Expressions

American’s have some pretty funny expressions that I don’t even think twice about until I use them in the presence of Norwegians and I get a puzzling look. When in Norway, I’ve often been caught in the same puzzle, in reverse.

We have many expressions in our house to describe someone that isn’t very bright.  We’ll say they “aren’t the sharpest crayon in the box,” “their elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top,” they “aren’t hitting on all cylinders” or “the lights are on, but no one is home.”  Norwegians just describe that kind of person, by saying, “dårlig møblert,” which translates as they have “bad furnishings.”  I think they could use a little more creativity with that one.

The American expression for someone who likes to exaggerate is they can “make a mountain out of a mole hill.”  Norwegians also have people who exaggerate but what they say, when translated is, “they can make a feather into five chickens.”  Now that one is funny.

When describing someone who eats their food very quickly, we might say they “eat like a pig.”  Norwegians say, “they eat like it was thrown into the mouth of a dog.”  I guess there must be a lot of hungry dogs in Norway to have everyone understand that one.

If it’s raining extra hard, our expression that it’s “raining cats and dogs” is just as odd as the Norwegian’s expression that it’s raining “trollkjerringer,” which translates as “old female trolls.”

It’s common when stopping by to visit a someone in Norway to be invited to “slå deg ned” which means “sit yourself down.”  But the Norwegian word “slå” has another meaning and is most often used as “slap,” so it could sound like they are saying “slap yourself down” if you didn’t know better.  It’s even funnier when they play off that double meaning and if you don’t take them up on their offer to have a seat, they use the expression, “slap yourself down before I do it for you.” This, of course, is meant to be funny, and considering how peace loving Norwegians are, it really is.    

If someone is making more work for themselves than necessary, Norwegians use a very old expression, “Å gå over bekken etter van” which means they are “crossing over the stream to get the water,” rather than getting it from the side they are already on. 

The Norwegian expression, “the male goat is watching over the oat bag” has the same meaning as our expression “the fox is watching the hen house.”

So we may be two very different cultures, but on some level, we sure think alike.