you could call icelanders peaceful and easygoing. me, i just call us careless.
taking for example a case that is being laid before the parlament: “gay people will be allowed to adopt their mates kids”. (never mind the topic, doesnt matter) what matters is, is this: some people yell this, other people yell that, eventually everybody will forget about it. no matter how the parlament treats the case(news said the parlament would probably accept it).
its just like saying: “oh my ***, he did that?”. and then a year later when you are asked about it, you cant remember what it was he did.
yeah, people forget and people forgive. but thats no reason for accepting what is wrong or giving false information about what is right(generally speaking, this is iceland).
Notthemama, the law that says you have to be 21 to purches sperits and beer is as effective as bandade on a bulletwomd. I started drinking at around 16. My friends and i would wate outside a liquer store and pay some one to go in and buy us beer. on other times we would just drive into town to a liquer store known to sell to minors. we would never go a weekend without something to drink. To all the parents out there who have childrend around 15, i GARINTY that your kids are up to the same thing. Alichol is so ingrained into our society that it sometimes suprises me how people react to it. There’s really nothing anyone can do about it. maybe that’s a thread i should start. hmmmmm
Bars don’t buy cheap wisky and pore it into the better ones. at least not in my area. I know a lot of people in the buisness, and i never herd of anyone doing it. What you should be more conserned about is when that bottle was opened for that glass of wine you just ordered. anything older then two days without nitrgen treatment should not be drank.
Notthemama,
I just read up on this thread, and a few other threads that Bjorn contributed to, and i have to say that, no offense intended, there are quite a few morons wandering around on this message board.
Naturally Bjorn’s English is difficult sometimes, after all, HE IS AN ICELANDER. That means English is not his native language. I would really like to see some of the people who so casually dismiss him based on grammar, spelling or punctuation try and carry on a conversation on a board that was all in Icelandic. How many of them speak any language but English? Which reminds me of a joke . . .
What do you call a person who speaks three languages?
Tri-lingual.
What do you call a person who speaks two languages?
Bi-lingual.
What do you call a person who speaks one language?
American.
Writing from Japan . . .
Hi. I speak four languages. What would you call me?
We’re not bashing bj0rn for grammar errors or spelling mishaps. We’re bashing him because he chooses to remain incoherent, and because he is very judgmental of posters that write in ways that are beyond his own comprehension. See his “sarcasm” thread if you want to know what I mean.
The point is not that bj0rn’s English is better than (most of our) Icelandic. That is undoubtedly true. The point is, that (assuming I, as an example, speak some Icelandic) I woulnd’t post on an Icelandic message board telling people to stop using irony and sarcasm because that would mean they were lying to me… and various other nonsensical lines of reasoning, but I’m sure you get my drift, after reading all those bj0rn threads.
graygalahad and coldfire: language is not really the problem, neither are language tools similar to sarcasm. the problem is a poster who ignores/fails to act on the truth of the original speaker. (details: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=21894)
writing badly is not writing incoherently, but falsely.
Well, so if Icelanders are, generally speaking, pretty easy-going, what does it take to get them really angry? Are you saying that right now they’re all upset about this gay adoption thing, but in a year they will have forgotten all about it? I don’t think that’s just Icelanders, I think that’s just human nature. It’s hard to remain angry about something that doesn’t affect you personally. So, yeah, they’ll say, “Oh, that’s terrible”, as long as it’s right in front of them, but as soon as it isn’t on TV anymore, they’ll forget about it.
So, what does it take to get the entire nation really hopping mad? Just curious.
Ace: what’s “nitrogen treatment”? Something for wine? Oooh, is this “trade secrets”? Something I shouldn’t know about? How exciting!
Galahad, welcome to the SDMB! Yeah, we’re all trying to just have a simple conversation here, without a lot of sniping about grammar and punctuation. Anything you’d care to discuss? We’re not necessarily limiting ourselves to matters Icelandic. “Writing from Japan?” What’s in Japan? (You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to.) All I know about Japan is that that’s where Pokemon was invented, itself not a recommendation. :rolleyes:
What’s in Japan? Well, I imagine you mean besides the obvious, like 125 million Japanese people and some really incredible sushi? I work here. Teaching English in a private school. I’ve been here for two years and will be going back to the States in August. Pretty much sums it up.
Here’s a question for Bjorn, or everyone, have you ever been out of Iceland? Travelled around Europe? Been to the States?
Coldfire, point taken. Still, after looking at the threads in question I think that a lot of people, your quadlingual-self excluded, were taking shots at him for common mistakes that are difficult for non-native speakers to overcome. And I still think that most of those people probably dont have much or any experience in multi-cultural communication. That is: they are a bunch of hicks.
Well, FWIW, as a teenager I spent a summer in Honduras way back in the early 1970’s. However, since I was staying with my mother’s cousin and her group of missionary ladies, it wasn’t what you’d call a real “foreign” experience. Totally sheltered, no ugliness, the most exotic things I was allowed to encounter were (1) worship services in Spanish, (2) riding the jitneys around town for a nickel (with a “native guide” of course–actually one of the Bible students), and (3) the big downtown market, the real one, not the one for tourists, which I thought was perfectly fascinating. I’d never seen produce and meat that wasn’t wrapped up in plastic. And the smells! That whole “spoiled fruit/vegetable/meat smell” that is totally non-existent in 20th century America. I thought it was great. Of course, I was never allowed to explore it on my own.
At the time, Honduras was at war with El Salvador, the politics of which went right over my teenage head. The only manifestation of the war, where I was concerned, was that we were all strictly ordered to save string. String came from El Salvador, and because of the war was difficult to obtain.
ive been to:
norway
denmark
sweden
spain
ireland
for a various amount of time.
notthemama: i dont think its about what makes an entire nation mad. i think its rather what should make an entire nation mad(and likewise you could argue about what should not make an entire nation mad).
nitrogen treatment is when after you open a bottle of wine you take this little bottle of comprest nitrogen and spray a little into the wine bottle. nitrogen, being hevier then air, sinks to the bottom and creats a somewhat airtite seel over the liquid wine. this prevents the wine from turning into vinager. it’s pritty cool stuff. if your intersted you can buy this stuff at any large wine/ liquer store.
ps: first time using the quote option. i hope it works.
Don’t sweat the double post, Ace, that’s what happens during board slowdowns. So now my question is, is this nitrogen treatment legal? If you go into a restaurant or bar, are they going to tell you, “We’ve done the nitrogen thing to our wine”? Does it affect the taste? Is it something that happens mostly at bars? I can’t imagine four-star French restaurants doing this with the 1954 Chateau Lafite.
Bjorn, isn’t there any kind of news event that gets everybody in town all furious at the same time? Here, it’s usually something like a spectacular murder of a child, or a particularly stupid bribery scandal. I find it difficult to believe that all Icelanders are that easy-going. Or is it just elections that get people mad?
Trips to Scandinavia I can understand, but what was in Spain? If you don’t mind my asking…
damn it notthemama! i just want to go to bed. can’t resist from posting.
The treatment of nitregen gas to wine is perfictly legel. as i’m sure you know, nitregen is a netural gas. it doesn;t change the taste of the wine at all. when i first learned of this i thought it was the coolest thing in the world. it comes in what looks like a hairspray can with a wd40 red tube sticking out of the nozzle. you spray a little nit. gas into your wine bottle and it’s good for weeks. now, off to bed
news like that arent common in iceland. and usually people just become shocked, not mad.
just to follow up on the subject: in a tv show this weekend two members of the parlament were discussing the “gay adoption” legislation suggestion. the backround is that only one parlament member objected to it, he and another member were “discussing” the subject. anyway, that other member said something like this: “people like you are responsible for what is happening in the society of gay people, where alot of young gay people are committing suicide.”
there were some explanations, but the point is that this was interpeted as an accusation, that he personally was responsible.
none of this made me mad or anything like that, i just laughed because that guy didnt see how this accusation was correct, he only reacted to what was wrong in the wording of the accusation.
there seldom happens anything that makes more than just a small group of people mad around here.
Well, ARE there a lot of gay people committing suicide? Was the guy right? Or was he just shooting his mouth off?
I guess I don’t visualize Iceland as having the same kinds of problems that the U.S. has, things like a debate over gay adoptions. I suppose I’ve been listening to too many travel agency advertisements–you know the sort of thing, pretty blonde girls riding those ponies across lava fields, happy fishermen unloading the day’s catch, etc. The avalanche that covered up an entire town.
Also, the Disney movie Journey to the Center of the Earth, with James Mason. So whenever I think of “Icelandic person” I always visualize whoever that tall blond actor was who portrayed their “native guide”, speaking in quaint broken English. I suppose all Icelanders aren’t tall and blond and friendly–there are probably short, dark, and cranky people, too.
Oh, and Surtsey. That’s the one thing they always tell you, how Iceland created its VERY OWN volcano, all by itself.
Ace, thanks for the info. I don’t know why that just really got me curious–I had no idea…the kinds of things that go on…
How can a political statement (from the only opposing member of parliament, no less [I take it this means all the other MP’s agreed]) possibly lead to suicide amongst gay people? And this must be the case if the accusation was right (“in a way”), as you suggest.
Judging from the information you provided, I can very well sympathize with said MP (although I disagree with his point of view regarding Gay Marriages). That’s a serious allegation with no basis whatsoever.
(Just doing my part to keep the conversation alive :D)
? but not indifferent.