Concordia Language Villages Posted by kari on Dec 22, 2008
If you or someone you know is interested in learning a foreign language, check out Concordia Language Villages. I have not yet experienced the language programs that await eager learners in northern Minnesota. However, I have supported CLV by teaching young children Norwegian. Between the winter of 2006 and the spring of 2008, I was a teacher for…
Nei til EU! Posted by kari on Dec 15, 2008
No to the European Union! This is quite a popular expression in Norway, so popular that someone spray painted it onto a rock far off the northwestern coast of Norway. I saw it from the Hurtigruten. Although graffiti in Norway is not as prevalent as it is in Germany, “Nei til EU” has certainly made…
Hurtigruten-the best way to travel Norway Posted by kari on Dec 14, 2008
Hurtigruten is a passenger & freight line that takes travelers up nearly the entire western and northern coasts of Norway. Hurtigruten literally means “express route” and although there are much faster modes of transportation today, at it’s beginning, it was the fastest way to transport cargo. Hurtigruten was established in 1893 by government contract to speed…
Freia sjokolade fabrikken….mmmmm Posted by kari on Dec 9, 2008
As an American student in Oslo, I had the pleasure of touring a chocolate factory-‘Freia Sjokolade Fabrikken.’ For some reason, I was put in charge of navigating the way to the factory. There were about 15 of us in the group and I was appointed the navigator, which is hilarious because I am really terrible…
Brrrrrr! Det er kaldt! Posted by kari on Dec 6, 2008
It’s cold! I don’t know about all of you, but I’m here in southern MN and it is truly a winter wonderland today. We’ve had a pretty mild winter so far, but this week the mercury dropped dramatically and the snow began to pile up. Norwegians are experiencing the same vær right now. The following…
Think, think, and think-why 3? Posted by kari on Dec 5, 2008
Tror, synes, tenker. Think, think, think. I usually say that Norwegian grammar is pretty easy, but one component for which I sympathize with beginners is the English word “to think.” In truth, English employs many different words that have the same meaning. For example, “to weigh” We can weigh a certain amount of pounds, or we can weigh our…
Not so homogeneous a population after all Posted by kari on Dec 2, 2008
As I mentioned in several earlier blogs, the Norwegian population isn’t as homogeneous as it used to be nor as most people believe it is. Not everyone in Norway has blond hair and blue eyes. A good portion of the northernmost part of the country is inhabited by a minority, indigenous population, the Sami people. Samis inhabit…