meg i Bergen, 2009
This picture is me in Bergen, Norway taken around this time last year. I’m cringing at my chubbiness and goofy grin, but smiling at the good memories of the place. My housemate, Hannah, is Norwegian and I, along with another friend Antonia, went to stay with her family for a few days last Easter. It’s a truly lovely place.
Anyway, it’s taken a long enough time but I’ve finally got round to learning Norwegian! I’ve ordered some books and am very excited! I’m one of those terrible English people who has coasted their way around most of Europe on speaking English very loudly and using the occasional phrase in the language of the country I’m in. I’ve always wished I could speak a second language, but I just never got round to it. This year however, I’m learning TWO!
As I think I’ve mentioned here before, I’m going to be studying in Montreal for a year on a Student Exchange Programme. I’m beyond excited (although, as ever, I have neglected to sort out things like my Visa yet…not like it’s important or anything). One of the main reasons I put Montreal as my first choice, was due to the fact that it is an offically French-speaking city. Although there is a large Anglophone population, the official language is French so it’s pretty much going to force me into doing what I’ve been intending to do for the past 5 or 6 years and actually get semi-decent at the language. I’m bloody terrified, but also so excited.
As an English student, I always like to have two books on the go; one that I’m reading for my course, another for leisure. That’s how it is with the two languages I’m learning at the moment. French is something that I’m studying because I have to – I want to study it and I have chosen to, but I don’t really have the option not to work at it. Norwegian is something for fun. It’s an interesting language that not many people choose to learn, something that I can enjoy as a hobby and not stress about too much. The French is like Shakespeare. Which I guess means that Norwegian is like Harry Potter or something. And I mean that in an entirely good way.
If you’ve got nothing to do this Easter, why not learn Norwegian?
