Norskkurs

-
Though I'm only in school 17 hours a week, I feel like learning the language is consuming a lot more of my time as I do a lot of reading and writing and trying to speak Norwegian to my husband at least outside of school. I'm really trying to put my entire self into this, so I'm giving this language learning a lot of energy.

I enjoy going to class, I love it really, but I am so frustrated because I feel like I'm so limited in everything. Every day this week I've cried and sobbed to my husband over my frustration and it usually goes something like, "I don't understand why I can't understand what people say!? I have to ask people to repeat everything or speak slower! What's wrong with me!?" or, "Ugh, I have to get away from words today... English, Norweigan, whatever."

I've never been so nervous, anxious, upset or frustrated about anything academic related before, so why now? I'm not even getting graded on these language classes. I've even worried myself sick (literally) earlier this week over a test. In college, I took Japanese to fulfill my requirements for a foreign language and I was never bothered to take it and Japanese is nothing like English - unlike Norwegian, which is a cousin language.

Of course, I've only been in class 4 weeks. That's only 68 of the required 600 hours. It takes time to learn a language, you're going to get discouraged, but that's part of it. In hopes of battling my discouragement, I've decided I want to play Guess Who this weekend, but only in Norwegian. I'm sure there will be a lot of asking, "Hva betyr *beard* på norsk?" "What means *beard* in Norwegian?" The word for beard is "skjegg", but it's just an example. I think games like that would help someone learn a language. Something else I've been doing in order to force myself to think in Norwegian and put thoughts together to form sentences is everyday writing a random note to my husband, something like, "Jeg elsker deg og kyr. Ha en god dag." "I love you and cows. Have a good day."

There is also a website I've been visiting, Children's Norwegian Site, it's made for children, but I find it extremely helpful especially when you mix learning a language with pictures of dinosaurs or something. :-)

Guess Who?
I think this would be a great game to play if you're trying to learn
nouns and adjectives.  
The norskkurs (Norwegian Course) I'm in is not only helpful in teaching Norwegian to adults, but it's also helpful in integrating people into Norwegian society. We go on walks and trips to places occasionally. Yesterday, we had a scavenger hunt where we went into the city center to find places to answer questions. For example, "What is the name of the statue in ----- park?" or "Which movies are coming soon to Skien cinema?" and we'd have to go to these places to answer the questions.

A beautiful, crisp fall day to walk around the city. 

This here is a statue based from a Henrik Ibsen play. Skien, Norway is the city Ibsen
was born, raised and a lot of his plays were thought to be based on his life and Skien.
This statue is "Lille Eyolf" or "Little Eyolf" in English. 



"Lille Eyolf" is a statue, but she's also a slide as well. She has
about 5,000 ceramic eyes on her which all have been made by children in Skien. 

Some friends from class. 

I've walked passed this so many times and I've always thought
it was a photo booth. It's not - it's another toilet you have to pay
to use!!!!! 

Comments

Natalia said…
HI! Im moving to Oslo at the end of january and i am attending to norwegian classes here which i ll like to continue there. What i see is that most courses are pretty expensive. Do you know about any course that its not so expensive?

Thank you!
Natalia
December 19, 2012 at 1:06 PM
Evelyn Sand said…
The Norwegian classes are expensive unless you have your residency permit approved. Once approved they are free. :-)
January 1, 2013 at 8:14 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Expat Life

-
I've finally begun reading a book that has been in my reading list for a few years now; Norwegian By Night by Derek B. Miller. The author is actually an American man from Boston living in Oslo. Although it's a thriller, the expatriation of the main character is relatable. Sheldon Horowitz, a Marine, relocates to Oslo with his granddaughter, an American married to a Norwegian man. One particular quote, or paragraph rather, stood out to me, "Lars, being Lars, was overjoyed and encouraging and optimistic about her ability to adapt and join the pod. Norwegians, true to their nature, prefer to spawn in their own waters. Consequently Oslo is peopled by Norwegians married to a shadow population of displaced souls who all carry the look of tourists being led like children through the House of Wax." According to Wikipedia  16.8% of Norway's population is made up of immigrants. Granted this number also includes children born to immigrants regardless of being born in Norwa
Read more

The Dyne

-
Image
Separate dyne!  On beds a dyne (duvet) is used and you purchase covers in many prints and different types of fabrics. These are a pain in the butt to put over the duvet, but we manage. Many people have a duvet for summer months and a duvet for winter months. Oh, and the most common thing is for each person to have their own duvet. Moving to Norway as a newlywed, I wanted to have one duvet that we shared on our bed thinking it would be extra cozy and we'd cuddle more. Newlyweds are hilariously idealistic though! This lasted only a few months before we surrendered with white flags in the war zone that was our sleeping quarters. Turns out, I'm quite territorial over the duvet. I hear a lot of women are like this. I freeze easier than my husband so I was often less comfortable than I wanted to be and he's a night owl who goes to bed later than I do which means every time he lifted the duvet, a gush of cold air would follow him waking me. We gave up with our idealism o
Read more

Movie Title Translations

-
Watching TV earlier, I noticed some movies are given different titles translated into Norwegian. I believe the movie being advertised on TV was Couples Retreat, but being translated into something different it was something like Trøbbel i paradiset. Translated it would be Trouble in the Paradise - you can see the similarities in the language in that title. All original English speaking movies are still spoken in English with no voice overs, but they are shown in Norwegian subtitles. There is an exception to this with children's movies and TV programs which do have Norwegian voice overs. I asked Arild why some movie titles are in English, some are translated, and some are translated into names completely different. He said he really didn't know and thought of a coffee table book he has which has a list of the most off-titled movie translations. He pulled out Typisk Norsk from under the coffee table and started reading these to me: I'll do the correct English title, t
Read more