Picture 1: A picture from the Folk High School Danish language and culture course
The course called the Danish language and Culture program was established for young refugees between the age of 18–30 to learn the Danish language and to get deeper into the history and culture of the country while being a student at a Danish Folk High School. The course takes place at Jyderup Højskole, where the young refugees live together (it is a boarding school) with young Danish students for 5-6 months.
The course consists of language classes, cultural classes, social studies and study trips together with the entire school to cultural and historic sites in Denmark. The interaction of refugees with Danish students, during study trips and visiting historical places (seeing them with their own eyes) gives them historical knowledge and cultural awareness. In the last part of the course, they do an internship in a local company one day a week. This internship in the local community provides practice and improves language skills, as well as gaining experience of the labour market. Learners can also choose additional classes (such as Songwriting, Folk-music, Electronic Music, Environmental politics / Permaculture and Art) where they interact with Danish students (in the first part of the course) and participate in everyday life (dining, morning assemblies with songs and lectures, evening talks, music concerts and student groups at the Folk High School).
Picture 10: A picture from the Folk School Danish language and culture course
The language classes are of high quality, which gives the students a necessary tool for participating in everyday life at the Danish Folk High School and in society in general. Learning a language is hard work and they have to fight for it. Regarding cultural focus, this aspect gives the young refugees a way to understand the new country, habits, history, politics, song tradition etc. The mixture of young Danes and young refugees at a Folk High School by living together for a time helps mutual cultural understanding, knowledge and insight into each other’s lives.