Hej – and welcome to your weekly ScandiKitchen lesson.
This week, we focused on random information. From alpacas to arctic.
Every week, we give a little lesson on how to be a bit more Scandinavian in your everyday life. If you’d like the full-length version of these lessons direct into your inbox every Friday morning, simply click here to sign up.
Finnish donkey
In Finnish, if you jump from one subject to an unrelated one, it’s called a donkey bridge (Aasinsilta).
How to: Grandparents
Grandmother on your mother’s side is (literally) MumMum (mormor), granddad is MumDad (morfar). Paternally, it’s DadMum (Farmor) and for granddad, it’s DadDad (Farfar). Logic.
Arctic knowledge
The word Arctic doesn’t mean cold but comes from the old Greek word for bear (arktos). Arctic therefore means Bear-place and Antarctic means Not-bear-place.
Swedish chairs
In Swedish, when something fell between the chairs it means that something is overlooked or not done because nobody felt responsible for it (Att falla mellan stolarna)
Surprised alpaca
In Norwegian, if something surprises you, you can simply say Oh, you big alpaca (Du, store alpakka) – an equivalent to ‘Oh wow!’ or similar.
Tongue knowledge
In Scandinavian, to keep the tongue straight in the mouth (holde tunga rett i munnen) means to concentrate on something.
Random [mild] insults
A douchebag in Swedish is crap boot (Skitstövel). In Danish clapping cod is an idiot (klaptorsk), a wimp is a cotton wool elf (vatnisse). A clumsy person in Norway is brick mayor (Klossmajor).
Beer fact
Beer was banned in Iceland until 1989. Every March 1st, the country celebrates Bjórdagurinn (Beer Day), commemorating the end of the beer ban.
