Kruti Joshi, Denmark

Text: Kruti Joshi
Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Journalism)

Kruti Joshi: My name is Kruti Joshi. I do Bachelors of Communication Journalism at UTS, and I did video journalism at the Danish University of Media and Journalism.

The thing I enjoyed the most on exchange was snow, because being from India and then living here for 12 years, I’ve never seen snow. So I thoroughly enjoyed that, and I also quite liked the people that I met. Most of them were from Europe, and it was really amazing to think like such a small place and it could have so many different cultures and languages like all in one.

The best thing that I did on exchange was the opportunities to pursue stories with different people who have different ethics in journalism, and that was quiet interesting to me, because for example, I can’t go to a state jail here and do a story – it’s not that easy. I got the opportunity to do that there. Also, travelling with the people I met there, meeting someone like two months ago and then travelling around with them is something surprising and something I never thought I would have  done like two years ago, so that was really fun and interesting experience for me as well, so that was a blast.

The main thing is to have a lot of fun, but it’s also very important to do your research as to like weather, because when I went to Denmark it was a completely different weather, like it was like winter here while it was summer there, but then it got much more cooler, and also what’s acceptable and what’s not. For example, if you’re called to someone’s house in Denmark, it’s always very mannerful to sort of take something for them, like flowers and a box of chocolate or something, while here it’s not so customary to do so, so I think it’s important to learn what’s acceptable and what’s not.

The best thing that I gained while I was on exchange was a lot of friends and a lot of new acquaintances, so if I ever go back to Europe, I know that I have a place to go to, and a person that I can rely on, rather than being stranded out on the road, not knowing what to do. And I think, I hopefully hope that they’d be the same with me.

I’d definitely recommend students to take the risk and go on exchange, because, and go on exchange to a different place that you don’t know about, because at the end of the day, you learn a lot, you’ll have fun learning those things and you’ll pass on some of your own values and you’ll gain a lot more – so take the risk.