{"id":17045,"date":"2022-07-19T19:02:41","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T23:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=17045"},"modified":"2022-07-19T19:02:41","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T23:02:41","slug":"non-conversational-reminiscences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=17045","title":{"rendered":"Non-conversational reminiscences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/
The Hafrsfjord Jubilee in Stavanger. These are some of the many people I did not talk to in Norway.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

No book review tonight. <\/strong>I\u2019ve had a sudden onset of translation work, which is a development approved at the highest levels. It had been a while. But it slows down my reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So let\u2019s pick up on a subject I left hanging. I wrote a lot here, before I left, about my self-education program to improve my conversational Norwegian. I downloaded an app to listen to Norwegian radio, and watched some Norwegian TV too. How did that go, you ask?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not very well, to be honest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the course of my preparations, I thought I was comprehending the language a little better. That didn\u2019t \u201ctranslate\u201d (pun unintended) into any actual benefit, in practice. When I faced real human beings in Norway, I found I still couldn\u2019t understand them without several repetitions. And I hate inconveniencing people. Especially when they generally speak English already, and the whole thing could be done more efficiently that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discursive interjection<\/em>: What is it with language study books and the conversations they give you to memorize? I didn\u2019t resort to any of those during this process, but I often thought back to my time as a student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A model conversation for the student to memorize goes like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student: \u201cKan du si meg veien til stasjonen?” [Could you tell me how to get to the station?}<\/p>

Policeman: \u201cJa, rett fram til hj\u00f8rnen, og s\u00e5 til venstre.” [Yes, straight ahead to the corner, then turn left.]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Now we all know what happens in real life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student: \u201cKan du si meg veien til stasjonen?”<\/p>

Policeman. “Ja, rett fram til hj\u00f8rnen, og s\u00e5 til venstre.”<\/p>

Student: “Unnskyld? Vil du si det igjen?” [Excuse me? Could you say that again?]<\/p>

Policeman: \u201cRett fram til hj\u00f8rnen, og s\u00e5 til venstre.”<\/p>

Student: “Si det igjen, takk?” [Say that again, please?]<\/p>

Policeman: “You are an American, right?\u201d<\/p>

Student: \u201cYeah\u2026\u201d<\/p>

Policeman: \u201cJust go straight ahead to the corner, take a left and you\u2019re there.\u201d<\/p>

Student. \u201cOh. Okay. Uh\u2026 takk.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s how it actually works. And that\u2019s how it generally happens in my experience. Carrying out a full conversation, when the other person is an English speaker, is just asking them to spend time being my teacher for free. And I can\u2019t ask that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cant. Ask. That. It\u2019s not in me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, on a few occasions, I did encounter people whose English was worse than my Norwegian. Then I was able to communicate, with some effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s the return I got for my effort. I guess it\u2019s something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a joke I used to make, when I was young and studying Norwegian. I said, \u201cI want to be able to not talk to people in a second language.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turns out I spoke prophetically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m pretty sure a normal person would be conversational at this point. I think my real problem is psychological \u2013 I\u2019m blocked by my social discomfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still and all, my print-only language skills allow me to make some money in hard times. That\u2019s nothing to nyse <\/em>[sneeze] at.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No book review tonight. I\u2019ve had a sudden onset of translation work, which is a development approved at the highest levels. It had been a while. But it slows down my reading. So let\u2019s pick up on a subject I left hanging. I wrote a lot here, before I left, about my self-education program to … Continue reading Non-conversational reminiscences<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[2047,2049],"class_list":["post-17045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-norway","tag-norwegian-language"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17046,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17045\/revisions\/17046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}