Words are one thing for a foreign to misunderstand to be mate and not to be made for instance, another thing is expressions. “Have a good one” people say over here. To me that sounds like in Denmark when we say goodbye/see you have a nice evening blab bla.
So I had an appointment with a friend of mine yesterday evening. We talked together almost all day and I told him that it might be a little late because of my homework, and then I asked him if that was okay or if it would be too late because then we could find another day. His answer was “it is fine, have a good one”.
I thought he meant “it’s fine, see you another day, goodbye have a good evening” and then I just went right to bed after my homework was done. The day after he was pissed. He told me he had been waiting all evening for me and I never showed up. After a while I understood that what he meant the day before was “it’s ok, see you later” and that in this case the “have a good one” was more like “have fun or have a good evening and see you later.”
Being polite is apparently different from country to country, especially when it comes to expressions. This example is maybe not the best but I think you get the point.
Mette your blog post is a good lesson to all of us. I work with a very diverse group of people and have often heard some of them make comments about others comments or behaviors. We all need to take into account that different cultures have different sayings and gesters to get their points acrossed. One example of that is here in the US we expect that when someone is talking to us that they look us in the eyes. To us it shows that the person is paying attention and shows respect for that person. Although I know in some (if not all) of the African cultures they look down almost as if they are bowing their head. This is how they show their respect for the person talking. I think we all need to respect each others cultures and be understanding of the differences. Great post! ~
SvarSletThat was a bummer but interesting! To be honest with you, however, I've always used that phrase as being good by–just like you. So I was rather surprised by your friend's reaction. I guess the moral of this story is to ask people for clarification of meaning… Right? But it must be very frustrating to speak the same language and to speak a different language all at the same time.
SvarSletWow good example Jennifer. Cultural differences can sometimes cause problems if we are not aware of the differences. We have to respect other cultures and remember that in other countries things are different, and that this is not necessarily because people don´t respect one another, simply just because cultures are different.
SvarSletYes Rebecca, it is confusing sometimes but nice to know that I am not the only one using “have a good one” as a goodbye phrase. And to be honest I don’t understand why he didn’t ask me why I didn’t come over before the day after….
SvarSlet