Sing me a song
"Sing me a love song and then
Let your words remind me who I am"
- "Sing me a love song" by BarlowGirl
Living in Norway has been a different experience for me primarily because I don't speak the local language. When I moved to Germany in 2011, I was basically already fluent in German, so I could make my way around and blend in pretty well. In Norway, I blend in for sure with my dark blonde hair, blue eyes, and Scandinavian first name, but it's slightly frustrating for me to have to ask others around me to switch to English all the time.
I've picked up a few words here and there; I can figure out what they mean from signs. I'm trying to learn how to pronounce Norwegian words correctly so that when I do pick up more vocabulary and syntax, I don't sound like an idiot from another planet. To be honest, one of the hardest words for me to say is the name of my street, Kirkebakken, because each of the 4 K's in the word are pronounced differently. The first one is like the soft "ch" sound in German, almost an "sh" in English but with your tongue spread wide between your canine teeth. Then I have to throw the sound to the back of my throat and pretend like I'm going to spit on the hard, guttural R. The second K is barely heard, as are the E, B, and A. When you have a double consonant (KK), the vowel before it is kept short, so I basically have to fly through the second syllable of the word. I get to the very end and have to swallow the N because even though it's there, you don't really hear it.
Sometimes I feel like I'm tossing a piece of candy around in my mouth - the sound goes front, back, front, swallow. All just to tell people where I live!
I've made plenty of mistakes. For example, I once told someone that I had funding from the Froskningsrådet (this translates to "Frog Council") instead of the Forskningsrådet ("Research Council"). Ah, what a simple switch can do!
In a lot of American movies, Scandinavians are portrayed as very sing-songy speakers. The pitch of their voice is constantly going up and down. Imagine my surprise to figure out that Norwegians actually speak like that! The language has this incredible topography - you constantly have to speed up or slow down on certain letters, or raise and lower the pitch of your voice. I was astounded the first time I rode the bus and listened carefully to the names of the stops being announced. I had to stop myself from giggling because the stereotype is actually true!
I tried to explain how Scandinavians are portrayed in the U.S. to a Norwegian friend, and the best way I could think to explain it was to tell her about the Muppets' Swedish Chef. Needless to say, she was highly amused by the character. She then went on to tell me that Norwegians are portrayed the same way in European entertainment. She cited a Swedish program in which a Norwegian character was threatening another character with a knife, but the joke was that he was basically singing the threat. Nobody could take him seriously, and of course hilarity ensued.
It's definitely been an adventure so far, but I'm determined to learn at last some Norwegian while I'm here!
Let your words remind me who I am"
- "Sing me a love song" by BarlowGirl
Living in Norway has been a different experience for me primarily because I don't speak the local language. When I moved to Germany in 2011, I was basically already fluent in German, so I could make my way around and blend in pretty well. In Norway, I blend in for sure with my dark blonde hair, blue eyes, and Scandinavian first name, but it's slightly frustrating for me to have to ask others around me to switch to English all the time.
I've picked up a few words here and there; I can figure out what they mean from signs. I'm trying to learn how to pronounce Norwegian words correctly so that when I do pick up more vocabulary and syntax, I don't sound like an idiot from another planet. To be honest, one of the hardest words for me to say is the name of my street, Kirkebakken, because each of the 4 K's in the word are pronounced differently. The first one is like the soft "ch" sound in German, almost an "sh" in English but with your tongue spread wide between your canine teeth. Then I have to throw the sound to the back of my throat and pretend like I'm going to spit on the hard, guttural R. The second K is barely heard, as are the E, B, and A. When you have a double consonant (KK), the vowel before it is kept short, so I basically have to fly through the second syllable of the word. I get to the very end and have to swallow the N because even though it's there, you don't really hear it.
Sometimes I feel like I'm tossing a piece of candy around in my mouth - the sound goes front, back, front, swallow. All just to tell people where I live!
I've made plenty of mistakes. For example, I once told someone that I had funding from the Froskningsrådet (this translates to "Frog Council") instead of the Forskningsrådet ("Research Council"). Ah, what a simple switch can do!
In a lot of American movies, Scandinavians are portrayed as very sing-songy speakers. The pitch of their voice is constantly going up and down. Imagine my surprise to figure out that Norwegians actually speak like that! The language has this incredible topography - you constantly have to speed up or slow down on certain letters, or raise and lower the pitch of your voice. I was astounded the first time I rode the bus and listened carefully to the names of the stops being announced. I had to stop myself from giggling because the stereotype is actually true!
I tried to explain how Scandinavians are portrayed in the U.S. to a Norwegian friend, and the best way I could think to explain it was to tell her about the Muppets' Swedish Chef. Needless to say, she was highly amused by the character. She then went on to tell me that Norwegians are portrayed the same way in European entertainment. She cited a Swedish program in which a Norwegian character was threatening another character with a knife, but the joke was that he was basically singing the threat. Nobody could take him seriously, and of course hilarity ensued.
It's definitely been an adventure so far, but I'm determined to learn at last some Norwegian while I'm here!
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