You don’t really know a language until you can throw a temper tantrum in it

Loyal readers will remember that when we arrived, Annalise only knew the Norwegian for one word: underwear. She’s been in Norway for two months and barnehage for one, and the progress she’s made is incredible.

Language acquisition wasn’t a top priority during the first month, but we did want to fill in a couple important gaps. We got an ABCs book at the library so Annalise could learn Norway’s three new letters: æ, ø, and å. These vowels come at the end of the alphabet, bringing the total letter count to 29.

As you can see, the pronunciation is a challenge but we were helpfully assisted by another library book, which used these letters in the spelling of animal sounds.

Armed with this rudimentary grasp of the language, we dropped her off at daycare in early August.

Week 1: A full day in Norwegian was a shock to the system. Annalise came home each day so exhausted that we moved her bedtime up to 7:15. When the week finally came to a close, she slept 14 hours.

Week 2: I sat with Annalise for a few minutes each day after we arrive for the barnehage’s breakfast time and remarked at how well she understood what the teachers say to her. As an experiment, we switched the language on her after-school cartoons from English to Norwegian. It did not phase her.

I was impressed at the time, but in retrospect it could just be that the language is irrelevant because we’ve seen every Daniel Tiger episode SO MANY TIMES. Or perhaps only the flashing colors are truly necessary, and the plot/lessons/etc. are just there to make parents feel better.

Week 3: Annalise’s social world opened up when she and another classmate discover they both speak English. They have become fast friends. While I don’t think this has directly increased language acquisition, Annalise is excited to go to school and more engaged with everyone in the class. She is also becoming friends with a Norwegian-speaking boy, although his primary attribute seems to be that he drinks from puddles.

Week 4: There were two conceptual milestones. First, Annalise asked us if we spoke English, illustrating that she has learned the concept of another language. Second, she spoke her first unprompted Norwegian sentence: Det snør, which means “it’s snowing.” It has not started snowing in Trondheim yet, but it was snowing on Peppa Pig.

Week 5: Of course, Annalise’s Norwegian exposure is most heavily concentrated around “things kids say at day care.” Annalise is now capable of assembling a whole temper tantrum around the Norwegian words of defiance, “Nei!” and “Ikke!” She is also well practiced at deploying “Oi!” (an expression of surprise and alarm) and “det søler” (it’s spilling).

Great job, Annalise!