Yesterday I was inspired by a great colleague to participate in a little experiment. For a week I am going to smile to as many strangers as possible. I will count how many people I send a smile, and how many smiles I receive back.
My colleague tried it himself, he's an american and used to find the Danes quite closed and difficult to approach, but he was quite surprised how many smiles actually returned. Living in the center of Copenhagen he was able to pass quite a lot of strangers during one week. Approximately 450 smiles was send out and around 20% was returned.
I'm now on my first day, and since I've been working 7,5 hours today, and with people I know, there haven't been as many opportunities yet, but so far 30 smiles have been send out to strangers, and 16 received back, which is not that bad after all, and the experiment is already quite energizing and gratifying.
The first smile send out actually resulted in an opportunity to help an elderly lady get in touch with her family, and even though I missed my train, her warm hug afterwards made it absolutely worth it. The same counts for the warm smile I received back from a teenage guy with a cigarette in his hand and a couple of graffiti spray cans in his worn out backpack, and the Chinese tourist in a bus leaving the (tiny) little mermaid.
I will continue smiling at strangers tomorrow and the week to come, and I would love for you to join me?
If you were raised and born in Denmark, you might wanna send an extra warm smile at people from different cultures and religion than your own, as well as people with another sexual preference, people with a different family structure as well as people with a different lifestyle or a different way of presenting or expressing themselves.
Let's make it obvious that the majority of people in Denmark still welcome diversity.
My colleague tried it himself, he's an american and used to find the Danes quite closed and difficult to approach, but he was quite surprised how many smiles actually returned. Living in the center of Copenhagen he was able to pass quite a lot of strangers during one week. Approximately 450 smiles was send out and around 20% was returned.
I'm now on my first day, and since I've been working 7,5 hours today, and with people I know, there haven't been as many opportunities yet, but so far 30 smiles have been send out to strangers, and 16 received back, which is not that bad after all, and the experiment is already quite energizing and gratifying.
The first smile send out actually resulted in an opportunity to help an elderly lady get in touch with her family, and even though I missed my train, her warm hug afterwards made it absolutely worth it. The same counts for the warm smile I received back from a teenage guy with a cigarette in his hand and a couple of graffiti spray cans in his worn out backpack, and the Chinese tourist in a bus leaving the (tiny) little mermaid.
I will continue smiling at strangers tomorrow and the week to come, and I would love for you to join me?
If you were raised and born in Denmark, you might wanna send an extra warm smile at people from different cultures and religion than your own, as well as people with another sexual preference, people with a different family structure as well as people with a different lifestyle or a different way of presenting or expressing themselves.
Let's make it obvious that the majority of people in Denmark still welcome diversity.
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