Are you Poisoned?......I mean Married?
On today post I wanted to update you on my Norwegian learning. In the last few weeks since I started my classes at the Centre Culturel Franco-Norvégien I’ve learned quite a few things, notably all the important verbs that are now part of my life: å vaske opp, å gjøre rent, å vaske klær*!
I also learned that there is not really a word for “Please”… which answered so many questions I had about cultural differences in Norway. Well to be fair they have the “word” Vær så snill (which literally means “be so kind”) but it’s never ever used as it is very formal. They do indeed have a word for “Thank You” (“Takk”); not that they used it a lot either. But to be frank this shouldn’t bother me much since “Please” and “Thank You” were not a big part of the Chinese language either. Ayi told me one day that I said “Please” and “Thank You” too much; she was doing her job and it made her uncomfortable to be thanked all the time (sorry… I mean not sorry?!). One that grasped the concept of not saying Thank You was Jeremy. One day as I reprimanded him for not thanking Ayi he replied "Oh no she doesn’t want me to say thank you”!! . And we thought China & Norway were a world apart; in fact not ,there are so many little things that are so close from one culture to the other. Who would have thought?
But what made me laugh in class today is that the Norwegian word “gift” is the translation for the English word "Married" AND "Poison"??!!!. Not that I should draw any conclusions on the marital relationships in Norway from this.
* for the ones who are too lazy to Google translate it , the verbs means “do the dishes”, “clean”, “do the laundry”.
I also learned that there is not really a word for “Please”… which answered so many questions I had about cultural differences in Norway. Well to be fair they have the “word” Vær så snill (which literally means “be so kind”) but it’s never ever used as it is very formal. They do indeed have a word for “Thank You” (“Takk”); not that they used it a lot either. But to be frank this shouldn’t bother me much since “Please” and “Thank You” were not a big part of the Chinese language either. Ayi told me one day that I said “Please” and “Thank You” too much; she was doing her job and it made her uncomfortable to be thanked all the time (sorry… I mean not sorry?!). One that grasped the concept of not saying Thank You was Jeremy. One day as I reprimanded him for not thanking Ayi he replied "Oh no she doesn’t want me to say thank you”!! . And we thought China & Norway were a world apart; in fact not ,there are so many little things that are so close from one culture to the other. Who would have thought?
But what made me laugh in class today is that the Norwegian word “gift” is the translation for the English word "Married" AND "Poison"??!!!. Not that I should draw any conclusions on the marital relationships in Norway from this.
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| Indeed "New in Norway" |
* for the ones who are too lazy to Google translate it , the verbs means “do the dishes”, “clean”, “do the laundry”.
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