Day: December 25, 2021

No, I’m not in Hawaii. Just wishing I was.

Elsewhere:

Joyeux Noël

Frohe Weihnachten

God Jul

Feliz Navidad

С Рождеством

Merry Christmas

Those are the only ones I know by heart. (And I don’t really know much French, but that one is commonplace.)

The Norwegians really have a gift for minimalism. (“God jul”). I loved to watch old American movies in Olso with Norwegian subtitles. There’d be a cowboy movie where the sheriff would deliver some prolix exhortation like “Let’s vamoose, boys, and cut ’em ornery varmints off at the pass,” and it would be translated into Norwegian as “Kom.”

I found the opposite in Italy. A film character might say, “Why not?” and the Italian equivalent would require a full page of translation, followed by an ellipsis, with the translation continued on the next slide.