Traditions and popular things to do in Norway around and on Christmas day: from movies to cookies
After Scandinavian Christmas Traditions and Finnish Christmas facts, I am continuing this series with Norway!
Watching Czech Cinderella
An iconic Christmas movie In Norway is actually Czech, from 1973: 3 nøtter til Askepott (3 wishes for Cinderella), broadcasted on Christmas eve in Norway since 1996 – Norwegians made a remake in 2021 though. Another popular Christmas movie in Norway is Reisen til Julestjernen (journey to the Christmas Star), a Norwegian production from 1976, in which a princess disappears to look for the Christmas Star…
‘Going Yule goat’ or Christmas trick-or-treating
In the period of Romjul, between Christmas and New Year, some Norwegian children go around with a Nisselue (Santa hat), with red cheeks and freckles painted on their face, or as angels, shepherds and other Christmas figures, singing Christmas Carols from door to door, in exchange for sweets. This is called å gå julebukk – to go Yule Goat..a sort of christmasy halloween. According to the Store Norske Leksikon it 14% of interviewed Norwegians or their children was going julebukk in 2017.
Baking 7 cookies
Some Norwegians bake the ‘Seven types’ – 7 different type of cookies, deSyv slag in Norwegian. Baking seven different types of cookies is a tradition that exists also in Sweden. There is no fixed list, but the classical types are Sandkaker, Pepperkaker (gingerbread cookies), Fattigmann ‘poor man’, Goro from Danish god raad, one of the oldest types from the 1800s- made with an iron press with patterns – Krumkaker, Berlinerkranser, Serinakaker.
Kransekake, kokosmakroner, sirupsnipper, sandnøtter and smultringer are also popular to be included in the syv slag according to godt.no.
Norwegian, Danish, Finnish and Swedish Christmas markets in Rotterdam. Christmas decorations, imported typical Nordic products for sale, a cafe with lunch and cakes in each of them!
Lucia brings light in the darkest night of the year and is a mix of pagan and christian traditions. It is celebrated in Scandinavia with processions, saffron buns and church concerts.
3 typical unique Christmas symbols and traditions in Finland
Here are country-specific facts about how Christmas is celebrated in Nordic countries, after an overview of Scandinavian Christmas I actually keep updating… Next up will be Norway and Iceland, so stay tuned!
Joulutorttu: pinwheel pastry
Also called tähtitorttu “star cake”. it has the shape of a star or pinwheel, with apple or plum filling. It was already mentioned in the 1830s by Zacharias Topelius (Swedish-speaking Finnish writer), and it still is a Christmas classic in Finland, being present on 76% of Finnish tables on Christmas eve.
the Santa Claus Hotline
In Finland they have had the Joulupukin kuumalinja ‘Santa Claus Hotline’ for 33 years on tv. Here is the Finnish tv program for the day in 2024: There are breaks between one Christmas-themed cartoon and the other, where children can call, elves will take the call and some lucky children will be able to talk to Santa..It is also possible to send pictures, and some of these will be shown!
Himmeli Christmas decoration
Himmeli are wooden straw geometrical pendants, of various sizes, decorating Finnish houses. It comes from himmel, sky/heaven in Swedish and Germanic languages. Himmeli traditionally hung above dining tables until summer to ensure a good crop, as Finlandi.fi mentions.
4 tips to practice a language as Swedish and Dutch, where most people are fluent in English and foreigners struggle to improve the local language.
You are learning a language and would be eager to use it when you are in the country where it is spoken. But what if everybody switches to English the second they hear you are not from there?
This is a typical problem in Holland and Scandinavia, where most people speak English well, and the fact that English will simply always work better and be the easiest option prevents you from attempting at speaking anything else.
I have had experiences with Dutch, Swedes, Swedes and Norwegians in various contexts and with the given language being at various levels at different times, and these are a few tips to exercise the language if you are not (or do not feel) fluent yet:
1. important information in English, smalltalk and chitchat in local language
Sometimes you just have to be sure you know what is going on and what you need to do, other times you can miss some parts of a dialogue without causing yourself any damage – in the latter give a go at your target language, you’ll never understand 100% anyway if you never practice.
example: Last time I was in Denmark, I heard a confusing announcement on the train. As i wanted to be 100% sure my train would reach my destination, I first asked that in English to the person sitting next to me, to switch to Danish right after having received that piece of information, (saying that I actually did speak Danish) and had a nice conversation in it.
If your level is still basic, do make sure to (be able to) say small things like hi/thanks/sorry/excuse me/good evening etc. You’ll get those small expression stuck in your head, and give yourself and others the feeling you do speak the language, which is a better start than not using it at all.
3. Prepare what you want to say in advance, or fake it until you make it.
Sometimes you can look up how to properly say something in advance, as in shops and restaurants – things like ‘do you have a free table’ ‘i would like to this and that’, or even look up some extra vocabulary for a conversation of which you already know the topic.
Also: in given contexts like shops the things you get asked tend to be standard, as ‘do you want a bag?/receipt..’ , so you know what words might be pronounced, anticipating what you’ll be asked, and be less scared you will not understand.
example: I had to talk to a Norwegian client on the phone, so I wrote down what I would say, and looked up vocabulary I needed: that means learning new words and getting to practice with them!
3. Find ‘comfort zones’ and people with whom you stick to the language
If your level in a language is not very high, you might not dare making attempts with strangers. I am a quite shy person myself, other than a perfectionist, so I know that feeling well. But you learn a language by practicing it (and making mistakes), and as soon as you have someone or somewhere to freely practice -no matter how off your grammar is, how many gaps you have in your vocabulary, how many times you ask for repetitions – do it. Having active conversations is also important to absorb the language yourself and learn from your language partner.
With strangers you can stick to English if you feel uncomfortable otherwise, but it is good to have a situation in which you’ll always stick to the language (This counts also when chatting online!). Or at least often enough that your default language is Swedish, Finnish, etc. You learn to swim by swimming – but it does not have to be in the open sea from moment one.
Other options if you do not know anybody, you can use find tandem partners on apps such as hellotalk, tandem etc. and give yourself the rule to rather use translators, but never use English. Events as language cafés are also great occasions to practice if you find any!
keypoint: sometimes it is a matter of self-confidence more than language level
The thing with Swedish, Dutch, Danish etc. is, you might be pretty good at them, but if you are a bit insecure, allowing yourself to use them language over English will be hard. In countries where the average level of English is poor, that is of course completely different.
So you’ll just exercise your Italian, Japanese, Spanish, etc. without thinking much about whether you are good enough at it. You might barely know how to order a drink in Italian or Japanese, but still, you’ll do it, because they will understand it better than in English, even with bad pronunciation or grammar. Maybe they will be relieved they can use their language with you, while the Dutch either want to help you by using a language you are more fluent in or just want to have a smooth communication.
It does take some self-confidence to stick to a language if the counterpart easily switches to English! Even if it does not necessarily mean you are bad at it. It is all about finding contexts and people to use the language, broadening them gradually as you get more comfortable or fluent enough to use it for everything.
How I have done it: First I would use Dutch only in written form and with given people, then I got to the point I’d dare using it with strangers, in shops, but not at an airport desk, then I started using it even for formal things like registering at the municipality , but I did not switch back to Dutch if people switched to English. Now i stick to Dutch, always. With Danish I am in the phase where I could use it in formal context but do not always dare due to fear of not understanding. But I did ask for information in Danish at a museum desk, which I did not do one year ago.
My summer holiday was travelling to Scandinavia by train with interrail, passing by Copenhagen, Gothenburg, lake Vänern, Aalborg and Aarhus
After having canceled my initial plan one year ago, only passing by Denmark last summer, my plan for 2024 was to go to Sweden, and as I happen to have a penpal who lives on the lake of Vänern, visit her! Once again, by train. Which means stopping by somewhere, so I also spent some time in Denmark again, before and after.
Super Quick stay in Copenhagen
I hoped I’d arrive earlier, but problems with Deutsche Bahn made me arrive a couple hours later to Denmark than what I had hoped for. First thing I got was an ice cream i had noticed last year – a Daim mint cone, I love anything chocomint!!
I booked the night at the Sleep in Heaven hostel in the Nørrebro area, so went on a tour of it after checking in. The park Superkilenlooks cooler in pictures, but that did not surprise me. Then I decided I would walk to the centre and I got a Matilde strawberry milkshake, which as probably all stawberry milkshakes tasted like medicine.
I started walking towards Nyhavn but I figured I’d better reduce the damage (it was already past 11pm) and go to sleep asap to wake up earlier and see the centre before my train to Sweden… Could have slept more but no regrets at least…At some point a studenterkørsel bus drove by, playing ‘Elskovspony’, one of my favourite Danish songs, hehe…
I woke up rather early to see Copenhagen, and walked to Nyhavn, saw Rosenborg from the gate, a super cute souvenir shop and pastel buildings. I wanted to see the Little Mermaid – Den Lille Havfrue– Copenhagen’s icon, but didn’t want to miss my train and turned back (again).
Then at the 7/11 mini Wienerbrød: “minimums” – small versions, which is great for people like me who like to taste everything possibly without overeating… I got a Spandauer and a Tebirkes!
From the Øresund to the Öresund
The Öresund train from Copenhagen (where it leaves as Øresund) was headed all the way to Gothenburg, quite packed, but I managed to get on early and have a spot. It felt great to see Sweden, after having only seen the southernmost chunk last winter (I will post about that too..).
After a few hours I was in Gothenburg, where I’d take the train to Trollhättan. First things first, checking shops at the station. Pressbyrån is everywhere, and has loads of chocolate and candy…. Besides that, you can also get your hot dog there. And of course pastries and sandwiches
I saw a lot more variety in Sweden than Denmark when it came to ice lollies, though both countries have their own classics (in Denmark Københavner stang, Champagne Brus, Kung Fu etc), and a number of common ones like the Daim cones.
Once in Trollhättan I got picked up and we went to the supermarket, which always feels somewhat exciting, haha. Funny to see walls of Potatismos and Lingonsylt being sold in buckets. And this is kräftskivor (crayfish) season, so there was equipment for it in the supermarket..
The start could not be better with Swedish husmanskost: köttbullar potatoes!!
day 1: Chill summer day in a Swedish lake town
Day started with my first Swedish breakfast. bread bread and bread with all possible jams.. And Kalles kaviar!
The first full day we went to town and I was so excited to properly fika! Apparently there’s a standard fika pink triangular pastry called Milano. I will look up why it is called like that.
Afterwards, I walked along the lake (Vänern) and in town, it truly felt like I was inside a Pippi Longstocking’s episode, it felt somewhat magical, a truly wonderful Swedish sunny summer day. Actually, there was a shop selling a lot of Pippi stuff in town! And a little Emil too..
Dinner was a ‘Swedish Taco’ as I named it, and then we went to eat icecream! the kiosk at the lake had its own ice lollies, among which an Emil one
day 2: Trip to Gothenburg
As I was reasonably close to Sweden’s second city, I obviously wanted to visit it. When I arrived to Gothenburg I did not quite understand in what direction I was supposed to go to to see the centre. I just walked somewhere, beginning with another ice cream off my list, a lemon cornetto – I also love lemon-flavored things, by the way…
I walked around, ended up to the harbour, then somehow got in the actual city centre, got postcards at a bookshop and I admired bakeries/cafés, posponing a fika break for later…After some time i stumbled upon a small library, which is always cool, but this was a godsend as it had a WiFi connection and sockets under a table to charge my phone…that probably saved my day. While walking I had seen the city’s museum, Göteborgs stadsmuseum, and decided to head back to it after the library.
The TV series Vår tid är nu was filmed there! I watched it on Netflix in 2021! I did not have time to visit the museum, but I followed my friend’s advice and went straight to the museum’s shop, which did have nice stuff indeed. Got myself a flower food box, Chritmas tree flag decoration (!) and Dala horse decoration..
..
My friend also said there was a Moomin shop, which, whether my wallet liked it or not meant I knew where I wanted to go. I got a lamp and a glass, would have got more but almost € 20 for a glass was enough for this time..
I reaaally needed to go to the toilet, and I first went to the Haga city part, did not really find a café that I felt like sitting in and have a fika, so I went all the way back to where I came from and ended up getting the smallest pastry – a Mazarin. I also got to charge my phone there, which saved me again..
To not have regrets, I got a korv at Pressbyrån…and a Liquorice (Lakrits) is king in Sweden, there is liquorice chocolate, liquorice ice cream… And that was the last Ice cream I HAD to try!
Day 3: Antique and second-hand shops
We went to an antique shop nearby, which had actually quite cool stuff, including old postcards! I ended up not getting anything though.. We went to Uddevalla later to see a second hand shop! I did not see anything I wanted to get there, but at the very end I saw a table flag behind the counter, asked if it was for sale, and I got it for free!!
I found among others a wacky mug making fun of Norwegians about using the inside of the mug…
Then it was time for fika again at Kakeria in Kråkestan, and given all the sweet stuff I had been eating, I went for a räkmacka. I do have to say that you can make a macka yourself at home, but pastries and cakes are not quite as easy as placing shrimps and salad on bread…I also happened to go to the toilet in a pizzeria in front of it, which was open but nobody inside. Guess this is possible in the Swedish countryside…
After the fika, we went for a small hike
Then we went to the supermarket, and I got a ‘radioactive’ looking pear Budapest pastry. The classic version was finished, but one of my goals when in Sweden has become to try as much pear-flavored stuff as possible, haha! Another fika classic tried eitherway. The Dinner was korv with potatismos and a billion toppings I added!
Hejdå Pippi country
My time in Sweden had come to an end, and being on time at the station, I checked out souvenir shops..Pippi and Moomin souvenirs are as big as Pear and liquorice flavored food in Sweden.. And now I have my own Lilla Gubbe… and got Pippi’s Krumelurpiller candy.
As the Swedes are obsessed with candy, there was also a candy part in the shop, featuring among others the famous polkagris sticks from Gränna, and apparently a Swedish classic called king of Denmark (Kung av Danmark), haha.
Which, brings me to the next part of my holiday, heading back to Denmark.
Day 5: Arrival and trip to Aalborg
The third and last part of my holiday was 2 full days in Jutland. I took my train in the early afternoon from Gothenburg and got to Aarhus around 22… I already had a trip planned for the following day to Aalborg +meetup with friends in Aarhus.
I had never been to North Jutland, so this time I decided to visit Nordjylland’s main city, Aalborg! Instead of train though, I got there with a bus service as there were works going on on the tracks. I got Raspberry/liquorice candy from DSB!
After having been tremendously blessed with the weather in Sweden, in Aalborg it was grey and rainy, I also got a sommerhorn at the shopping centre Salling, which was with marzipan and orange. (Some classic pastries in Denmark are flødebolle, træstamme, marzipan frogs (?), Napoleonshat, nøddehorn, studenterbrød). We went to the rooftop although it was not the best day to enoy it… We had lunch at Aalborg street food. Not Danish food, although I would enjoy that too.
Then I went back to Aarhus and there the sun was shining! So I sat at the dokk1, one of my favourite places!
After that, I went to the bar my friend works at and The Danish handball team was playing, so I got a Denmark hat there ❤
Day 6: ArOS and shopping
This was the third time in Aarhus, although up until now I’ve barely been there for an entire day, and something I absolutely wanted to visit was the art museum ArOS! Which in other words is the rainbow circle building
The weather was truly perfect, sunny and windy, a blessing
I did not like the modern part that much, but the 1800-ish paintings were the best there, And as follow 2 of my favourites (there were quite a few depicting Italy, but these ones are more relevant to the blog..):
Norway! With tiny women in bunad I spotted. By Gotfred Rump
And here’s a Danish hilly coast and half-timbered house by Vilhelm Kyhn.
Then I walked here and there in the centre, got 2 books continuing my collection of Tænkepauser booklets by Aarhus University Press; after those about Dreams and Europe I got another two, about Language and Nationality! And then a flag at Søstrene Grene. Oh boy do I like flags…
Of course I had on my bucket list getting very Danish grocery stuff: my intention was to just get Karrysild (curry herring) but ended up also buying tomato herring, koldskål and Kammerjunkere, which go together (sour yogurt and cookies?).
I had tried these things in 2021 and despite getting 1L of koldskål one day before taking trains an entire summer day, I had to do this..
After this I had to leave Denmark, and I did not have the best return trip…I also got sick shortly after, probably due to some child I bumped into, but it was fun, I wonder what destination it will be next time!
(Actually, I still have to post about my first time In Sweden last winter, so stay tuned..)!
The ‘anchor’ language concept allowed me to learn Swedish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian easily starting from studying properly only one language. This approach helps prevent confusion and builds a solid foundational understanding of language structures.
idioms in Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and Danish with berries
Berries are a big thing in Nordic countries, and you can hear that in their languages as well! So I have collected a few sayings and idioms involving them in Swedish, Norwegian Finnish and Danish.
Swedish
Smultronstället – Place of wild strawberries – a special place discovered, treasured, returned to for solace and relaxation; a personal idyll free from stress or sadness
Blott Sverige svenska krusbär har – Only Sweden has Swedish gooseberries – There’s no place like home… Originally a quote by writer Carl Jonas Love Almqvist (1793-1866)
Hej hopp i blåbärsskogen! / Hej svejs i lingonskogen tjosan hoppsan hej! – hey hey in the blueberry/lingonberry wood hey hey: a funny surprised expression Swedes may use in a joking way
Norwegian
Det er bare blåbær – It’s just blueberries: it’s not a big deal/it’s a piece of cake
Være på bærtur – To be picking berries: being completely lost/wrong.
Finnish
Oma maa mansikka, muu maa mustikka – our land strawberry, other land blueberry: No place like home, here too 🙂
he ovat kuin kaksi marjaa – they are like two berries: they look very much alike
se maksaa mansikoita – it costs strawberries: very expensive
and last but not least paskanmarjat – sh*t berries: bullsh*t
Danish
stikkelsbærben – gooseberry legs: pale, skinny, and hairy legs
et surt ribs – a sour redcurrant: a grumpy person
at give (eller få) en på bærret: to give (or get) one on the berry: to hit or get hit on the face
I joined the polyglot gathering in Prague, an event for language lovers with lectures and activities
First of all, to be updated about language events you can follow me on instagram at @ chiaraspeaksnordic
In May 2024 i went to the Polyglot Gathering – an event I had been dreaming about for a while, but did not know if I would never manage to join. However, after stumbling upon its existence not too long before it would take place, In the course of a few days I figured out I could actually make it! Here is my experience at it.
Sign-up, info Pre-gathering and visiting Prague
After checking out programs of past editions, info and such on the Polyglot Gathering website, I signed up a couple weeks before the event would take place. By signing up early on you would get discounts, so next time I’ll try to do this asap. The main thing to be sure about was getting there, and turns out there is a European Sleeper train to Prague.
I attempted at studying Czech before leaving..Saxonian Switzerland from the train
I arrived there around 11am and had planned to just walk around on Saturday as it would have been a pity to just stay inside a building (and pay for an entire day of activities) while I had a brand new city and country to explore. I also tried the most touristy street food, the Trdelník (chimney). BUT of course, without ice cream, unlike everybody. I had lunch at the Havelska Koruna, budget authentic Czech food restaurant.
A challenge related to the Gathering was learning Czech. Having to start from scratch, I tried to focus on practical stuff as food vocabulary in the little time I had, and didn’t manage to go much further than memorizing words for apples and potatoes.
having to look up stuff slowed down my deciding process… That was frustrating! This was my first time in a country with a language I do not understand at all, last time I was 13… One thing I really look forward to if next year’s gathering will still be in Czechia, will be improving my Czech skills, if anything to navigate these things more efficiently.
Sunday: The Gathering
Anyway, I was ready to join the Gathering on Sunday, the last day of it. I met two Italian girls walking just outside the University building where the event took place, so I didn’t have to figure out myself how to exactly come in, as it was not super clear. As I registered I was given a tote bag with a notebook, a pen, few pins, a bottle of water and of course my language tag that I had filled in while signing up for the Polyglot Gathering! And, a t-shirt, that I had added to my registration.
tote bag, notebook, pin and tshirtA few people were actually curious about the Lombard and Frisian flags
I announced on social media I’d go, and found out a (Swedish-speaking) friend would be there. So I ended up speaking a lot of Swedish which on its turn attracted fellow Scandinavians hearing us..
I could already see the program (see below for the last day) shortly before the Gathering started, so i knew more or less what lectures I wanted to join.
Besides lectures there were also activities as language practice rooms (and a “no English Zone”), talent shows, quizzes, workshops, tasting international snacks.. But that will be for another time …I eventually picked these lectures:
How Kinship systems shape your worldview and reality: cross-cultural anecdotes, by Israel Lai
Polish crash course (1/2 of it) by Zuzanna Yevtushyk
Characteristics of major language families (mainly Romance, Germanic, Slavic and facts about further ones), by Adam Raelson
Brain computer interfaces are coming- Why we now need to aim to C3 level
Esperanto and the other languages (slides in French and lecture in Esperanto)- by Michael Boris Mandirola
The Power of the Hour – Swedish in 6 months by Krisztina Féher
one time slot had multiple interesting courses, others not as much, but most lectures were definitely interesting! I would have gone to a Chinese lecture instead of another one about competing with AI intelligence if I had to do this again, but for the rest I was satisfied with my choices. It was also a pity I had to leave the Polish Crash Course halfway through to go to the Languages Families lecture. Although I must say my brain cells were getting tired, the Czech I had learned wasn’t helpful beyond the first three sentences.
I’d say my favourites were the one about language families and hearing about the strategies used to learn Swedish one hour a day – the way she tracked it was quite inspiring and gave me good insights. Learning about different ways different languages name family members was also pretty cool! See some slides below.
Breaks
Between each lecture there was a break, and you could get coffee or tea. and there were stands selling books, gadgets and stuff.
One was mostly just about Esperanto though – seems to be pretty big at language nerds events. I got a book explaining German idioms, and a tiny tourist phrasebook for Czech. Might be handy for another time!
The main break was of course lunch, a couple hours. You had the option to get lunch either everyday or not at all at the canteen, and it was available in 3 versions: meaty, vegetarian and vegan. Here too, you had to choose one and stick to it for all the days you’d stay there.
The best thing would be having the menu to begin with and freely deciding which version to pick, but I understand that’s for organisational reasons.
I was there only one day so I did not have to stick to only meat or only vegan dishes for 5 days. And I knew I would eat typical Czech food with meat outside anyway, so it was okay. On Sunday the vegetarian version was curry rice, the vegan couscous, the meaty schnitzel. And of course I got soup as side dish, typical Czech.
Closing ceremony & Final Evening
As it was the last day, the final ceremony took place at the end of the lectures, and it was a sum up of the event, organisational effort of the team behind it, Slovakian Edukácia@Internet as main party, thanking all partners and sponsors. and insights about where the Gathering will be next here. Which might be Prague again. Or somewhere in central Europe. Sorry, non-Europeans…
Once the Gathering was over, we still had the possibility to meetup with other polyglots at the beer garden in the evening. As I had only been there that day, I had not had the chance to really chat a lot with others yet. It was quite fun and got to talk to quite a few people – notably a person I am a mutual follower of on tiktok, it was quite amazing to see her in real life – unexpectedly!! I also got Polish chocolates :). Afterwards some people went to pubs – I had a bit trouble switching from Swedish to norwegian after a drink, I must say.
Though English stayed in most contexts as the lingua franca, I still got to speak quite a few languages. I look forward to the next time I will be able to join it, hopefully for longer than just one day!
Identical words with different meanings that Finnish, Japanese, Italian share.
Homonyms are words with the same sound (homophones) or spelling (homographs), but differ in meaning.
Finnish is totally unrelated to Japanese and Italian, but it has quite a few curious homonyms with them because of featured they share:
Consonant/vowel alternation
Words frequently ending in a vowel
A common trait is also double consonants (alternated by vowels)
This results in completely unrelated words being identical! What is a noun in one language, can be an adjective or a verb in another though. Other times it’s surprisigly words in the same domain (see me/te in Finnish and Italian!)
te: plural you (Finnish), you (complement pronoun, Italian), hand (Japanese)
Finnish and Japanese both use (or Japanese is transcripted with) a K for the esact same sound Italian uses C for:
kani/cani: bunny (Finnish), dogs (Italian), crab(s) (Japanese) – here surprisingly all animal names!
kasa/casa: pile (Finnish), house (Italian), umbrella (Japanese)
Sometimes the same word is actually very similar in other languages, but the way Finnish, Japanese and Italian adapt it is very similar or ends up looking identical to other words:
poro: reindeer (Finnish), pore (Italian), the polo game (Japanese)
shokki:shock (Finnish), tableware (Japanese)
kokki:cook (Finnish), national flag (Japanese)
Finnish – Japanese
ase: weapon (Finnish) – sweat (Japanese:汗)
haka: hook (Finnish) – grave (Japanese)
hana: tap/faucet (Finnish) – flower, nose (Japanese:花／鼻)
haku: search (Finnish), vomit (Japanese:吐く)
himo: lust (Finnish) – ribbon (Japanese:綬)
kanki: wood/metal bar +slang for bon..r – ventilation (Japanese:換気)
I went on an interrail trip and had a stop in Denmark, back to Grenaa and Aarhus
Last summer I wanted a little holiday for myself, and as I already had to go home to Italy, I realized I could just do that by train and visit people on the way. My first idea was going to Sweden, and stop by in Denmark. However, I ended up not going to Sweden (I ended up doing that for my birthday in February..)
Starting from Eindhoven I went up through Germany: > Venlo (border NL-DE)> Wuppertal > Hamburg >(border DE-DK)> Fredericia > Aarhus > then the letbane (local train) till Grenaa: 5 trains! I took the first train at 7:40 and arrived at 20:50: 13 hours! Long journey, but I enjoyed it! Besides the initial delays in Germany, the train to Hamburg was 35 minutes late when I was supposed to have 39 minutes waiting time for my train into Denmark …. but I made it ..
DSB (Danish state railways) uses many figurative expressions which would confuse non-experts: for example a ‘dog’ is a thing put under a wheel to prevent it from moving. Or an ‘Half English’ is a spor track which can only turn in one direction.Kolind
At Aarhus station I saw the entrance into the letbane platform, which I had not found in 2021… It was cool to be riding it again! I hopped off in Trustrup where I was picked up, the air was cool but going through the Danish countryside was so nice. I ate fish and couscous for dinner +the Dutch stroopwafels I brought as gift! The house was super cozy – I kind of miss its smell 🙂
22 August: Grenaa centre
The following day I got my wish granted – seeing the centre of Grenaa I had totally missed back in 2021!! And we got food for the dinner – chicken with sweet potato fries and carrots with rasins 🙂 Then a discount version of Champagne Brus ice lollies – eating one again was my second wish!
and here my journal of the first day:
23 August: Aarhus and Den Gamle By Museum
On 23rd August I went to Aarhus according to my plan! Main reason was meeting another friend 2 years later :). It started kind of bad, I could use my friend’s bike, but the saddle was way too high for me, so I first went on foot, which meant walking 1,5 hours. But I enjoyed the place and for once it was okay. Then I realized I should have taken the phone charger, and went all the way back. At that point walking again would take too long.. So I took the bike. Well, that wasn’t the most hyggelig thing. But despite falling once (I had to bike with the tip of my feet) I got to the letbane stop 30 secs before the train arrived!! Just in time to lock the bike..
So once in Aarhus I went to my friend’s place, her dad arrived in the meantime and we chatted a little. They convinced me to go to Den Gamle By, even though there wasn’t soo much time left before the closing time.
I walked headed there, and on the way I entered a second hand shop (genbrug) where I found a nice green-white striped tshirt, for just 20 DKK (3€), the brand was Finnish Marimekko, so a bonus point.
I reached Den Gamle By and went through it very fast, though I didn’t have the time to read most signs.. oh well. It did cost me 25€ but I wouldn’t be there soon again..
I took a lotta pics, so will make an additional post just for Den Gamle By…Here is a taste of it, bakery and home, from the 1800s and in the 70s:
Once i got out I decided to head to AroS, the art museum.
Though I didn’t enter the museum, had nor energies nor time nor will to spend more money on the ticket (Although one day I should walk in the rainbow circle) . What I did was going up the stairs and then straight to the museum shop! I got my first books in Danish, written by Aarhus university professors, from a series of booklets called Tænke Pauser (Breaks to think(?): one about Dreams (Om Drøm) and one about Europe (simply ‘Europa’). Fast forward 1 month I finished and really enjoyed them! The museum sold also quite a lot of Moomin and Pippi Longstocking (in Danish Pippi Langstrømpe) things… But i resisted..
Then, super hungry and a bit tired after an intense day, I wanted to eat something. I got into a 7-Eleven and had to get some Wienerbrød (‘Viennese bread’, Danish pastries that the Danes took from Vienna apparently), I picked a Tebirkes and also bought an ice lolly I had wanted to try for a while, Solbær, which used to be called Kæmpe Eskimo (changed the historic name for politically-correctness reasons, whether it was right or wrong to do that is not up to me to judge). I quickly ate up the lolly and got into a Netto, getting a Studenterbrød!!
So I had the exact same things my friend got as a welcome thing to Denmark on my very first day 2 years before, and I sat at the same place to eat them, Dokk1! God I loved that so much. So Calming. Would be there every summer evening if only I could! I then got the Letbane home and biked again home, really enojoyed that even though the bike comfiness was what it was!
24 August: Grenaa Beach
On my last full day in Denmark we went to Grenaa’s beach, another thing I longed to do again. Later we went into the town and in another second hand shop I found a 1936(!!) figurine album about all European countries, so cool! Besides Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and all that it even had Gdansk/Danzig …
I had to get food for the journey of the following day. We went to a Lidl (I guess cheaper than Kvickly?) and of course I got Rygbrød , cheese and a Spandauer, I guess the most iconic Wienerbrød? My friend told me I had to try the Dagmartærte too. I also bought a cronut. Not really Danish but I had yet to try that…We ate one by one all the rolls of the Dagmartærte while sitting in the garden…
On the evening we watched a Danish horror-ish series called Equinotium, Not my thing, but watching stuff in other languages is always a good idea. Also some random tv-reality shows. I had a lot of trouble understanding my friend’s sarcastic comments in Danish though, gotta improve.
25 August: farvel.. for now
Trustrup letbane stop, on the rainy morning of the day I left Denmark..took the train to Federicia in Aarhus, and there I got a kærnemælkhorn at the 7/11 because why not…
So I am glad I got to fulfill some wishes I have had for a while – Seeing the centre of Grenaa, Eating Danish Ice lollies again and Wienerbrød and getting books in Danish! My journey then continued south to Germany, but I hope I will get to see new parts of Denmark soon! Hej hej!
Sami traditional costumes: hats and dresses from Lapland
My birthday falls on Sami national day, and to honour the sami people (who used to be called Lapps), I decided to write an an article about their traditional clothing, after Swedish and Norwegian costumes.
The Sami traditional costume is called gapta/gåptoe, in southern Sami, gábdde in Lule Sami, gákti in Northern Sami. In Swedish and Norwegian repectively kolt and kofte. It includes hats, belts, jewellery as brooches and mittens.
Sami handicrafts, Duodji, also include making your own clothing, and that is still the case for some families.
Sami costume variations
Sami Costumes vary depending on the geographical area and gender, but can have differences due to status, with different color orders and decorations. The base color is most often blue, with decorations in red, white, yellow and Green.
Generally, variations in Sami costumes follow Sami languages and ethnical groups within Samis. However, because of nomadic life depending on reindeers, designs from different groups ended up influencing each other.
The biggest differences I have noticed are between North and South Sami costume is the more “curled up” shape in the North Sámi versions, and the fact it, without surprise, looks more meant for cold climates, more often including a shawl for women. Nowadays it possible to see more modern kofte/kolt with different patterns, as you can see in this music video.
Sami iconic hats
An important part of Sami costumes is the hat. Various types of hats exist (see picture), different for men and women. Among others:
men hats: Four Winds Hat, čiehgahpir or Šávka, with summer and winter variations (also stjernelue in Norwegian “star hat”), used in East Finnmark, Karasjok, Kautokeino, North-East Norway; ćuipi, a kind of poofball hat with a big red pom pom, used in Karesuando, Swedish Lapland.
Women hats: Jorbat, the hat with the big ‘ears’; Ládju/ladjo, also called čoarvegahpir (čoarvi – horn, gahpir – hat), which stopped being used a hundred years ago, but still exists in eastern Sami areas now under Russia.
Costumes as a symbol of Sámi identity
Some Sami grew up wearing it, other only used it for their confirmation ceremony, others get themself a sami traditional costume as adults. The tradition to wear it has almost disappeared in the coastal areas, but a revival lead to reconstructing them, similarly to what happened with Norwegian bunads.
In 1940 the archeologist Gutorm Gjessing and his wife Gertrjud were the first to write about Sami clothing, in their book Lapdrakten.
In the 1970s, Sami movements made it an important symbol for Sami identity. Wearing Sami costumes became a new tradition in some contexts, as during Sami national parliament assemblies in Sweden, Norway and Finland.
Is it easier to learn Icelandic if you speak a Scandinavian language? My experience of studying it while knowing Swedish, Danish, Nowegian and German
A while ago a follower of my langstagram asked: Hi Chiara, I was thinking about starting Icelandic, what are your thoughts on the difficulty of the language? I already know swedish on B1 level, is that helpful?
Generally speaking, good knowledge of Scandinavian languages will certainly help, but Icelandic is to be taken as a very distinct language, for which you’ll need to spend quite a lot of time for both grammar and vocabulary, even if many things will look familiar.
As follows my impressions and experience with my prior knowledge of Scandinavian languages:
Learning grammar
Needless to say now, the trickiest part is the grammar and the inflections, it’s something you have to practice with and get used to. For that aspect knowing some German might help you more than knowing Swedish honestly. Just like they told me Latin would help me understand how German works. And I think it did, even if it was just to understand what cases are at all. German and Icelandic belong however to the same language family, and as fellow Germanic languages there are still some endings they vaguely share. They also use the same 4 cases: Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive. This is clear by looking at the personal pronouns: while you only have I-me in the rest of Germanic languages, from Swedish to Dutch, Icelandic and German have the dative version: ich-mich-mir and ég-mig-mér.
Icelandic
Scandinavian
German
English
case inflections
4 cases used in nouns, adjectives
– only personal pronouns (I-me, he-him.. forms)
4 cases used in articles, adjectives, personal pronouns
-only personal pronouns (2 forms)
verb conjugations (examples with present tense)
a couple conjugations with similar endings: -/a,-(u)r/-(s)t/ð, -(u)r/-; -um, -ið, -a/u
always same ending for all people (-a/er)
always same endings (with some irregularities in root vowels): -e,-st,-t;-en,-t, -en
no ending except for third person -s
word order
as in English +verb in 2nd position rule
as in English +verb in 2nd position rule
verb in 2nd position, conjugated verb at the end after given connectors
To put it simply, I could say Icelandic is like an overcomplicated version of something you might be familiar with. Of course there are unique features Icelandic shares with its cousin languages, like:
definite article at the end of the word: (a) boy, strákur, becomes strákurinn when you want to say the boy. the ending is -n for the feminine and ,-ið for the neuter, and gets a bit more complicated in the plural. But once you got how it works that’s it.
passive/reflexive verb form made with the Middle Voice, formed by the addition of the ending -st to the Active verb, in any tense: við sjáumst, vi ses = we see each other; Hann kallast – han kallas = he is called.
Learning vocabulary
Scandinavian languages might come in handy for vocabulary. There are a lot of cognates and things which will remind you of something you already know, although not used in the same way. However, generally speaking I would say knowing any other Germanic language is often as helpful, maybe just slightly less similar, but to a smaller extent for English, which has a significant higher share of romance vocabulary due to its history.
Icelandic
Scandinavian
English
German
Dutch
blóm
blomma/blomst
flower
Blume
bloem
maður, kona
man, kvinna/kvinde *kone in Danish=wife
man, woman
Mann, Frau
man, vrouw
jarðarber
jordgubbe, jordbær..
strawberry
Erdbeer
aardbei
höfuðborg
huvud/hovedstad
capital city
Hauptstadt
hoofdstad
eða
eller
or
oder
of
But still, quite often you will encounter obscure words, for which most other languages use the same word, for instance háskoli for university (literally ‘high school’, just higher than high school in Icelandic 😉 , or tölva for computer. You can check out many others in an article with a comparison between Icelandic and Finnish.
Sometimes you won’t recognize some related words instantly but once you’ve realized the connections with Swedish/Danish/Norwegian they will be much easier to remember (I had this some time ago with keyra (to drive), köra/køre in Swedish/Danish).
Icelandic
Scandinavian
English
German
hvað heitir þu?
(h)va(d) heter/hedder du?
What’s your name
wie heißt du?
ég tala ekki ensku
jag/jeg pratar/snakker inte/ikke engelsk(a)
I don’t speak English
ich spreche kein Englisch
hvað ert þú gamall?
hur/hvor gammal/el är/er du?
how old are you?
wie alt bist du?
English: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Scandinavian: Alla/e människor/mennesker är födda/født fria/e och lika/lige i värde och rättigheter/værdighed og rettigheder.
Icelandic: Hver maður er borinn frjáls og jafn öðrum að virðingu og réttindum.
German: Alle Menschen sind frei und gleich an Würde und Rechten geboren.
As follows the plot of the movie Nói Albinói. words in bold are similar in Scandinavian languages, underlined ones in other Germanic languages as well, meaning that knowing the given language(s) spared me from the pain of looking them up. Words in italic are unique to Icelandic, and I had to copy-paste them somewhere…:
Myndingerist um vetur í smábæ úti á landi. Nói er ungur strákurí menntaskóla. Hann býr hjá ömmu sinni. Pabbi Nóa býr einn, hann er þunglyndur og drekkur mikið. Nói er sérstök persóna, hann er gáfaður en hann er ekki duglegur í skóla. Hann er oft einn og hann er ekki félagslyndur. En ung stúlka, Íris, flytur í bæinn. Hún er úr Reykjavík. Nói kynnisthenni og þau verðavinir. (text from IcelandicOnline)
Is it useful to learn a Scandinavian language before starting Icelandic?
Of course speaking a Scandinavian language will make your journey with icelandic a bit easier, but definitely not as much as Norwegian/Swedish/Danish with each other. So learn a Scandinavian language before or after Icelandic to have fun, but do not think Icelandic will be easy after it. On the other hand, Learning them simultaneously might confuse you a little bit but in my opinion they are different enough to not mess up too much.
Learning Icelanding before a Scandinavian language will make the latter feel a lot easier. Similarly to what it is like to first learn German and then Dutch, when finding yourself with a simplified version of a known grammar, instead of the opposite.
Icelanders learn Danish in school but the chances that that will make it any more convenient to speak Danish in Iceland are probably very low.
Some dialects of Norwegian have more in common with Icelandic though, mostly in the pronounciation, with hva being pronounced as ka, similarly to Icelandic hv-words. But that’s more a language geek thing than something actually helping you learn Icelandic I guess?
My experience
Although learning it not too consistently and keeping it as an “extra”, I started picking it up a couple years ago. I already spoke Swedish and more casually learned Danish and Norwegian, and Icelandic was my missing puzzle, the living ancestor of these three, with its unique þ and ð and the obscure grammar. I was first mainly interested in just understanding its grammar, the same I had with Finnish, and my current goal is becoming conversional. In the meantime, I gained a good insight on how the language works and challenges it gives.
I am currently using Icelandic Online and reading Short Stories to keep up with Icelandic (not consistently enough, unfortunately), and I do often find cognates which help me recognizing words, but that’s mostly due to having studied all the main Germanic languages than just Scandinavian ones. Probably also because of this my experience learning Icelandic goes more smoothly than Finnish, which belongs to a separate language family.
a Polyglot illustrating Scandinavia 