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How well do you know your neighbours? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5143 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 9 18 November 2010 at 11:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Going through some of the discussions on the forum, I was struck by the variety in how well we know the culture of the countries next to us. I bet Mexicans and Canadians know American culture quite well, wheras the opposite is not neccesarily the case. In our case, most Norwegians know very little about Danish culture (apart from H.C. Andersen, Povel Ramel and Eddie Skoller), we know very little about Finnish culture (apart from Arja Sajonmaa and Sibelius) from Russia we know the classics within literature and music (we might even have read and listened to quite a lot of it) but would not be able to name a pop singer to save our life.
But Sweden - Sweden we know like the palm of our hand - at least those of my generation do. We grew up with the fantastic world of Astrid Lindgren: Pippi Langstrømpe, Vi på Saltkråkan ("Farbror Melker hvarför badar ni alltid med kläderna på"), Emil i Lønnberga, we sang songs from Gluntarne, and loved all the songs by Evert Taube ("Samborombom en litan by forutan gata, den ligger inte långt från Rio de La Plata...")and sang "I do, I do, I do along with Abba. Every Christmas I must see the Disney films in Swedish, or my Christmas is ruined, and August Strindberg is as well known to us as Ibsen. The Millennium Saga has been seen and read by half of Norway, and Jan Guillou is a household name. I doubt that the Swedes know our culture that well, but I am willing to be surprised :-). How about the rest of you? Which of your neighbours do you know well? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5273 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 2 of 9 18 November 2010 at 11:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Not so easy for us Brits. Our closest neighbours are Ireland and France but I think
most people could only name a few famous Irish people and would struggle to come up with even a single famous Frenchman or woman. On the other hand, everyone knows much much more about the big neighbour over the Atlantic. I remember as a child I used to complain about being English rather than American since everything just seemed so much cooler over there. It's all bound up with language for the people of the UK. Most people are quite familiar with Australian popular culture, despite being a 24-hour flight away, and yet don't have a clue what's going on in France, Belgium, and Holland, all of which can be reached in a couple of hours. Maybe the fact that we are an island contributes too. Even now going abroad is a big deal to a Brit, requiring time and planning. When I lived in Vienna I loved the fact that I could just jump on a train and pop over to Slovakia to buy cheap cigarettes and beer, and maybe if we shared a land border with another country our outlook would be different. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tomsawyer Senior Member Aruba Joined 5096 days ago 103 posts - 141 votes Speaks: English* Studies: GermanB1, French, Russian | Message 3 of 9 18 November 2010 at 11:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's an interesting situation in Australia. We're surrounded by rich Eastern cultures, yet for the most part, Australians wouldn't have a clue about the history, culture or social norms of our neighbouring countries, let alone be able to point them out on a map.
On the contrary, everybody knows of famous American people, their current events, and their general way of life, perhaps because we identify with them so well. The British Royal Family come up in the news once every couple of months, and a lot of British sitcoms are played here on television, which mainly appeal to the older generations. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6512 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 9 19 November 2010 at 12:34am | IP Logged | ||
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I have TV from many countries, and because I use news broadcasts to learn languages or keep them alive I do actually know some general things about the politics and culture of those countries (unfortunately I now only have one Norwegian TV channel). I have also read a lot about geography and history, including those of my neighbouring countries, and I read local newspapers whenever I travel somewhere. But from there to knowing all the local pop singers, minor politicians, murderers and authors there is a wide margin. So I would not be able to enter a discussion about current affairs with locals without being caught out on things they thought were common knowledge.
PS: here in Denmark we blame the Swedes for Povel Ramel Edited by Iversen on 19 November 2010 at 12:35am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5143 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 9 19 November 2010 at 9:19am | IP Logged | ||
I am so sorry, of course he is. He and our own Wenche Myhre used to do acts together, and they were most definitely in Swedish/Norwegian. My only excuse was that I asked my husband for extra Danish names, because I struggled to come up with anything, and when he mentioned Povel Ramel, I guess my brain just registred that it was a familiar name, and I noted it down without pausing to think about the fact that he is indeed Swedish. My appologies to both Swedes and Danes. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6512 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 9 19 November 2010 at 9:51am | IP Logged | ||
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Apology accepted. Actually both Wenche Myhre and Povel Ramel belongs to the category of knowledge about our neighbours that I could do without, - and that extends to their Danish counterparts. The only thing worse than Povel Ramel is Evert Taube. Well, on second thought maybe not - there is competition: a Danish TV station DK4 is actively promoting German Schlager-Musik, which also is against my fundamental principles and at least as disgusting as Evert Taube. That's also my opinion about American rap and hiphop and French musette musique and Greek Buzuki and Japanese pop and African songs and broccoli. Well, I have never claimed to have a particularly broad taste in music. Or vegetables.
By the way: one of my favorite Norwegian TV programs is "Parlamentet", even though I haven't got a clue about the things they are discussing. Edited by Iversen on 20 November 2010 at 12:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arti Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 6821 days ago 130 posts - 165 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: French, Czech | Message 7 of 9 19 November 2010 at 8:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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From Russian point of view I can say that people know only Ukraine and Belarus. (taking into account the number of neighbours from USA and North Korea to Finland and Poland) We have the same cultural identification and the same cultural "space" - all pop and rock stars are the same, all the main foreign news in Russia are about these countries etc. Ukraine and Belarus are the only countries where you can go with Russian ID, so it's simply obvious that we know each other very well.
Other ex-Soviet republics disappeared from this "space" for many different reasons. In some cases like with Georgia and Baltic states, it is politics, with Central Asian republics it's just different culture, they are Muslim and I'm pretty sure they won't listen to rock, pop and other "western" things. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5143 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 9 19 November 2010 at 11:13pm | IP Logged | ||
I therefore assume that Russians' knowledge about their "sosedi" in the North-West, Norway,is non-existant? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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