Drawing conclusions when locals in Iceland speak about sex could get you in trouble. PIC Aapo Happonen
A s is often the case in Iceland as elsewhere it often takes foreign visitors to point out something so glaringly obvious that no local gives it a second thought.
Team Total Iceland was left speechless for a moment a short while ago when a Canadian friend suddenly asked why Icelanders were so obsessed with sex and not afraid to talk about it anywhere and everywhere. He told us he´d been sitting in a Reykjavik cafe beside some locals and in the course of an hour he heard „sex“ mentioned again and again.
After some thought we believe we know why locals sound sex-obsessed to some foreigners although in this particular instance we cannot ever be sure. It could so happen people are actually talking plainly and effortlessly about sex in the nearest cafe. After all sex is not a huge taboo in Iceland 😉
But there is another altogether more plausible explanation.
You see, in Icelandic we usually never use the word sex for sex and therein lies the misunderstanding we think. But the word „sex“ is certainly found in the language and often used. It is the number six.
Most likely those uninhibited people at the cafe were not talking about any sex acts but the number. Problem solved.
ICELANDIC NUMBERS FROM 1-10
- ONE >> EINN
- TWO >> TVEIR
- THREE >> ÞRÍR
- FOUR >> FJÓRIR
- FIVE >> FIMM
- SIX >> SEX
- SEVEN >> SJÖ
- EIGHT >> ÁTTA
- NINE >> NÍU
- TEN >> TÍU
