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[PaaKne]

SkyWriting: "In Norway you are never bored/If heaven in your view involves a glacier and a fiord" (a and a couple of waterfalls..) .-

Wonder whether pic at row 4, left, is Steindalsfossen - a waterfall you actually can backwards, standing behind the water and look "out" though the waterfall. An please notice the pic at row 4, right: The flag shown the correct way and still stating that "det lyses kors i Norges flagg" ("a chross is lightning in Norway's flag") - even though a lot don't like that. His mercy last for generations...

 

[PaaKne]

tansy, I agree that not many persons have time to learn that many languages, neighter need them. However, it's my opinion that it's always useful knowing at least a couple of other langugages than your own: Makes you able to read anythting from news to litterature in the original writing, make you able to read the Bible in different langugages (e.g. at lot of Norwegian Christians reading only Norwegian isn't aware of what's said in the last part of Matt 28, as the traditonal Norwegian translation is "languge blocking" it and giving an idea that a child can not belong to God without being baptized as a child) and so on.

Yes, I know "the French way" of thinking: Eighter you speak our langugage correct, or you keep away from it av we'll speek togehter in an other language. In one way understandable if you love the language, but not making it easy learing a language.

 

[Winken]

Great conversation, folks. See you in the forums, Paakne.

 

[PaaKne]

Great conversation, folks. See you in the forums, Paakne.

Thanks a lot, Winken. Looking forward to that, but now it's goodnight for a while first. In Norway the time is a bit more than bed-time for good boys now .

 

[sunshineforJesus]

Hi and its nice to meet you.

 

[tansy]

tansy, I agree that not many persons have time to learn that many languages, neighter need them. However, it's my opinion that it's always useful knowing at least a couple of other langugages than your own: Makes you able to read anythting from news to litterature in the original writing, make you able to read the Bible in different langugages (e.g. at lot of Norwegian Christians reading only Norwegian isn't aware of what's said in the last part of Matt 28, as the traditonal Norwegian translation is "languge blocking" it and giving an idea that a child can not belong to God without being baptized as a child) and so on.

Yes, I know "the French way" of thinking: Eighter you speak our langugage correct, or you keep away from it av we'll speek togehter in an other language. In one way understandable if you love the language, but not making it easy learing a language.

Oh, I agree. And knowing at least a smattering of Latin can help you understand words that you've not come across before. Also, as some languages are a little similar in some ways, one can often understand bits of a language without understanding it completely (if you see what I mean ). Also, if say, two people don't know their respective languages, sometimes they might both have learnt another one in which they can at least converse a little.

 

[PaaKne]

Sorry for my late reply, tansy, but this week school has required a lot of attention. (At least for those wanting to learn and not just get a "passing grade", I'll return to that subject at a later occation.)

Knowing som Latin is always usable, but talking about that in Norway unfortunately makes you very easily frowned upon! 100-125 years ago a Norwegian pre-U education was about 50 % Latin, several Norwegian authers correctly made attention to the total uselessness of that in their writing - and today a pre-U education shouldn't touch Latin (even less a secondary education, as that's a "bad habit" (and if a Norwegian boy at 16 should talk about learning "useless Latin", there is something wrong with him - brain washed in some way, maybe?) However, is't there something about throwing baby away togheter with the water after the bath?

I know exactly what you meen when you are talking about languages similar in some ways: Norwegian/Swedish/Danish are very similar, but not the same language, and thus the same word may have different meaning: (E.g the word "frokost" means breakfast in Norwegian and "lunch" in Danish, while the expresstion "ikke anledning å komme" is "not possible (for me) to come" in Norwegian and "I' don't bother/care about coming" in Swedish. When we visited Poland I also noticed the word "klienty" - easyli recogniceable as "klient" in Norwegian and "client" in English (and in fact also means "customer" in Poland - as communism don't have customeres, only clients..)

The last thing mentioned is something a Norwegian uses regularly: We communicate with persons from France, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Israel etc though English - foreign language for both persons.

 

[tansy]

Sorry for my late reply, tansy, but this week school has required a lot of attention. (At least for those wanting to learn and not just get a "passing grade", I'll return to that subject at a later occation.)

Knowing som Latin is always usable, but talking about that in Norway unfortunately makes you very easily frowned upon! 100-125 years ago a Norwegian pre-U education was about 50 % Latin, several Norwegian authers correctly made attention to the total uselessness of that in their writing - and today a pre-U education shouldn't touch Latin (even less a secondary education, as that's a "bad habit" (and if a Norwegian boy at 16 should talk about learning "useless Latin", there is something wrong with him - brain washed in some way, maybe?) However, is't there something about throwing baby away togheter with the water after the bath?

I know exactly what you meen when you are talking about languages similar in some ways: Norwegian/Swedish/Danish are very similar, but not the same language, and thus the same word may have different meaning: (E.g the word "frokost" means breakfast in Norwegian and "lunch" in Danish, while the expresstion "ikke anledning å komme" is "not possible (for me) to come" in Norwegian and "I' don't bother/care about coming" in Swedish. When we visited Poland I also noticed the word "klienty" - easyli recogniceable as "klient" in Norwegian and "client" in English (and in fact also means "customer" in Poland - as communism don't have customeres, only clients..)

The last thing mentioned is something a Norwegian uses regularly: We communicate with persons from France, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Israel etc though English - foreign language for both persons.

Well, that's a shame that people in Norway don't see Latin as being useful. There'll always have to be people who understand Latin and other ancient languages, for translating archaeological finds apart from anything else.
Yes, sometimes, it can cause problems if something in one language doesn't mean quite the same in another . Or perhaps one makes the wrong 'guess'! Or even uses slightly the wrong word. There can be all sorts of embarrassing outcomes!

 

[PaaKne]

Yes, tansy, this is a shame! Understandable seen from the historic angle, but when even a Norwegian doctor not able to immidiately pick up a word like "myopia" (in Norwegian "nærsynthet", far away from Latin) du to lack of suffinent knowlegde of Latin, something went wrong!

Even televison in Norway have had some terrible "translations errors" from Swedish and Danish. Most remarkable I do think was when the Swedish author Ms Selma Lagerlöf wrote "Skogen voru mörk och fasansful" (="the forest was dark and terrible") and the Norwegian text translation in the film suddenly became "Skogen var mørk og fylt av fasaner" (="the forest was dark and filled by pheasants")

 

[Uncle Tommy]

Greetings! Welcome to CF.

 

[tansy]

Yes, tansy, this is a shame! Understandable seen from the historic angle, but when even a Norwegian doctor not able to immidiately pick up a word like "myopia" (in Norwegian "nærsynthet", far away from Latin) du to lack of suffinent knowlegde of Latin, something went wrong!

Even televison in Norway have had some terrible "translations errors" from Swedish and Danish. Most remarkable I do think was when the Swedish author Ms Selma Lagerlöf wrote "Skogen voru mörk och fasansful" (="the forest was dark and terrible") and the Norwegian text translation in the film suddenly became "Skogen var mørk og fylt av fasaner" (="the forest was dark and filled by pheasants")

Oh, that made me laugh ROFL But at least that dodgy translation is innocuous. Only thing is, I now have a mental vision of a dark forest, filled with terrible pheasants just waiting to pounce on unwary travellers . The mind boggles!

 

[PaaKne]

Oh, that made me laugh ROFL But at least that dodgy translation is innocuous. Only thing is, I now have a mental vision of a dark forest, filled with terrible pheasants just waiting to pounce on unwary travellers . The mind boggles!

Norwegians knowing Swedish slighly more than absolutely basic - or who had read the books in Norwegian before seeing the film on TV - also got som interesting retina pictures here.

Normally the translation errors are innocuous, but one - from English was absolutely not: A word not used by sons/daughers of the Lord (and scarely not other people having got at certain amount of tutelegde) was translated equal to "blood-filled": Wel, from a strict medical-technical point of view correct, though certainly not exact the same meening expressed..

 

[tansy]

Norwegians knowing Swedish slighly more than absolutely basic - or who had read the books in Norwegian before seeing the film on TV - also got som interesting retina pictures here.

Normally the translation errors are innocuous, but one - from English was absolutely not: A word not used by sons/daughers of the Lord (and scarely not other people having got at certain amount of tutelegde) was translated equal to "blood-filled": Wel, from a strict medical-technical point of view correct, though certainly not exact the same meening expressed..

Yes, I remember when I lived in Belgium for a while, I needed to compose a letter to someone but showed it to my neighbour before posting it, to check the French (he could speak good English). He laughed and said (about one of the sentences) 'Well, the French is perfectly correct, but you wouldn't actually say it that way'.
Another time, when we lived in Luxembourg I gave birth to one of my children and had to go round to the office in the hospital. I told them my baby had been 'delivre'. The doctor laughed. He said 'you 'delivre' a letter, but a baby is 'livre'. (Sorry, can't put the acute accents on the 'E'). In English the word is 'delivered' whether it is a baby being born, or a letter or parcel being delivered.. Easy mistake to make .

By the way, I hope you don't mind my saying, but that word is spelt 'tutelage', not 'tutelgde'. Only pointing that out to help you with your English, not to be critical...I don't normally go round correcting people's spelling mistakes etc. Not unless they ask me to, anyhow LOL.

 

[PaaKne]

Just same baby mistake is possible in Norwegian (and at least Danish) as well. A letter is delivered, while the language dont have a similar for baby birth, and this will typically be expressed equal to that the baby birth is fulfilled/ended. Using the same term as for the letter might have Norwegians with less English knowledge wondering whetherit was the stork or the postman that delivered the baby .

The standard problem opposite is the Norwegian word "ved". That may be the noon "wood", or be a part of the construction "ved (siden av)", equal to English "beside". More than one child have checked their dictionary, not thought about the difference and failtfully translated "ved siden av" = "wood the side of" instead of "beside". Also the word "escalator" is difficult for Norwegian children. The Norwegian term litteraly translated is "stairs that move/roll", and the word thus faithfully translated "rolling stairs - extremely intuitive for an English-speeking person, I suppose. Also the difference roof/ceiling is different as a child, as in common Norwegian the same word normally is used (+ "outside/inside" if needed to clarify).

Please feel free to correct misspelled and clumsy choosen word, nothing is better than having my English improved. However, be aware of that I am an expert in typo )especially when my computer dont says "beep" like when I-m writing Norwegian) , and my intention here was tutelage - my fingers just ran a bit to fast when touching the keybord. (I always remember that particular word because the first half is "weep" (hard and often a bit unjustified) in Norwegian and the last half is "make" in Norwegian!)

 

[tansy]

Thanks Yes, I did think that some things might be typos . So easily done. I am not immune to that (nor spelling or grammar mistakes for that matter). Often I think foreigners can speak better English than many of us. And goodness only knows when someone visits Britain and travels to different parts, how they can understand some of the northerners or Scottish people, I don't know! It can be hard enough for us. Years ago, I went out for a while with with a chap from up north and to begin with I found it hard to understand his accent properly. Anyhow, I mentioned this to him and He said it was hard for him to understand me.

Also, when people are speaking very badly and using a lot of slang it would be very difficult, I should think.
And there are so many phrases and saying we use that would be nonsensical to a foreigner. For example: ' I haven't seen that in donkey's years' - 'as snug as a bug in a rug' - 'Bob's your uncle'.

How about this? 'Bob nicked ten bob and promptly did a bunk. The Old Bill caught him and he ended up in the nick. His girlfriend said 'Well, he ain't gonna be half-inching stuff no more now. He's landed himself right in it.. Of course, he's only gone and left me with a bun in the oven. Dunno what I'm gonna do now'.

If you can understand that, then your English is amazing

 

[PaaKne]

...
If you can understand that, then your English is amazing

Seems like a man stealing ten times. esacape rapidly, getting caught by the police/sheriff and get prisoned. His girlfriend (well...) is complaining for having him im jail, while she is pregnant and don't know what to do about that situation.

Not perfect, but do I pass?

 

[tansy]

Seems like a man stealing ten times. esacape rapidly, getting caught by the police/sheriff and get prisoned. His girlfriend (well...) is complaining for having him im jail, while she is pregnant and don't know what to do about that situation.

Not perfect, but do I pass?

Excellent . Only thing you didn't get quite right was 'stealing ten times'. But that was a bit tricky. 'Ten bob' dates from when Britain used pounds, shilling and pence instead of pounds and pence. And we often used slightly different, sometimes slang terms for various coins and notes. Thus:-
pound (note) - quid
two shilling piece - florin
shilling - bob
sixpenny piece - tanner
threepenny piece - threepenny bit (pronounced threpney)

The other coins and notes we had whilst I was still young (but don't think we had other terms for them) were:-
ten shilling note
crown (not many people remember them...I only saw one once)
half-crown
penny
halfpenny (pronounced 'haypney', sometmes spelt ha'penny)
farthing

Not of course that that's much use to you LOL, unless you happen to read an English book pre early '70s. And of course, before that there were guineas, sovereigns, mites and probably other things, but that was yonks and yonks ago, well before my time.

 

[PaaKne]

Thank you, tansy .

We have been told in school that "do a bob" is slang for stealing, thus my translation here. I also know about the old British money system, 12 pence - 1 shilling, 20 shilling - 1 £ and 21 shilling - 1 guinea) and that a 1/4 pence piece was a farthing , a shilling piece was a bob, and a twoshilling piece was a florin.

Btw: Norway also had a similar system with 24 skilling - 1 mark and 5 mak - 1 speciedaler. However Norway left that in 1876 and not 1972 (thouht the coins until 1905 had both old and new values stated)

Further comments tomorrow, but unfortunaly it's more than reasonable bedtime for good Norwegian boys now..

 

[RascaLinFaith]

Welcome!

 

[tansy]

Thank you, tansy .

We have been told in school that "do a bob" is slang for stealing, thus my translation here. I also know about the old British money system, 12 pence - 1 shilling, 20 shilling - 1 £ and 21 shilling - 1 guinea) and that a 1/4 pence piece was a farthing , a shilling piece was a bob, and a twoshilling piece was a florin.

Btw: Norway also had a similar system with 24 skilling - 1 mark and 5 mak - 1 speciedaler. However Norway left that in 1876 and not 1972 (thouht the coins until 1905 had both old and new values stated)

Further comments tomorrow, but unfortunaly it's more than reasonable bedtime for good Norwegian boys now..

That's interesting about your money system.

I have to say I have never ever heard of 'do a bob' meaning 'stealing'. Maybe it's used in some circles, or perhaps 'street talk' in some areas amongst certain groups of people. I don't know. Totally flummoxed by that, I have to say! Anyhow, I'm certain it's not in general usage...never heard it on television or radio or seen it in a book or newspaper, or heard anyone round and about saying it. Most odd.