Summer Cleaning Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 30, 2015
Da er det på tide med litt rengjøring! (Then it’s time for some cleaning!) If you’re anything like me, you’d rather vente til neste dag (wait until the next day). The støv (dust) and skitt [shit] (dirt), unfortunately, don’t go on holiday… 🙁 Here are some words and phrases to help you get that kost…
Say hello to Norway’s Nessie! Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 9, 2015
Alle kjenner (everybody knows) Nessie – the Scottish lake monster from Loch Ness. But did you know Norway has its own sjøorm [shuh-ohrm] (”sea worm”)? I recently was lucky enough to … well, see innsjøen (the lake) where it’s supposed to live! 🙂 Telemark fylke (county) is a beautiful and varied place in the…
Gratulerer med 17. mai! Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 17, 2015
Kjære faste lesere, kjære tilfeldige internettsurfere,vi er samlet her på denne bloggen for å feire den norske grunnloven. Den 17. mai 1814 ble 112 menn i Eidsvoll enige om de lovene som et fritt og selvstendig Norge skulle bygge på. Idealene deres var frihet, likhet og brorskap, og ikke minst kjærlighet til fedrelandet. Hvert år…
Remember the words you forget Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 13, 2015
Together with my students at a language course, I recently found a great way of activating det passive ordforrådet (the passive vocabulary). I wrote a simple word on tavlen (the blackboard), asking my students to find its motsetning (opposite). Then we picked another word, found its ”opposite”, and the game went on and on and…
Sweet Brother Jokes Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Apr 30, 2015
– Vet du hvorfor svenskene står opp når de skal sove? (Do you know why Swedes are standing when they’re going to sleep?) – Nei! (No!) – De regner med å falle i søvn! (They think they’ll be falling asleep!) Svenskevitser (Swede-jokes) like that are quite popular in Norway. In fact, nordmenn (Norwegians) love joking…
Being Polite in Norwegian Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Apr 26, 2015
Last summer an avis (newspaper) article about Norwegians being uhøflig (impolite) shocked me into writing … this blog post one year later! 🙂 I’ve thrown away the paper, but it still bugs me that anyone could come up with such tull (nonsense, bullsh*t). Most Norwegians I’ve met are very kind and høflig (polite)! True, Norwegian…
Going short Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Mar 31, 2015
OMG! OK, it’s forkorting (abbreviation) time. LOL. 🙂 BTW, YOLO, so let’s get down to it: osv. = og så videre = ”and so further” = etc.: Vi må betale eiendomsskatt osv. (We’ve got to pay property tax etc.) osb. = og så bortetter = osv. in Nynorsk Norwegian. f.eks. = for eksempel = for example: Vil du…