As a follow up to the "were are you guys from" thingy..

"Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh" (andymcbradleigh)
03/03/2015 at 15:54 • Filed to: None

10 terms we norwegians use that can't be translated... not easily that is.

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DISCUSSION (21)

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/03/2015 at 16:02

I use Faen quite a bit, become habit now.

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback
03/03/2015 at 16:04

It does pack a bit more punch than just "oh shit" :P

For Sweden > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/03/2015 at 16:04

The best solution is to give up on Norwegian and use a proper Scandinavian language, like Svenska

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/03/2015 at 16:05

It's funny when nobody around you knows what you are actually saying. Kinda an advantage in my book!

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > For Sweden
03/03/2015 at 16:06

I can't write Swedish perfectly, but I do speak eda-svensk flawlessly :P

KnowsAboutCars > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/03/2015 at 16:12

In English that is. :P The first one would be 'skarppaa' in spoken Finnish. Not a popular saying or anything but still.

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > KnowsAboutCars
03/03/2015 at 16:16

Så, ni har det på finska också?

KnowsAboutCars > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/03/2015 at 16:38

Kyllä. Actually we have our own versions of faen and russ too.

Svend > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/03/2015 at 16:42

At school the first things we ever learned doing a foreign language is swear words. Even now when I swear I swear in Polish or Dutch or I subtly gesticulate the Australian sign language of 'F you, F the lot of you'.

ly2v8-Brian > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/03/2015 at 20:12

No Uff or Uff da?

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > ly2v8-Brian
03/03/2015 at 23:18

huh.. Damn.. That should've been on the list indeed.

ly2v8-Brian > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/04/2015 at 00:23

It's one of the few hold outs from our Norwegian immigrants. Definitely not too uncommon to hear Uff. Of course you go north enough the German influence is less and the Norwegian influence is stronger and the people start sounding a little like this

Because of the heavy Germanic influences the English spoken around here is a bit different. Language is an interesting study.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/04/2015 at 06:25

Huh, I wonder how many of these things we have in English. I'm damn certain there's some from UK to US English, but I can't think of any to begin with.

Oh, and I particularly like 'slipper hero'. Might have to start using that one.

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > ly2v8-Brian
03/04/2015 at 06:26

Ahh.. Fargo :) Hehe, yeah.. I've met quite a few Americans here and there, some of them have been rather surprised I didn't talk like that.

ly2v8-Brian > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/04/2015 at 07:28

Doesn't really surprise me, when we lived in Germany my mom met several Scandinavians and always tells me about how well you guys speak English. Very clear with little accent, but that was just a small sample.

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > ly2v8-Brian
03/04/2015 at 07:52

We grow up with American and English shows on the telly, and it's usually texted not dubbed, so we usually know a few English words as early as kindergarten.

I do have an accent I guess, but I sound more British than "foreign" I'd say.

As a general rule you could say that most people below the age of 30 are almost fluent in English.

ly2v8-Brian > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/04/2015 at 10:17

That makes sense too, because there aren't many Scandinavians compared to say the Germans, or British (Norway has roughly the same population total as Minnesota and we're only the 21st most populous state in the US). So it is quite necessary to learn another language. No such requirement for us, obviously English (well American English technically) is the de facto language (we have no official language).

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > ly2v8-Brian
03/04/2015 at 10:24

Mhm, there's about 20 million Scandinavians in total.

And the fact that English is not the De Jure language in the United States is quite amusing if I'm honest, I wonder if the rednecks know that when they complain about "damn foreigners not speaking 'murican" :P

ly2v8-Brian > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/04/2015 at 10:51

The funny thing is that it's always been that way. The German-Americans are the best example of this, because they were resistant to learning English (especially as the primary language) and they were/are such a large portion of the population. Wisconsin, for example, wanted to make German the primary language in school and teach English as a secondary language. But WWI happened and the Federal government banned that immediately. They really came down hard on the Germans (and the Irish, two very sizable immigrant bases that were absolutely opposed to helping the UK (some German-Americans even lobbied for the US to fight for Germany)) and spread very negative propaganda. It would be interesting how different things would be had none of this happened.

On the flip side I can understand the desire to have foreigners learn English, but at the same time that is important to their culture and I wouldn't want to do that to them as it had been done to us. The Government is usually accommodating having important documents in other languages (no matter how small a minority of the people actually speak it, or at least have an interpreter available).

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > ly2v8-Brian
03/04/2015 at 11:00

I'd say that everyone should learn English, does not matter where you live, English is De Facto the universal tongue now (It may have been french at one time, and before that it was Latin, but that doesn't really matter).

But I do agree, it's important that The Government issues documents in other languages, so that people who are new to the country can get the basics of how a country works.

ly2v8-Brian > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/04/2015 at 11:04

Compromise is the best approach indeed.