Norwegian is a germanic language. It is similiar with both German and English. People from Danmark, Sweden and Norway understand each other because their languages are very similiar. The language which is spoken in Iceland, is very similiar to old middelage Norwegain (acctualy it is presservet middelage Norwegain).

In the later middelage Norway was a part of Danmark. During this period Danish replaced Norwegian as a spoken and written language (mainly in towns). Reformation helped this proccess because it came from Danmark and after Reformation church used Bible translated to Danish.

During 19. century Norwegian was again used as written language. But in two variants :

1. Bokmål (book language) - it had as a base a language which was used in town and was very similiar to Danish. Today it is used by majority of Norwegians.
2. Nynorsk (new Norwegian) - it had as a base dialects which people in west Norway spoke (influence of Danish wasn't so strong).

But it isn't all. Each region has its own dialect which can be differt from other regions in prenanciation and form of words.

Before I came here to Norway I had learnt Norwegian for 2 years. But Norwegian is still a big problem for me. I had a Norwegian textbook, used Internet and a very good program for learning words. So I could little read and write. I was able to read Norwegian magasiners and WWW pages. I and my friends from Norway sent letters in Norwegian. But I couldn't listen and speak.

When I came to Haugesund I understand nothing. But thanks these to years of learning it was little easier. From the beginning of Octobor I go every day to school. At YMCA they try to speak in Norwegian with me. Now I am able to speak little with them. When they speak slowly and clearly, I can understand ( but the dialect in Haugesund which has some differiences from Oslo, is still very difficult). I can see at school that I've become little better in Norwegian. We write dictations there. When I began to go there, I thougth that they were very difficult. Now they seem to be easier (Actually I don't give much effort in school because we used the same textbook which I had in Czech repbublic).

One result of my effort to learn Norwegian I can already see : My English became worse. I started to mix English and Norwegain. And in some case I find quicker Norwegian word than English :).

Of course I can't undrestand normal conversation among two or more Norwegians (I have sometimes doubts if they still speak in Norwegian. Maybe they started to speak in Japanese or Chinese). I can catch words or parts of sentences but I don't understand the meaning. This limits very much my working possibilities here. All programs go in Norwegain and it isn't possible to translate all to English. They translate to me very little and I am not so brave or arogant to ask for that.

In Norway they learn English from 6. grade. At high school they learn second language, mainly german, franch or spansk. Of course meetings have to be in Norwegian becuase it is very difficult to think in foreign language.

My bigest difficulty with language is that in Czech republic I was also mainly a person who only listen. This isn't possible here because I don't understand. I must try to speak. This is difficult for me.

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page