I'm on my daily commute and its a wonderful June morning on the Øresund. Classic summer for the region, deep blue skies and golden sun - just think of the Swedish flag. Anyway I get on the train and the heating is on but it's way too warm as its already touching 15 C outside.
I instantly think I would like it turned down. Now here's where my mind does a crappy thing. I should simply ask "please can we turn the heating down" but the phrase my mind reaches for is "is there any reason why the heating is on so high" - what an arse. I have no idea why this passive aggressive speak was the default. Is it me or is it an English thing? Worst of all both these phrases would have been in English, it's not a case of me struggling with Danish phraseology.
One of the things I love about the Danes is that they don't pussyfoot around with language, they just say things straight - call a spade a spade. This can take some getting used to as it can seem a little blunt to the fussy english way of being 'sorry' for everything before even stating the issue.
Of course as I'm truly English neither phrases were spoken as I did not complain I just sat and wrote this little grumble. Guess you can take the Englishman out of England but unfortunately the Englishness fades a little too slowly for my liking. Must find an antidote, perhaps a Danish 'breakfast beer' or some more Swedish herring and snaps will help cure it.
Oh yeah and now the temperature on the train is perfect - simply trust in the Scandinavians and all will be well.
I love Google translate but why can't it deal with currency in a sensible way
Living between Denmark and Sweden and being British means Google translate is a lifesaver for me. Obviously there are a few oddities and quirky translations but on the whole it serves me well. However, something it treats very strangely is currency. Why translate the currency indicator at all (unless you also translate the value), and if you do just pick one currency and run with it. The translated information becomes so misleading, see below:
Come on, the system is smart enough to know which language and spot abbreviations, surely it can do better than that.