being offended

When I first moved to the US there were certain American words and expressions I hadn't heard before, and that I had to learn. The reason I didn't understand them was usually that the word or expression referred to a phenomenon that was new to me. In those cases guessing doesn't help. Otherwise North American and Northern European cultures are similar, and most things seem familiar.

The concept I struggled with the longest was to be 'offended'. I asked dozens of classes to explain the word to me, but I still wasn't sure. We don't use that idea in that way in Sweden, I kept thinking to myself.

But, actually, from what I read, now they do. The word 'kränkt' in Swedish seems to be used in a similar way nowadays.

When I finally got the American concept of 'being offended' I thought it was dumb. To me it sounded as if people assume they have a God given right not ever to step in dog poop in their lives, and if it happens anyway, they are offended. That's unrealistic, and dumb. Whenever I come across the word 'kränkt' in Swedish I think the same thing. Too much emotion in the wrong place, self centeredly directed at the world in general. Wipe the poop off your shoes and move on already.