Quote:
Originally Posted by hildea
As someone with English as a second language, my immediate impression is that "guys" is gendered. If someone used "guys" about a group I was part of, I'd assume I was included, but I'd be mildly (very mildly) annoyed. (And if someone said "Come on, guys and Hilde" I'd be much more annoyed  ) |
This goes right to my point. Norwegians should not be annoyed with the way Americans speak when they are visiting America. Just like Americans should not be annoyed by the way Norwegians speak when they are visiting Norway. There ARE going to be differences. There ARE going to be instances where you might interpret something as offensive that was never meant to be offensive, and indeed is not offensive in the place where it was said.
It is the trying to push your way of interpreting, or your way of speaking, onto others who meant zero offense by what they said that will get you into a self-induced tizzy.
( "Your" is generic here, not meaning "Hilde" specifically, even though she is quoted above. ) Was the intent of their words to be offensive? No. So stop trying to force it to be offensive. When you try to do this, it puts you into a bad light, not the original speaker.
( Again, "you" and "your" are generic references here - it's sad that this has to be said explicitly - but if it isn't, people here will grab their cudgel and beat you with it. They'll probably beat you with their cudgel anyway. )