Telling Time in Norwegian

Telling the time in Norwegian is definitely one of those things that is special to a culture ... and Language .... and when I say special .. i mean Special. Hva er klokka? As we ask here ... loosely translated from the old Celtic languages means ..what bell?
So .. we tell time by saying it is 5 past 3, Quarter past three, Half past three. Now after Half past, we have the options to say ... past the hour .. OR to the hour right? Here is a little Norwegian class for ya!
Not here.  They think of their clock in 4 quarters. The first Quarter is Past the hour (up until 15). The Half Past 3 is Half 4!! ... So they start thinking of the new hour once it past 15 mins of the hour!!! .
The 2nd quarter of the clock is minutes to Half of the hour and the 3rd quarter of the clock in Minutes PAST half the hour. The 4th quarter is pretty much the same ...

So in essence what I understand is that they don't like to say more than 14 minutes to something ... Its confusing isn't it? It's only now that I understand some of the misscommunication that my husband and I had.  When he says Half four in English but thinking Norwegian, he really means Half 3 in English. No wonder they are always an ON TIME people!!!

Its even harder for me to figure it out sometimes because they use the 24 hour time, but they say it in 12 hour, so if I see something like 17:38 .. I first have to figure out what 17 is!! .. yes I am getting better, but it still is not something that comes naturally to me.

But it is an interesting way to tell time I can tell you that much .... just one of those things!!....

Whey yuh say? ... Klokka?