My favourite picture from a walk we went on today...
More dreams last night! I am not going into them though as the last one was bizarre enough, but I didn’t sleep so well and now feel tired!
Yesterday was again a nice relaxing day - the weather was on and off so we didn’t go for a walk, but I think we will this afternoon. I did manage to get a great picture yesterday though; it started to rain pretty heavily, and at the same time it was really sunny so I took my camera outside in the hope of seeing a rainbow - I did see one, and after a second realised that it was right in front of me and in Inger’s garden!
Rainbow in the garden...
We went to visit Han’s aunt and uncle that evening - it was his uncles birthday celebration (although it wasn’t his birthday until today) It was really nice and we ate loads of homemade cakes and drank a lot of coffee! It was really nice to see them all again, but by the end of the evening I felt so fed up with trying to understand everything! Hans said that even he struggles with understanding everything they say, as it is in a strong dialect, and there are lots of names we wont know too, whatever the reason though I still felt really disillusioned by the time we got back.
I understand it will take time, but it’s making me look forward to Bergen even less - I wont be able to understand much right off the bat, which will be difficult in my accommodation and out and about in general - but it will be a nightmare in the classes at university! It made me feel physically tired out trying to understand everything that was said to me, and as the evening wore on it seemed to get harder and harder until it was just a blur of words. That was last night…
Today I woke up, not as refreshed as I would hope because of my stupid dreams, and apart from one misunderstanding (that could have been bad!) things have been a little better;
I was chatting in Norwegian with Hans’ mum earlier, and we were on the subject of weight - I (tried) to say that I had noticed that both she and her sister, Britt, had both lost weight. I thought her reaction was a little strange, she kind of stared at me and then said that when you get older it is harder to lose weight, and it just wont shift… later in the car, we were on the same subject and I mentioned it again, and it turned out she thought I had said both her and her sister looked a little heavier! I was mortified! I said ‘no, I would never say that to anyone!’ I also said I was glad we cleared it up!!! We might have fallen out if we hadn’t mentioned it again - I wonder if there are other really insulting things I have said to anyone? I remember last time we were here, Hans mum had cooked us a meal and I said the food was ’dårlig’ instead of ‘deilig’ - and basically I had said the food was really bad instead of delicious! I think I will end up getting beaten up in Bergen, especially (as Hans says) if I am walking around saying ‘the food is crap and you’re all fat!’
Anyway, apart from that I felt a bit better today and things seemed a little easier - I don’t know if it is simply that I am rested, but I think maybe that being immersed in a language and trying to learn it is the same as building your muscles in the gym; it’s tough and it doesn’t take long before you’re tired and you feel like you can’t do anymore, and all around you are people who have been doing it for ages and are really good at it. Then you go to bed and all you get for your efforts at first is aches and pains and you wonder if there is any point! Then you rest, and when you’re rested you go back to the gym and all of sudden it’s just that tiny bit easier, you can lift a little more or for a little longer and you realise that you are improving. That in itself is stressful as you want to be immediately huge and muscle bound like Arnie, but instead you look more like the ‘Mr Muscle’ advert man, or Willy the Wimp…
Remember Willy the Wimp, anyone? Poor, poor monkey… but he got his revenge in the end!
But it takes time and effort, and the more you put in the more you can get out - the same as getting fit I guess. I wish you could get language steroids… I would take them. I could go on and on with the metaphors, but luckily for whoever is reading this I wont!
Waffle finished for now
xxx
2 comments:
Hello there. You'll find that you make a lot of language mistakes. In Germany I once asked a hotel-manager why I had to pay for the mini-bar when I was trying to ask HOW I could pay for mini-bar (either via cash or credit card).
As long as you make it clear to people that you are learning the language and that you aren't very practised, they should be understanding and impressed that you are making the effort.
My French colleague insults me regularly without meaning to because his English isn't very good but I understood very early on that he was just having difficulties saying what he wanted to.
Best of luck over there and MAKE THE BEST OF IT! Living overseas is something that's much harder later in life. You'll have great memories and many new friends and experiences by the time you are finished there.
Ian
Thanks Ian! Really appreciate your comments.
Already I have asked for a sausage instead of a carrier bag at the shop till!
Good to hear from you anyway - keep reading! take care xxx
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