Learning Norwegian

I began going to Norwegian language lessons just weeks after arriving in Norway.


I was lucky to get The Good Teacher Inga as my Norsk teacher, because she was indeed, very good.

After she passed back one of our first writing assignments, I noticed she wrote “Bra” (translation: “Good”) on several papers, but on mine, she wrote, “SUPER!” (meaning “Excellent”). “Super bra” would have been just too funny, I guess.

She also drew a big smiley face below my first Norwegian paragraph. You never get too old for a smiley face. It did make me proud.

The Good Teacher Inga also complimented me early on for my pronunciation. She said I was “flink” (“capable”).

I loved that class. I struggled to remember the letter J sounds like a Y and the letter I sounds like an E and the letter G sounds like a J, plus all the rules of grammar, but I managed to find something to laugh about every day.

For instance, if you say “chew-a-shoe,” you have just said the number “27” in Norwegian.

Another funny thing is what sounds like “Snoop doggy dog” (Isn’t that a rap star or something?) means “candy day today.” Traditionally, many kids get candy only on Saturdays – so it’s a common saying on Saturday mornings.

We had to learn proper “bokmål” Norwegian, but most people still speak the other older, official version of Norwegian ironically called “nynorsk” (new Norwegian).

They aren’t the same. We also had to learn the special dialect from our area so when we went out on the street, we could understand what in the world people were saying (fat chance). There are over 400 dialects in Norway so it’s not uncommon for Norwegians to not even understand each other.

One of our first lessons was on the secret in pronouncing the vowels: if there is a single consonant after the vowel, the vowel sound must be stretched out, but if there is a double consonant following the vowel, then the vowel sound must be quick.

This is very important, when say for instance, you are asked what you want for your 18th birthday and you say “bil” (pronounced “beeel”) which means “car.” If you didn’t stretch out that “e” sound, and you said “bill” you would end up with a beetle – and not the Volkswagen kind either.