The other day I was at a 1 year old's Birthday party. My little new Niece ... (yes that word still is hard to say .... that means I'm an Auntie.. or Tantie (taunteh) as they say here .. yup that word actually really exists!)...
So admidst the party scene with the kids running around and ..... well ...screaming ... and people around .... well .. talking .... in Norweeeeeeeegian ... I'm sitting around and .... well .... feeling dumb...
Cuz one thing I realised here is that the Language is really what helps you fit into a place faster ... generate the friends .. and create the bonds ... how do you really bond with someone who you cannot communicate with on a greater level other than ... well ... Hi! and Bye ??
The Party itself was like I said a kid party .. .but for some reason or the other ... of which I will learn when I have my own kid and want to celebrate their one year anniversary .... when they don't have the least bit of a clue about what on earth is going on.... there were more adults than kids .... that being said ...please let me make a small point here.. geared directly at my new inlaw family ...
I love you guys ... I think that you are each so special .. in my little mum way of noting how you move with each other ..... I thank God that my husband has a normal family and a beautifully close one as well ... where there are no internal struggles and the such like .... and if there are ... I guess I'll find out one day ... then I'll be so eternally inculcated into the family thatI won't really think it odd then .. would I? ... Just quirky??
So ... I told my husband that I wanted to be able to force myself to learn the language ... so I guess not everyone is perfectly comfortable with the English Language ...and besides that I would have hated to be the ONLY reason everyone was talking in English .. it would have put a downer on the party .. seriously ... can you imagine having a party in Trinidad and everyone had to talk Spanish ...??? Yea .. we would just bring out the Soca and forget about talking ... yuh sure right!! ..
Anyways ... The Language really struck me as I listened to it.... and it will be really hard right now to give examples since .. like i'm sure you can't give any examples in Finnish right now either ... except if you google it ... so don't get all oooie on me....
For a long while ... I sat and listened .. really listened to the language .... Ever saw on Movies how they learn a language over night or something??? or at least in a very short period of time?? .. Well ... I don't know about the speaking part ... but there are quite a few words that are similar to English , Spanish or French ... and that is what makes the whole thing a real interesting thing to listen to.
As I sat there listening to the conversations that were going on around me ... Some things sounded like spanish ... something things sounded a little freenchiiee ..and other things sounded like english with an ice cube in your mouth....(bra, for, etc) So I actually got alittle bit of it ... Sometimes when my husband speaks I can understand a joke or something .... He laughs... I laugh and I feel like I fit in ... of course who knows if the joke I got was the same joke everyone else got ... no worries .. I laughed in a good enough time.
For example... there was something about smoking ... and for some reason I knew that was what they were talking about.... someone asked someone else .. "Do you smoke?" .. and almost like muscle memory I figured it out ... as if they spoke it in english ... it really was very cool ...
They went on to talk more about smoking and I started to fade away ..... I guess I always had A.D.D. in class ... was never a good book girl ... throughout my ENTIRE school life I was given . "Jaemie has so much more potential. Jaemie must work harder".. The Problem with me is that I learn so much faster when I WATCH or copy than when I have to learn it myself....
This brings back memories of before Internet was the Dictionary and encycopedias ... or parents ... which we normally hoped would be faster ... My father was not .. in fact it almost more dangerous to go to ask him something that to go look for it in the library with the books covered in dust battling long legged spiders and ultimately picking up the wrong section of the dictionary. He would go " Ok let's see".... ARGH .. that was the beginning of the end .. he would get book after book and then properly instruct you to read .... in my mind I was " dad ... I asked YOU what was the largest planet.. not how many planets are there, along with 10 other things he had to explain looong before I got my answer ..... if I got the answer at all :S
hmmm ... I'm rambling ... let me get back to the topic ..
So of course during the course of .... I think it was 3 hours hanging out with the family ... I learned a sum total of 1 word... to Smoke ... å rØyke. What a word to learn huh?
Of course knowing the language will help you know when they tell you to come for food .... or that you have to get up and go get it..... Like what happened to me ... yup .. and I'm sitting there like a Queen Bee thinking food was going to be walking my way.... hmm .. ooops .. nope.
(that learning the language thing in one day from the movies .. just BTW is a LIE!)
But I have to admit after all is said and done ... that the Norwegian language is not spoken by that many people and very well may be a dying language. Rosetta Stone has chosen NOT to have Norwegian as an optional language perhaps for this very same reason. But have no fear ... I SHALL conquer the confusing language ....
Then I found out that like Trinidad, there are many different dialects .. and within those dialects, there are different words for the same thing, different pronounciations for the same word ... the best example is "I" Jeg .. which is pronouced in at least 3 different ways depending on where you are from .. north, west or East ... ..... ahhh hhaaa.... riiiigghhtt... okay then.... hmmmm ....
I take solace in knowing that once I can speak the language I'll be able to understand Swedish and Dannish.. Whey yuh say? ...
I think your adventure is awesome!!!!
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