Language Problems

I have to admit that I struggled a little with my Norwegian moving back here from Texas. I guess I just did some direct translation from English, and sometimes that works, and at other times it just makes people giggle and look at you like you are a bit retarded. Shellfish is one of those words that you can not say, here it is called shell-animal. When I was explaining to my mom that my house was growing on me, I got a blank stare in return, houses do not gro won people in Norway. Then there are other words that I just keep saying the English word with my dialect, and it means something completely different. I often say that something is black (which in Norwegian means broke), or i talk about my car (which means man). Needless to say that my sentences do not always make a lot of sense. Mostly this is not a problem with the people that know me, but it is a little embarrassing when I meet new people. Since my Norwegian sounds perfect, they expect me talk like any other native. Oh well, I guess a there are a few people out there that may assume I am a little on the retarded side.