Visit from Qatar University

In 2019, Hadeel Al Khateeb from Qatar University has visited CIP twice. As a researcher Hadeel is focusing on language policy. During her stay Hadeel has established many contacts at CIP and is now working on a project with Sanne Larsen (CIP). Upon her return to Doha Hadeel writes:

Many say that Copenhagen, Scandinavia’s most stylish city, is a fairytale destination. I have to agree. After all, the Little Mermaid Statue is housed there, and even LEGO is Danish! 

While I was in the airplane flying from Doha to Copenhagen, I asked the person sitting next to me, who so happened to be a Danish psychologist: Why are the Danes so happy? Is it because of the relative lack of crime and corruption? He confidently answered: it is instead because of the Danish notion of hygge. He had to explain that hygge is the intentional lifestyle of trying to live happier, cozier, and warmer. This sparked my interest and drove me to research the notion. It appeared to me that hygge refers to a pleasant and highly valued everyday experience of safety, equality, personal wholeness, and spontaneous social flow. Hygge may seem hard to pronounce, especially for an Arab like myself, but it proved to be very easy to implement into one’s everyday life. At the same time, it costs virtually nothing. 

During my stay in Copenhagen, I learned a lesson from the happiness experts: the Danes. I gave up my "go, go, go" lifestyle, and learned how to hygge through taking restorative pauses. I lighted candles, I took long walks- even though in high heels, I bought a hyggebukser that my mother would hate if ever seen, I gained a tourist friend while exploring the throne room of Christiansborg Palace, and I truly enjoyed having Danish pastries with CIP people on many rainy mornings. Does anything in this world sound more hygge?

Academically, everyone working in CIP took my hand to my next level. I learned many things about parallellingualism, which seems to be firmly established in Nordic language policy discourse. Currently, I am working with Sanne Larsen on a research project titled: Language Strategy Evaluation: The Case of Copenhagen University's Language Strategy. We intend to apply the theoretical frameworks of Policy Analysis to the evaluation of Copenhagen University's Language Strategy. We wish to contribute to the growing literature in language policy and language planning that calls for building a culture of assessment within the field. Our aim is to assess whether Copenhagen University's Language Strategy has delivered the intended outcomes through applying a set of evaluation criteria including as relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and equity. We have hugely benefited from discussions with Karsten Schou as well as from Pete Westbrook’s translation skills. For them, we are thankful.

After having such great social and academic experiences in Copenhagen, I returned to Doha not only with a hygge philosophy and parallellingualism beliefs, but also with a gift book, that I cherish now on a small wooden desk in my home in Doha, and which talks about the worlds’ coolest queen. For all of this, I say: Tak København.

From Hadeel Al Khateeb's office - CIP cup and a book about the Queen Margrethe of Denmark