# Norwegian: ventured into "the hood"



## Grefsen

This weekend I had the pleasure of tasting food  from El Salvador for the first time.      It was quite an interesting cultural experience for me and I think I might have been the only English speaking caucasian in the entire restaurant. 

I thought it would be fun to share what I did with some of my norske venner and was wondering how in the world I could write something like the following på norsk and have it make sense to them:  

This weekend I ventured into "the hood," to try food from El Salvador for the first time.  

Here's one attempt without translating "the hood:"

Denne helga har jeg våget seg inn "the hood" for å  prøve mat fra El Salvador for første gang.

In Southern California, a neighborhood where English speaking caucasians make up a small minority of the population is sometimes referred to as being "the hood."  In the past it was more common to call an area like this "the ghetto," but I really don't hear this used much anymore.

Should I use "ghettoen" as a translation for "the hood" or do any of my Norwegian speaking friends have other suggestions for me?

På forhånd takk!


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## Pteppic

First some grammar: "seg" should be in agreement with the subject of the verb - "*han* våget *seg*", "*du* våget *deg*", "*jeg* våget *meg*" ("*vi* våget *oss*", "*dere* våget *dere*", "*de* våget *seg*"). Also, "into" = "inn *i*", at least in this case (it's always dangerous to say anything definitive about translating prepositions).

As for "the hood", I think your suggestion "gettoen" (notice there's no h) is the best option. It's usually a rather derogatory term, though, so I would keep the (ironic) quotation marks. Otherwise you run the risk of sounding like a culture-curious Mayflower WASP who's been out slumming. 

*Denne helga har jeg våget meg inn i "gettoen" for å prøve mat fra El Salvador for første gang.*

Incidentally, I might have chosen a different expression from "denne helga" ("i helga"/ "sist helg" / "helga som var", maybe with the simple past as well), but that could easily be a question of mere personal preference.


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## Ben Jamin

Pteppic said:


> *Denne helga har jeg våget meg inn i "gettoen" for å prøve mat fra El Salvador for første gang.*


 
Is the use of present perfect justified, taken into consideration that the weekend has already passed when grefsen has completed his story in Norwegian?


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## oskhen

Ben Jamin said:


> Is the use of present perfect justified, taken into consideration that the weekend has already passed when grefsen has completed his story in Norwegian?



Technically, I think you're right, although this is one of those things a Norwegian speaker rarely would think about.

"Denne helga våget jeg meg inn..." is perhaps better.

By the way: If one is not too afraid of anglicisms, "the hood" (preferrably in quotation marks) would most likely be understood. I've heard it used by native Norwegians, though perhaps usually a bit jocularly.


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## ermannoitaly

Hei 
Kan jeg skrive en liten kommentar?

...jeg våget meg inn i gettoen = I ventured into the hood = io mi   arrischiai/avventurai dentro il ghetto ...Siden El Salvador ligger i  Mellom-Amerika // Latin-Amerika, er det tenkelig at et annet ord som "barrio" eller "favela" kan brukes i denne setningen?
Jeg vet likevel at mange norske ordbøker bare  inneholder ordet "getto"  og   de to ordene "barrio" og "favela  er heller ikke norske ord. 
Takk for oppmerksomheten.
Mvh
E


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## Magb

ermannoitaly said:


> Hei
> Kan jeg skrive en liten kommentar?
> 
> ...jeg våget meg inn i gettoen = I ventured into the hood = io mi   arrischiai/avventurai dentro il ghetto ...Siden El Salvador ligger i  Mellom-Amerika // Latin-Amerika, er det tenkelig at et annet ord som "barrio" eller "favela" kan brukes i denne setningen?
> Jeg vet likevel at mange norske ordbøker bare  inneholder ordet "getto"  og   de to ordene "barrio" og "favela  er heller ikke norske ord.
> Takk for oppmerksomheten.
> Mvh
> E



"Favela" would only work in Brazil, wouldn't it? But yeah, I agree that calling it "barrio", or some other local term if there is one, would be preferable to "the ghetto". Calling it "the hood" doesn't sit right with me either, neither in English nor in Norwegian. If I didn't know of a better term, I'd probably use the generic word "slumområdet".


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## Grefsen

Tusen takk for hjelpen alle sammen! 


Pteppic said:


> First some grammar: "seg" should be in agreement with the subject of the verb - "*han* våget *seg*", "*du* våget *deg*", "*jeg* våget *meg*" ("*vi* våget *oss*", "*dere* våget *dere*", "*de* våget *seg*").


I had the agreement correct in an earlier draft of my original post when I was using "han" instead of "jeg," but unfortunately I didn't remember to change "seg" to "meg" in the final draft.  



Pteppic said:


> Otherwise you run the risk  of sounding like a culture-curious Mayflower WASP who's been out  slumming.


I don't often LOL when I read a WR post, but this comment is really funny!   



oskhen said:


> By the way: If one is not too afraid of anglicisms, "the hood"  (preferrably in quotation marks) would most likely be understood. I've  heard it used by native Norwegians, though perhaps usually a bit  jocularly.


After starting this thread, I talked to one of my friends who lives in Norway and she said that she knew right away what I meant by "the hood."  

Her first suggestion of a Norwegian word for me to use instead of "the hood" was "strøket." However, later she told me that I probably needed to be careful "fordi strøket kan også tolkes som et sted/gate hvor de  prostituerte jobber."


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## oskhen

Grefsen said:


> However, later she told me that I probably needed to be careful "fordi strøket kan også tolkes som et sted/gate hvor de  prostituerte jobber."



That's how I would interpret it.


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## sendintheclowns

I personally think neither "ghetto/getto" nor "hood" and certainly not "slumområdet" are the right terms. Unless it really is a slum, in which case "slumområdet" or "slummen" could be used, but I don't think that is the case here. 

Imagine this was in Oslo - what would you call it? We wouldn't call, say, Grunerløkka "hooden" or Grønland "ghettoen", would we? (Unless it was meant ironically.) 

I think you would need to use a specific term, such as the actual name of the neighborhood, or perhaps a geographical term ("østkanten") and then explain it. "Der bare lokalbefolkningen våger seg" or something like that.


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## SweetWaterGringo

The poster who said that "barrio" is more appropriate is absolutely correct.  It is used the same way as "hood" in American Spanish.  It originated, I believe, as a literal translation of "hood" in the Los Angeles area and trickled down to the Spanish speaking countries of Central America, like many others, such as "oye, perro" "gallina" etc. (Pardon the vulgarity.)


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## Grefsen

Takk for hjelpen!  



sendintheclowns said:


> Imagine this was in Oslo - what would you call it? We wouldn't call, say, Grunerløkka "hooden" or Grønland "ghettoen", would we? (Unless it was meant ironically.)
> 
> I think you would need to use a specific term, such as the actual name of the neighborhood, or perhaps a geographical term ("østkanten") and then explain it. "Der bare lokalbefolkningen våger seg" or something like that.


I'm curious to know some of the different ways one might describe Grønland in Norwegian to someone who hasn't been there before.



SweetWaterGringo said:


> The poster who said that "barrio" is  more appropriate is absolutely correct.  It is used the same way as  "hood" in American Spanish.  It originated, I believe, as a literal  translation of "hood" in the Los Angeles area and trickled down to the  Spanish speaking countries of Central America, like many others, such as  "oye, perro" "gallina" etc. (Pardon the vulgarity.)


Yes, "barrio" would definitely describe the neighborhood where the Salvadoran restaurant was, but would most Norwegians understand what I meant if I used "the barrio" instead of "the hood" in my sentence?


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## sendintheclowns

Grefsen said:


> Takk for hjelpen!
> 
> I'm curious to know some of the different ways one might describe Grønland in Norwegian to someone who hasn't been there before.



That is an excellent question! It really got me thinking about how to describe it. Maybe something like: 

"I innvandrerstrøket nede på østkanten." 

"Ved Akerselva, der bare arbeidsfolk pleide å bo." 

Fact is, I haven't lived in Oslo for so long ... it's probably completely different now! Last time I visited the area, it certainly looked a lot more upmarket than it used to. Nowadays, probably more like: 

"I det fargerike og koselige Grønlandsområdet"


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## Grefsen

Grefsen said:


> Yes, "barrio" would definitely describe the neighborhood where the Salvadoran restaurant was, but would most Norwegians understand what I meant if I used "the barrio" instead of "the hood" in my sentence?


Would it be correct if I used "latino nabolag" instead of "barrio?"


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