OK, so I think my brain has reached maximum capacity when it comes to learning this language. I make little inroads then I get so overwhelmed with the details I just want to shut out the sounds and take a nap. Today we had the whole run-down on “ny-norsk”(pronounced “nee-norske”) and “bokmål” (boo-k-mol). You see, it’s not enough for these people to just have dialects to keep them from clearly communicating with the outside world, they also have to have the “old language” (which ironically they call “new norweigian”) “ny-norsk” – which makes me wonder what was in place before that one), and the newest version of the language they call “bokmål.” – (book language) which is the one used on TV and in newspapers and mostly taught to children in school. But for some reason, they still offer classes in the children’s schools in ny-norsk and those classes tend to be smaller in size so a lot of the parents put their kids there - for what purpose, I’ve yet to figure out. The two big differences I’ve noticed in the languages (with my limited scope of things so far), is how you count and how you spell. Kory learned things in ny-norske so he taught Kaleb to say the number “seven” as “syve” (pronounced “seeve”) but in the newest version of the language for instance you would call “seven”, “sju” (pronounced “shoe”). You also spell the word “one” differently – in one language version you spell it “en,” in the other, “ein.” I’ve yet to comprehend the reason why this country teaches both versions when they are obviously trying to migrate to the newest one… but such is the logic of the Norwegian people.
The biggest challenge for me, with my limited “ear” to hear what people are saying, is that if you talk in “bokmål” you will say your numbers like the American’s do – “twenty-seven.” But if you are an old timer (like Kory) and you speak ny-norsk, you say it “seven and twenty.” And that little “and” (“og”) is so hard to hear sometimes! If I’m in a store and I ask someone how much something costs, I could hear that it’s “72” kroner, when it really is 27 – big difference. So I’m getting good at looking at the age of the person talking and if they are older than me, then chances are good they are speaking ny-norsk (they didn’t switch over to bokmål until the 1960s.) It’s just one more thing that makes this language just so darn special, and why perhaps they only have four and a half million people living here (and most of them speak English.)
Our teacher today said the average size family in Norway now has just 1.4 children in it, so they are in a declining mode (except for the immigrants). She said there are 50,000 abortions every year here as adoption is not part of their culture. They can adopt children from outside this country and raise them up here, but I heard someone else say there are no adoptions allowed of Norwegian children to anyone. If you give birth – it’s yours for life. (But they do have a foster program for children whose parents have serious problems.) I know Norwegians are very worried about the loss of their race, as so many immigrants are coming here and so many Norwegian men are marrying non-Norwegian women. One of the hot-spots for Norwegians to go on vacation is Thailand and as a result, there are many men that go there and bring back Thai wives. There are more Thai women in my class than any other nationality.
On another note, I’ve been shopping the last few days to get food for the “Thank-you party” we are having Sunday afternoon for all the cousins who loaned us furniture. It’s a challenge to stock up on things since there is so little space in the frig, but cousin Odd (pronounced Ode) loaned us a freezer to put out in the garage (which Kory “organized” today). It’s a HUGE blessing to have the freezer, so now I can take advantage of things on sale and have food on hand if someone drops by. Kaleb made cookies yesterday and I made banana bread and we froze them in our “new” freezer. We feel so spoiled with all the luxuries we now have!
The one luxury we don’t have (intentionally) is a TV. People think we are nuts that we don’t watch TV (we have one, but it’s just for watching DVDs.) You not only pay monthly for the cable connection here, but you also pay hundreds of dollars annually to the government for their public stations, plus a personal tax for owning the TV. We borrowed the TV and if we don’t hook it up to anything, it costs us nothing. (The photo today is of Kaleb sewing – something you do when there are no other entertainment options.) Odd thinks kids will make fun of Kaleb in school if they find out he doesn’t watch TV. (There are a lot of things people do here simply to accommodate peer pressure.) Odd also told us how important it was that Kaleb have the “right” backpack for carrying his books to school or he will be humiliated and he won’t “fit in.” I wasn’t going to spend $100 on the “right one,” so he is just using the new one we brought from home that cost $15, and so far, I’m not aware of any permanent damage to his psyche. However, Kaleb did say he got hit in the head yesterday by a shoe… or was that a seven?
The biggest challenge for me, with my limited “ear” to hear what people are saying, is that if you talk in “bokmål” you will say your numbers like the American’s do – “twenty-seven.” But if you are an old timer (like Kory) and you speak ny-norsk, you say it “seven and twenty.” And that little “and” (“og”) is so hard to hear sometimes! If I’m in a store and I ask someone how much something costs, I could hear that it’s “72” kroner, when it really is 27 – big difference. So I’m getting good at looking at the age of the person talking and if they are older than me, then chances are good they are speaking ny-norsk (they didn’t switch over to bokmål until the 1960s.) It’s just one more thing that makes this language just so darn special, and why perhaps they only have four and a half million people living here (and most of them speak English.)
Our teacher today said the average size family in Norway now has just 1.4 children in it, so they are in a declining mode (except for the immigrants). She said there are 50,000 abortions every year here as adoption is not part of their culture. They can adopt children from outside this country and raise them up here, but I heard someone else say there are no adoptions allowed of Norwegian children to anyone. If you give birth – it’s yours for life. (But they do have a foster program for children whose parents have serious problems.) I know Norwegians are very worried about the loss of their race, as so many immigrants are coming here and so many Norwegian men are marrying non-Norwegian women. One of the hot-spots for Norwegians to go on vacation is Thailand and as a result, there are many men that go there and bring back Thai wives. There are more Thai women in my class than any other nationality.
On another note, I’ve been shopping the last few days to get food for the “Thank-you party” we are having Sunday afternoon for all the cousins who loaned us furniture. It’s a challenge to stock up on things since there is so little space in the frig, but cousin Odd (pronounced Ode) loaned us a freezer to put out in the garage (which Kory “organized” today). It’s a HUGE blessing to have the freezer, so now I can take advantage of things on sale and have food on hand if someone drops by. Kaleb made cookies yesterday and I made banana bread and we froze them in our “new” freezer. We feel so spoiled with all the luxuries we now have!
The one luxury we don’t have (intentionally) is a TV. People think we are nuts that we don’t watch TV (we have one, but it’s just for watching DVDs.) You not only pay monthly for the cable connection here, but you also pay hundreds of dollars annually to the government for their public stations, plus a personal tax for owning the TV. We borrowed the TV and if we don’t hook it up to anything, it costs us nothing. (The photo today is of Kaleb sewing – something you do when there are no other entertainment options.) Odd thinks kids will make fun of Kaleb in school if they find out he doesn’t watch TV. (There are a lot of things people do here simply to accommodate peer pressure.) Odd also told us how important it was that Kaleb have the “right” backpack for carrying his books to school or he will be humiliated and he won’t “fit in.” I wasn’t going to spend $100 on the “right one,” so he is just using the new one we brought from home that cost $15, and so far, I’m not aware of any permanent damage to his psyche. However, Kaleb did say he got hit in the head yesterday by a shoe… or was that a seven?
