We took our first test (prøve) today in Norsk class. It’s only been two weeks and we are good! I think I did pretty well, but won’t know til Monday. I’m sure I did better on it than my “leksa” (homework) this week. Over the weekend we had to write another essay about someone besides ourselves. I wrote mine on Kaleb, as every good parent would. It came back with an incredible amount of red pen marks on it, but at least I got a “BRA!” (Good!) The problem was, according to the teacher, I was writing things that were far beyond the beginner level and she suggested I try to keep things simple to start with. You can’t keep things simple if you are writing about Kaleb, I know that for sure, but I also was trying to stretch myself. I thought it would be boring to just write sentences based on what I’ve already learned, I wanted to write sentences that were a bit of a challenge for me – and they were – and it showed (in red, no less). But she did say the paper was “spennende” (exciting) to read, so there ya go.
My biggest problem so far with the language is understanding people when they talk. Maybe I’ve always had that problem, even back home, but here, I feel like an idiot. Marit, an elderly neighbor, rides the same bus as I do each morning. Sometimes we sit together and mostly I do the talking to practice my Norsk, but when she talks, I can’t understand a word she says. She even talks slowly but I just can’t hear the words. This morning I had her write down what she was saying and I understood it perfectly when it was written – but the dialect is so strong here that if I hear one word I’m unfamiliar with my brain just blanks out. Example – if you want to say “I don’t know” you say, “Jeg vet ikke” and that sounds like “Y-eye vet ik-ka.” But people from Aalesund, say “vetcha.” How is a person ever supposed to know what VETCHA is? You certainly won’t find it in a dictionary. And all the question words like “what,” “where,” and “who” (spelled “hva,” “hvor,” and “hvem” – but all properly pronounced with a silent “h” “va, vor, vem”), they say here in Aalesund “ka,” “kor,” and “kem.” So in most cases with the students in our class (see photo), Norwegian is at least their third or more like fourth language, but when you factor in all the dialect we have to learn, it ups it one more notch.
I went to the library during lunch so I could read about the random shootings in Skagit County this week. Hard to comprehend. There are certainly no guarantees in life and only God knows the number of our days. I pray each one of mine count so that if I have an unexpected trip to heaven one day, I will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
The big news here in Aalesund is the weather forecast for next week – summer shall return (it’s sunny today, too) and it is supposed to be in the seventies all of next week. I can only attribute that to one thing – the prayers of Nancy Schaub. Nancy and her husband, Willy, are arriving in Norway Sunday night from just down the street from where we live in Mount Vernon. She e-mailed me that she’s been praying for good weather, and I know God loves her very much so this is the result. HALLELUJAH! They have never been to Norway before and we are thrilled to be getting company and sharing our corner of the world with them. I asked Kaleb if he’d like to skip school one day next week to go sightseeing with all of us, and he just started crying. I guess it would be considered child abuse at this point to keep him out of school. But then he went on to tell us about all the antics of the kids in his class and it upsets him greatly that they do mischievous things (like locking the door to keep kids outside), or not following the rules to certain games. It’s interesting to watch him integrate into “the real world.” He’s had a fairly protected environment up til now.
Kory enjoyed the day home alone and he made us a hallway bench to sit on while taking on and off shoes. He went dumpster diving at work one day and came home with a very nice coffee table someone had thrown out which he re-made into a bench. It’s fun to be immigrants. There is no shame, no peer pressure, little money in the bank, so we just make do with what we can get for free. Kory is reliving his childhood as he said it was a regular occurrence when he was a boy after they moved to America that his dad would take him down to the dump to go “shopping.” Life is good.
My biggest problem so far with the language is understanding people when they talk. Maybe I’ve always had that problem, even back home, but here, I feel like an idiot. Marit, an elderly neighbor, rides the same bus as I do each morning. Sometimes we sit together and mostly I do the talking to practice my Norsk, but when she talks, I can’t understand a word she says. She even talks slowly but I just can’t hear the words. This morning I had her write down what she was saying and I understood it perfectly when it was written – but the dialect is so strong here that if I hear one word I’m unfamiliar with my brain just blanks out. Example – if you want to say “I don’t know” you say, “Jeg vet ikke” and that sounds like “Y-eye vet ik-ka.” But people from Aalesund, say “vetcha.” How is a person ever supposed to know what VETCHA is? You certainly won’t find it in a dictionary. And all the question words like “what,” “where,” and “who” (spelled “hva,” “hvor,” and “hvem” – but all properly pronounced with a silent “h” “va, vor, vem”), they say here in Aalesund “ka,” “kor,” and “kem.” So in most cases with the students in our class (see photo), Norwegian is at least their third or more like fourth language, but when you factor in all the dialect we have to learn, it ups it one more notch.
I went to the library during lunch so I could read about the random shootings in Skagit County this week. Hard to comprehend. There are certainly no guarantees in life and only God knows the number of our days. I pray each one of mine count so that if I have an unexpected trip to heaven one day, I will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
The big news here in Aalesund is the weather forecast for next week – summer shall return (it’s sunny today, too) and it is supposed to be in the seventies all of next week. I can only attribute that to one thing – the prayers of Nancy Schaub. Nancy and her husband, Willy, are arriving in Norway Sunday night from just down the street from where we live in Mount Vernon. She e-mailed me that she’s been praying for good weather, and I know God loves her very much so this is the result. HALLELUJAH! They have never been to Norway before and we are thrilled to be getting company and sharing our corner of the world with them. I asked Kaleb if he’d like to skip school one day next week to go sightseeing with all of us, and he just started crying. I guess it would be considered child abuse at this point to keep him out of school. But then he went on to tell us about all the antics of the kids in his class and it upsets him greatly that they do mischievous things (like locking the door to keep kids outside), or not following the rules to certain games. It’s interesting to watch him integrate into “the real world.” He’s had a fairly protected environment up til now.
Kory enjoyed the day home alone and he made us a hallway bench to sit on while taking on and off shoes. He went dumpster diving at work one day and came home with a very nice coffee table someone had thrown out which he re-made into a bench. It’s fun to be immigrants. There is no shame, no peer pressure, little money in the bank, so we just make do with what we can get for free. Kory is reliving his childhood as he said it was a regular occurrence when he was a boy after they moved to America that his dad would take him down to the dump to go “shopping.” Life is good.
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