Now Im not sure what everyone elses experiences are but with my friends and family in England the polite things to do when introduced to someone varies greatly. This can be anything from a simple nod and "alright/hi" in someones direction to a hug and kiss on the cheek. Where on the spectrum you should be is not always clear but some more obvious ones would be:
When meeting a medium size group of people (5-10) then typically its a "hi everyone" and maybe a wave, and everyone does the nodding of acceptance thing and then gets on with their individual conversations. At the other end of the scale if I were introducing someone to a member of my family or close friend then; two men would shake hands and opposite sexes or two women would almost always hug and likely kiss cheeks.
It sounds complicated but to be honest its usually pretty clear what the play is. Although I wont deny awkward situations have been encountered now and then.
Norwegians, like in many ways play it simple. No matter who you are meeting weither it be a loose friend of a friend of a friend, family, close friend or whatever. No matter what gender, occasion or number of people in the room. . . Norwegians will always shake hands! This may not sound that strange but when you walk into a room of 10+ people and are expected to go and shake everyones hands individually and introduce yourself it can feel mental. I recall one time when I went completely on autopilot when meeting a good friends girlfriend for the first time. Naturally I went in for a hug and may have even given her a peck on the cheek. Now no one said anything and she very politely went with it however I did feel a massive air of awkwardness and was very aware I'd gone rogue.
By the same token, many times Marianne has met friends of mine and they have gone for hugs where she would normally have just shaken hands. In fact while at university she told me of times she shook girls hands when meeting them and then the girls almost took offense as this was a very masculine thing to do and not as friendly. Now I wont get into the gender debate about this but I do find the whole thing rather interesting. I do agree that just shaking hands can be a little cold at times and I find myself feeling a little awkward. You see now I know that shaking hands is always the done thing and hugs are not that common in Norway sometimes I am unsure if a hug is ok even with close friends and Norwegian family I now know well.
On the other hand though I have decided that generally I like this system. In my time here naturally Ive met many of Mariannes close friends and family as well as friends of friends etc. Its very handy for me therefore to know that no matter who I meet, what room of people I walk into, the same thing is expected of me. I just walk around the room shaking everyones hand individually saying "Hi, Bobby, hyggelig" (hyggerlig means pleasure, which is short for "pleasure to meet you" or "hyggerlig å treffe deg") .When saying this I then usually fail to catch the more unusual names first time round and have to bring it up again later if I get the chance. In fact I'll let you into a little secret, I often didn't even bother listening first time, some Norwegian names are crazy!
It sounds complicated but to be honest its usually pretty clear what the play is. Although I wont deny awkward situations have been encountered now and then.
Norwegians, like in many ways play it simple. No matter who you are meeting weither it be a loose friend of a friend of a friend, family, close friend or whatever. No matter what gender, occasion or number of people in the room. . . Norwegians will always shake hands! This may not sound that strange but when you walk into a room of 10+ people and are expected to go and shake everyones hands individually and introduce yourself it can feel mental. I recall one time when I went completely on autopilot when meeting a good friends girlfriend for the first time. Naturally I went in for a hug and may have even given her a peck on the cheek. Now no one said anything and she very politely went with it however I did feel a massive air of awkwardness and was very aware I'd gone rogue.
By the same token, many times Marianne has met friends of mine and they have gone for hugs where she would normally have just shaken hands. In fact while at university she told me of times she shook girls hands when meeting them and then the girls almost took offense as this was a very masculine thing to do and not as friendly. Now I wont get into the gender debate about this but I do find the whole thing rather interesting. I do agree that just shaking hands can be a little cold at times and I find myself feeling a little awkward. You see now I know that shaking hands is always the done thing and hugs are not that common in Norway sometimes I am unsure if a hug is ok even with close friends and Norwegian family I now know well.
On the other hand though I have decided that generally I like this system. In my time here naturally Ive met many of Mariannes close friends and family as well as friends of friends etc. Its very handy for me therefore to know that no matter who I meet, what room of people I walk into, the same thing is expected of me. I just walk around the room shaking everyones hand individually saying "Hi, Bobby, hyggelig" (hyggerlig means pleasure, which is short for "pleasure to meet you" or "hyggerlig å treffe deg") .When saying this I then usually fail to catch the more unusual names first time round and have to bring it up again later if I get the chance. In fact I'll let you into a little secret, I often didn't even bother listening first time, some Norwegian names are crazy!
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