For my job as a journalist I’ll travel to Norway in autumn which is cool for many reasons, partly because I love how they speak! It’s close to Swedish and I’ve had some chances to improve my Norwegian language skills during the last weeks. I noticed that written Norwegian is barely a problem and even spoken works to some extend – it’s a shame I don’t understand all of it.
Sadly, this also causes trouble.
To plan my journey I wanted to call a university’s press office in Norway. I had decided to do the conversation in English and already prepared something in mind. Unfortunately, when the press officer answered the phone and said his (very Norwegian) name, my brain completely ignored what it had thought about only seconds ago and just made me say “Hejjjj” in a very Scandinavian way. Completely confused, I continued: “Eeeeh, or … hello.” I don’t think I performed a single correct sentence during the first two minutes of that conversation. Hopefully, I never have to call that person again.
Tons of Henni 