Today was a fairly ordinary day, except for the weather. It’s been unusually warm and no rain the past several days –NOT at all normal November weather so everyone is talking about it non-stop – oh wait, they do that anyway. Never mind. Other than that - Kaleb went to school, Kory went to work. Both reported uneventful days, as was mine. But Kaleb did get to bring home his work of art today (see photo). His afterschool program had all the kids paint a landscape with acrylic on canvas. Kaleb has been talking about it for weeks as he thinks his is the second best and he’s been so excited to have us see it. He decided to take a few liberties with the view out our living room window, so he painted the mountain tops, as seen through the window, but set against very still water so there is a mirror image (I think he got that idea from several photos I took up in the Lofoten Islands.) It is pretty good, if I do say so myself. And he has been glowing over all the nice compliments he got from kids at school as they had them on display like a real art show. At the end of the “show” all the parents got the opportunity to buy the works of art for 50 kroner (about $10) How clever is that? All the money they raise goes to the children’s wing of the local hospital, so all-in-all, a good idea.
I’m still struggling with school and it does me no good to have Kory help me with my homework. He is “old school” Norske and speaks a different language – literally. I’m learning the new, hip version of Norwegian and nowadays, they do things differently. It’s sad for me on one hand because it would be nice to have help when I need it, but on the other hand, it keeps me from cheating. But I really need a private tutor now or something as the class is zipping right along and I got left in the dust somewhere and I feel like I’m floundering again.
We were discussing this dilemma at dinner tonight and Kaleb was a bit confused as he had yet to figure out there are two versions of Norwegian being taught in schools today. His 4th grade class is broken up into 4 separate groups, two of them are learning “Ny Norske” (the old language that Kory speaks) and two are being taught “Bokmål” (what he and I are learning). He was devastated at the news. He just started crying and said, “But what if you want to become friends with one of the kids in the other class and you won’t be able to communicate with them?!” I agree (but the differences are not HUGE – it’s mostly just spelling and grammatical differences.) But it is the most bass ackwards system anyone could ever think of and it’s starting to get to me. There is one upside though to the two different languages and the 400 different dialects … Norwegians are VERY tolerant of grammatical errors in conversation. They could care less if you speak properly as every pocket of this country has their own bent on the language. Even last night during the sermon at church, the pastor misspoke and then just said it was his “dialect,” as that is the common understanding here when people don’t say something “right” -- it’s just passed off as dialect. But the one thing Norwegians will NOT tolerate, and they think it makes one sound incredibly foreign and just downright stupid, is pronouncing certain letters improperly.
The University of Bergen did a nationwide study a while back and interviewed over 5,000 native Norwegians and the top three things that grate on them the most is the way certain letters are mispronounced – grammar isn't even an issue. So we were warned in class to be sure to say “g”s properly – not a hard “g” like in “get” but like the sound of a “y” like in “yes.” Apparently that is the number one pet peeve. I guess it's similar to the folks in the Northwest hearing someone say Puget Sound as "pug-et" - not "pew-jet" like we say... or hearing Skagit County called "Ska-get"- stuff like that. And the number two irritant is the way some people (German’s mostly) pronounce the “s” like a “z”. At least I don’t have that problem. And the third top sign that marks one as non-native is the way the “r” is pronounced (I guess American's have this problem quite a lot, but at least we can say "r". No one from Asia can even make an American "r" sound.) To say the "r" properly here in Norway, it MUST be rolled and the tip of the tongue must linger at the roof of your mouth til it downright tickles. Kaleb has it down pat. I do OK but still get corrected on occasion. It’s an art form unto itself. So I guess the lesson for me is to pay less attention to my grammatical errors and concentrate more on my pronunciation. One of these days, maybe… one of these days… it will all click.
I’m still struggling with school and it does me no good to have Kory help me with my homework. He is “old school” Norske and speaks a different language – literally. I’m learning the new, hip version of Norwegian and nowadays, they do things differently. It’s sad for me on one hand because it would be nice to have help when I need it, but on the other hand, it keeps me from cheating. But I really need a private tutor now or something as the class is zipping right along and I got left in the dust somewhere and I feel like I’m floundering again.
We were discussing this dilemma at dinner tonight and Kaleb was a bit confused as he had yet to figure out there are two versions of Norwegian being taught in schools today. His 4th grade class is broken up into 4 separate groups, two of them are learning “Ny Norske” (the old language that Kory speaks) and two are being taught “Bokmål” (what he and I are learning). He was devastated at the news. He just started crying and said, “But what if you want to become friends with one of the kids in the other class and you won’t be able to communicate with them?!” I agree (but the differences are not HUGE – it’s mostly just spelling and grammatical differences.) But it is the most bass ackwards system anyone could ever think of and it’s starting to get to me. There is one upside though to the two different languages and the 400 different dialects … Norwegians are VERY tolerant of grammatical errors in conversation. They could care less if you speak properly as every pocket of this country has their own bent on the language. Even last night during the sermon at church, the pastor misspoke and then just said it was his “dialect,” as that is the common understanding here when people don’t say something “right” -- it’s just passed off as dialect. But the one thing Norwegians will NOT tolerate, and they think it makes one sound incredibly foreign and just downright stupid, is pronouncing certain letters improperly.
The University of Bergen did a nationwide study a while back and interviewed over 5,000 native Norwegians and the top three things that grate on them the most is the way certain letters are mispronounced – grammar isn't even an issue. So we were warned in class to be sure to say “g”s properly – not a hard “g” like in “get” but like the sound of a “y” like in “yes.” Apparently that is the number one pet peeve. I guess it's similar to the folks in the Northwest hearing someone say Puget Sound as "pug-et" - not "pew-jet" like we say... or hearing Skagit County called "Ska-get"- stuff like that. And the number two irritant is the way some people (German’s mostly) pronounce the “s” like a “z”. At least I don’t have that problem. And the third top sign that marks one as non-native is the way the “r” is pronounced (I guess American's have this problem quite a lot, but at least we can say "r". No one from Asia can even make an American "r" sound.) To say the "r" properly here in Norway, it MUST be rolled and the tip of the tongue must linger at the roof of your mouth til it downright tickles. Kaleb has it down pat. I do OK but still get corrected on occasion. It’s an art form unto itself. So I guess the lesson for me is to pay less attention to my grammatical errors and concentrate more on my pronunciation. One of these days, maybe… one of these days… it will all click.
1 comment:
Oh WOW!!!! I miss seeing Kaleb's art soooo much! That is a beautiful painting. Tell him, as an artist myself, I find it most excellent. Great composition!
Post a Comment