The Lingu Blog

As a native English speaker and language teacher living in Oslo, I often find myself noticing the languages that are being spoken around me. I have heard people from all parts of Norway, as well as from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. In fact, I often amuse myself by trying to identify the languages being spoken around me – something only a language teacher would do I am sure. In any case, one thing I have noticed as a result of all of this listening is the number of English words that have found their way into the Norwegian language.

Some of these words make sense, in that they are clearly serving as a replacement for the same Norwegian word. For example, I have heard the word “happy” used on several occasions. Dette gjør meg veldig happy. (This is making me very happy).  In this case, using the word “happy” can only mean one thing, i.e. that they like what was done. So you may ask, do Norwegians lack a word of the same meaning? No. Do they really need to borrow such a simple word? No. But for some reason using English just sounds cooler.

Further examples of English words making their way into Norwegian are all over. Norwegians can now go to the beach and party in two languages: Skal vi til beachen og party. Their kids can squish together on the tram and play a game together: Skvisj inn her, så kan vi play sammen. They can even get act spoiled: No offense, men jeg liker ikke det. It is amazing to me to hear where all these words sneak in and somehow seem to work.

Yet, there are some examples where the English word just does not work as intended. While watching a Norwegian talent show with a friend, I was very surprised when the judge complimented the dancers by saying, “Dere var tight!” meaning that their movements were well coordinated and together. Yet, when “tight” is pronounced with a Norwegian accent it sounds like “teit,” a word that means “lame” or “dumb.” So really, using English in this case did not make a whole lot of sense. I wonder, therefore, if there gets to be a point where there is too much English creeping in. At what point to people realize that what they just said would not make any sense to a speaker of their own language?

What’s your take on the matter? Any further examples?

Culture and Language: How important is culture in the way we speak a language?

Any English speaker visiting, working, or living in Europe can tell you that whilst Scandinavia doesn’t have an Eifel Tower, a Coliseum, or the likes of Buckingham palace, their high level of English surely makes our lives easier when living here.

This of course, is yet another great reason to live and work in Norway or Scandinavia. Be aware though, that their English, albeit outstanding in comparison to other European countries, may at times come across as extremely blunt, impolite and even insulting.

Three years after living in Norway and learning a bit of their language, I was able to forgive the barman that asked me “what do you want?” when I tried to order a drink.

Suffice it to say I left that bar and they never got my patronage again. I can recount this and many similar experiences, wherein I felt either insulted, or rubbed wrongly by the Norwegians, due to the abrasiveness in what seems to be rather high levels of English speaking skills throughout the general populace.

I later discovered that the term, “what do you want” i.e. “hva vil du ha,” in Norwegian, is actually rather polite in Norwegian, and is a commonly used way of asking, “how can I help you?”  I also was amazed by the fact that there is no continuous tense (i.e. words ending in –ing) in Norwegian, hence many times their intents are inaccurately translated into English.

A good example is: “Hva gjør du i Norge,” which may be translated into English and interpreted by native English speakers as “what do you do in Norway?” in terms of your profession, or “what are you doing in Norway?” in terms of what brought you here, or “why the hell are you here?”

Again, after having lived in Norway and loving it, I have learnt to forgive these seemingly impolite, abrasive blunders. After all, they speak both their language and mine; hence I think they have me out on effort and determination to communicate with the world, to the shame of most English speakers like myself.

My question now is, how important is culture in the way we speak a language? Speaking English, or any other language fluently apparently doesn’t automatically translate into effective, culturally sensitive communication.

What’s your take on this?