Video: Swedes untangle the untranslatable
Published: 29 Jan 13 14:31 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/45884/20130129/
After our latest list of "untranslatable" Swedish words got people talking, The Local's Oliver Gee took to the streets of Stockholm to ask Swedes if they could find any helpful translations.
- Ten more Swedish words you won’t find in English (15 Jan 13)
- Top ten words you didn’t know came from Sweden (23 Oct 12)
- Ten Swedish words you won't find in English (20 Mar 12)
Well, not necessarily as our recent list of ten more Swedish words you won’t find in English demonstrated.
So we took our list to the streets of Stockholm with a video camera, and even though we'd already deemed our list of words to be impossible to translate, our interviewees displayed sparkling creativity and some interesting suggestions as we challenged them to prove us wrong.
Could the word for "the day after tomorrow" be "doublemorrow", as someone suggested? Perhaps.
Could a 70-year-old man with a gym in his own house find a simple way of explaining "träningsvärk", the ache in your body after a solid workout? Maybe.
But is "hen", a Swedish word meaning "he or she", another word for chicken? No, definitely not. And not shicken either for that matter.
Confused? Well, check out the video below.
Still hungry for more Swedish words that don't exist in English? Why not check out The Local's original video challenging Swedes in Uppsala with nine untranslatable Swedish words.
Oliver Gee
Follow Oliver on Twitter here
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The Japanese even had thier own canard-wing plane that flew 3 days before Hiroshima called the Kiyushu Shinden (divine lightning)
http://youtu.be/AGZ77qV0Mvo