A culture of contrasts
The first one was with my landlady, the dialog was more or less like this:
Rochy: I will go to the house of a friend to watch a movie. See you later!
Landlady: Oh! (Actually she said the danish expression: Nå!). You ALREADY have a friend?
Rochy: :ñ
I wonder if I wasn't I supposed to have friends two months after my arrival??? Maybe the average people has one friend a year later... no wonder why are they depressed in winter... It was so absurd that I tried to formulate an explanation in my mind. I remembered that in German the word for friend and boyfriend is the same, so I gave it a last try:
Rochy: Well, is my friend, not a boyfriend...
Landlady: Yes... it is very good that you already have SOME friends.
Rochy: :Ñ
So... it was not the language.
The second event was as follows (I will write a long version to set you in context):
First, I was in a store with a friend. He understands danish because it is similar to his language. I saw a very explicit image (the phrase was: "fræk sex er trendy", so you can imagine the image... ok, don't do that). I didn't understand the word trendy. Using developed techniques to learn new languages, I thought that the image would impress me enough and I would be able to remember the meaning of the word (and actually it worked). There was another word that was "fræk" whose meaning I didn't understand but guessed by similarity with "freak", and my friend also told me the meaning of this word. Later on, I saw this last word in my landlady's computer in a phrase "Fniser frækt". Since there was a danish guy online, I asked him (I will write the short version):
Rochy: What is "Fniser frækt"?
Danish Guy: What? Where did you see that word?
Rochy: My landlady's computer. Is it something bad? (I had thought that the meaning of the word was innocent).
Danish Guy: No... where did you see the word before?
I explained him and then he explained me the meaning of the phrase. Then he told me
Danish Guy: Yes... actually here in Denmark people practice talk a lot about his sexual life. How is it in Mexico?
Rochy: Well... I think people can practice it a lot, but we don't really talk about it. I guess it is related to the fact that we care a lot about what others say and think about us.
Danish Guy: Well, here people practice it a lot and talk about it a lot. What about you? Do you practice it a lot?
Rochy: >:Ñ!
I know, I know, that happens to me for asking such questions. Too much time with engineers perhaps. If they had been Mexican I would have never dared to ask the meaning of such words, but I thought: "well they are open-minded Europeans". And yes! they are open minded... but apparently I am not :-P... (if you want to know, I just told him that I was still Mexican).
Anyway, at least I learned not only new vocabulary but also a bit of the culture. Summarizing, the phrases of the week:
- Oh! You already have a friend?
- What about you? Do you practice sex a lot?
Ah! The land of contrasts... I am definitely having fun here :-)