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| Nothing to do with Norwegian! I just liked the photo... |
When I decided I would need to learn Norwegian in order for me to move to Norway, I looked on the internet and found one that seemed not to be too dear, yet would still teach me something. I bought it, a few days later it arrived and ever since then I have been studying. During work mind, never in my free time! (That's the beauty of being a busdriver: I have plenty of time left while waiting for children who swim or do pe). The cd's were discarded quite early on. They were really annoying me no end. They would ask a question and by the time I had finished translating, they would have already given the answer. Pressing the pause button didn't help: the whole machine would then go haywire and I would have to start all over again.
I bought myself some school supplies, so I would be able to write down what I needed to write down: the rules of Norwegian grammar, words and words and words and of course the little assignments. Occasionally I would have to translate a sentence in Norwegian and think: I can't do that and I would invariably do it and even get it correct!
Now, the thing with this course is, it's an English Norwegian course. So, everything is explained in English. My English is reasonably okay, but when people start talking of infinitives, bare infinitives, articles, nouns and the lot, that gets quite confusing. Because I will need to translate it into Dutch before I can translate it any further. I think my grammar booklet is full of made-up Dutch names for things. At least I understand what I am going on about. Most of the time...
Sometimes though I get stuck. Like when I learnt about big bigger biggest. Which turned out not to be about that at all, but was all about adjectives and their endings regarding the nouns they were with. Or like when I had to learn about auxiliary verbs and couldn't for the life of me grasp what they were (I have since had a brainwave and know they are hulpwerkwoorden).
Fortunately I have friends. And one in particular who can help me out when I am in a tight spot. She should be anyway, since she is a Dutch teacher! If ever I really get stuck, I will get onto her, babble something on her voicemail and she will try to make sense of my babble and send me an answer. Lovely!
Now I just need to learn how to pronounce it all...
Oh my goodness. You are so brave, having conquered the very-difficult English language and now translating it into Norwegian via Dutch.
ReplyDeleteI admire your determination, my dear, and your excellent work ethic. Does Belgium have a proper government yet? You could go there and be Prime Minister, and you wouldn't be far from home, but you'd be able to tell people where to go and how to get there.
Luv, K
Oh man! I don't even know what 'hulpwerkwoorden' are anymore. Have to brush up on my Dutch grammar (or not). Learning Norwegian sounds very complicated. Good luck! Or lykke til!
ReplyDeleteOMG ! How awful and naked infinitives ! I don't know that not even in German ! I learned all languages like that, just talking, writing came after ! just like kids.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. I even share your questions with my pupils, and we have a great time findings the answers together!
ReplyDeleteYou deserve a medal! Such great determination and much hard work! Accolades to you.
ReplyDeleteI love your determination. I can't imagine having to learn another language.
ReplyDeleteOh, my, I feel your pain! I'm studying Romanian right now via English, and have the same problems with not knowing the grammar terms in English. I got totally confused when they started talking about direct object and indirect object, and I had to go to the Internet to figure out that we were talking about meewerkend voorwerp and lijdend voorwerp.
ReplyDelete