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>There's a saying in Icelandic - þetta reddast - that means "everything will be alright", and, while many languages have a similar expression, this one is reall
by s_dev 3y ago
>There's a saying in Icelandic - þetta reddast - that means "everything will be alright", and, while many languages have a similar expression, this one is really embedded in Icelandic culture.
Ireland has a "It'll be Grand" culture as well for comparison. It's a trade off with pros and cons and works for some situations and inhibits progress in other situations, things often don't get acted on or resolved quickly but at the same time there is a huge reservoir of tolerance to draw on when things do get shit.
I would consider this the other end of the spectrum to countries like Japan or Germany in the way they respond to certain things. Lots of generalisations of course but that's often the impressions you get from travelling. It's very hard to be precise about big groups of people.
- notnaut 3y ago>It's very hard to be precise about big groups of people. Literally impossible, by the nature of it.
- bbor 3y ago100% of German citizens have a brain, emotions, and an enduring ineffable soul. That’s a precise AND accurate statement ;)
- mckirk 3y agoThat's a bold statement to make. German souls need to be re-issued regularly by the BIE (Bundesamt für Immaterielle Essenzen), and it's quite easy to fall behind with how much paperwork this is every year.
- nicbou 3y agoIt wouldn't be so bad if they didn't take 4+ weeks to do anything. My friend had a child and he got a soul a year later. It's even worse in Berlin.
- notnaut 3y agoPeople are people! Precision at its best!
- YurgenJurgensen 3y agoAren't tautologies, by definition, the least precise statements possible?
- CrumpetDiagonal 3y agoSimilar culture in Australia too. “She’ be right, mate”
- WarOnPrivacy 3y agoI'm always struck by Brits who include a wellness check with their greeting. [knocks] [door opens] "Y'alrite?"
- chrisweekly 3y agohmm, maybe not so different from American "what's up?" or "how's it going?" as a non-sequitur
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- jameshart 3y agoBritish English idioms are often contractions of MUCH longer phrases. "Y'alrite?" is not, contrary to what you might assume, short for "Are you alright?" It's short for "Are you alright if I come in and interrupt you? It's fine if you're not, I just wanted to check before barging in. It's really not too much trouble is it? I'll go away and come back later. Or never. Sorry. Sorry, sorry."
- tasuki 3y agoAh, I'd always thought the "you alright" was passively-aggressively suggesting I was somehow not alright.
- switch007 3y agoGive me German/Dutch "this is awful and it should be fixed" any day over "It'll be grand" (we have a similar attitude here just across the Irish sea) It can be a bit annoying listen to them moan about small things constantly but my impression of the Netherlands is shit just works and things get fixed. They seem to have a very low tolerance for bs and excuses, which is refreshing
- a_gnostic 3y agoIn my culture we say "Today is a good day to die… But tomorrow will be better!"
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- switch007 3y agoI expected someone to mention Brandenburg and VW in reply, to be honest. Seems like a bit of a straw-man though. If you tell me the country you think is perfect, I'm sure I could find some kind of scandal.
- RajT88 3y agoI like to joke that Americans' responses to catastrophe is' "Thanks Obama!". But it does get at how some folks here deal with adversity.
- 7thaccount 3y agoAre you my parents? The things Obama still get blamed at is insane. I'm not a huge fan of Obama, Trump, or Biden. There are certainly things to blame them on, but every little thing like gas prices is just ridiculous. The office of the President wields a lot of power, but they're not in charge of everything.
- RajT88 3y agoExactly what I was getting at. Does not matter who is in office, they get blamed for everything bad that happens. ETA: In lieu of acceptance and determination.
- unsupp0rted 3y agoThe insert-everywhere saying in Turkey is “good luck”. You might say it to a clerk instead of “have a nice day”. Much less conviction about everything being alright, but hopeful anyway.
- kabouseng 3y agoİyi şanslar, but also used regularly is kolay gelsin, which means let it come easy, or go easy, there is no direct translation. Then there is also hayırlısı, which means what will be will be, in my experience used sarcastically / raising you shoulders when everything is f*cked, as is common these days in Turkey.
- unsupp0rted 3y agoYup, I was thinking of kolay gelsin. I have heard and seen it everywhere- signing off group texts, saying bye to the neighborhood butcher, even as business names, like “Kolay Gelsin water delivery”.
- esafak 3y agoWhen it comes to disasters the phrases that come to my mind are "bana bir sey olmaz" (nothing will happen to me) and "teget gececek" (it'll be nothing), which are expressions of denial and minimization.
- l0b0 3y agoNew Zealand's "she'll be right" attitude is, I believe, why so much just doesn't work here. People tolerate breakage on a small and large scale, to a bigger extent than I've seen anywhere else. Anything from permanent shop signs with spelling mistakes, to letting people rent out unsanitary housing, to "ghost buses" which show up in their IT systems as planned, then as running, and then, when they are about to show up, simply disappear off of their systems as if it was never planned in the first place. People grumble, but it seems like they always assume somehow things will just magically fix themselves.
- hydrok9 3y agoIreland is like this too, maybe it's a cultural legacy from the Brits (who are known for this as well).