Spring fever Posted by kari on Mar 22, 2009
Vårfeber er her! Spring fever is here! At least for me. This weekend has been gorgeous. Det regnet hele dagen på fredag. It rained the whole day on Friday, so it’s been really nice to see sola denne helgen (the sun this weekend)! Nå blåser det mye (now it’s blowing a lot/it’s very windy), men…
norske adjektiver Posted by kari on Mar 17, 2009
You were probably wondering when I would get into adjectives. Today is your lucky day! Don’t worry-they really aren’t that painful. I’ve said before that pronunciation is the most difficult part of learning the Norwegian language and the grammar is the easy part. Adjectives are no exception to this rule. As long as you follow…
Hvordan er været? Posted by kari on Mar 15, 2009
Hvordan er været, hvordan er været, hvordan er været i dag? Hvordan er været, hvordan er været, hvordan er været i dag? Ja det regner ute, regner ute, ja det regner i dag. This is a song that I taught to little kids at the Norwegian pre-school I used to work at. It is a very simple…
Parental leave-a relatively new concept Posted by kari on Mar 13, 2009
As one of you mentioned in a response to the last post on gender equality, Norway implements quite a nice parental leave policy. The best part about the policy is how flexible it is. Parents are allowed to take either 44 weeks (10 months) of full-paid leave or 54 weeks (12.5 months) of 80% paid leave. Now, those months can…
Gender Equality in Norway Posted by kari on Mar 11, 2009
men = menn women =kvinner a man= en mann a woman=ei/en kvinne the men= mennene the women=kvinnene a boy=en gutt a girl=ei/en jente Many Americans think that since most Scandinavian immigrants settled in the midwest, they must resemble their Scandinavian-American decendants. One very prominent distinction between the Norwegian-American heartland and Norway lies in the area…
Alkohol & Norway Posted by kari on Mar 8, 2009
In all Scandinavian countries except for Denmark, alcohol monopolies control the sale and consumption of alcohol. Sweden was the first of these countries to institute governmental control of alcohol in 1850, followed by Norway in 1922. Norway’s alcohol monopoly is called Vinmonopolet or Polet for short (literally “wine monolpoly,” which can be misleading because it…
Norway in Houston Posted by kari on Mar 4, 2009
I was in Houston, TX over the weekend to visit my brother. We didn’t do any of the touristy things because it was more important to me to just hang out. My brother works for a construction company that follows storms and then contracts roofing work out. One of the homeowners that he built a…