{"id":736,"date":"2015-11-15T03:22:37","date_gmt":"2015-11-15T11:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/?p=736"},"modified":"2015-11-15T03:22:37","modified_gmt":"2015-11-15T11:22:37","slug":"we-appreciate-your-place-of-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/?p=736","title":{"rendered":"We appreciate your place of business!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, the nuances and things that are left unsaid because we forgot that they were originally there (in a particular language), but today are just implied or \u201cunderstood\u201d.
\nLike the simple: \u201cMeet me at 5!\u201d. Of course we mean at 5 o\u2019clock in English. But that\u2019s a linguistic shortcut that the Danes do NOT take. If you say to a Dane \u201cM\u00f8d mig p\u00e5 Femmeren\u201d, he will think that you refer to a Caf\u00e9 or a physical place called \u201cThe 5\u201d or \u201cFemmeren\u201d (\u201cThe Fiver\u201d). No, in Danish it must always be spelled out specifically that the 5 you refer to is a time, so \u201cM\u00f8d mig klokken 5\u201d is necessary. On the other hand, \u201cKlokken 5\u201d suffices in Danish without any preposition to specify the time. But in English, for some reason, an \u201cat\u201d has to be dragged into the picture:<\/p>\n

Danish\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0==> English:
\nKlokken\u00a0\u00a0 ==> O\u2019Clock
\nTid\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0==> Time
\nHvad tid? ==> What time?
\nKlokken 5\u00a0\u00a0 ==> At 5 O’clock<\/p>\n

When we in English say \u201cwe appreciate your business\u201d, we DON\u2019T mean that we appreciate the way you\u2019ve decorated the interior of your shop, or the beautiful view that we get by looking at your storefront. No, we mean \u201cwe appreciate OUR business WITH YOU\u201d; the transaction, not the physical entity that is your business. For the physical entity where you conduct your business we have more specific words like shop, store, factory, corporation etc. \u2013but we also often use the same word \u201cbusiness\u201d.
\nDanish, of course, also has a number of words for various business entities, but only one word can be used exactly like \u201cbusiness\u201d to mean BOTH the transaction and the place of transaction. That word is \u201cforretning\u201d. Therefore:<\/p>\n

English: We appreciate your business and apologize for any inconvenience ==> NOT<\/strong>: Vi v\u00e6rds\u00e6tter din virksomhed og beklager ulejligheden (Means: \u201dWe appreciate your business activity and apologize for any inconvenience\u201d)
\nBUT<\/strong>: Vi v\u00e6rds\u00e6tter din forretning og beklager ulejligheden.<\/p>\n

In the same vein:<\/p>\n

\nEnglish: Close the deal! ==>
\nNOT<\/strong>: \u201dLuk handlen!\u201d, nor \u201cLuk forretningen!\u201d (\u201cClose your shop!\u201d)
\nBUT<\/strong>: \u201cF\u00e5 ordren!\u201d (\u201cGet the order\u201d) or \u201cAfslut forretningen (\u201cFinish the deal\u201d)<\/p>\n

In English you can \u201cconduct business\u201d or \u201cconduct a current\u201d or \u201cConduct yourself appropriately\u201d. Same word, different context. Not so in Danish:<\/p>\n

English\u00a0 ==> Danish:
\nTo conduct business\u00a0 ==> \u201cAt lave forretning\u201d or \u201cat g\u00f8re forretning\u201d (\u201cto make or do business\u201d) or \u201cat f\u00f8re forretning\u201d (this one means more to \u201crun a (physical) store\u201d).
\nTo conduct a current\u00a0 ==>\u00a0 \u201cAt lede en str\u00f8m\u201d or \u201cat f\u00f8re en str\u00f8m\u201d.
\nTo conduct yourself appropriately\u00a0 ==> At opf\u00f8re sig passende.<\/p>\n

And which way does that \u201cwith\u201d point again?<\/p>\n

English\u00a0 ==>\u00a0 Danish:
\nBuild trust with your customers ==>
\nNOT<\/strong>: Opbyg tillid til dine kunder (\u201cBuild more of your trust in your customers\u201d)
\nBUT<\/strong>: Opbyg tillid hos dine kunder (\u201cBuild more of your customers\u2019 trust in you\u201d)<\/p>\n

The word \u201cwith\u201d has (at least) a double usage in English: \u201cDo something together with someone\u201d and \u201cLeave something with someone\u201d. In Danish, that would mean two different prepositions.
\nVice versa: Danes commonly use the expression “Er du med?”, which means “Are you with me?” – but wit the “me” part left out. Because it’s just understood…
\nAre you with?<\/p>\n

\"with<\/a>\"Lidt<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n \n \"Fb-Button\"\n <\/a>\n <\/div>
<\/fb:like><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, the nuances and things that are left unsaid because we forgot that they were originally there (in a particular language), but today are just implied or \u201cunderstood\u201d. Like the simple: \u201cMeet me at 5!\u201d. Of course we mean at … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3,20,21,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambigous-danish","category-ambigous-english","category-business-language","category-context","category-same-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=736"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":740,"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions\/740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}