like something to the exam to be able to get a grade. You just get a no presence situation. Right? But if we're talking about letters, stx, right? Stx as I said, is general. But if you want to say something else, there is also hhx which basically if you know already that later on in university you're going to study something with business, with foreign languages, more internationally minded, then you go to HHX. Or if you know you're going to work with technology like you or science, then you're going to go to HTX. Those are, those are the three STX, HHX, HTX and they all have this minimum grade of five. And then people who want to study something with their hands, like to be electrician, carpenter, then they go to EUX. That's another x, the fourth x. And then there is the strange one out which is HF. Basically this one is like a two year Education and it also can be like a bridge between school and university basically is for those people who decided to study 10th grade because you know the Danish school has only nine grades. So you finish in ninth grade is the last grade. But the they have given the option for people who are not ready to choose one of the exes, they can stay one more year in school, so called 10th grade. So that's kind of the today's high school environment in Denmark. By the way, Arun, what kind of high school did you go to?

Arun:

So in India I think we have until 12th standard. The schooling stops there. That's called higher education high school. And then we have, just like you said, vocational educations. We have also engineering, universities, you also have economy. And there's a lot of three year four year program. And the one that I chose was actually a four year engineering program after my 12th grade and but 12th grade.

Narcis:

That means that's not really high school anymore, that's university. So what did you study from 9th grade to 12th grade? Didn't you have like some sort of different education is the same school till 12th grade.

Arun:

So it's called as a junior college. But we in India have I think until 12th standard. So we call them as standards. First standard to 10th is one group and then 11th and 12th we prepare for university. And they have I think exams on the 10th grade and also on the 12th standard. So it's a bit different compared to how it works in Denmark. And by the time when I reach my, let's say bachelors, four years of studying in engineering, I actually will be 21, 22 and that is 22 is like an average year of people graduating from university. That's like a bachelor's program. Yeah, that's not typically a four year program but a lot of people also choose commerce. Commerce studying about economy.

Narcis:

What did you study about before engineering?

Arun:

Before engineering I was studying my, I think it was called as electives. So I chose the computer science as my elective. Computer science, maths, physics, chemistry. And then you also have an option of biology, botany and zoology as another option, another track. And usually those are preferred, preferred for someone who is pursuing medicine, Computer science obviously you know, biotechnology, even mechanical engineering students and civil engineering students choose the max. Physic chemistry. That's quite intense.

Narcis:

We couldn't be more different, Arun. We couldn't be more different, I swear. Guess what? Guess what did I study based on how much you know about me? What did you, what did you think I studied in my high school?

Arun:

If I have to guess, I have no idea what you studied, but I have to guess political science. 

Narcis:

That's not possible in. In the 9th grade in Romania, but something close to it. I studied philology and philosophy.

Arun:

Wow. I have to recollect. What is philology?

Narcis:

Philology, the study of languages. Basically. You have to understand the essence and the roots of how you construct a language.

Arun:

That's interesting. Can you imagine what is the oldest language? Have you read across this history about languages?

Narcis:

No, I had to study Latin. I had my final exam in Latin.

Arun:

Oh, Latin. Okay.

Narcis:

Yeah, so it was. It was nice because I had to do a lot of extra work with tutoring in Latin because obviously it's not an easy language to. To get across and. But luckily in Romania there's this honor system where if you go to your Olympics. The Olympics, we have this, like, school competitions called Olympics, where you like a talent in a certain field. Right. So I was going to Olympics in geography, history, economics. And because of that, because I was going national level, I didn't have to go to school. I was going off school for two, three months at once to just prepare for the. For the Olympics. So all the other grades I was. They were just giving me automatically grades for the older subjects because they didn't have to. So I found a way to cheat high school.

Arun:

You are a bright student. I guess you were a bright student.

Narcis:

I guess you have to be good at one or two subjects and then the others are following. Right.

Arun:

But there is also, in the schools back in. I think in India, there are people who are really overachievers and they actually skip one or two grades. It does not happen at eighth or ninth standard. This usually happens between third to until like let's say sixth or seventh standard. And I've seen.

Narcis:

So we have to hear standard when you say standard for me. So weird. I'm sorry.

Arun:

Yeah, great.

Narcis:

But standard. Could have never imagined that to be a word for.

Arun:

That's the terminology I used and I think it's very prominently used. But if you have to refer it to a class. Yeah, ninth class, eighth class or grade.

Narcis:

Or year, for God's sake.

Arun:

And the grading system is also different, by the way. We don't have the Danish grading system. It's different grading system and I, I don't know much about grading comparison now, but I think when people try to apply for universities, they have a grading conversion and they have to validate what is the equivalent grading in. It's a university that you're applying for in Europe.

Narcis:

But what's the scale that you use from 0 to 10 or what?

Arun:

I think it's 0 to 10, but it's not the same way. It's not the same way as how it's in Denmark. Right.

Narcis:

So in Denmark is strange, to be honest. The scale. And they have. Many people have spoke against this scaling system and I was hoping it will be part of the reform to. To be changed. But it's. It's one of the few countries, if not only in Europe, who has this strange scaling system. Grading system. In Romania we have 0 to 10. So. So it. Does India have 0 to 10 or do you have something more strange out of.

Arun:

I think it's the same, more or less.

Narcis:

I think most of the world has 0 to 10. Well, no, maybe not. Because UK for example, has A, B, C. D, E.

Arun:

That's the equivalent number. I think that there's one way to actually connect those ABCD in terms of numbers at least that is good. But. But universities in Denmark. Yes, it is very difficult and, and I know a lot of people who applied for universities. They had to validate what is the equivalent score and there's a lot of process. Yeah. So I think I had some understanding about STX, HTX and HSX. I've also read your article, which I could see that there are two options that would be removed. One is HF and another one is EUX.

Narcis:

Yeah, the vocational one, EUX. And the HF, they're being replaced with EPX because they want people to choose between three versions. Right. Either SDX General, either HHX, which surprises me that it remains because it's business and international relations. And then you have now EPX if you want to. You think that you might be pursuing vocational education, but maybe later on you decide that you want to actually still go to university, so you can still do that. So basically they, they want to replace completely vocational schools with another gymnasium. They're going to actually build seven. Build, establish 87 gymnasiums, EPX gymnasiums around the country. So there will be no more vocational institutions. So basically you go to a gymnasium, you, you can still become an electrician, a carpenter after two years. And then if you decide, well, maybe I don't want to be an electrician, I want to go to university, then you stay one more year and then you can go to the university. So basically they just wanted to because too few people now are studying vocational. Way too few, too many people go to university. So that means that the number of people who are overly qualified, overly educated compared to the needs of the labor market is too high. And at the same time there's a need for people who have a background in welding, in metal working, in electrics, in, you know, so someone needs to do this work as well. And you know, the salaries are pretty high and you always need to import people from abroad because simply nobody wants to take those jobs. And then you end up with a lot of people who are unemployable in a way, or they are just sitting outside of the job market, even though they are the job market right now, it's on the side of demand, they need a lot more people. So that's why they want to kind of rectify that by getting more people to choose the vocational background. So that's why they say, okay, you're afraid to go to vocational, no worries, you go still like to a gymnasium. But the point is at some point, if you're tired of studying, you can retire as electrician.

Arun:

But I have a question here. And the question is, of course, let's say people have EPX and they opted for EPX and then they decide, okay, maybe an electrician won't be, let's say, a decent job to work, for example, this is my assumption, right? And I need some high paying jobs or maybe more challenges. And if people start to think in that way and start to challenge themselves and say I wanted to be a specialist on something, highly paid, highly competitive jobs or something, then just want to.

Narcis:

Mention that is how very highly paid in general. So.

Arun:

Oh, okay, okay, maybe I'm wrong, but a lot of people, a lot of people in India, at least in the demography, choose engineering because we have this mindset that the engineering degree is vital to secure a lot of computer jobs. Jobs in it is very flourishing. And is it, is it different from the way Indians think and the way Danish education is? Because I don't know if people choose EPX and then transition to, let's say I wanted to start study further, what then, what then will be that. That could be a void in, let's say role of a carpenter or electrician or a welder because he might think that maybe he needs more competitive jobs. Or does it, does it seem to affect the country right now? How is the situation right now and.

Narcis:

The situation is bad because too few people choose to study, to be electrician, to be a carpenter, because they feel like this. Once you choose that direction, you cannot turn back. So that's why they came up with this whole EPX solution. Is that okay, it's still a gymnasium. You might be able to end in two years and go and be electrician, or you can stay a third year and go to university. So. So either way it shouldn't be so afraid to enter an EPX. So the only difference between EPX and STX and HHX would be the grade requirements. Basically, if you couldn't go to STX or HHX, you can go to an EPX because the grade requirement is lower. It's a two.

Arun:

Exactly. And that's the minimum requirement, which is also an average grade is 2. To get into EPX. Talking about grades, they have also increased the grade from 5 to 6 in entry levels for STX and HSX.

Narcis:

Exactly. But that's. They haven't done that yet. Remember, this is a reform that's proposed to be passed this autumn and then it with the implementation year of 2030, that's in six years from now. I'm very shocked that they have chosen such a far away thing. But they have to establish 87 educational institutions and that's going to cost them 5 billion kronas.

Arun:

That's a lot of money.

Narcis:

That's a lot of taxpayers money. Yeah, it's going to be an expensive reform to begin with.

Arun:

But yeah, what, what value does it bring for, let's say for English speakers? Let's say if I want to. If in the future, if my. Let's say future son or something, a kid decides to study and let's say he or she chooses English based education, does it still help expats students in any way to pursue this? Or is it only for Danish medium schools?

Narcis:

Well, first of all the STX, EPX are only for Danish speakers. They are in Danish. If you want to study in English at high school level, you need to go to IB, International Baccalaureate school. That's where my brother went here.

Arun:

Okay, so.

Narcis:

So that's, that's the only option that you have. And it usually is a highly theoretical, highly difficult education to, to pursue. But usually it's a direct line to Oxford, Harvard, all the top universities in the world. So it's not for everyone. They are discussing now about establishing, private, not private. There are private schools in English around Denmark. There is one public school in English in Lowland. And there's actually intentions to. To. To further do the same project in other municipalities. But as you have seen in the previous weeks, the municipalities budgets don't look so pretty. So because of that such projects have been postponed. But there was a desire to make more English speaking schools. As for high schools, they have. There has not been any. I just say discussion because there is this IB option right now. So there is no. It's still a public option. You don't have to pay for it. Normally in other countries it's a private school which costs like €6,000 at least per semester. But in Denmark is subsidized by the state. So that was their solution, to offer more English speaking spots for people who want to study in English in high school. But if you're talking about university level, you know that what's great about this reform is that they have added 400 spots in English for, for vocational university lines. So basically if you want to study something related to technology or science outside of the four big cities, you'll be able to, to do that in the future. Because as you know, they will be opening 2500 spots. But they are at universities now. They also want to have 400 spots for vocational universities. You know, like this university colleges that we have in Denmark is basically where you pursue to learn something effective like I don't know, nurse, teacher, meister, some sorts.

Arun:

But it's also some way to attract international students for vocational programs in. Within STEM fields. Right?

Narcis:

Yeah, exactly. That's, that's the focus. Because this is what keeps Denmark afloat. I mean, look at it right now. In all the Nordics we are the only ones doing well economically. And that's thanks to innovation that we had in pharma. And in general before pharma there was green, green technology. So we always thrive on innovation. But innovation also comes out of having people that are qualified in technology and science and, and obviously the more talents they can attract to Denmark, the better it is for them. So of course they would like to open technology and science lines. I mean that's, that's a given. It's. It's a bit sad. They don't also think about opening lines in nursing or in teaching or other things that are not stem related. Because I, I just see that just as many people could be a very good nurse. Don't have to necessarily be a great at robotics or what.

Arun:

Robotics is quite cool because I think in Odense they have a hub for robotics so becoming hub, popular hub. Today there's a lot of research and development with robotics happening in Fyn region. I could actually see within my. I say also in the media, but it's quite popular in Denmark apart from pharmaceuticals and of course that's true.

Narcis:

I think Odense robotics is really smart to specialize in themselves. I mean the city of Odense was smart to specialize themselves into one area. So now it's all about drones. Have you seen that recently they attracted this large American company to bring their drones to their airport. They. They develop military mines and anything related to military robotics.

Arun:

Surveillance and also.

Narcis:

Surveillance. Yeah, all of that. That's also there.

Arun:

Huge potential. Yeah. Yeah.

Narcis:

So. So that's, that's, that's kind of their place. And that's why they, they. They were smart to do that. I mean, I wish in all here we could find our, our niche. I know that we are quite known in terms of technology as well because of space technology. We have a lot of space technology companies here in Aalborg, but I don't think we can. There's. That's enough. I don't think that's enough. I feel like we should get two, three other fields that we could specialize ourselves in. Of course, during Copenhagen. For you, there's no such thing as that would be stupid in the capital.

Arun:

Yeah. I think talking about Aalborg, we will just slightly move ahead on the topic and then talk about payments in Denmark that are made in cash. 11% of all payments in Denmark are made in cash.

Narcis:

I'm surprised they're still happening.

Arun:

I was, I was about to ask a question, but what's interesting to me in the graph is that 18 percentage come from Aalborg and 9 percentage in Copenhagen. And let's walk, walk through the topic. But before that I know even today if I go to Copenhagen city center, close to the station in Copenhagen, sometimes people ask for cash instead of asking to pay through mobile pay or bank transfer. And I. I don't know exactly why they need it in cash, but apparently they do. A lot of shops also ask for cash as option. And I was wondering, why is it a problem? Why can't we just have both? Of course it does not an attractive option for someone who's moving to Denmark expecting him to have, let's say, all the bank currency. But currency is also one form of trade. And why is this a concern? And why suddenly. And is decline seen as an issue or. Yeah, let us, let us talk about it.

Narcis:

No, I don't. I don't think it's an issue. It's just statistics made in Denmark. We aim to be a cashless society because to be honest, most people who choose to pay by cash, they have two reasons. One, either because they're stubborn to do so and they really don't trust the government, or they don't trust the banks and they have a severe trust issue, which is problematic in a Danish society. Or two, they are washing money and they don't want to declare those money, obviously. And you probably know that there's like millions and millions of krones which are not being reported every year. I mean, people are not aware. But you need to report any sort of income that you make outside of your salary. Even if you sell something on. On whatever Facebook you sold your chair, 500 crowns, that's income. You need to report it at the end of the year. But people, not many, many, many people don't do that. So that's how you end up with lots of cash around, lying around your house. And you wonder why do you have cash? Well.

Arun:

But then at will the government see it as an option to just stop printing notes and this use digital currency or.

Narcis:

No, they will not stop printing notes because it's more about the meaning behind it. Right. What's the meaning of having a certain currency? But it'll become more of a museum thing. They will still release it every 10, 20 years, but nobody will actually use it. It will be something that. It's more for decoration. But think about it from a business perspective. It's more expensive for me to handle cash if I have to collect cash from you, than to handle direct payments. So it's not fun that I have to go with the box of money every evening to the bank. Right. For me as a business.

Arun:

So yeah, I've seen, I've seen in buses, like very rarely I've seen someone take the bus and then pay the trip to buy the tickets using currencies. Is it. Is it the same scenario in buses in. Let's Say Aalborg. Do we still have the machine in the bus that collects currencies to get the tax, the ticket or how does it work?

Narcis:

Wow, I didn't know you even had that in normal. We don't have such thing.

Arun:

Oh wow. Okay.

Narcis:

You. You either pay the, the driver the entrance or you use your rejsekort. Right. And these days.

Arun:

Yeah, yeah. So that I'm mentioning the same. I guess it's a machine that is in. Or the. I would say currency collecting something. There's an equipment right next to the door. Yeah but when you walk into the bus. 

Narcis:

t's like a sensor. Right. And just scan your.

Arun:

No, no, no, not the check in sensor. I mean the machine that collects five Kronos. Two Kronos and wow.

Narcis:

Yeah, we don't have such thing.

Arun:

Okay then there are two different operators I guess between these two islands most likely. But we still have them and they are. They're expensive also right. To maintain because they have to function and they're rarely used. But I know the purpose when somebody has no access to let's say phone or a card probably, you know, people who, who is not using technology still have cash to take the bus. And I said ah, it takes a lot of time. And then it takes really quite some time because they have to put in the currency and then the remaining balance have to come and then the driver or the conductor issues the issues the ticket for. For them and then. But I don't see them anywhere. It's just in the buses for buying a ticket. You can also buy it in a ticket vending  machine which collects cash in stations. I think it should be there in your region in Aalborg. But in buses I think it's, it's going to be obsolete at some point because rarely people use it.

Narcis:

No, that's true but that's as I said now it's just the purpose of statistics. They want to see if people are slowly getting used to the idea of not using, not using cash. And as we can see, 1 in 9 only uses cash in general. I cannot remember the last time I used to cash. To be honest. I don't think I have any cash around the house if someone is looking for it. So that's why sometimes people ask for, for. For money they like from some various charities and whatnot. And I was like I don't have any cash. But now they're prepared. They are prepared. Here's mobile pay. No worries.

Arun:

I, I actually have cash with me all the time when I travel to and come from India because worst case scenario, if you something gets freaking out, like let's say no Internet or low battery. There's always something that I have as backup, at least like 200 or 500 kroners, so I could take a taxi or buy, buy some tickets or something. And I still remember the first time when I traveled back to India from Denmark. I had equivalent amount of Indian currencies. The same mindset. Because what if my phone doesn't function in India from the airport? So I have to have some Indian currency. So I always have physical form of currency for the worst case scenario. I still do, but, but, but it is a process that I, I, I've been, I grew up, I say. So it's a bit difficult.

Narcis:

I also have Euro, Euro when I go abroad because for some reason I still have euro lying around the house. So, so I, I, I know the idea of using cash. And to be honest, I had, I was traveling this summer to, to, to Italy and I had places where they were not accepting anything but cash. And I was like, what is that? That's, that's so weird. What if I don't have any cash right now? What should I do? You know? But that's, that's, I, I think slowly, slowly the whole world will move away from, from cash. I mean, it's not fun to keep touching the same money again and again. God knows where those money have been. They're not the cleanest way of transmitting pandemics.

Arun:

Exactly.

Narcis:

That's, that's, they do transmit pandemics. That's the problem. There's all sorts of bacteria and microbes.

Arun:

I know. And it has been one of the things that even during the pandemic we were forced not to use cash because that's the easiest medium to spread virus. And I think you're right. Talking about currency, let's focus our attention on banks. There wasn't. Yeah. Thanks to the new system, it will be easier to switch banks in the near future. Which was the title of the article in Last Week In Denmark. I have a problem with how much interest rate or what is the right interest rate. And I don't know how to compare these prices unless I go visit a bank, talk with them and then yeah, discuss what could be a beneficial option. And that's it. That's a long process, by the way. And I'm talking about buying an apartment and what not. A lot of conversations are happening. And when I read this article, I said, okay, what is it exactly mean? Is it just like I have an account, let's say Now I have an account in Danske bank, so I have to switch to. Let's say Nodea can just like press one button and then I'm switched. Or is it something for specific purposes or is it general that I can just switch banks before.

Narcis:

The idea of it is, is double folded one is that, let's say that you, you, you are now courting Nordea to see will they be better option for you today. You need to provide them with all sorts of documentation so they can use it to be able to provide you an initial offering to see if it's better than the one you have today. Well, in the near future it should be soon implemented. You just have to press a button saying I give consent that all this data is automatically transferred to Nordea so Nordea can look through it and give me an offer. So basically it saves you the, the, the, the to bother gathering the documentation for them and send it to them and Danske Bank will not know about it. That's the whole idea of this E Banks gift. It's called program that Danske bank will not know that you're, you know, shopping around talking to other banks. But the idea of it was, that's why the consumer council has pushed for this innovation is because it should be easier for you to, to, to ask more banks. Because there's no way to use a comparison tool. That's why there is no comparison tool developed between different banks because different banks offer you different offers based on your credit history, based on your correct loans, based on your income, based on everything, your risk. Yeah, there's just a lot of things that you need to look at to provide you with an offer. So it'll be almost impossible for online tool to kind of give you an overview of what could be better for you, this bank or this bank. So the idea of the whole thing is that it should be easier for you to shop around and then ask 10 banks with 10 clicks and wait for the offers and then still sit and compare the 10 of them. So that doesn't save you from the part of comparison between numbers, but at least you can actively do it. And that's what the consumer council wants people to do it. Because right now too many people are stuck in the same bank, regardless of fees, regardless of anything, because simply they don't want to bother to search around. But there are 60 banks in Denmark.

Arun:

60 banks, did you say 66. Wow, I hardly count 10. I know. Spartan Spark Asset, US Bank, Danske Bank, Nodea and then Lan & Spar. Yeah, that was, that was what I learned.

Narcis:

Okay. No, but I don't you know that you can start yourself local bank, right? Anyone can start local bank. If you have half a million in capital, you can start your own bank in Denmark.

Arun:

Yeah, but, but I think it's interesting that you say there are 60 banks. And, and, and so the money that I have in my bank account, I can just say okay, how do I invest in the money? And then I can choose, let's say loan and spar, for example.

Narcis:

Yeah.

Arun:

And then they have a good returns, let's say for, for investing in them. So I can just use this option and say okay, I need a transfer. Yeah, here's the transfer. And then I can just start investing. Is that. How straightforward is this process?

Narcis:

As I said, there was two ways, right? The first one is about when you want to shop around and the second one is about when you want to switch banks. So let's say you decide now I want Lan & Spar. Great. Then they now thanks to the process they can automatically change or for your, your account from one bank to another without too much hassle for you. So, so yes, it simplifies severely that part as well.

Arun:

And is there an administrative cost attached to this or is it just like everybody can do it? Because then people are going to just switching around. You know what I mean?

Narcis:

That's the idea. I mean look how easy it is for you to switch from one electric company provider to another. Right?  or from one phone, from work, from one insurance to another, right? It's the same they wanted to do. It's just as easy in the banks because in the end the banks are competing with one another.

Arun:

Well, they're more competitive. Yeah, hopefully that's the idea.

Narcis:

But most people are stuck with the same bank for years because they, they find it too cumbersome to, to switch around. And that makes it difficult for smaller banks to compete. Let's say I came here, I made an account in Danske Bank. I did not change until the fact that Danske bank didn't want to give me a loan for the house. And I said okay. Now I'm forced to actually look around. I looked around. Nordea was open for internationals to, to. To buy houses. And they say okay. And I switched all my stuff to Nordea. But then I lost all my bank history from Danske Bank. I couldn't see anymore what happened in those years. That's a minus from the past. From what I understand now all the data is being moved from one bank to another. So that's. That's nice. And what's cool about it is that there are a lot of local banks. As I said, me and you, Arun, we can start our own bank if we want to. Actually. That would be really cool. There was never such an idea that an international owns a bank in Denmark.

Arun:

I'm not going on that for. Ambitious, Ambitious.

Narcis:

That's on my list to do for the next decade. I mean, it's just a half a million Kroners, mate. I mean, come on.

Arun:

Just a half a million is too much of a money, my friend. It's not penies. Maybe it's pennies for you, but not for me for sure. It's a lot of money.

Narcis:

Anyone we have half a million can.

Arun:

Make half a million years. Yeah, yeah. But I think it's also been invested back in the. In the community, in the commune that I'm in. I feel like. I feel like it's. I feel like it's a dream if I have a half a million and then think about starting on a venture or something. To be honest, I think. Think I'll put them in investments back in investments or some. Some form of investments.

Narcis:

I mean, if you do a bank to make a business, right, not because you want to spend money for no reason. It's a capital. Yeah, basically. Imagine that if you had a bank, you would be allowed during when it was the high interest frenzy, right? The banks made so much money by simply keeping their money with the. With the treasury. Right. With the central bank. That was beautiful. But only banks were allowed to do that, right? To use those direct interest rates. So they were taking your money and then putting them there. Literally, they were just storing your money and making money with your money, but they were not giving you anything on those money. Correct. So imagine if someone had a bank back then, right? How beautiful have been. You just take money from people and then you make money on their money. I mean, that's just. That's what investment investments you think you can make that could have the same returns in those specific times. Of course, there are years and decades like before the. The whole craziness with the interest rates, right. When it was impossible for the banks to make that much money. They had to leave out of fees and small interest rates. But things change. But I'm just saying that it's possible, it's not impossible. And I'm hoping maybe someone or international will make this step one day to create the banks for internationals or friendly. For internationals. I mean, all of them have to be friendly these days.

Arun:

More competitive or an alternative to conventional banking. But yeah, talking about change and let's focus our attention on the price increase of our food over the last two years. Crazy in amount 22 Percentage of average price increase for food. And based on the article, if you could read the article and then see the link, there's a lot of items like olive oil, sugar, chocolate, dry and frozen vegetables, eggs, cheese, flour and potatoes, rice and all these essentials. This is a huge, huge spike. I could see.

Narcis:

Well, it's climate change, mate.

Arun:

Is it just climate change? Come on. Narcis.

Narcis:

Yes, it is. Mainly climate change is crops. It's. It's supply. The problem is we, our demand increases every year because we simply increase in population. Right. Globally speaking. So so do we in Denmark. But at the same time the supply cannot keep up. There have been several years of bad crops, including this year. It seems it's not that great. That's why, for example, coffee is becoming a luxury item. Can you imagine? I think we slowly not, not, not realizing it. But coffee has increased in price also like 60, 70% in the last year.

Arun:

Yeah. Olive oil is the most like crazy. 82 Percentage of price increase in olive oil.

Narcis:

Yeah.

Arun:

We just import olive oil to be. We just import oil.

Narcis:

Right. Where is the olive oil coming from, Arun? Where do you think it's coming from?

Arun:

Let me guess. Definitely not from. Is it in. Okay, let's start with the continents. Europe or outside Europe?

Narcis:

Europe. Yes.

Arun:

I have to guess Europe. How about Eastern Europe?

Narcis:

South of Europe? It's olive oil. It only grows in very arid areas. Spain, Greece, Portugal, Italy. Okay, well there, there have been hit by this very terrible summer conditions. I don't know if you have been to Spain or Italy in the summer, but there's like 50 degrees down there in the south. So you literally burn alive outside. If you come from denmark, used to 20 degrees to die out of heat. You go at 50 degrees down south and you're literally going to be like in a. In, in a sound 24 hours. Yeah, but that heat wave kills crops.

Arun:

Oh yeah.

Narcis:

So. So that not enough olive oil is produced. But we do eat more olive oil than ever because we are switching to more healthier lifestyle. We prefer using something nicer and we have the capacity. We. We don't perceive it, but we do earn better than we used to do. We can. So we can look at olive oil. Like I remember in my studies, study years, right. I couldn't even look at the olive oil that was like, what is this? This is for fancy people. But now I'm, I'm like olive oil first and then only if there is no olive oil in the house, by God forbid, why I will use another kind of oil. I'm using olive oil for everything. So.

Arun:

Yeah, I mean, it's interesting to say that way. No, I am, I'm using olive oil only when I came to Denmark. The common oils that we use in India is groundnut oil, sesame oil or sunflower oil, also palm oil. There's a lot of variants. And then you also have gingerly oil. There's a lot of variants. And I think India is pretty, I would say dynamic in the amount of oil we use. And we use a lot of oil, a lot of, you know, these foods that we prepare. But, but olive oil is still a luxury in India, by the way. It's, it's. I have to be imported, of course, and it's, it's not something that we use on a daily basis. But here in Denmark, I've seen it, you get some really good choices to make. Especially you have the options of buying gingerly oil. I can also see sunflower oil is still popular, but then you also have olive oil. Right.

Narcis:

And what the hell is gingerly oil?

Arun:

Oh, it's a term in India. Yeah, from ground nuts you get. From ground nuts you just get from. There's also. Yeah, it's a groundnut oil, I would say.

Narcis:

Okay. But must be expensive or in very small quantities in Denmark.

Arun:

Yeah, but, but, but in, yeah, it should be expensive in Denmark, but in India the crop is grown everywhere, especially in south of India. I think ground is harvested just like every other state. I think it's very popular.

Narcis:

Okay.

Arun:

It's very, it's very affordable. But olive oil is very expensive and also in rest of the world. But it's considered to be an expensive option or.

Narcis:

Yeah, but I mean you put it on your salads, you put it, you cook with it, you. I mean there's just so many options to use olive oil. You eat it with bread. We literally put it in a, in a cup and then you put some nice bread and eat it like that. That's just, it's a delicacy and obviously you have to choose a good type. There is a types that are cheaper which you use for frying because you use more and then you, you keep the higher quality ones for the, for a select. Let's say you have better friends than the usual ones.

Arun:

Then you switch to the more branded version.

Narcis:

Yeah, exactly. It's like now it's time to take out the good oil. Come on bring out the good oil. And then we also upgrade the bread. Right. You don't use the normal bread. You use ciabatta. Something better. Yeah, ciabatta. Good olive oil. Now you're really impressing people. And then you put it in a nice designer made the cup and then that room, you know. Yeah, I mean it's. I, I'm at age where I have to care about what designer made my, my cups and my plates and my forks. I don't know if I have any Jorgensen plates.

Arun:

It's very Danish. It's very popular.

Narcis:

Do you have Georgians and plates?

Arun:

I, I, I, I bought one, but I think it's very expensive. Number one. And, and, and, and in my company we have this Christmas gift. So I select them from a Christmas gift. I think it's a finest products. By the way, what did you get.

Narcis:

This year for, for Christmas gift? What was your choice?

Arun:

This, this, this time I have a flare for rains, the brand called Rains and one of the options was to have a order a bag kind of a, I think it's duffel bag, you know, that you use for gym or maybe short trips. Yeah, yeah, the, the company called, the brand called Rains. It's very popular. I think a lot of people use it for.

Narcis:

Is it because it protects against rain or something?

Arun:

Yeah, I think it does. And also it's, I like the, I like the texture and it's very simply simple, yet very, very, I think durable. I guess not just resistant. I think it's also repellent. So resistant is different. Repellent is different. I think rain does both. So, so yeah, when you get gifts, I think then you choose to say, okay, I go for George Jensen or Royal Denmark. Royal Copenhagen. Whatever brands.

Narcis:

That's what you chose in the past years? No, no, this year I got, I got this saa, like a steam SAA that it's, it's like a bag that you can zip inside and then there's this machine that pushes steam inside. I was like, okay. I saw it's being pushed like crazy on advertising and social media, this thing. And I was like, okay, I need to have one of those because, you know, again, I'm at an age where I need to start caring about my health and body and stuff like that. So I noticed sauna does well to me, but I cannot afford to go every day to sauna, obviously neither.

Arun:

Why, why not? You have to go to sats. Sats have a good competition, competitive offer by giving them. I think that is also one of the reasons why people go to fitness center. SATS gym. That's fitness center. We don't have it. Okay. The one that I tried in, in Copenhagen, I think it's close to Nehrum where I work and they have like, yeah, sauna in built and I actually love that. And I, I guess I considered switching from my company fitness to SATS just because of that. Despite the fact that it is also expensive compared to my company's gym. But, but it's a good option. And also in swimming pools you get. Sauna is one of the, one of the options. So I go to sauna, take the cold shower and then head to the swimming pool. I, I just love them. But, but it of course requires a lot of effort. You have to go there, you know, you have to do something.

Narcis:

But that's why I want to build my own facilities. To be honest. I was very close this summer to, to get a sauna and build one in my own home because one of my friends builds sauna by himself. Do it yourself. My God. In his garage. And I was like, God damn it, man. But of course he's, he's like you, he's, he's a tech background, so he likes to, to play with tools and whatnot. Obviously I don't have such a background as we have discussed earlier. So for me, the option was to buy one already made and, and install it in my, in my courtyard. But I never got to do it. I was waiting for, for price drop or whatever and then I forgot about it.

Arun:

Okay.

Narcis:

But that's, that's my dream. I want to get one of those outside pool. Not my dream. Jesus. My next thing to do, I want to make one of those outside pools where you can make like bubbly water during the winter. And then next to it I want to have like sauna. And then next to it I want to have this cold water bucket. Jump into it to be like, and then build like a pastry out of wood and make it like a nice relaxed place to, to be with warm. Not like a pool, but more like a jacuzzi.

Arun:

No, no, I get a point.

Narcis:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's, that's kind of the stuff I'm aiming at. I'm at that age where that excites me. I'm, I'm no longer interested in traveling the world or just doing stuff like that. You know, my, my dreams now resume to building my own. How to call. Yeah, yeah, that's, that's life, right? So that's, do you have such, such ideas?

Arun:

So I, I, I Dreamt of having that. But as you pointed out, I still dream to travel more. But at some point I wanted to settle down. And yeah, I'm too old actually to. To maybe young to actually decide on building something on my apartment or something. But I think that at some point I will end up doing what you're doing. But you are actually too young to think about it. You're not that cool, to be honest. Right.

Narcis:

Yeah.

Arun:

But maybe you would have had a lot of travels in the past that you got over with. Travels. But I still have the craze for traveling more, exploring other continents. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I. I wanted to explore more and then at some point, of course, come back and build my own garage. I. I'd like to have a fancy car. Aston Martin is one of my favorite. Yeah, it is one of the classics, James Bond inspired. But I still believe it's a very finest, finest art. But then, yeah, that's one of the dreams that I want to have a garage for myself with my home. And then.

Narcis:

Or you can do like custom projects.

Arun:

Custom projects?

Narcis:

Yeah.

Arun:

Or maybe. Yeah, yeah. Or maybe just have it and then. Yeah, in movies I saw them and I said, okay, at some point I will do this.

Narcis:

That's your retirement plan.

Arun:

Diamond plan. Being a mechanic.

Narcis:

And then it's crazy. We're talking about retirement plan right now, but because I'm. I will be 35, 34. I don't know anymore. I don't. You're 34 and I'm 35 soon then. Can you imagine? That's not quite a lot. So. Because you said I. I did travel a lot in my. In my 20s. I started traveling when I was like 16 or something. And then in my 20s, I think I have done. I've done most of the things I wanted. I think at some point during university years, I was gone every month to two different countries.

Arun:

My God, how many countries have you visited nurses so far?

Narcis:

That's a good question.

Arun:

You didn't count. You stop counting.

Narcis:

I mean, in Europe there's very few, if almost none left. I did north of Africa, not south though. Didn't go that much low. I did only the entry to Asia, but I didn't ever went towards China, Japan, that direction. I stopped Central Asia and I did South America. I just never been further to the North America. Never been to North America, that's true. North America, No. And neither Far East, Asia or South Africa.

Arun:

That's kind of the place I have to cover everywhere. I haven't been outside of India. When I came to Europe. I've never gone out of another continent but my dream is, my short term goal is to travel different continents and then also yeah, make memories, make more memories and yeah, but I think it will be fun because I'm taking a lot of solo trips. I'm thinking of actually joining team local communities in Denmark that, that are planning to go hike on also city tours. So I think it's going to be a promising couple of years. Quite ambitious.

Narcis:

A good tip for you would be to join some associations here. For example, if you join my session Europa Movement Europa prevails. They have three, four yearly tours to some countries. For example they have this year to. To Japan 1, 1, 2. It was there to Davos where there was this economic forum in Davos. So you get to be there when that happens. That's very cool. So. So if you're part of different associations you can get cheaper discounted trips or even free trips around. That's how I got to go a lot this year. This is for example local from organization called European Youth and thanks to it I was able to see a lot of the of Europe without paying money from my pocket. So if you're.

Arun:

How do I become a member? Oh, I have to be a member of that, right?

Narcis:

Or exactly, if you become a member. I mean it's not difficult. You only just have to pay this yearly membership which uses like 150 krones or something.

Arun:

Not much.

Narcis:

Yeah, no. And then I mean have some sort of presence there, here and there and then use the opportunities provided to you, you know. Yeah.

Arun:

Narciss. I think, I guess we had talked about a lot of topics starting from education reforms, soaring prices with food banks which there's also something we spoke about. What did we talk more about? If I have to recollect my memory.

Narcis:

About food pricing food and also.

Arun:

Yeah. Price increase, payment, cash. Yeah. Is there anything that you want to touch more or.

Narcis:

I mean if you stay and look at the newsletter you'll see that there is many, many subjects that we could cover and obviously that will not be possible but that's what makes Slastic in Emmax so, so interesting. Many people are using it as a tool to either have discussions around the table with their family or to have discussions at work with their co workers because there's always something there for everyone. I mean if you're more interested in what should we say about external situation, Israel, Gaza, there is something there. Or if you're more interested about things related to children and their development or if you're more interested in Animals and climate change. If you're depends what, what, what really like jumps into your eyes because it's always interesting. I want to see what. Because you choose the subjects for these conversations or most of them at least. It's always interesting for me to see what's. What jumps into you because I was like, wow, okay, that's what you chose. Cash price increases and okay, obviously that's.

Arun:

What'S interesting then that's the mind of an expat thinking about how much would I have to pay. And these are topics which are really relevant, number one. And you also cover topics that attracts a lot of wider audiences. So like you said, or some for kids, some for let's say geopolitical. There's also focus areas about educational reforms and there's also like a. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And, and I, I think I like the parts where it talks about what is it. I just think about what is it for me. And when I say me, me as an expat and yeah, exactly. International and, and, and those international stories will resonate for my audiences listening to these podcasts and also your audiences by the way. And, and that. That helps. Right. And I can also dive deep into these topics in the future to investigate more. I think I use this forum to also educate myself and I get, I'm getting a really good valuable insights just because of, you know, having on our conversation with your work. And yeah, it's quite impressive that I'm also learning on the process.

Narcis:

That's nice. Yeah.

Arun:

Yeah.

Narcis:

For me this is like a interesting relaxation moment to just sit and talk. I like talking. I guess so.

Arun:

And I actually like diving deep into subjects but I also want to have back with facts and that is where I think your knowledge and insights and the work that last weekend Denmark is doing mainly benefits my work as well in saying okay, these are interesting topics and how do we know if it's all in Danish when you can actually make it in a pocket sized friendly user interface where it is available in multiple languages. For example, you're making it in different languages. I could see not just one, but I think it's seven to eight languages if I'm not wrong.

Narcis:

Now we have our seventh language, German.

Arun:

Oh.

Narcis:

So I was just.

Arun:

Oh.

Narcis:

And I from what I see now Hungarian is being on the way and then I'm really, really pushing for Ukrainian to be the next one.

Arun:

That should be impressive if you're taking Ukraine as one of the steps. Absolutely will be hit for sure. There's a lot of.

Narcis:

That's right. I'm hoping. But for adapt, I need community, for the Ukrainian community to come. Support, support and translate, because I cannot translate in Ukrainian, as you can imagine. So yeah, we need people who can do that.

Arun:

Yeah. Cool. Narcis it was amazing. After a short break that we had, I was completely, I would say, I would say blown away with a lot of facts by reading I can't spend. As you mentioned, all the 15, 16 topics are in the Last Week in Denmark articles. So people watching on or listening to this podcast, reach out to Last Week in Denmark, where you get insights of literally everything that we've spoken and more. Much more. So thank you for listening and wish you a week ahead.

Narcis:

See you next week. Looking forward to it.