Antisemitism in Norway Posted by kari on Aug 24, 2009
My guess is that most of what you hear or read about Norway is positive. Land of the midnight sun, a country where gender equality is a major priority, a place that encourages a healthy lifestyle, environmentally friendly. Rarely are there negative images of Norway portrayed in the media. Whaling is definitely one of the…
På restaurant Posted by kari on Aug 19, 2009
På restaurant means ‘at a restaurant’ (however you do not need to use ‘a’-in Norwegian there are many phrases that alow you to leave the article out i.e. på kino, på tur, på konsert). I must confess that due to the cost of eating out in Norway, I have not dined in very many Norwegian…
seter Posted by kari on Aug 16, 2009
place of mountain pasture. In other words, a traditional seter is a simple wooden cottage in the mountains with a barn where Norwegian bonder (farmers) bring their livestock herds (cattle, goats, and sheep) to be milked after a day of grazing in the mountain pastures. Historically, young women (ei seterjente = a dairymaid) brought the animals to the seter and remained there…
svinekjøtt Posted by kari on Aug 14, 2009
pork. pig meat. Growing up I used to really dislike it (parents made really fatty, dried out pork chops-svinekoteletter and other poorly made pork), but now that I live with a hog farmer (grisebonde) who loves to barbecue and grill (do you know the difference?) and makes amazing food, I love pork! Jeg elsker svinekjøtt! And…
lutefisk Posted by kari on Aug 12, 2009
Literally “lye fish”-the first word that comes to my mind is yuck. Lutefisk is a traditional dish of the Nordic countries (namely Norway, Sweden, and the Swedish-speaking part of Finland) made from dried or salted whitefish (klippfisk) or stockfish (air-dried whitefish) that goes through various treatments soaked in lye (lut). For those of you who don’t…
Lange ord Posted by kari on Aug 6, 2009
long words. Norsk is notorious for long words, most of which are conglomerations of several words. A professional linguist would probably be able to tell you why this is the case, but I can give speculation a shot-why create an entirely new word when you can use 2 or more existing words to describe something? …
begravelser Posted by kari on Aug 3, 2009
funerals. I know that this is a depressing topic, but I have spent the last week mourning the death of a very close friend and thus got to thinking it is a topic worth learning about in terms of language and traditions for people learning a new language. Begravelser in Scandinavian history were similar to…