I'm in a Copenhagen bakery, standing in line for sugar-dusted slices of lemon cake, delicately plaited cardamom buns and golden-brown cinnamon swirls. When I reach the front of the queue, I'm ready to order in simple Danish. But then I hit a snag: in this country, there is no single word that works quite like the English "please".
Like a lot of people, when I travel I learn the basics of hello, goodbye, yes, no, please and thank you. But that's just not possible in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic or Finnish, where there is no catch-all word that works in quite the same way.
So, what's going on? Are Nordic speakers simply more direct, or is politeness being expressed in ways outsiders may not immediately recognise? For travellers, understanding the difference can make everyday interactions much easier to navigate.