Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

Norwegian drama comes to BBC4 at last

  Tags: Norwegian | TV
 Language Learning Forum : Music, Movies, TV & Radio Post Reply
13 messages over 2 pages: 1
montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4831 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 9 of 13
10 September 2012 at 1:42am | IP Logged 
What's it a parody of? (if that's not too much of a spoiler)?


I haven't really looked into it at all. It was enough that it was set in a Nordic country
to guarantee my watching it!



1 person has voted this message useful





jeff_lindqvist
Diglot
Moderator
SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6912 days ago

4250 posts - 5711 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 10 of 13
10 September 2012 at 9:05am | IP Logged 
Isn't it just the typical "culture clash" thing, with a touch of humour? (We've seen it in movies like Crocodile Dundee, Coming to America, Rush Hour...)
1 person has voted this message useful



vonPeterhof
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4775 days ago

715 posts - 1527 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German
Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish

 
 Message 11 of 13
10 September 2012 at 9:12am | IP Logged 
Well, the premise of the show is basically "what if that guy from The Sopranos ended up in Norway?" Van Zandt's character is clearly modelled after his character in The Sopranos, and his "adventures" in Norway are used to satirize both fictional portrayals of Mafia and Scandinavian political correctness. Mostly the latter though.

Edited by vonPeterhof on 10 September 2012 at 9:14am

2 persons have voted this message useful



montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4831 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 12 of 13
12 September 2012 at 9:03pm | IP Logged 
Having seen the 1st episode, I can see the satiric character of it, and of course it is
"culture clash" as well.

I hadn't realised what a fine comic actor Steven Van Zandt was, but when I thought
about it, his "Silvio" character in "The Sopranos" was only about a notch this side of
self-parody, and all he had to do for this was ratchet it up a little, and the result
is hilarious.

In some ways his seeming to understand quite a lot of Norwegian was hard to find
credible. On the other hand, the character he plays is someone who has probably lived
by his wits for all his life, and has had to be able to understand and communicate with
people on much more than a verbal level, so with a mixture of English and what
Norwegian he's managed to pick up, you could see someone like him getting by. And it
was interesting that he had made at least an attempt to learn the language, unlike your
stereotypical English native speaker who assumes they can get by in English alone.


I was a bit disappointed, but not too surprised, not to be able to understand much of
what the native speakers said. I caught a couple of phrases that Van Zandt came out
with, but that was about it.
1 person has voted this message useful





jeff_lindqvist
Diglot
Moderator
SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6912 days ago

4250 posts - 5711 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 13 of 13
12 September 2012 at 10:29pm | IP Logged 
montmorency wrote:
I was a bit disappointed, but not too surprised, not to be able to understand much of what the native speakers said. I caught a couple of phrases that Van Zandt came out with, but that was about it.


How long have you studied Norwegian? I'd be surprised if I managed to (satisfyingly) follow the dialogue of a TV show in any of my minor target languages.


1 person has voted this message useful



This discussion contains 13 messages over 2 pages: << Prev 1

If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.2500 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.