Norwegian: Jeg tror du får litt mere kulturell forståelse av å gå her.

[Harrythegiraffe]

Jeg tror du får litt mere kulturell forståelse av å gå her.
What does “av å gå her” mean here? If it means “by/through going here” then what’s the difference between “av å gjøre noe” and “ved å gjøre noe”?

 

[raumar]

What does “av å gå her” mean here?

That depends on the context. What are the preceding sentences? Especially, what does "her" refer to?

If "her" is a school, "å gå her" means "to attend this school". In a different context, "å gå her" could mean to walk around somewhere.

what’s the difference between “av å gjøre noe” and “ved å gjøre noe”?

I think "ved å gjøre noe" roughly corresponds to English "by doing something", while "av å gjøre noe" corresponds to "from doing something" (as in "learning from your mistakes"). But prepositions are always difficult to translate, so I hope someone can correct me if they have better suggestions.

 

[winenous]

Those were the translations I had in mind, but to be honest I'm not sure I could explain the difference in meaning for either language. Perhaps av/from somehow implies a more explicit effect than ved/by?

 

[raumar]

I'm not sure either. In some cases they can be interchangeable, in other cases they are not. But I think "ved" might imply that the effect is intended. You choose a method to get a result. As in this example, where a German woman watched a German TV series with Norwegian subtitles in order to learn Norwegian : "Lærte norsk ved å se på Derrick":
Lærte norsk ved å se på Derrick

With "av" the effect may also be unintended -- a kind of by-product. If it had been "Lærte norsk av å se på Derrick", it might be more likely that she watched the series just because she liked it, and improved her Norwegian as a by-product.

 

[winenous]

I think that's right @raumar - in the suggested English translations at least. I think that is what I was struggling (and largely failing) to express in my last post.