Lost in Translation

It's raining. Big surprise. I notice it more at this house since my room has a skylight, and even when it's just drizzling it sounds like it's raining hard. Looks like we're in for a bit more rain:

I didn't start a blog post just to tell you it's raining though. That's not exactly big news here. I just wanted to talk a bit about translations and english in Norway.

Since everyone here is so good at english, I haven't seen any hilarious examples like this:

or this:

or this:

More of those here.  :)

Even without menus advertising "rude and unreasonable chicken", there's still smaller translation quirks that can be funny.

Most tv here is in english with norwegian subtitles, but they often translate the title to norwegian in the guide. This just makes it confusing to browse through and know what's actually on, since I tend to assume it's a norwegian show if the title is in norwegian.

I came across My little Norway last year when I was looking for sites to learn norwegian, it's a great site about an Australian woman and her family living in Norway. It has a list of some funny movie title translations into Norwegian and back; here's a few funny ones:

-The Pacifier
-Norwegian: Operasjon barnevakt
-Back to english: Operation Babysitter

-Opportunity Knocks
-Norwegian: Hjelp, jeg er blitt sjef!
-Back to english: Help, I've Become a Manager!

-Airplane
-Norwegian: Hjelp, vi flyr!
-Back to english: Help, we're flying!

-The World's Fastest Indian
-Norwegian: En høyst uvanlig mann
-Back to english: A Highly Unusual Man

-Meet the Parents
-Norwegian: Slekten er verst
-Back to english: Family is the Worst

It isn't just movie titles that can get strange translations; the Harry Potter characters are another example. I don't know what these name changes accomplished:

Albus Dumbledore - Albus Humlesnurr

Dudley Dursley - Dudleif Dumling 

Vernon Dursley - Wiktor Dumling

Hagrid - Gygrid

Gilderoy Lockhart - Gyldeprinz Gulmedal

Neville Longbottom - Nilus Langballe

Professor McGonagall - Professor McSnurp

Tom Marvolo Riddle - Tom Dredolo Venster

Slytherin - Smygard

Severus Snape - Severus Slur

Dolores Jane Umbridge - Venke Dolorosa Uffert

You know who - Han de vet (he they know)

The translator must have been bored with their job or something, they definitely had fun with those! "He they know" doesn't sound quite as ominous as "you know who." The names didn't really become any more Norwegian though, no Olav or Ingeborg or Torbjørn to be seen.

Norwegians use a lot of english in everyday conversation, without seeming to notice it. If I tune out the norwegian and just listen for english, it's surprising how many words and expressions they use. Without understanding any norwegian it would be babble with completely out of context english statements thrown in. I don't actually remember noticing this too much when I understood less norwegian though; it's still nowhere near enough to understand the conversation.

I think I had more to write, but got distracted and forgot I was writing this. So that's all for now.

In art class we have to illustrate a small text, so here's my rough first drawing of Frøken Bisk Glefs:

Happy Groundhog day

Reflections and part two of The Fridge

Looks like blog updating has become a Sunday evening thing, something to do when I feel like being slightly productive, but not enough to actually work on an essay or do my "homework".

I'm trying to decide on a date to go home, and hoping to fly back with Abby and Devin, who I flew here with. Thinking about this gives my exchange an endpoint rather than seeming to stretch on til "whenever in the summer", and makes the idea of going home more concrete. Before Christmas it felt like my year had just begun,   but now, a day away from February, summer feels just around the corner. Devin and I were reminiscing about the flight here on skype the other day; it feels so long ago. I was most excited about the idea of hearing Norwegian on the announcements; that was honestly what I looked forward to the most at the beginning of the flight. Flying into Oslo and trying to wrap my head around the idea that this was Europe, not Canada, and that I would be spending 10 months here. Getting way too excited about absolutely everything, from Norwegian looking people to the airplane wing, to the fire hose signs and the cute little trucks. I'm going to repeat what I wrote in my journal at first:

"August 13th

First impressions of Oslo Airport

-The bathrooms are cute! They're like little ships cabins

-Trucks are smaller and cuter too

-Way quieter than American airports - no one talks! And if they do, it's quiet

-Everyone dresses nicer

-People who work here push scooters!

-Some of the guys have really awesome sweatsuits!

-Everyone looks - European"

Reading what I wrote there still makes me laugh.

In the information packet we got before we left, they say that after the holidays is when you really adjust to the new country. Until now I thought that was crazy; five months to get used to it? I thought life here felt normal two weeks in! I'm starting to realize how right they are though; how "normal" in September is different than "normal" in January. It's hard to describe what I mean, but all the magnified and unexpected ups and downs have leveled off drastically in the past month and a half. Everything was great before as well, but friends, school and everyday life here now feel much more stable, without anything actually changing.

I'm going to quote a section of Devin's blog, which I thought was great:

"I have also started to appreciate the smaller things in life. Things are totally different here. I don't have that cushion of comfort that I do at home, that gives me a sense of security and tends to make everything a little bit better. So it's kind of a hit or miss each day if it's going to be a good one or not. But even on the worst days, some little thing tends to happen that makes everything 10 times better. There was one instance where I was extremely homesick and was seconds away from going back to my house and just sleeping the day away, but then just a simple conversation with a friend, about nothing significantly meaningful, made my entire day better. (if you are Norwegian and are reading this and thinking "hey, I wonder if that's me"... it probably is :) ) It makes me think a lot about how much I could make everyone's day a little bit better if I just smiled at them, or started up a simple conversation with them."


It's this "hit or miss" that has changed so much as life becomes more stable here, those little moments are less likely to make or break a day now. 


On the topic of homesickness, I can say I've been very lucky. I have so much to miss at home, but I was definitely ready for a change, and that made things so much easier. In the first month or two, seeing pictures from home was strange and I would've loved to dive into the photos in the coffee table book I brought about Nelson. Now when I look at the same book, it's like "oh, that's a pretty town," but my life there seems on pause, and fuzzy. 


When people ask if I've been homesick, I usually answer with "ehhh...no, not really," which sounds like lying, but is actually true. Sure, there's things I've missed, but there's been so much new and exciting, and I've always known that I'd be back home before I knew it. I've had a few dreams where I'm back home and wishing I could have just one more day back in Norway. These kind of dreams make me really appreciate having another five months here, and even more determined to enjoy it as much as possible. I know I'm going to really miss Norway when I'm back home, but knowing I'd soon be back in Canada has made it hard to miss it too much.


I was looking through the books I used to learn Norwegian, and I still can't believe that those foreign sounds and words have become so commonplace to me now.

Ohh Language camp....this "conversation" I filled in says "I love brown cheese." "You're welcome"

Back when this was a complicated sentence

I still haven't gotten adjectives figured out

Where I wrote down new words at the beginning

Packaging on products here can be a really confusing mix of Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Finnish. Not only do you have to read the Norwegian, you have to figure out which part is actually Norwegian. Here's some examples:

On this bottle of facewash they've mixed Norwegian, Swedish and Danish into one. Pronouns seem to be danish, verbs are shown in Danish and Swedish, and there actually isn't much Norwegian. For example, "vand/vatten" for water, not "vann", which is Norwegian, although I think "vatten" is also Nynorsk. "uger/veckor" for weeks, not "uker". You have to learn to ignore little letter differences when you read this kind of thing, and jump to conclusions yourself. I find it harder to read this mixture than just straight Danish, Swedish or Norwegian. Finnish is entirely different; I recognize almost none of it, besides maybe "minuuttia". All their words seem really stretched out with tons of vowels. 

Sorry you can't read the text I added here very well. It says that some things they don't bother translating (like "Soft tacos"). You can recognize swedish by the dots on top of the A's, and they use more C's. 

Now for some mirror pictures....

They have mirrors on some corners on roads

I tried to trim my own hair, pretty dangerous considering how impulsive I can be with this kind of thing. It turned out alright, considering I was using mirror photos with my cell phone to check the back. Not exactly precise. I only took off about a centimeter of the deadest hair, so I don't think I did too much damage.

In art class we're designing bus stops and making models of them: ours is going to have glass walls, tile, and swings. Maybe not so practical, but definitely fun!

Printing off our "Materials"

"roofing"

Now that I've exhausted my stash of pictures collected over the past week while trying unsuccesfully to tie them together, it's time for another fridge translation. (Part one of this exciting series can be found here)

1) Sour cream

2)Vanilla Yogurt 

3) Some kind of cheese

4) Vanilla sauce, usually eaten on chocolate pudding

5) A jar of herring

6) Jordbær syltetøy - strawberry jam

7) Brunost number 1 : Geitost

8) Hvitost (white cheese) I don't know if it has a more specific name than this. They keep it simple I guess

9) Liver paste number one

10) Liver paste nuimber 2

11) Liver paste number 3 - Yeah, that's three different kinds of liver paste!

12) Brunost number two - the creamy mild kind

13) Butter

14) Margarine I think

15)Brunost number three - another kind of geitost

16 - Various processed meats

1) barbeque sauce I think

2) Soy Oil

3) Thousand Islands dressing

4)Olive oil

5)Gløgg mix: a spiced holiday drink with wine and nuts. I haven't actually tried it

6)Some other kind of ketchupy barbeque sauce thing 

7)Hamburger dressing; I don't know what's in this exactly, but its use is pretty obvious

8)Olive oil

9)Caramel sauce

10)Light milk - it's a random percent like 0.7 here I think

11) Whole milk (3.9 percent)

12) Applesin (orange) juice

The bottle in the left bottom corner I forgot to number : it says svinekraft, so, uh...pig juice? Some kind of broth I guess. 

This past week I started swimming at the pool which is about a two minute walk from my house. I figured I might as well take advantage of it, and I should start doing something other than just running. They only have an hour and a half of public swimming a week, on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, so I went both days. It was a bit crowded, especially on Thursday. There didn't seem to be any swimming pattern which made it confusing; people would reach the end and turn back in the same path they came. This made it a bit of a game of dodging people, especially since I was one of the faster swimmers and had to find ways to pass people. It kept it from getting boring in any case, and I think I'll keep up the swimming. 

Last night I was at a surprise birthday party, which was really fun. It's always entertaining meeting new people, especially when I say my name, which doesn't sound Norwegian, repeat it again, and then explain that I'm from Canada. 

I've noticed I've started saying some things in English with Norwegian phrasing. For example, I caught myself saying "it's the same for me" instead of "it doesn't matter", since the first is a direct translation of how you say it in Norwegian. I also "think over" things instead of thinking "about" them, another direct translation. 

So that's another week gone in Norway, time is flying by. It's starting to get a bit lighter which is really nice. It's still dark when I go to school (assuming I'm on time....) but it's light by first break now. 

Here's a picture from back in August

Hadet :)

Norwegian money and baking knekkebrød

A couple weeks ago I went for a walk below Tord and Helene's house and ended up on a beach where the snow was completely untouched. So I had to change that! I haven't been there since, but it was pouring rain the next day so I guess my Canadian flag didn't last long. I like to think that some other Canadian came across it before it melted though.

I finally got my cell phone to connect to my computer again, so here's a couple more pictures from that walk:

Ytre Arna is on the left

I'm having trouble remembering what I did the past week; there wasn't anything out of the ordinary, in any case. Since I don't have too much to write (for once) here's a lesson on Norwegian money

-Their currency is the Norwegian kroner; there's about 5.8 in a Canadian dollar and I tend to divide by six. Even if I have no other math skills left from last year, I've gained the skill of quickly estimating almost any number divided by 6. The symbol for kr is  - , like a subtraction sign. At first when I saw prices written as 500- I thought it meant the price was 500 but could be negotiated down; seemed like a good system to me! 

(These pictures aren't to scale)

One krone

50 øre                                                                                                                                           

(there's 100 øre in one krone)    

         

                                                    

Five kroner

10 kroner

                                                                    


And 20 kr

The bills are different sizes based on denomination. The 50 kr bill was missing here, so there it is below:

It's noticeably smaller than the other bills, although you can't tell here

Here's some of it all together. I don't know what the little silver coins at the top and bottom are, but I'm guessing they're smaller than 50 øre and aren't used anymore.

None of those pictures are mine, although I wish they were!

The first things that come to mind that you can buy with each amount of money:

1 kr ($.17) Maybe like half a bun or something? Nothing that I know of really.

5kr ($.85) - Entrance to the washroom at the train station

10kr ($1.70) - Maybe a couple candies from the bulk smågodt set up everywhere: movie theatres, convenience stores and grocery stores.

 

The fudgey vanilla squares in the corners are by far the best!

20 kr ($3.41) More candy (although still not much), or at Noellen's suggestion, a toothbrush. Or two hamburgers at McDonalds. 

30 kr ($5.11) Wow I never really realized 30 kr was that much! There's no 30 kr coin, but I have to mention it because you can buy Nugatti

33 kr gets you a train ticket from Arna to Bergen

50 kr ($8.52) is the line where I realize I'm spending real money and not just tiny little coins. Bad attitude, I know! I still think of 50 kr as cheap though.

Hmm...50 kr can buy, at Devin's suggestion "a coffee, a shirt on sale at H & M, or two chocolate bars." You could maybe get a magazine, although a cheap one. Noellen says 50 kr gets her a school lunch.

100 kr ($17) gets you the cheapest mascara I've seen. Makeup is crazy expensive here. You can also start getting clothes at this price that aren't on some ridiculous sale. I don't find clothes prices to be too different from home. Devin says "what you pay when you split a pizza." All you can eat pizza at Peppe's in September was 99 kr per person.

I was walking through the apotek a while ago, and came across some burt's bee's chapstick:

59 kroner each; that's about ten dollars

In the picture above you can see that they show the price per kilogram; they tend to show comparative pricing for a lot of things. It's helpful when shopping for shampoo and lotion. Food packages also have nutritional information per 100 grams.

Now that we've reached the topic of food, I'll mention that Inger and I made knekkebrød this week. Definitely something I want to try making when I get home, although it looks like soggy porrige until it's finished cooking.

The materials

Mixed up with water

Inger 

Doesn't look too appetizing yet

...a little better

and done!

With brunost and jam, of course...yumm

I went running with Tonje on Thursday and Friday evenings; we were matching in black clothes and yellow reflective vests. I guess this is what I look like to cars at night:

Those snowy pictures at the top give a false illusion of what it's like out now. It's more like this:

Soccer fields, swimming pool or skating rink?

Out for a walk in the rain

On Friday we had a Norwegian test. Last time, in November, I just had to write about what I've done in Norway. This time I had to read a few pages of the textbook and write about 800 words answering two questions about the story. It was a similar assignment as I'd get in English class at home, not the easiest thing to do in a language you've only known for five months! It went alright, but I misunderstood a good chunk of the text 

The SFO (after school program) this week I was by myself with eight kids. Harder than last time, but the kids are really great with explaining things to me, and teaching me Norwegian in the process. One little girl who was annoyed with me for not wanting to take down the climbing ropes told me I'm actually good at Norwegian, which was really sweet. I asked them if they knew any English, and one girl blurted out "CATERPILLAR." I think they know more than they let on. I catch myself saying things like "ok guys" and then realize that's not Norwegian, although I think they still understand.

Another week gone by in Norway. I haven't decided on a date to go home yet, but I think my exchange is about halfway over. Don't exactly know what to think about that!

Here's one last picture from a few weeks ago:

Happy January 23rd everyone!

A lesson on brunost and lovely Bergen weather

I'm sitting on the couch having an inner war with myself whether or not to go for a run. The rain is whipping by in horizontal sheets outside, and I think most of our snow is melted again. Last night all the side roads were solid ice with a thin layer of water on top, and I'm a little hesitant to go out and check how they are today. Mostly just because I'm lazy and would rather tell you guys about brunost than go out and get soaked. I'd rather be here: (excuse the angry face):

Than out there :

So, I'm going to start this post off with a lesson on brunost, or brown cheese.

I’d heard a bit about brunost before I came to Norway, but really didn’t understand what it was. Cheese is cheese, right? Soft, hard, whatever; you still eat it on pasta, with crackers, and on your ham sandwiches. You would never eat normal cheese with strawberry jam, or on waffles. But brunost is no ordinary cheese. Actually, it's not really cheese at all; it's made from the whey instead of the curds. (I don't actually know anything about cheese making; the only thing I know about curds and whey has to do with little miss muffet and a spider)

 

At my first breakfast here in Norway I was encouraged to try it, and thought it was just normal (although brown) cheese. So I tried it with tomatoes; first and last time I've done that. It's more common to eat it with sweeter things, like jam. Ever since I tried it with raspberry jam and toast it's become one of the staples in my diet here, for better or for worse. There was definitely one day where I ate this combination for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

So if it isn't cheese, and you don't eat it in a normal cheese-like way ( if such a generalization even exists), what is it? A mixture of milk, cream and whey boiled until the lactose caramelizes, turning it brown. I don't want to do too much internet research on it, because I know I'll come across its nutritional information somewhere, and I really don't want to know that! I would describe it as tasting like caramel and peanut butter, but it doesn't really taste like that at all.

Fløtemysost was most often in the fridge at Tord and Helene's, it's mild and has lots of cream. It's made from cow's milk.

Gudbrandsdalsost is stronger, and made from a mixture of goats' and cow's milk. My best translation of the package is: The brown cheeses from TINE (brand) are some of what makes norwegians norwegians. These særnorske? cheeses have traditions back to Anne Hov's original recipe from 1863. I can't figure out what "særnorske" means; google translate gives me "weird norwegian", "relatively high" and "relatively sharp" depending on how I type it in. None of which really make sense. 

 

The last major category of brunost from TINE is Ekte Geitost ( real goats cheese). It's made from, well, obviously goat's milk, and is the strongest tasting. 

At first I only really liked the milder fløtemysost, but I've grown to love the other two with jam as well. Bread isn't even neccesary!

I think I'm going to go out and give running a try now. I told Devin (exchange student near Oslo) on skype that if I hadn't seen lightning or falling trees by 3:00, I would run. It's 2:56 and doesn't look like either of those is going to happen. Although there was thunder and lightning a few weeks ago while it was snowing; I didn't even know that was possible!

Hopefully I'll come back alive to finish this, preferably intact. If not, well, my last written words were about Brunost, so not a bad way to go. 

Well, I survived. It was pretty anticlimatic actually; the roads were bare now and it was only drizzling. It was my longest run in a while, an hour and twenty minutes or so. 

On Friday I helped with the SFO (after school program) again; I think I mentioned it before. The kids, who are around 6-8 I think, have gym time after school for an hour as long as there's enough kids to run it. On Friday there was only five, but instead of sending me home until next week, the leader said I could just take them on my own. I was a little nervous; it's one thing to play with them when there's another leader in charge, and quite another to give orders on my own. With kids I can't just say things in english and know they'll understand; I have to figure out how to phrase things in Norwegian, or mime it. Luckily I got an easy group; four girls and one guy who were thrilled that I was willing to drag them around the floor using a hockey stick. Exhausting, but pretty easy entertainment. Alternating that with jumping randomly off benches onto mats and playing disorganized floor hockey easily took up the hour. When we had a few minutes left and had cleaned up the equipment, I tried to suggest we play tag, but didn't know what it was called in Norwegian. I asked one of the girls what it was called by pretending to tag her, and she said something in Norwegian that I didn't catch. They all seemed excited to play, and one girl told me they needed a ring to play with. One ran off and found a screw, and they sat me down with them in a circle on the floor and started singing. Not exactly the game of tag I'd expected; I was pretty confused. It ended up being a "duck duck goose" type game where one runs around the circle and puts the screw (or ring) in anothers hand, and then they open their eyes and guess who has it. 

I still have no idea what "tag" is called in Norwegian. 

Regardless, I was happy to make it through the hour without any major miscommunications. The next communication challenge came on Saturday, when I took the train to the city to go shopping.

I have a bus pass which Rotary pays for, which you buy every month on the bus or at the station. I bought mine for this month on the bus, and the bus driver gave me a receipt without a "valid until" date on it. I asked him about it, and he said nahh, it's fine, see here, a green light comes up when I scan it, so it's valid! I was a little skeptical of how it would work on the train, but long discussions in Norwegian aren't really my strong point so I let it go.

I forgot about it until I was on the train yesterday, and the conductor was coming around checking tickets. I tried to explain that you could see the date I bought it on the reciept and that the bus driver said that was all I needed. She told me I hadn't activated it yet, and went into a long winded explanation about bus cards being like bank cards, which didn't make much sense. She said if it wasn't valid, I'd have to pay 1000 kr. I said I didn't have any money with me, and definitely not 1000 kr, so she took the card and said to come to the station when the train had stopped. So I went in, annoyed at the bus driver I'd bought it from, trying to figure out how to explain myself in Norwegian, and thinking about all the things I could buy with 170 dollars besides a little slip of paper. They checked the card, found out it was activated and valid, and gave me a new receipt. The end, nothing dramatic. I figure if they had tried to make me pay, I could have switched to english and played the clueless exchange student card, but as it was I'm pretty proud they never noticed I wasn't norwegian. 

So that was the beginning of an eventful Saturday which also involved running on the ice, in the dark, in the pouring rain ten minutes to the shopping centre and ending up soaking wet. I didn't plan very well and assumed I had lots of time to get ready, then realized we were meeting earlier and there was no bus for half an hour. Then our  ride wasn't even there yet because of road closures. Gotta love Norwegian weather! I met Tonje from my class at the shopping centre where we waited to be driven to Eirin's. We got kicked out of the centre into the rain just as our ride arrived. The rest of last night more than made up for the day though; a relaxed fun "jentekveld" (girls night) with the girls in my art class. 

That brings me up to date again. 

Oh, and my host family has a walk in fridge. Reminds me of all the hours I spent working in the freezer at Safeway, although warmer and way less crowded.

I'll finish off with some more brunost to make you hungry   =)

I've also updated the norwegian page up top, so feel free to comment and correct it! Jeg lærer mye når folk korrigerer meg, og jeg vet at det jeg skriver er ikke helt riktig. Så ikke være redd for å skrive en commentaire! 

takk!

=)