The Translation Expert Blog

Taiwan, or the Republic of China, is a country not unused to being in a state of uncertainty. Although once populated by aboriginals, the arrival of the Dutch in the 17th century (when the island was known as Formosa) changed this – although in a different way than in other examples of European ‘discovery’ affecting aboriginal populations. Instead of the Dutch displacing the natives, mainland Chinese began to immigrate to the island, formally conquering it in 1683. 

It’s that time again – time for the Translation Services Professional to give in and admit that not everyone in the world enjoys learning languages the way I do. It’s humbling. In my youth I would harangue people in pubs about how they should never simply learn phrases but instead attempt to learn a language at least on a simplistic level. Today I have mellowed and realise that when my friend tells me he’s visiting The Philippines for a few days and just needs some simple survival phrases in Tagalog (he’ll be in Manilla, where Tagalog and English are the dominant languages), I shouldn’t lecture him on the awesomeness of learning a language fully and instead just give him the following advice. As they say: With age comes wisdom!

Proverbs have a lot of purposes in the world. Some of them are designed to be “space fillers,” something you can say when nothing comes to mind. Others are aphorisms, common wisdom repeated not because you think you’re teaching anyone anything, but simply because it’s accepted as common knowledge. And some are meant to be inspiring, to remind us that the world heals and no matter how dark things appear to be we can always expect the dawn. There are a lot of these sorts of proverbs originating in Norway, for some reason. I’ve come across a huge number in my travels and document translation work. Here are some of my favourites.

The world is filled with universal truths. You might imagine that the cultures of the world are vastly different and that life in one country is generally very different from life in another, and on many levels you’re right – but these often bizarre differences in culture then combine to be one of those universal truths: That you can find strangeness anywhere. Consider the Scandinavian culture in general and Norway’s in particular: In some ways life in Norway is very similar to life where I live. In others, based on my visits and the reports of some of my friends and colleagues, it’s like a whole different planet. Consider some of these (mostly amusing) facts about daily life in Norway.