The other day, in Puerto Escondido, I was talking to this random guy arriving in the hostel, and as we introduced ourself he asked me where I was from; I said Norway and he then proceeded to talk uncomprehensibly for about ten seconds, me finding no clues as to what the fuck he was on about until he, seeing my blank face and my eyes searching the emtpty air, said: 'forstaar du norsk, eller?' [do you understand Norwegian?]. I had met my first paysano in five months, and with that, I had to seriously blow some dust off certain parts of the brain. I switched to his akward tongue and responded that I was no longer sure, having only been speaking Norwegian for half an hour every second week for five months now, reporting educational days of joy and health to my parents.
I soon got into it but found myself stripped of an interesting vocabulary, to the extent that I ever had one in Norwegian. Speaking to this guy I couldn't help feel that everything was more boring in my language, the conversations more predictable and dull - and that was not due to topics, which were interesting enough, shamanism and Guatemala. The next day I met a Norwegian girl out on the board while waiting for waves, and the feeling repeated itself. I was beginning to wonder what the fuck was wrong here; the language is obviously less rich than English or Spanish, but is that the thing? Is it the predictability of people, and the quicker categorisation of them? The common cultural ballast that offers less as to interest and communication? Was it an unfortunate combination of people? Was it, God forbid, me? Am I myself a more dull, uninteresting, and in the opposite direction of communication, skeptical and arrogant person when I am speaking Norwegian?
I believe it to be a combination of all of the above, with perhaps an emphasis on meeting people that I didn't really feel a great need to have a conversation with. To conclude, I find myself having less tolerance with Norwegians: 19-year old girl, upon hearing my response in Spanish to another guy asking where I was from: 'aah, er du fra Noorge!' [oh, you're from Norway!] '(indre sukk, deretter falsk entuiasme) joa, stemmer det, aassen henger'em?' [(inner sigh, then false enthusiasm) yeah, that's right, how're they hangin'?]; anyway, I didn't say the hanging part, but I should've to have finished off the conversation quicker, or, conversely, find that she had a sense of humour and was worth talking to. To give her credit, though, she did make me laugh when I told her she could make more money off a writing job or something based in Norway that could be done on the road, rather than working for next to nothing in bars in fuckin' Honduras while travelling for South America, which she planned to do after her ex.phil/ex.fac (Norwegian mandatory philosophy course, first-year college or university) that she was infact doing there through her college with a group of 30 other toddlers; anyway, she replied 'ka fan sku ae skriv? ka fan veit ae? ae e bare 19 aar!' [what would I write? what the fuck do I know, I'm only 19]. Indeed she was. I'm drifting off the trail here, though; my point was that speaking to me in this uneducational tongue they better damn well have something substantial to offer or it's not worth the time. But a good laugh is always worth always it, I suppose is the corollary or whatever.
There it is. I'm an arrogant bastard, officially, at last. They'll never know, though; I'm not usually very rude to people's faces unless they're unlucky enough to be in my inner family. God help those future wives and children.
PS: It should be interesting to learn if others have had similar experiences of disenchantment with their native tongue or countrymen; the comments section is now open to all, I believe, after a change in the blogger configuration.
PPS: I want it to be noted that I like people. Even if I haven't been too sociable, or at least selectively so on this trip, when I have I've very often found myself in the company of interesting and/or laidback people. I believe the frequency of lovely people in general to be higher among the travelling tribe, but it doesn't hurt at all to be somewhat choosy there, either.
PPPS: There is a little Sveinung Mikkelsen seed in all of us, watered every day by the morons of the world.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Hallo Marius! Jeg følte med deg i hengekøya, litt av en type, men nå kan du vel puste lettet ut, da det er tydelig at denne pearl-jenta ikke var helt vanntett og har usunne interesser. Du fortjener bedre! Håper humøret er bedre!
Private insurance coverage any of those stuff that people possibly adore or even dislike. It can be a really helpful device whenever you require it. But occasionally it would appear that if you're shelling out an excessive amount of money and not getting everything in exchange. chwilówki Insurance plan is a contract, a risk move system whereby an organization (Underwriter) promised to pay or indemnify one more celebration (Policyholder) on the particular payment of reasonable premium towards the insurance provider to cover the particular subject-matter of insurance. If you are nicely conversant with these concepts, you will be in the better placement within negotiating a person insurance policy wants.
Post a Comment