Source: Hannah Kvamsdal
Hello, how are you ?
In many countries, like France and US, asking someone how they are doing is a polite and normal part of the standard greeting. This goes for greeting your friends and family, but also strangers you might interact with thoughout your day, like the barista, the busdriver or the mail carrier.
If you read the Discussion Topic in the «Practise your language» tread, you now know that this is not that common in Norway.
Of course, when meeting up with someone close to you, or seeing someone you haven’t seen in a while, it is common to ask how they are doing. The difference is that «how are you?» or «hvordan går det/hvordan har du det?» is considered a legitimate question, and not a greeting.
This means that if you are interacting with someone you don’t know, and you greet them in this manner, you might get a different reaction than what you were expecting.
They will be confused
This is will be the most common reaction. When asked the question, the Norwegian person is caught a bit of guard, and will be quiet with a confused look. Then, slowly, they will realize what has happened, and reconize the custom. Most of us know that this is common in other cultures. Our mind will take a few seconds to scan our brain for the appropriate reply, before saying something like “good”, then take another few seconds before asking “and you?”
They will tell you how they are actually feeling
As already said, this considered an actual question in Norway, rather than a greating. And a question should have a proper response, right? When asked, the Norwegian person might think, «Hm.. how am I actually doing?». This might result in a reply something in the line of; “Good.. I think. I was actually thinking this morning that is nice that the sun is out. The winter has been a bit long, and is annoying as I lost one of my mittens in February, and did not think I needed to get new ones before next year”.
Most of the times, the journey they just had info their inner self and true feelings will result in them forgetting to ask back. Don’t take it personal.
They will think something is wrong
If you stop the person delivering newspapers in your building, and ask how they are doing, their imidiate reaction will probably be «why would you assume I am not?» Or “what is wrong? The simple explanation is that because they are never asked, they might think there is something about the way they are behaving, or a recent incident in the neigbouthood that makes you wanna crosscheck that they are actually ok.
Have you encountered a situation like this, or have a question about what you just read? You can leave a comment under this blog post.
.. And just make it clear – this does not mean that you should not greet strangers, in one way or the other. This is just to alert you that if you do, and they act weird about it, it has nothing to do with you.
Best,
Hannah, OLS Commity Manager – Norwegian