Least Funny Thing Ever.

"What is it?" you may be wondering.
"What is the least funny thing ever?"
I'll tell you what:
 Are Kalvø.
Ok, well because there is a great risk of offending someone right now let me clarify.
Are Kalvø is actually hilarious! I don't know first hand, but I could tell by the way people were busting their guts that he is a very, very funny guy.
What isn't so hilarious is the situation that I was in.
Mr. Kalvø came to Ole Vig this morning and all of the 3rd grade Norwegian classes went to an assembly.
For a full hour he spoke to us.
For a full hour everyone around me was laughing.
For a full hour I felt more left out than I ever have in my entire time here.

So what is the least funny thing ever?

Sitting in a room of people 

who are nearly crying 

from laughing so hard 

and you 

have no clue

what is so funny...

Granted, it wasn't all bad. I was able to get some second-hand joy from watching my classmates enjoy something so much. The expressions on some of their faces were priceless! Also I heard one of my teachers laughing out loud for the entire hour- she is Are Kalvø's biggest fan.

I sometimes could understand what he was talking about and, even though I never understood why it was funny, I consider that an accomplishment. Also his facial expressions and the tone of voice he used sometimes were amusing. I can definitely tell he is a very funny man.

Maybe when I am able to understand more Norwegian I can try to read some of his book... but that might be difficult too because (if you didn't click on the wiki article that I attached to his name up above) he writes in Nynorsk and I am learning Bokmål. 

Nynorsk? Bokmål? Huh?

Norway has two official languages: Nynorsk and Bokmål.

Why? Well, it happened like this:

Norway was ruled by Denmark for a long time so the "elites" spoke Danish, but the commoners spoke their own type of language. Norway changed hands from Denmark to Sweden, then eventually started pushing for independence. One of the first steps to independence was having their own language, and two options existed:

1.) They could modify the Danish language spoken by the "elites" or

2.) They could develop the language spoken by the commoners throughout the country.

Both were attempted:

In the 1840's the Danish language in Norway began to change. Spelling and grammar were modified and the language became known as Riksmål (standard language) and it was adopted by the parliament in 1899. The man who was the originator of Riksmål was named Knut Knudsen and he based his language off the dialect spoken in Oslo.

However, around the same time (between 1848 and 1873) there was a man by the name of Ivar Aasen who began a nationalistic movement. He traveled around Norway (mostly in the North and western parts) and developed a language based on the different dialects from those regions. He called it Landsmål (National language).

When the union with Sweden was dissolved, the two languages developed even more and in 1929 Riksmål was renamed Bokmål (Book language) and Landsmål became known as Nynorsk (New Norwegian).

Only about 10% of Norwegians speak Nynorsk as their first language--that means most people here speak Bokmål. 

Seems pretty simple, but it gets a little bit more complicated. 

Each region has their own dialect; and it is more than just the difference between a Mississippi accent and a Massachusetts accent. There are different words, as well as different pronunciations.

The best example is the word "I".

In Bokmål the word for "I" is "Jeg", which is also what they say in Oslo. However, there are many other ways of saying "I" depending on where you are in Norway. Where I am living we say "Æ" (sort of pronounced "ah".. kind of..) instead of "Jeg". Other variations include "Eg" (which is Nynorsk), "Je" "I" and "E".

In Bokmål, "I don't know" is "Jeg vet ikke" but in my dialect, it is "Æ veit itj"

So going back to which of the two languages I am learning: 

"...he writes in Nynorsk and I am learning Bokmål. actually learning Trøndersk."