Children Playing - Drive Carefully
I always thought Norwegians were perfectly polite – we may not use our please and thank yous all the time, but that doesn’t mean that we are rude, does it? I never understood why people would think that Norwegians are rude, until I moved away from Norway!
I think we Norwegians like to think of ourselves as straight forward, calling a spade a spade kind of people, and that just because we don’t say please all the time does not mean we are rude. It just means we save time, we are very efficient people…
Learning English in school (from the age of 9 when I was in school), we were always told that it was very important to say please and thank you, but I don’t think I ever understood how many times you are supposed to say it until I actually lived there. But they really do, and in the beginning I had to think about it, but then it just becomes part of you. But even though they all say please and thank you all the time, I don’t think the British necessarily are that much nicer than the rest of us! I have still been pushed on buses, just like I do in Norway. I have had people jump ahead of me in a que, just like in Norway. It is just that in Norway people don’t normally say “excuse me” or “sorry” at the same time as they use their elbow to get passed you!
My husband was shocked when we were out driving one day (in the south of England) and stopped to ask for directions. I rolled down the window and asked the lady “Do you know where X is?” – Which in Norway would be a very normal thing to say. Apparently what I should have said though was “Excuse me please, would you be able to help? Could you possible tell me how I can find X?” What a waste of words (and time) I say, but this is apparently what is expected, and when in Rome… 🙂
Even the signposts in the UK are more polite than their Norwegian equivalent: “Please Drive Carefully”, would in Norwegian be “Kjør forsiktig” – without the please!
So I got used to the way it was done over there (in the UK), and now that we live in Norway again, I must say I find it a little bit difficult to continue saying that Norwegians are not rude…
My husband, who can be very English, is trying to learn Norwegian. At a pub I told him to say “En øl, takk” – “One beer, please” (he insisted he had to say please!) . And he went to the bar, placed his order (or did he ask for two beers, oh well, doesn’t matter), anyway, the barman didn’t understand him, and this happened time and time again, and he would always en up placing his order in English. Then one night he decided to just say “en øl” – “one beer”, and what do you know – the barman understood him! And ever since, my husband never tries to say “please” or “thank you” in Norwegian as it just seems to highlight the fact that he is not Norwegian, and nobody seems to understand him anyway!
So… when the UK – do say Please and Thank You… when in Norway… I wouldn’t bother! (But that doesn’t mean that you can’t say what you have to say with a smile! 🙂 )
– Photo credit to Asta Burrows –
Quintessentially Burrows 