Posts tagged with "bio"

Short words/Kortord

Posted by Tibor 2 Comments
Dec 27 2010

 

rea = realisation 

It is the Swedish word for the English word sale. If you ask me, I think this is when actually the “real prices” are carried out or let´s say implemented. Who are they fooling???

bil = automobil eng. automobile/car 

Self-propelled is the original meaning of this word. A Danish newspaper used the Scandinavian short-word for this word in 1902 for the first time. Compare it with French auto. It is a myth that the word was cut into : auto/mo/bil in different languages.

el = elektricitet eng. electricity 

It is just a short and common word for electricity. 

biff = bifalla eng. to approve 

sv. “Saken är biff” eng. It´s done”. It is a military expression from the beginning. When a document for an application was approved by the military in Sweden, you could read BIF on the paper. BIF stand for bifallen i.e. approved. It is a common expression nowadays. 

 bio=biograf eng. cinema/movie 

From the Greek words bio which means life and grafein which means skriva. The word biograph was the first ever projector made for showing moving pictures. So a biograf is a place where they have both license and a projector to be able to show films for the audience. 

ex. = ett exemplar eng. a copy 

* note that short words like ex. and el. is not equal with shortenings like t.ex. till exempel eng. for example. They are two different words. Ett exemplar and ett exempel. This is also true to el and el. because the first one is a short and common word for electricity (as above mentioned) while the other one is a shortening for eller English´s or.

Quantum of Solace of Assigned Seating

Posted by Transparent Language 6 Comments
Nov 2 2008

I just went to see the new Bond movie, and it’s as explosive as everyone says. That’s true. “Quantum of Solace” opened in some European countries this past Friday, and for once, Sweden was on the lucky list, along with the UK and France. How’s that for speshul, huh? Normally, we get big movies looong after the rest of the world, so it was a nice surprise to be able to see something ahead of the US. I still can’t forgive the Swedish distributors for releasing “The Constant Gardener” here when it was already available on DVD in the US.

But anyway, you all want to know about the new Bond movie. But since this is the Swedish Blog, we need to somehow tie it in with something Swedish. Hmmm… Not easy… Neither one of the Bond girls was Swedish – one was British, and the other – Ukrainian. The movie doesn’t take place in Scandinavia, instead it jumps from Italy to Haiti (in fact filmed in Panama) to Austria to the UK to Bolivia (in fact filmed in Chile and Baja California) and very briefly to Russia at the end.

The only bit of Sweden that I could dig up was a product placement for Sony Ericsson and that’s it.

So instead, let me tell you about a certain custom you will experience when going to the movies in Sweden. Namely – assigned seating. I’m still not sure whether I like it or not. I miss the American way of rushing in and fighting for those prized middle-of-the row seats with all the accompanying mess and commotion akin to boarding a Ryanair flight to Barcelona.

There’s none of that in Sweden. Your seat is assigned when you buy your ticket. If you order your tickets on the Filmstaden website, you have a choice of selecting where you want to sit. Once you do that, you’re pretty much stuck with your choice, even if a very tall guy happens to sit in the row in front of you.

But on the other hand, there’s no need to rush and push, your seat waits for you and if you find someone else sitting in it, you just show them your ticket and they move to their assigned seats without arguing. But… Box office clerks tend to assign seats right next to the already filled ones. This can (and in 4 of out 5 instances does) lead to the super annoying situation when the entire row is empty, and yet you find yourself sitting right next to a couple who always engages in a vigorous make-out session practically in your lap (and for the life of me, I can’t understand why anyone would pay 100 kronor to make out in a crowded room, if you can do it in the privacy of your car or home for free). If you are lucky, you can move to an empty seat once the film starts.

But chances are, there won’t be any vacant seats left during the opening weekend of a James Bond movie… Oh, the things we do for the love of Daniel Craig…

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