Livemocha and language learning.

Posted on February 5, 2012

If you’ve hung around this blog any amount of time, you probably know I’m into languages. I don’t know what the fascination is or where it comes from, yet I have it. Since this blog started, I’ve taken classes in Japanese, French, and Mandarin Chinese, plus a bunch of classes relating to linguistics and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Prior to blogging, nearly lost to the mists of time, I took Russian at Pikes Peak Community College in the 1990′s and Spanish during sixth grade (the only non-English class I failed, FWIW).

A few weeks ago I went to Norway for vacation, and for all practical purposes, I didn’t know a word. I planned the trip last summer, and picked up some ‘Learn Norwegian’ type books during the fall, but never really got into them. They were work, and I wasn’t that interested. Instead, it seemed like an interesting idea to go to a country where I knew no one, and where I didn’t know the language. How far would I get only knowing English? Pretty far, actually. It was a complete waste of time (just kidding, Norway ;-). As mentioned in a previous post, English seems to be a very common second language in Norway. Still, I picked up a few Norwegian words and phrases while visiting, which sort of gave me the impetus to learn more. I’m hoping to go back to Norway for TIFF again next year, so I’m planning on preparing.

I thought about learning Norwegian, and thought about the problems of learning a ‘foreign’ language in general. Language is a ‘brittle’ sort of knowledge. If it isn’t used, it falls apart. It is most definitely not like riding a bike. I’ve taken language classes and done very well in them, but the language doesn’t really stick. Language classes are good if you want to learn on a schedule. The homework is usually useful in helping to understand a language, and the classes themselves are good because the teacher can help with pronunciations. The problem is that aside from homework and classes, there isn’t much opportunity to use (practice) the language. Thus it doesn’t stick.

‘Learn X language’ type books, CD’s, DVD’s, and software are cheaper than taking classes, and you can learn at your own pace, but as hinted at above, motivation is a factor. If a person is prone to procrastination, as I am, then learning a language this way is pretty futile. If a person takes the time to actually do the work, there are still problems. While you can say the words, there is no one who can judge if you are saying them correctly. As I’ve found in French and Norwegian, even though they use the same alphabet as English, the pronunciations are often different. Someone learning a language this way might do a book full of exercises and feel pretty confident about their ability, but when they go to a country where the language is actually spoken, they are likely to be dismayed.

IU doesn’t offer Norwegian language classes at the IUPUI campus (let alone any other Scandinavian language), and I’m too cheap/poor to hire a tutor. Back to pondering. While in Norway, I looked on the web and found a possible solution: Livemocha (a name after my own heart).

Livemocha offers free lessons in over 30 languages and is (slowly) adding more. It’s a bit like a game. You create an account and start taking an online class (i.e. Basic Norwegian (Bokmal)). Each class has units, which are subdivided into lessons. Each lesson starts with a “learning” segment: a series of words, phrases, or sentences, along with appropriate images, the English translation, and audio of a native speaker. Finishing the “learning” segment, the lesson is 50% complete. After this is the “review” segment, which is a bit like a free-form quiz. They supply an audio clip or some text, and you choose the most appropriate image. The “review” section also has a “magnet” exercise, where they supply the image and the English phrase, along with a bunch of words in the chosen language, and you have to assemble the right words in the right order. This is probably the best type of exercise in the “review” section because it actually causes you to think. Finish this section and the lesson is done, but they also have some “skill builder exercises” for reading, listening, and a quiz. They aren’t required, but they are helpful. By finishing lessons, you earn points, which is where the game part comes in.

Another way to earn points is to help others learn English (or any other language you happen to know). Some classes, such as English, are more advanced and they offer students the opportunity to submit writing and speaking exercises to native speakers. These members can correct and/or encourage the students. They can submit text or audio comments. As someone who studied TESOL, it’s also pretty satisfying. By reviewing lessons, you earn points (bonus points if you are the first reviewer). The students can also rate whether you are helpful or very helpful. Sadly, they don’t offer these exercises for Norwegian. Not yet, at least.

Livemocha also offers the opportunity to chat with others around the world, so you can practice with them or help them learn. I haven’t done that yet, because my Norwegian is still very poor, and I’ve been having microphone problems. When I fix the latter next week, I’ll start chatting. The nice thing about the chatting is that it doesn’t limit you to only those who know the language you’re learning. You can chat with anyone on there.

This week I really got into Livemocha and learned quite a bit of Norwegian, though still very basic. When I left Norway, about all I could say was tusen takk and lufthavn. Now I can write Jeg heter Michael og jeg kommer fra Indianapolis. Jeg sitter ved bordet og skriver.

As with other methods of language learning, Livemocha has it’s drawbacks. The quality of the audio clips in the lessons varies widely. It sounds like most of them are done by native speakers on their home computers. That’s not a huge problem, but I wish there was a way for learners to flag the ones with poor audio.

While Livemocha isn’t learning by rote, it’s pretty close. For every four samples during the review and skill building, they use the same set of four pictures, asking you to choose the best one. If you know one or two words in a sentence, it’s possible to eliminate most of the wrong images. Also, by the fourth question, you know which image will be the correct one, regardless of whether you know the words. It’s gaming the system. It would be better if the images and language samples were more randomized.

They don’t teach the rules of a language. I’ve finished two units/eleven lessons, and I haven’t seen any explanation of when to use en, ei, or et in Norwegian. I assume it has something to do with masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns, but it hasn’t been explained. This makes me think Livemocha isn’t the be-all/end-all of language learning, but that it should be an adjunct to other forms of language learning.

The writing and speaking exercises are only for a small portion of the languages they teach. I understand. Only a few languages on Livemocha have large numbers of native speakers who are members, and they probably need a certain amount who are willing to help people who want to learn them by reviewing submissions. It’s understandable, but still a bit frustrating.

The case of the missing haiku

Posted on January 25, 2012

Last week I was on vacation and didn’t have enough haiku in queue, so for the last few days no new reviews showed up on this blog. The nice thing about blogs is the ability to go back and post something on a previous date, so that’s what I plan to do in a few minutes.

As I do that though, I just saw an article that said James Farentino, one of the stars of The Final Countdown died of heart failure. Since that was the last Review Haiku to appear, I thought it was worthwhile noting his passing. It was a good movie, and his role in it was an important one.

Vacation: Day 8

Posted on January 23, 2012

Yesterday was a light day for me; I just watched some shorts. All of them were pretty good, but Dr. Professor’s Thesis of Evil was great. It’s like a comic book film that was as close to filming a comic book as it’s possible to come. About the only things missing were the speech bubbles.

I found out on Twitter that they had the awards ceremony last light, so I didn’t get a chance to vote for the Audience Award :-( That also means I missed a chance to win an iPad. The award winners are:

AURORA Prize – Elena
FIPRESCI Award – Elena
Don Quijote Award – Stopped on Track
Norwegian Peace Film Award – Play
Tromsø Palm (Best short or documentary from the Films From the North (FFN) series – Flimmer
Tromsø Audience Award – Play

Official results are here: http://tiff.no/en/news/two-prizes-elena-and-play

I still haven’t seen the Northern Lights, which is disappointing since that’s one of the main reasons I came to Tromsø. Some nights were cloudy, which means they couldn’t be seen even if they appeared. The other nights – the clear nights – they didn’t appear when I went out. Maybe I was looking in the wrong part of the sky. The street the hotel is on has a pretty narrow view of the sky, so maybe I needed to walk a few blocks to the waterfront to get a better view.

While I haven’t met anybody in person, I have met some people here via the #tiff12 hashtag on Twitter.

Vacation: Day 6

Posted on January 21, 2012

Yesterday I forced myself to stay awake longer to ward off some of the jet lag, and it seems to have worked. I woke up at 4:30 am after being asleep for about 10 hours (As an aside, it seems the Norwegians love coffee, but haven’t heard of decaf).

Yesterday, I watched Stopped on Track and The Artist, both of which are brilliant films. This morning, I watched Innocent Saturday, which I’m still thinking about. This afternoon is Irma Vep and a conference with the film’s director, Olivier Assayas.

Stopped on Track is a German film about a man diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and how it affects him and those around him during the last few months of his life. The film is unflinching in showing the highs and lows. While there are some funny moments, such as when the main character has his ever-disappearing hair cut into a mohawk, most of the film is harsh and uncomfortable. Despite that, I think it’s one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time. It made me think about Ivan Noble’s tumor diary, as they both illustrate a subject that many people would like to ignore.

The Artist is an homage to the days of silent film and the genesis of the Hollywood studio system. It’s won a slew of awards and will undoubtedly win many more. Shot in black and white, this mostly silent film shows silent movie star George Valentine (Jean Dujardin) at the height, and eventual decline, of his career as talkies start taking over. His career path is countered by Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), who starts out as an extra, but becomes a huge star in talking films. I don’t know if Dujardin will win an Academy Award, but his performance certainly merits a nomination. His comic timing is impeccable, though that might be down to clever editing. What makes his performance is the ease with which he shows the charm and charisma of a Hollywood star at the peak of his career, and the anguished despair of a man ready to end it all.

Innocent Saturday takes place in Pripyat, a town next the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, in the 36 hours following the explosion. The film isn’t easy to watch, mainly because of the shaky camerawork (think Blair Witch Project), which is probably intended to reflect the sense of confusion running through the main character, Valery. He’s an engineer and low-ranking Communist Party official, who finds out about the disaster and tries to flee with his sort-of-girlfriend. When they miss the train due to a broken heel on one of her shoes, they realize there’s not much they can do. Officially, there is no problem and no reason to leave, even though they know it’s not safe. Though Valery knows what happened, he isn’t supposed to tell anyone because he could be charged with inciting a panic. They wander back to town where she buys some shoes and they go to a wedding banquet. Because there’s no immediate way for them to leave, they join in the festivities.

—
Later, that evening…

Irma Vep is a French film about the making (or remaking) of a French film. The original Irma Vep was a character in a silent film called Les Vampires or The Vampires – Irma Vep is an anagram for vampire. The silent film was an actual film that I’m wasn’t familiar with, but I don’t think knowledge of it is incredibly important in watching Irma Vep. Irma Vep shows a Chinese actress, Maggie Cheung who is cast in the lead role. She arrived a few days late due to filming going over schedule on another film, but when she arrives at the production office things are incredibly chaotic and the film seems troubled. As if to accentuate this point, the film features lots of quick cuts and camera movements, creating a bit of visual confusion.

Prior to the screening, the film was introduced by film critic Neil Young (http://www.jigsawlounge.co.uk/film/) and Olivier Assayas, the film’s director, who spoke about it for a few minutes. He noted this was the first film where he got a chance to work with a “movie star”.

After the film, in a free event at a nearby hotel, he answered questions about his films and career. The film festival did a retrospective of his films this year, and apparently they wanted to do it last year, but he got nominated for some awards for Carlos. During the Q&A, he explained how the film first came about and that it was originally supposed to be about the bureaucratic and diplomatic effort to capture Carlos. The discussion was pretty detailed, but fascinating. In the end, he said he has been very lucky on each film to make the best film he could at the time, without having to compromise. His explanation of how Carlos was made highlighted how lucky he was.

Vacation: Day 5

Posted on January 20, 2012

I’m still a bit jetlagged (well, my normal sleeping schedule isn’t normal anyway). Yesterday I went to take a nap and set an alarm to wake me up at 9:00 pm, 90 minutes before the showing for Low Cost. However, I woke up on my own at 10:25, five minutes before the scheduled screening. It turns out I set my alarm for 9:00 am, not pm, and I overslept. Thus, I missed the showing.

Vacation: Day 4

Posted on January 19, 2012

Yesterday was the first day of TIFF and I saw two films: Tahrir 2011: The Good, the Bad, and the Politician and Guilty of Romance. Both were at the Fokus Kino theater, which is pretty snazzy by US standards. The theaters are steeper and have more leg room. The seats don’t fold up, but they do lean back. No cupholders in them though. There’s no concession stand per se, but there is a coffee shop with pastries and espresso drinks, plus there is a store in the theater that sells drinks and food. That might be considered a concession stand, but it’s more like a convenience store. The store sells popcorn, but it’s not freshly made, instead it is already in paper boxes and those are in something that looks like a convenience store freezer. I didn’t open the doors, so I don’t know if it keeps the popcorn cold or hot

The ticket for the first movie I saw said 9:00 pm (21:00), but that was when they started seating. I don’t know if that is normal, or if they delayed seating due to the large crowd. The second film I saw was scheduled at midnight and they started seating about 5 – 10 minutes before that.

Tahrir 2011 started out well, when it suddenly stopped about a minute into it. One teenager started clapping, as if the film was brilliant, and most of the theater laughed. They stopped the film because they forgot the subtitles. They restarted it, making sure the subtitles were included (interestingly, both films had English-language subtitles).

Tahrir 2011 is a documentary on the events in Tahrir Square, Cairo, with particular focus on the events that happened in January and February 2011. A lot of the footage was taken with cell phones as the events happened, but these were interspersed with more professionally shot video. There are also interviews with some of the participants months later, where they recalled their experiences.

The film is broken into three segments: The Good, concentrating on the protestors; the Bad, featuring interviews with police/security personnel; and the Politician, which covers Hosni Mubarak’s presidency. This segment is further broken up by the cheeky “How to become a dictator in 10 easy steps”. It was funny and chilling at the same time, when you think about the leaders around the world that these steps could be applied to. I don’t think the film will be shown in Venezuela, Zimbabwe, or Belarus anytime soon.

Guilty of Romance is an dark thriller from Japan. An obsequious housewife is married to a famous author. Her day seems to revolve around seeing her husband off to work at 7:00 and making sure his slippers are perfectly positioned and tea is made for when he gets back from work at 9:00. Her attentiveness would make June Cleaver look like a slacker. Still, she yearns for something more, so she gets a job at a supermarket giving away samples of sausage. Not wanting to spoil the film too much, I’ll say that pornography, infidelity, prostitution, murder, and literature cover some of the plot points. The film reminded me a bit about the works of Alfred Hitchcock, Tinto Brass, and Takashi Ishii.

The films for today are Attack the Block and Low Cost. I just saw Attack the Block, but Low Cost is late tonight so I’ll write that up tomorrow.

Attack the Block is about a gang of teenage thugs from London’s South End and how they save the world from an alien invasion… or at least their block. The film is part comedy/part horror. Not in the way of Scary Movie, but more like Shaun of the Dead, which also features Nick Frost. His role in Attack the Block is a bit smaller, though still important. The aliens are interesting, in an old school, low cost sort of way. The best way to describe them is a some sort of gorilla-wolf things with no eyes and glowing teeth. The film was in English with Norwegian subtitles, but the accents were so think it was sometimes hard to understand what was being said. It reminded me of Trainspotting in that respect.

Vacation: Day 3

Posted on January 18, 2012

TIFF Opening day: On my schedule Tahrir 2011: The Good, the Bad, and the Politician at 9:00 pm and Guilty of Romance at midnight. When I was ordering tickets last night, I found out Olivier Assayas is going to be here at some point. They’re showing a bunch of his films as a retrospective. I may have to see if I can get an autograph or a picture.

Language: when speaking Norwegian (since this is Norway, I’m assuming this), some people like to sprinkle in English obscenities. Since I don’t speak Norwegian, I sometimes listen in on conversations to get used to the accent. Plus, it’s not rude because I don’t really know what they’re saying. Still, when I hear one teen call another “asshole”, as teenage friends are wont to do, I’m pretty sure they’re using the English word. Unless Norwegian has a word that sounds remarkably similar.

I also heard some guy talking in Norwegian, when he rhetorically asked “What the fuck am I doing here?” It might be easy to dismiss a Norwegian word or two as sounding similar to English, but it’s harder to dismiss a whole sentence. Still, anyone who’s read Douglas Adams explanation about “gin and tonic”, might have an good argument to the contrary.

There is a brand of tortilla chips here called Crunchos. XD (it was advertised on a Swedish channel the hotel has.)

Packing: I’m not packing to leave yet, but if I need a reminder for the next time I travel via air.

I brought the laptop, but forgot the USB camera cable, so I have to wait to post the shots I took.

I should have left the iPad at home since I’m getting more use out of the laptop. The only time the iPad was useful was on the flight, and that was only because of iBooks. One less thing to pack.

Sports: I’m not a big sports fan, but it’s interesting watching the sports part of the news here since they cover sports that are unusual by US standards. They cover soccer, which isn’t that odd given the worldwide appeal. I also understand the rally racing, but they also cover biathlon and team handball. What I know of the biathlon comes from watching the Olympics (and the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only), so I understand the appeal to some extent. In the US, I think team handball is more of a niche sport that only appeals to a relatively small group. I also broke my nose the first, and last, time I played team handball (I got hit square in the face with the ball while trying to block :-P). Apparently a very big deal in some countries, however.

Hotel: The bed is so comfy, I wish could pack it in my bag and take it home.

Fashion: A lot of people here wear garments with reflective strips on them. Not just reflective vests you might see constrution workers wearing, but jackets and coveralls. It makes sense given the length of the polar night, but it’s not something I would’ve considered. Probably the best part of it is that the strips are on a lot of children’s jackets. I don’t normally think about kids’ clothes, but it seems like an idea that would do well in the US, particularly places where kids leave for school early in the morning, when it’s still dark.

Vacation: Day 2

Posted on January 17, 2012

Food: There is a restaurant called Egon attached to the hotel, which is where the free breakfast is served. The breakfast was sort of setup like a continental breakfast found at some hotels in the US, but some of the food choices are differnt. No pastries in sight, but there were several loaves of fresh baked bread, which the customer slices themselves. The bread was so fresh that it was still warm. Coffee, juice, tea, and milk were available, as were different types of fruit. Strangely, they had a selection of cold cuts and cheese on the buffet table. They had three different egg preparations, and some sausages, but not the breakfast sausage found in the US. These were sort of like Vienna sausages or mini hot dogs.

I went to the same place for lunch, but it was a different experience because I had to pay this time. I grabbed a menu and sat down, then waited for a waitress. After a few passed by me without asking for my order, I began to think I did something wrong (for Norway). After watching some other customers, I found out that you have to go to the cash register to order, and you pay when ordering. I guess it cuts down on people skipping out on the bill. I had a chicken BLT, but it came with mayonnaise, even though I said “no mayonnaise” when ordering. It was tasty despite that (they didn’t go overboard with the mayo). It came with a couple slices of melon, but I can’t figure out what type. The rind was reminiscent of a cantalope, but the flesh was pale green; paler than a honeydew melon. I have to admit I can’t tell much of a difference between the taste of a honeydew and a cantalope, and this melon tasted much like them, though maybe a bit more bland.

Since I noticed they had pizza on the menu, I went back to Egon’s for dinner. They have a variety of pizzas available in 30 cm and 40 cm sizes. Sadly, I lacked a frame of reference for the sizes. I know that one inch is 2.54 cm, but I’m not so good at math to quickly apply the conversion. I could have Googled it, but I didn’t bring my smartphone to the restaurant. For your benefit, 30 cm is about 12″ and 40 cm is about 16″.

References: I’m learning that it’s important to have frames of reference for different things. Money, for example. There’re about 5 – 7 krone to the US dollar, so when I see a price in krone, I divide it by five to come up with an approximate cost in dollars. Still, I sometimes wonder if I’m getting it right. Instead of doing conversions for everything, it’s probably better to just remember the approximate conversions for the krone denominations. One krone is about 15 cents (15 is easier to remember than 16.7); ten krone is about a buck fifty; 20 kr is about three dollars; 100 nok is about 15 dollars (at this point, it’s easier for me to remember 100 nok is about $20); 200 krone is about 40 bucks; 500 kr is about $80; 1000 kr is about $160, 2000 kr is about $320. Aside from those references, anything else I need to know, I just look online. It’s a good thing to keep the figure in mind. I forgot about them when I spent 25 kr for a Pepsi in a vending machine; 25 kr is about 4 bucks! It makes the three dollars I spent on a Coke at O’Hare seem reasonable, and the $1.50 for a Coke on the IUPUI campus seem downright cheap.

Vacation: Day 1

Posted on January 16, 2012

Sunday January 15, 2012

Impressions of Tromsø, Norway on the first day

Light: When the plane arrived around noon local time, it was still sort of light out. Not bright and sunny, because it’s too far North, but light enough that it could easily be mistaken for any other rainy town.

Town: Technically, Tromsø is a city, because of it’s population (over 60,000 people) but it feels like a town, so that’s probably the term I’ll keep using.

Weather: Despite being over 200 miles north of the Arctic circle, Tromsø isn’t that cold. Right now, it is about 36ºF, while it is 31ºF in Indianapolis. It’s raining here at the moment, but not badly. Lots of sidewalks and streets have compacted ice on them. Like Indianapolis (or many other cities that get snow), not everyone seems to take the time to remove snow from their sidewalks, so it gets compacted, melts some, then freezes, becoming icy.

They don’t use salt on the roads or sidewalks here. They use some sort small gravel to provide traction for walking or driving. Interestingly, I saw (I heard it before seeing it) a city bus with tire chains. If the city were level, they probably wouldn’t be needed, but this town is very hilly (reminds me of Manitou Springs at the foot of Pike’s Peak).

Because it’s raining, that means clouds, which means I can’t see the Aurora Borealis :-(. That’s one of my main reasons for coming here, so I hope it clears soon. As an aside, I saw a lighting and furniture store called Northern Lighting a few blocks from the hotel ;-)

n00b: This is my first time travelling overseas. I’ve been to Canada before, but that was years ago, and it was enough like the US that I didn’t appreciate many differences. The differences in Norway (and presumably the rest of the world) are quite pronounced.

The elevator in this hotel (The Thon Polar) is tiny, about 1m x 1m (and I thought the elevator in my apartment building was small), but the most surprising thing is that it says it can hold six people. I wouldn’t think you could fit four people in the elevator, let alone six. The elevator door is pretty weird, too. It’s like a normal door with hinges. You open the door, step into the elevator, press the button for the floor you want to go to, then a set of sliding doors automatically closes off the elevator and it starts moving. Still, it’s faster than the elevator in my apartment building.

The hotel room has a card key lock, which isn’t unusual for hotel, but in order to turn on any lights in the room, you have to put the card key on a special holder near the door. No card, no light. Since you have to take the card with you when you leave the room, I’m guessing this is an energy efficiancy thing, but I don’t know for sure.

The hotel room is small. Maybe it’s a space-efficiancy or energy-efficiency issue, but it’s probably half the size of typical moetl room in the US. I don’t mean to denigrate this hotel. I think in the US, many hotel rooms are probably too big for the occupants. That said, I have a single room, and doubles are available, so maybe the size has more to do with the room you stay in.

The hotel has free wifi (Yes!), and there is a computer in the lobby for people to use in case they didn’t bring a laptop or lost their luggage.

Oddly, there’s no alarm clock. Good thing my smartphone has one (and is set to the local time zone).

Hardwood floors in the hotel room itself. The bed is very comfortable, though it was sort of difficult for me to sleep since I’m used to the white-noise of the central air/heat of my apartment. Air conditioning isn’t needed here, and the heat comes from a radiator. As a bonus, the radiator has a rack on it, presumably for drying wet clothes.

As with the rest of the room, the bathroom is also small. I was hoping to take a bath but this room only has a shower. Despite this, the bathroom has a heated floor, which is awesome.

Free coffee and tea in the lobby and free breakfast in the morning (nice amenities). None of the ubquitous ice buckets found in the US though. I haven’t seen an ice machine, either.

There is a television, but it only has seven channels. One of them is the BBC, which may be included to prevent total culture shock of the guests. Lots of non-Norwegian language programming on Norwegian channels (i.e. 60 Minutes, House, Top Gear). Also, they apparently don’t have a problem with full-frontal male or female nudity, but it is late at night (night being a relative term this far north of the Arctic Circle). It’s a Swedish show, but it’s on NRK1, which is broadcast TV, not cable. (at the moment, I’m watching some Norwegian guys launching a mannequin attached to some sort of homemade rocket. The show’s title translates as “Don’t Try This At Home”)

Something unexpected is that the floors are numbered similar to how they’re numbered in the US. In some countries, the first floor is the second story, with the first story being called the main floor (or something similar). Here, the first floor is the first floor.

Brands: While there are lots of small shops here, there are some familar brands as well. I’ve seen a 7/Eleven, a Burger King, and a Shell gas station. Most of the cars on the road are the same manufacturers as seen in the US, but some of the models are different. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen any American car models or brands, but I haven’t been paying atention that much.

In stores, many of the brands are ones that can be found in the US. A few blocks away is an independent Apple retailer.

Language: Despite not speaking any Norwegian, I haven’t had a very hard time making myself understood in English. I wonder what sort of English language education the people of Norway have. It might be that I’m just lucky, or because there is a linguistics institute at the University here. Or maybe the people here have a fair amount of English language education. Or maybe it’s because of the Norwegian-subtitled, English language TV shows.

Money: Norway’s currency is the krone, and the exchange rate usually runs between five to seven krone to the US dollar. Simplfying things, the krone is the smallest unit of currency; there is no krone equivalent of cents, so everything is priced as whole krone [edit: they do have a 50 øre coin, but it's being withdrawn from circulation later in 2012]. Paper currency is for 50 kr or larger, while lower denominations are in coins. Unlike US bills, different denominations of paper currency are different sizes. It must be handy for people who are blind or visually impaired.

Electric: Around the world there are different standards for electricity and electrical outlets. I planned ahead and got a world travel kit from Apple. However, I didn’t plan well enough because I don’t have an adapter for the battery charger for my camera. I have an extra battery, which is charged, but I don’t know if both will last for the week.

Sadly, because the power requires the card key, I can only charge devices when I’m in the room.

Geography: Tromsø is very hilly. The area where I am is an island, but parts of Tromsø are on the mainland(?). The surrounding area is hilly/mountainous. To give you an idea how hilly it is, the taxi took a tunnel to get from the airport to the hotel, even though they’re both on the same island (the driver gave the option of taking the long way, a literal scenic route, but said the tunnel was the quicker route). If you have to take a tunnel to get from one part of town to another, you’re probably in a very mountainous (or watery) area.

I’ve heard of fjords (see Slartibartfast), but never seen one in person. The water surrounding this island reminds me more of a bay or harbor, but with very large hills in the surrounding area. In US terms, I think it may be like the Pacific Northwest area; mountains and water. There is even a ski area on the other side of the bay/harbor/fjord/whatever.

Time: Business hours are posted using the 24 hour clock, instead of the usual (for an American) 12-hour am/pm clocks. At least one piece of military training will come in handy.

Speaking of military, I saw a Norwegian soldier sitting outside a hotel earlier. I wonder if there is a military base nearby. I haven’t seen any police or police cars yet.

Business: I’ve only seen a small part of Tromsø, so while I’ve seen lots of shops, it’s hard to get an idea about what businesses drive the local economy.

There is a university, and univerities in general help support local economies by attracting students and faculty. They bring in people, who bring in money.

There are quite a few boats in the water, so the town has a maritime industry (fishing, tours, etc). I think there is also a connection with the North Sea oil rigs, but I might be mistaken.

Down the street is the Mack Brewery (the northernmost brewery in the world). It’s a pretty big brewery, so they must make a lot of money.
Slight aside…

Someone should compare the supply and demand of homegrown entertainment/culture (movies, TV, etc) with the US and other countries. So far, in watching the TV, I’ve seen a lot of English language programming, a Swedish TV show and Norwegian news.

In the US, there is a surplus of English language programming to meet the needs of the US population. In the US, there is also a fair amount of non-English language programming, though I don’t know if it’s sufficient for the population they are trying to reach (how do you measure this?)

In Norway, (based on what I see on the TV in one hotel, in one city), it seems like there probably isn’t enough Norwegian language programming to meet the needs of the population, given the amount of prgramming from other countries. Maybe this could be measured by the amount of subtitled (not close-captioned) content.

How to measure the demand of programming in a specific language? By the number of requests or complaints to networks or TV channels? Ask the people at the networks (i.e. NRK) why they don’t air more Norwegian programming? Ask them if there is a demand for Norwegian programming?

What about Ireland? How much Irish language vs English language programming do they air? Is there more demand for English language programming or Irish language programming? Is there a regional difference?

How do you identify a surplus of content vs. a deficit of content? One way to identify a deficit or a surplus is to look at what type of programming the have late at night or early in the morning. If a TV station goes off the air at a certain time, it might indicate they think the number of potential viewers isn’t worth spending money acquiring or developing content.

NaNoWriMo 2011 – The Body on the Floor

Posted on October 16, 2011

With November approaching, I thought about giving NaNoWriMo a miss this year. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and the goal for participants is to write a novel of at least 50,000 words over the course of November. I participated in 2009 and 2010, and won in 2009.

Even though all the writing is supposed to take place during November, authors are allowed (encouraged, even) to do some work in advance. This includes coming with characters, places, plot, and whatnot. Until yesterday, I didn’t have any ideas for a plot, and I wasn’t really pushing myself to develop one. Then, one came to mind. Thus far, the story premise is only a couple of paragraphs I wrote to keep track of the idea:

A cell of terrorists (a la Red Army Faction, or maybe some drug dealers) go to set up a safe house in an old abandoned warehouse, when they find a dead body in the middle of the floor. The story goes through the thoughts of the individual members and what each of them thinks they should do about the body.

Do they leave it and not tell anyone? Do they leave it and call the police anonymously? Will they have to find another safe house? How quickly can they do that? How will it affect their operation? How do they notify their contacts if they move? Did the person have a family? Can they move the body somewhere? How long will it be before someone comes looking for the body? Will someone look for the body? Who was this person? Will they be missed?

If one is planning an audacious mission (for good or ill), finding a corpse on the floor of your supposedly safe location would lead to all sorts of problems. Some people might look at it as a bad omen. It would sap morale and inevitably lead to second guessing. How would these people handle it?

Anyway, I think it might be good for 50,000 words, so I’m planning on doing NaNo this year. (Maybe I can get Siri to do dictation).

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