Comments on: The Challenge of Learning Norwegian /the-challenge-of-learning-norwegian/ All Things Norway, In English Sun, 01 Sep 2024 09:52:04 +0000 hourly 1 By: Mike Vraa /the-challenge-of-learning-norwegian/#comment-532582 Fri, 22 Dec 2017 19:52:20 +0000 /?p=7445#comment-532582 Great piece. I am trying to teach myself Norwegian without class or the benefit of a cultural immersion. I have been wanting to take the next step, as you suggested with watching movies-reading kids books-etc, and I wanted to start listening to shows/movies/radio/podcasts. I also want to start reading, but I know I need kids books to start with (Tried newspapers but I would spend more time translating words at this point). Do you have any links or resources you could share with me to find these items? Youtube seems to be a tough place to find things norwegian (except how to speak the language) and radio or kids books even tougher to locate in the United States. Thanks.

]]> By: Carmen Cristina /the-challenge-of-learning-norwegian/#comment-278895 Sat, 04 Oct 2014 16:27:30 +0000 /?p=7445#comment-278895 Yes Kacey;

You are right, dialects are a funny thing. Oslo has the proper Bokmål that we learn at “school” but otherwise you find lots of different dialects that make it very challenging.

I like you strategy to improving your spoken Norwegian! nothing better than repeating words as they are pronounced by a native to get the pronunciation right!

]]> By: Carmen Cristina /the-challenge-of-learning-norwegian/#comment-278890 Sat, 04 Oct 2014 16:24:08 +0000 /?p=7445#comment-278890 In reply to Kali.

Yes Kali, it does take time to get used to the new sounds and vowels. It does help having Germanic roots, as far as I have seen. Keep up the good work!

]]> By: Violin Georgiev /the-challenge-of-learning-norwegian/#comment-278760 Sat, 04 Oct 2014 14:17:52 +0000 /?p=7445#comment-278760 Great article Carmen!

]]> By: Kacey /the-challenge-of-learning-norwegian/#comment-277418 Fri, 03 Oct 2014 20:34:58 +0000 /?p=7445#comment-277418 What a great article, Carmen!
I for one am working hard to try to study in Norway in the next couple of years and use any resource I can get to study the language (resources are almost impossible to find here). I made a friend from Stavanger, Norway last year and went to visit them and their family in Stavanger this past summer. It was really difficult to understand (what we collectively called) “the Stavanger dialect”, as well as the two different dialects her parents spoke. It helped me to watch videos of other dialects to get used to them – the first time my friend spoke to me I understood nothing – now it’s hard for me NOT to say “ikkje” instead of “ikke” and “jeg” instead of “eg”, etc!

One thing I did to improve my spoken Norwegian: I would take a book or an article that had an audio version and read it out loud. Then I would then listen to the audio recording, and read it again once it was over. I also paused films or TV shows I was reading so I could repeat what someone said until I could say it. Of course my friend helped me in Skype conversations a lot, and nothing could come close to the help she gave me with the language!

From my experience, Norwegians are very helpful and more than willing to talk slower or repeat something if you tell them you’re learning Norwegian, or just start out speaking to them in Norwegian. Nearly everyone I met told me how great it was that anyone would try to learn Norwegian. It can be frustrating at first to feel like you can’t make yourself understood, but it definitely gets better! 🙂

-Kacey

]]> By: Kali /the-challenge-of-learning-norwegian/#comment-277334 Fri, 03 Oct 2014 19:26:20 +0000 /?p=7445#comment-277334 I still can’t string sentences together, but my comprehension is improving! I’m fortunate to have Germanic roots in my home language (Afrikaans), so that helps a bit.

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