Reading From The Children's Library

My understanding of spoken Norwegian is of course close to nil. But reading it isn't so bad. There're patterns and grammar rules. It'll take a while, but it isn't that difficult to acquire an understanding of it. It's the spoken which I'll need to practise. It doesn't work like Thai because I don't have this 'feel' for how to pronounce the words with rising or lowered tones.

There're two types of Norwegian- Bokmål and Nynorsk, both of which are legal equals. Municipalities, schools and organisations are free to choose either to teach, publish or use as their 'preferred official language'. In Oslo, you generally hear Bokmål being spoken and written, and Bokmål is the one I start with.

Clearly, I can't read the newspapers, brochures or novels. Can't guess the meaning of the Norwegian words in English either. Sometimes words seem like a derivation, but more often than not, it isn't and it certainly doesn't mean what I think it means in English. I can read children's books. If I need help with pronunciation, I ask the girlfriend's children. Hahaha. They're just really tickled that I'm starting from ground up, like when they were four years old. So, I combed through picture books, and this, 'Lille Gruffalo' by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.

I was like, what on earth is a 'vedstabelhus'? A something-something house. Asked the girlfriend. She described it as a little shed of sorts, maybe to stockpile wood or something. Okay. This is the story of Gruffalo's Child who went out in the night and found a trail in the snow and a tail sticking out and wondered if the strange creature was the Big Bad Mouse.

Åhå! Spor i snø, i bukt og i bend!
Hvem setter slikt spor? Hvor går det hen?
En hale stakk ut fra et vedstabelhus.
Er dette halen til Store Stygge Mus?