Calling a waiter or waitress to your table can often be done by gestures such as raising your hand or – if you want to pay – by scribbling with one finger into the other hand.
And such gestures are quite international and work in most foreign countries as well. It is useful, however, to also know how to call a waiter or waitress in the local language. We therefore teach these expressions in our four language courses (French, German, Italian, and Spanish).
The German Way
When we started developing our German course, I thought of using the form of address I had heard when growing up in Germany: "Herr Ober" (actually an abbreviation for “Oberkellner” or headwaiter).
However, our native speaker reminded me that you don't use this term any longer - except maybe in very upscale restaurants. I was aware that you no longer call a waitress to your table with "Fräulein".
So we settled on "Entschuldigung!" (Excuse me.), which seems to be used in most of the German speaking countries for calling a waiter or waitress. Then, if you want to pay, you would say, “Bitte zahlen!” or more politely: “Ich möchte bitte zahlen! (I would like to pay, please.) In more upscale restaurants where you do have an “Ober,” you might say “Die Rechnung, bitte!” (The check, please.)
With this German Quick Game you can practice: "Bitte, ich möchte zahlen!"
The French Way
During a recent visit to Paris, we occasionally heard people asking for the waiter by calling “Garçon.” More often, though, we heard “Monsieur” or “Madame” when someone called a waiter or waitress to the table.
We're told that nowadays you'll hear the term “garçon” more likely from older customers, who may also add it to the usual call for the check: “L'addition, s'il vous plaît.”
In Italy, it is still quite common to call for the waiter simply with “Cameriere!” but we have also heard “Per favore!” (Please), as a way of getting the attention of the server. And, to call the waiter because you want to pay, you would say: “Il conto, per favore” (The check, please). A waitress would be called “cameriera,” but in Italy you'll find more male than female waiters.
In Spain, we heard “¡Camarero!” quite often, but as in Italy, people also just use “¡Por favor!” (please) to call the waiter to their table. When you're ready to pay, both of the following do very nicely: “Me gustaría pagar, por favor” (I'd like to pay”) or “La cuenta, por favor” (The check, please). A waitress would be called “camarera,” and, as in Italy, male waiters seem to be in the majority in Spain.
You can practice “Me gustaría pagar, por favor” with our Spanish Quick Game.
We invite any comments and observations regarding regional differences or customs for calling a waiter or waitress in German-, French-, Italian-, and Spanish-speaking countries.
Stephanie's Rosenbloom's insightful article in the New York Times recently - What a Great Trip! And I'm Not Even There Yet – made us recall the times we were preparing for a trip and feeling happy in anticipation.
We always thought travel “happiness” was mostly related to bringing a plan to fruition, but Stephanie's explanations focus on the powerful role that anticipation plays in travel.
Books, Films, Friends, and Language Basics
As “the most effective methods for increasing (travel) happiness,” Stephanie lists - reading and re-reading books about the country and people, watching movies, talking with friends, making an iTunes list, browsing fashion and design blogs. She also mentions learning the local language.
We do all of these, and especially enjoy focusing on the language of the country.
This is clearly easier for us for with the European languages – we already know a few of them – but we also learned some language basics prior to traveling to Japan and China.
Admittedly, our listening and speaking skills were quite rudimentary. But mastering numbers, basic greetings, and phrases for ordering food proved helpful for daily interaction and during shopping outings.
Language and the Art of Anticipation
According to Stephanie, happy anticipation is not something that just happens to you. You build it by actively doing things.
Language is deeply rooted in the culture of a place, its food and customs, its daily life. The names of local dishes, drinks, or bakery treats in the foreign language can quickly spark your imagination.
Learning a language little by little, day by day, perfectly suits the art of anticipation - be it with a course, a tutor, or a book. Add songs in the foreign language, short online news articles, YouTube videos, etc. and you'll continue to build your language skills and local knowledge about the country.
[We played "Dimmi quando..." by Tony Renis (picture above) often before our stay in Rome, Italy; see also our blog post.]
Being Social with Your New Language
Stephanie reminds us that social interaction is "a fundamental way to feel happier." In fact, you can start engaging with others in your new language long before you board your plane.
A brief internet search will turn up various Facebook groups where you can interact with natives by chatting, asking questions, writing brief comments.There are also Google hangouts, group chats, and language exchange sites where you can easily find people to practice with.
Speaking with Locals
If you arrive in a new city speaking the language, you can immediately engage with locals. A good place to start is the neighborhood market, or the small bakery up the street. (Left: Alfonso & Enrico in our neighborhood shop in Trastevere.)
While you're waiting to be served, it's easy to talk with fellow customers. A simple question or comment may easily lead to a brief conversation about their city or your home town.
Or, try out your language by ordering in a restaurant, buying souvenirs, buying tickets to a jazz concert, or a movie. Navigating the local language on your own is so much more fun than being locked into an English tour. It'll bring out your adventurous spirit.
Back Home
After your trip, you can do more than just reminisce. You'll have acquired a new language with all the benefits that go with it for your brain and personality. And, you'll have added a new skill that you can continue to use and enjoy throughout your life.
Your new language will open new windows onto the world that you can't even anticipate. Or perhaps you should try to?!!
We're often asked why we believe that learning with our GamesforLanguage stories is particularly effective. There are 5 simple reasons:
1. Relevant Vocabulary helps you remember
When you start out learning a new language, every word is new and you need to remember it. You remember a new word or phrase more easily when it relates to items, activities, feelings, etc. that you know or use yourself frequently.
Many language courses ask you to memorize lists of words, many of which you may rarely hear or say.
Our travel story uses real-life vocabulary, words, phrases, and sentences that you are likely to encounter when you travel, meet people, and interact socially with them. For example, for our young traveler, practicing his foreign language begins in the airplane as he flies to Europe.
2. Interactive Games engage multiple senses and speak to the whole brain
Video games are non-linear, they use color, sound, and movement.You can hear, see, say, and type words and phrases and do so in various combinations of the four skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking).
Games get you to identify and imitate foreign sounds, find the correct foreign or native word, translate English phrases and sentences, spell words and phrases. All of this makes learning more effective.
3.The Story Context helps you recall phrases and sentences
Rather than trying to translate each word from English into the foreign language, you'll learn phrases and sentences in the context of a story. You'll not only remember them, but you'll be able to use them without even thinking. Here's an example:
Suppose someone asks you what you would like to drink, let's say in French. Rather than trying to find the translation for “I would like a ...”, you'll remember the phrase “j'aimerais un/une...” which you practiced, and you can apply it without even thinking about the first person subjunctive form of “to like.”
Also, to both train your ear and memorize expressions, you can download the conversations as MP3 audio files or listen to the Podcasts. Learners who like a hard copy can download the PFR file of each lesson's vocabulary.
4. Games and Memory drills are fun
There's no way around memorizing vocabulary. For vocabulary acquisition, an inverted cone is a good analogy: You start with only a few words, but as you listen, read, write, and speak more and more of the story, the number of words you'll learn and remember will increase dramatically.
Various memory and recall games make - what could be a onerous exercise - into a fun practice, with scores that let you know when you are perfect.
5. You want to find out “the rest of the story”
Our travel story has a young man traveling to several cities where he meets with relatives and friends. Rather than using unconnected and often unrelated dialogues and topics to introduce new vocabulary, each scene of our travel story builds on the previous one.
The 16 new words of Scene 1 will grow to over 100 new words by Scene 6 and to over 700 by Scene 36. As a user completes one Scene she or he wonders what the next one will bring, and the story sequel adds more motivation to continue to the next Scene.
Practicing and improving a new language can be challenging, even for motivated learners. But with regular, ideally daily practice, learners will progress rapidly. We believe that combining games with a story – the German 2 course uses a 72 lesson mystery story sequel of the German 1 course, which we'll replicate for the other languages – we are making language learning fun, interesting, and effective.
Bio: Ulrike Rettig is the co-founder of Gamesforlanguage.com. She is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, the Netherlands, and Canada. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and leave any comments with contact.
In our travels we have always been interested in learning about the ways languages have influenced the history of a region or country. South Tyrol is an example that good things indeed can happen.
And while separatist movements are typically caused by economic inequities, power struggles, religion, etc. they can be further fueled by language differences – even if the language differences don't seem to be significant to a foreigner.
It's well understood that language unites the members of a family, tribe, community, state, nation etc. You can feel it yourself when you encounter someone in a foreign country who speaks your language: there is an immediate connection with that person, and the language is the link.
So it is no wonder that conquerors and kings, dictators, and victors in wars have tried to impose their language on the acquired regions. But generally, a NEW foreign language cannot be forced on populations without causing anger, resistance, and often bloodshed. There are many examples in history where such attempts were not successful.
A Brief Background
South Tyrol had been awarded to Italy after World War 1. By 1923, Italian became the mandatory language at all levels of local, provincial, and local government, and by 1928, the only language of instruction in schools.
Mussolini accelerated the Italianization by settling many Italians in a region which, in 1919, was 90% German speaking. When the region remained with Italy after World War 2 - with many of the pre-World War laws remaining - the German majority was not happy.
I visited South Tyrol in 1965 as part a graduating class trip, and my class mates and I experienced first hand the friction between the German and Italian speaking population (which, at that time, still involved violence and bombings).
The article notes that the German-speaking population in South Tyrol is still the majority, albeit with 61.5% vs. 23.1% Italian, based on the 2011 census. About 4% speak “Ladin,” a language quite close to the Swiss “Romansh,” and 11.4% speak a variety of other languages. (See also: The Other Swiss Languages: Italian and Romansh)
It also appears that among the key ingredients that allowed South Tyrol to overcome its separatist past are both a willingness to compromise, embrace bi-lingualism and cultural diversity, as well as Rome's concessions on “home rule,” (i.e. strong local governance and retaining 90% of the tax revenues).
It's quite likely that it takes ALL of these “ingredients” to achieve success and continued efforts to maintain it. Let's hope that the lessons learned in South Tyrol can be shared with and applied in many other parts of the world.
In view of Russia “encouraging” Crimea's vote to separate from Ukraine just recently, possible plebiscites looming in Catalonia and Scotland, attempts by the Veneto region to separate from Italy - South Tyrol's recent history is a good reminder what it takes to overcome separatist movements.
On the other hand, Norway's peaceful separation from Sweden in 1905 was quite extraordinary both for its deliberate process and adherence to the law. It makes great reading for history buffs and has also some interesting language implications which we described in our 2013 post A Cruise and Norwegian language Politics
On our hike down from the village of Schönried to the picturesque resort town of Gstaad, we enjoyed our friend Ursel's Swiss German Language Lessons. She also told us about the surprising revival of Swiss German in written form through SMS/Texting and Social Media.
Ursel is from Bern, and it was fun to practice with her some Swiss German words in the her dialect of Bärndütsch. [see also our previous blog post: Language Lessons in Gstaad (1)]
Once in Gstaad, we do a little window shopping and people ogling, on the pedestrian way called Promenade.
From there we also have a great view of the famous Palace Hotel (picture). And, walking towards the ice rink (which, in the spring, converts back to tennis courts for the Gstaad Open in June each year), we end up at Charly's Gstaad, a "Konditorei and Confiseri" for coffee and delicious pastries.
While observing the young and old skaters as they make their rounds, we learn and practice in Berndeutsch, various greetings, the words excuse me and thanks, as well as the terms for meal times and snack breaks.
1. Greetings, Excuse Me, Thanks
• Grüessdi (Grüß dich - informal Hello, singular) • Grüessech (Grüß euch - informal Hello, plural) • Grüessi mitenand (Hello - all of you) • Exgüsee (Entschuldigung - excuse me) • Uf Widerluege (Auf Wiedersehen - Good-bye) • Adiemerssi (Danke und auf Wiedersehen - Thanks and good-bye, said by shopkeepers)
2. Meal and Snack Times
The Swiss day is nicely organized around meal times and snack breaks: • Zmorge (Frühstück - breakfast) • Znüni (Imbiss am Vormittag - midmorning snack, usually around 9 a.m.) • Zmittag (Mittagessen - lunch) • Zvieri (Imbiss am Nachmittag - mid-afternoon snack, usually around 4 p.m.) • Znacht (Abendessen - dinner, supper)
Kindergardners bring their mid-morning snack to school, it's called "Znünitaschl" (nine o'clock bag). They also bring along "Finken" (slippers) to wear inside.
Even though we're always on the lookout, we did not recognize any famous people on our visit to Gstaadt this time. But we certainly had fun learning about Bärndütsch expressions and pronunciation from Ursel, a native of Bern.
(Updated February 2, 2017) During our recent stay in Fribourg, Switzerland, we were again amazed by the mixture of languages we heard spoken in this small Swiss town of about 40,000.
Upper Town And Lower Town
Fribourg, (in German, called “Freiburg im Uechtland” to distinguish it from its German Black Forest cousin “Freiburg im Breisgau“) is the capital of the Canton Fribourg and located on the cultural border between German and French Switzerland. (see above picture of upper and lower town)
In the past, the language lines were drawn rather clearly: In the lower town, people spoke mostly a Swiss German dialect, in the upper town mostly French.
And while German was the prevailing language until around 1800, French gradually became more influential. By the year 2000 nearly 64% spoke French, only 21% German as their first language (Italian was third with about 4%).
An Impression: More Bilingual German Than French Speakers
In restaurants, cafes, and shops, etc. you hear a mixture of French, Swiss German, “Schriftdeutsch” (see also our previous blog post: Language Lessons in Gstaad), and other languages.
Swiss German children start to learn “Schriftdeutsch” in first grade, and French a couple of years later. That's about the same time that French children learn “Schriftdeutsch” as a second language. (We also understand that in many schools English is taught already in fourth grade.)
From discussions with acquaintances, friends, and relatives in Fribourg, we've gained the impression that there are more German speakers who are fluent in French, than French speakers who are also fluent in German.
This is due to the fact that French speakers are now the majority in Fribourg, or whether learning French as a third language (after “Schriftdeutsch) is “easier” for Swiss German speakers, or whether Swiss Germans feel a more personal or economic need to be bilingual than their French speaking compatriots, we just don't know.
A visit of the local market provided a (not representative) sample, as most of the Swiss German speaking farmers did easily switch to French, while the French speaking bakers and butchers had more difficulty in speaking German (see picture above).
Language still a divisive issue
While the casual observer may be pleasantly surprised by the the city's apparent bilingualism, language in Fribourg - as in other Swiss cities and towns that are located on a language and cultural fault line - is often still a divisive issue.
Not much has changed since swissinfo.ch covered this issue in in 2004, citing both Biel (where French speakers are the minority of the population, with 28 %) and Fribourg as examples. Family connections, social status, school locations, etc. all influence parents' decisions which language path their children should pursue.
It certainly seems that in a small country like Switzerland (about 8 million inhabitants) being bilingual, or at least fluent, in two of the major languages, German and French, should have great professional and personal benefits.
Postscript
Just as we were leaving Fribourg, the local Newspaper, La Liberté, reported that local film makers had adapted Pharrell Williams' song "Happy" from the movie "Despicable Me 2" to Fribourg, similar to what other Swiss cities have done. You can watch the YouTube video which shows many images of Fribourg.
Brilliant mountain weather in the Berner Oberland. It's a perfect day for Swiss German Language Lessons while on a 50-minute hike down from the village of Schönried to the town of Gstaad.
Our teacher is our Swiss German friend, Ursel, who comes from the city of Bern.
The "Wanderweg" (hiking path) takes us over snow-covered fields, past chalets of many famous folks, and alongside farm houses.
At a small stand along the way, we serve ourselves some hot cider. You can also purchase local cheese and sausage -"Bio" (organic), of course, and all on the honor system.
We chat about this and that, in "Schriftdütsch" (Standard German). "Bärndütsch" (Berndeutsch) is the Swiss German dialect spoken in the Swiss capital city of Bern and in some of the surrounding Canton Bern. Ursel translates a few words I ask her about.
It has always struck me as curious that Swiss Germans would ask me: "Redä Si Schriftdütsch?" (Do you speak written German?) to find out whether I can also understand "Dialäkt" (dialect).
Ursel points out that Swiss German does not have an official written form. Newspapers and books are done in Standard German, as well as all formal and most informal writing.
However, dialect dictionaries are popping up on the Internet, and SMS/Texting and Social Media are popularizing various forms or written dialect, as this Newly Swissed blog explains.
Ursel says that, typically, Bärndütsch loves to shorten verbs. Here are a few examples.
2. Verbs in Berndeutsch
• ga (gehen - to go) • ha (haben - to have) • la (lassen - to let) • gä (geben - to give) • nä (nehmen - to take) • sy ( sind/sein - (are/to be)
Some of the words in Berndeutsch overlap with those of other Swiss German dialects, and some are distinct for the region of Bern.
But, in any case, each region has a distinct sound system and accent. Most Swiss Germans can usually pinpoint what region an accent is from.
To get a sense of the sound of Bärndütsch, here's a short YouTube video ad for alcohol-free Feldschlösschen beer. How much can you understand or guess?
In an earlier blog post Heidelberg & Mark Twain, I speculated why Mark Twain had liked the name “Heidelberg,” the city where he stayed with his family for several months in 1878.
This topic had offered itself, as our German 1 traveler during his visit to Heidelberg learns the English translation of the city's name and its relevance to Mark Twain.
Twain's love-hate relationship with The Awful German Language, published as an Appendix to his “A Tramp Abroad,” makes for amusing reading for anyone grappling with the German language – and is especially hilarious to a native German speaker as he looks at German though Twain's eyes!
A Few of His Observations
"Declining a noun" may be the crabgrass on the lawn of many who are learning German. Twain uses “rain” as an example and has some funny explanations for when “der Regen” (nominative) changes to “den Regen” (accusative), “dem Regen” (dative), or “des Regens” (genitive).
If you add adjectives, it gets even worse and Twain is at his satirical best when he notes:
“When a German gets his hands on an adjective, he declines it, and keeps on declining it until the common sense is all declined out of it. It is as bad as Latin." He says, for instance:
Singular
Nominative -- Mein guter Freund, my good friend. Genitive -- Meines guten Freundes, of my good friend. Dative -- Meinem guten Freund, to my good friend. Accusative -- Meinen guten Freund, my good friend.
PLURAL
Nominative -- Meine guten Freunde, my good friends. Genitive -- Meiner guten Freunde, of my good friends. Dative -- Meinen guten Freunden, to my good friends. Accusative -- Meine guten Freunde, my good friends
"Now let the candidate for the asylum try to memorize those variations, and see how soon he will be elected.”
Twain also notes, correctly, that “the same sound, SIE, means YOU, and it means SHE, and it means HER, and it means IT, and it means THEY, and it means THEM.”
Ah, yes, the only way to discover the right meaning is to understand the context in which they are used.
There are a lot more funny and perceptive passages about the German way to create word-monsters, assign genders, separate verbs, etc. (Note also that there are some spelling and grammar changes that have occurred since 1876 e.g. to let, lease, hire is now spelled “vermieten” - not “vermiethen.”)
If you are learning German, his essay - as well as his 4th of July speech at the Banquet of the Anglo-American Club of Students - might amuse you.
And perhaps it also encourages you to keep practicing. Even though German has its tricky moments, it definitely can be learned!
You Want to Learn German Fast and Playfully?
With our German 1 and 2 courses you'll learn practice German for FREE - with stories of a young man traveling through Germany and - its sequel - solving a "Blüten"-mystery in Berlin.
"The Story" and easy games will let you forget that you are actually learning German!
Bio: Peter Rettig is the co-founder of Gamesforlanguage.com. He is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and leave any comments with contact or below.
Arriving at one of the world's great cities is always a thrill. If, in addition, you've made some effort to learn some basics of the local language, you'll have added another dimension to your experience.
And while you're exploring the city, you can continue to engage with its language. Here are 4 easy ways to keep on learning. I tried these out while recently visiting Oslo, Norway's capital. (image of Oslo's stunning new opera)
1. DECODING SIGNS WHILE EXPLORING ON FOOT
Oslo's Karl Johans gate (right) is a pedestrian way that sweeps through the city from Sentralstasjon (central station) to Slottet (the royal palace). It is lined by cafés, shops, office buildings, and is always bustling with activity.
As you stroll along this street, you meet a constant stream of visual language: signs on buildings and apartments; signs regulating car and bicycle traffic; advertising signs in stores,etc.
Some of these are translated into English, but many are not. It's fun to guess the meaning of these signs, and armed with a small dictionary, you can decipher many of them.
Since many words and phrases pop up in various locations, you'll start to recognize and learn them.
For understanding Norwegian, knowing another Germanic language (such as English, Dutch, or German) is helpful.
An ad on a tram (right) reads: "ring billig til utlandet" "ring" (American: call); "billig" (same word in German: cheap), "til" (to/until); "utlandet" (close to German "Ausland" or Dutch "buitenland," meaning "abroad.") So we figured that the cell phone company advertised: "Cheap calls abroad".
Sometimes though, you have to chuckle at the shift in meaning. For example, a sign at an Oslo Parking garage (right) reads "LEDIG" (Vacant), That's harder to figure out: the German word "ledig" means "unmarried", and the Dutch word "leeg" means "empty".
Or, you have to be beware of out-and-out false friends: Norwegian "barn" means "children" in English.
2. LISTENING TO ANNOUNCEMENTS ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Oslo has an excellent network of buses, trams, subways (T-bane), ferries and local trains that take you to practically any point in the city and to many towns in the surrounding county Akershus.
A 7-day all-inclusive pass helped us round out our sightseeing.Just for a start, we took the T-bane to the Holmenkollen hopp (ski jump); the tram to Vigelandsparken, an amazing open-air sculpture park (see a sculpture by Gustav Vigeland, left); and the ferry to Nesoddtangen (a village 4 miles south of Oslo).
Stops on trams, buses, subways, and trains are shown visually, but they are also announced aloud in Norwegian.
For me, this was a fun way to learn the correlation between spelling and pronunciation. Norwegian has many silent letters, plus a few letter combinations that are totally unpredictable for a native English speaker.
Listening to the names of stops, as well as to lengthier general announcements is a good way to get the music of the language into your ear. Moreover, everything is spoken in Norwegian first, and then in English, allowing you to double-check that you've really understood the meaning.
3. READING DUAL-LANGUAGE TEXTS IN MUSEUMS
Oslo offers a host of interesting museums, some housed in spectacular buildings, others tucked away in formerly private apartments.
Each exhibit provides well-constructed, colorful background stories - in Norwegian and English. As you read about the artists, the individual works of art, the history of the city, etc., you can have a language lesson to boot. From dual-language plaques, we learned about Munch's lengthy stays in Berlin and Paris and his bohemian life there (Munch Museum).
We read that Ibsen had lived abroad for 27 yearsand the reasons why he did his best writing outside of the country (Ibsen Museum).
We discovered that, when in 1905, the Danish Prince Carl and his British wife became King Haakon VII and Queen Maude of Norway (Hollenkollen Museum), they and their children became avid skiers (see the royal family, right)
To find out how a Danish Prince and his English wife become the founders of the current Norwegian Royal House, read our blog post Language Politics).
4. SPEAKING THE LOCAL LANGUAGE
Last but not least, it was fun to try out our practical, phrase-based Norwegian. We are far from fluent, but every time we made a purchase, ordered food or drinks, bought tickets, or asked for directions, we practiced the language we had so far acquired.
Waiters in cafés or restaurant were usually multilingual and when our Norwegian didn't suffice, they joined us in language-switching back and forth between Norwegian, English, German, and sometimes Spanish and Italian.
When you think about it, a city offers a lot of free and fun resources for language learning. You just have to become aware of them and use them as they come up. Keeping a 3"x5" spiral notebook with you to write down any new words or phrases you see or hear, will help you remember and learn.
During our recent trip with the Hurtigruten Line along the Norwegian coastline from Bergen to the Northcap (picture left) and Kirkenes, on the Russian border, we had an opportunity to learn much about Norwegian language and history.
Yes, the Vikings were a frequent topic of conversation and the focus of a few excursions. Between the late 8th and the middle of the11th century, Vikings had ruled the North Sea and had even ventured into the Mediterranean Sea.
Also, there's evidence that they had reached Iceland and Greenland. Leif Erikson may well have been the first European to set foot on mainland America. But we also found the more recent history of Norway and especially the role of the Norwegian language quite interesting.
And, if you'd like to learn about the best ways to experience the Northern Lights - which we witnessed several times - click on the link!)
Nordic Languages: Danish - Norwegian - Swedish
Although friends had told us that these Nordic languages are quite similar to German, my one-month Swedish course did not yet make this obvious to me. And sitting at a dinner table with four Swedes every night, I never caught any part of their conversation - except if they switched to German or English for our benefit.
From Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes on the ship we learned that they can generally understand each other's language, but that regional dialects can pose a real problem.
In Norway, the two official forms of written Norwegian are "Bokmål" (book tongue), used by more than 86% of the people, and Nynorsk (new Norwegian), used by 7.5%. But as this Wikipedia link further explain, the language situation is quite complex.
Nynorsk – a newly created language
As we inquired further into Nynorsk, we learned that this language was created by Ivar Aasen in the middle of the 19th century from old Nordic dialects. One would ask: why create a new language? For Norway, language was a way to reinforce a distinct Norwegian identity, as the nation strove for and then acquired, in 1905, its independence from Sweden.
Some Norwegians suggested to us, however, that with Norway's affluence and growing national confidence, the movement for popularizing Nynorsk may be slowing down.
The benefits of a second national language taught in school are being questioned as other languages become ever more important. (I am leaving out of this discussion any local dialects and the distinctly different language of the Sami, the indigenous Finno-Ugric people inhabiting the northern part of the Scandinavian peninsula.)
A little more Nordic History
After the end of the Viking era (around 1050), Norwegian tribes and communities were ruled for centuries by Danish and then by Swedish kings. Nation states as such only developed in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, often after considerable strife.
It was therefore surprising to some, when in 1905, Sweden accepted the plebiscite of the Norwegians, and agreed to release Norway from the joint kingdom of Norway and Sweden.
The story of the peaceful dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden makes interesting reading for history buffs, who also may be intrigued by the people's election (!) of the Danish (!) crown prince as their new king.
Politics, Dialects, and "standard" language
In the past, political leaders have often tried to impose new languages on their people. When the Normans won the battle of Hastings in 1066, French became the language of English nobility.
Although French certainly influenced and modified the language of English peasants and commoners, it did not replace it. (Read more in our blog post: The French Connection) French became the language at many European courts in the 18th and 19th centuries and many French words found their way into the various European languages.
In the region of Catalonia, which includes the second largest city in Spain, Barcelona, the local language is Catalan. Catalan is both a spoken and a written language. As Castilian Spanish is taught in schools, most Catalans are indeed bilingual - although traces of animosity towards Castilian seem to remain, even, surprisingly, with some younger people. (Read more in our blog post: In Barcelona Learning "Spanish" is Not Enough)
Switzerland has a somewhat different situation. Spoken "Swiss German" or "Schwyzerdütsch" is the common language in the German-speaking cantons, although there are noticeable dialect differences among them.
However, "High German" or "Schriftdeutsch" (Written German), as the Swiss call it, is taught in schools. It's the printed language of newspapers and is used by all Swiss Germans to write. With very few exceptions - see picture at right - Swiss German is not used for writing or print. (For a translation of the above sign and the French version see our post: 11 Language Clues from German and Swiss Signs.)
The Norwegian Language and National Identity
Clearly, language plays an important role in a people's identity. In the case of Norway, it will be interesting to watch whether Nynorsk will survive and prosper alongside Norway's presently more dominant language, Bokmål.
Postscript: In March 2019 the Norwegian Academy (a Norwegian language learning site) published a post on the question whether to learn Nynorsk or Bokmål. They conclude: "So it comes to your preferences and your place of living. It might be hard to learn writing Bokmål in an area where everyone uses Nynorsk." And, if you happen to be relocating to Norway, a localization service can be very helpful.
Calling a waiter or waitress to your table can often be done by gestures such as raising your hand or – if you want to pay – by scribbling with one finger into the other hand. 
Stephanie's Rosenbloom's insightful article in the New York Times recently - 
If you arrive in a new city speaking the language, you can immediately engage with locals. A good place to start is the neighborhood market, or the small bakery up the street. (Left: Alfonso & Enrico in our neighborhood shop in Trastevere.)
"Swiss German" or "Schwyzerdütsch" is the common language in the German-speaking cantons, although there are noticeable dialect differences among them.