How did you start learning Norwegian?

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How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby Iván » 2012-05-08, 21:09

Hello. I have just started learning Norwegian. Unilang is a very useful site to learn different languages, but as all we know there's always a beginning. I would like to ask you, to all people who began learning Norwegian, where did you find resources or sites for beginners?

This forum could be used to talk about the different ways we use to learn Norwegian.
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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby salieri » 2012-05-08, 22:22

Well, here's my "recipe":
At first I was focused mainly on grammar. Afterwards I turned myself to other things like building up a better vocabulary and memorizing all the useful phrases and idioms I could find. I know lots of those. :D Some people here have also been very patient with me/us and are doing a tremendous job by providing detailed explanations whenever we need them. Aside from the fact that it's fun, it reallly helps a lot. I find it much easier to learn new things that way. Not to mention the fact that it's almost as if you have your own private teacher( a native one by the way). :)

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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby language learner » 2012-05-09, 11:47

Every now and then I read a posting from klartale and translate as many unknown words as possible
I have yet to find a good Norwegian online wordbook
nob-ordbok.uio.no doesnt have an english version :(

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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby salieri » 2012-05-09, 12:02


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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby jente86 » 2012-05-09, 19:59

Hei,
I've started learning Norwegian last year during my seasonal job. I used special interactive programmes with CD's and I've heard live lots of Norwegian speak because I was surrounded almost by Norwegian people at work (I mean boss, menager etc., because physicall workers were from abroad).
When I came back to Poland I've started Norwegian course which helped me to provide basic knowledge of Norwegian but of course I have difficulties with saying many things or with understanding.
I listen to Norwegian music (especially hip hop -> I understand maybe 0,5% of lyrics :lol: ). I bought also Norwegian books and I'm going to read them all! :mrgreen:
Lykke til! :wink:

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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby TeneReef » 2012-05-10, 7:54

I didn't start it, it just happened. :P
I don't know why people say Norwegian is the easiest language to learn.
Maybe to learn how to write, but speaking is another thing. :(

For listening materials I'm using the local news:
http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/845516/

West Oslo Norwegian accent (the one that is taught to foreigners) must have one of the most
complicated intonation and tonal patterns of all Norwegian varieties/dialects, so I am not following it.
(Western and Northern Norwegian have the same tones of Standard Croatian: tone 1 corresponds to our falling tone, and tone 2 to our rising tone; the syllable that comes after the stressed one has low tone).

I've heard Swedes understand Western and Northern Norwegian dialects better, because there is no rising tone in declaratives. :mrgreen:

You can hear various tonal patterns of Norwegian here:
http://www.ling.hf.ntnu.no/ipa/no/tema_008.html
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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby Aleco » 2012-05-10, 14:08

TeneReef wrote:I've heard Swedes understand Western and Northern Norwegian dialects better, because there is no rising tone in declaratives. :mrgreen:

I'm in a Nordic chat room on Skype, and one of the Swedes there, Allekanger (his UL nickname), said that it was harder to understand me, from just across the Swedish border, than the other Norwegian in there who's from Sunnmøre (the northwest). The fact that my words and conjugations are closer to Swedish doesn't make a difference :P
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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby language learner » 2012-05-10, 14:51


I've seen it ages ago and it doesnt have Bokmål - English

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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby Remis » 2012-05-10, 15:02

имен: This is the one I use. (Well, I use it for English -> Norwegian (bokmål), but same difference, right?)
I also use this one for when I want to look up allowed conjugation patterns and such; it's probably my favourite dictionary out of the lot. It's monolingual though.
Remis Kalvan | art / ˈfɛɪsˌbʊk | L1: [flag]no-nb[/flag] L2: [flag]en[/flag] reading short stories in: [flag]it[/flag] [flag]es[/flag]

TAC 2012 [flag]ja[/flag] [flag]la[/flag] ([flag]es-mx[/flag] [flag]non[/flag])
Of immense interest: [flag]grc[/flag] [flag]akk[/flag] [flag]egy[/flag] [flag]ar[/flag] [flag]mt[/flag] [flag]ga[/flag] [flag]eu[/flag] [flag]pl[/flag] [flag]prg[/flag] [flag]nah[/flag] [flag]qu[/flag] [flag]nv[/flag] [flag]zh.Hant[/flag]
Wanderlustin' for [flag]ain[/flag] [flag]ka[/flag] [flag]mn[/flag] [flag]cy[/flag] [flag]af[/flag]

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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby Aleco » 2012-05-10, 15:35

He already mentioned that one himself, though ;) Though, I feel like a lot of people dont use it for what it's worth to check conjugation patterns etc. :)

I still recommend simpler dictionaries like Easytrans or The Free Dictionary to find possible translations, and then use the monolingual dictionary to find examples and/or synonyms when your Norwegian reaches that level.
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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby Remis » 2012-05-10, 16:00

Aleco wrote:He already mentioned that one himself, though ;) Though, I feel like a lot of people dont use it for what it's worth to check conjugation patterns etc. :)
Oh right! Oh well, Google Translate then? TriTrans? :P
But yeah, conjugation patterns and such are the only things I use it for, really. And etymology, but yeah. I actually cheated and used that site during my Norwegian mock exam last year because I wanted to make sure my bokmål was as radical as possible without being what my teacher would consider "not allowed in a formal text." :ohwell:
Remis Kalvan | art / ˈfɛɪsˌbʊk | L1: [flag]no-nb[/flag] L2: [flag]en[/flag] reading short stories in: [flag]it[/flag] [flag]es[/flag]

TAC 2012 [flag]ja[/flag] [flag]la[/flag] ([flag]es-mx[/flag] [flag]non[/flag])
Of immense interest: [flag]grc[/flag] [flag]akk[/flag] [flag]egy[/flag] [flag]ar[/flag] [flag]mt[/flag] [flag]ga[/flag] [flag]eu[/flag] [flag]pl[/flag] [flag]prg[/flag] [flag]nah[/flag] [flag]qu[/flag] [flag]nv[/flag] [flag]zh.Hant[/flag]
Wanderlustin' for [flag]ain[/flag] [flag]ka[/flag] [flag]mn[/flag] [flag]cy[/flag] [flag]af[/flag]

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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby salieri » 2012-05-10, 16:59

имен wrote:

I've seen it ages ago and it doesnt have Bokmål - English


You're wrong my friend. Here's the proof :D :

http://decentius.hit.uib.no/lexin.html? ... un-search=

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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby language learner » 2012-05-10, 17:07

I didnt expect Bokmål—polsk would translate to Bokmål—English-Polish, bra :)

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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby salieri » 2012-05-10, 18:53

Hehe, det går bra.

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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby Johanna » 2012-05-10, 19:02

Aleco wrote:
TeneReef wrote:I've heard Swedes understand Western and Northern Norwegian dialects better, because there is no rising tone in declaratives. :mrgreen:

I'm in a Nordic chat room on Skype, and one of the Swedes there, Allekanger (his UL nickname), said that it was harder to understand me, from just across the Swedish border, than the other Norwegian in there who's from Sunnmøre (the northwest). The fact that my words and conjugations are closer to Swedish doesn't make a difference :P

Sometimes that guy's easier for even me to understand, and I don't live very far from said border :P
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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby Aleco » 2012-05-10, 19:43

:P

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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby TeneReef » 2012-05-10, 21:07

There are no decent dictionaries, unfortunately.
I have two dictionaries made for Norwegians: Croatian-Norwegian (no tones, no genders), and Norwegian-B/C/S (genders, but not tones). :roll:

I also have ''the green dictionary'' (by E. Haugen), and it is very good (B+N, tones, genders), but it does not have the latest informal expressions, slangs or things like that. It's more of a classical dictionary. It hasn't been updated since 1971, and the author is no longer alive, so I don't think we'll be getting a modernized version any time soon. :?

But http://nob-ordbok.uio.no/perl/ordbok.cgi?ava=ava
is the best, I always have both B+N activated, so I can compare, it's kinda interesting. :)
And you can always use the option Translate into English in Google Chrome, if you don't understand the explanation of the entry. :)

There are two dictionaries at Google play (the Collins one and another one), but Google does not allow me to buy them (''The product is not available in your country''). But the Collins dictionary is not that good for the learners of Norwegian, unless you're learning bergensk (only c and n genders shown). I don't really care for the Lexin dictionary, but the picture section is nice (so you can learn the names of birds or flowers of Norway :) ).
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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby Raufoss » 2012-05-20, 19:37

jente86 wrote:Hei,
I've started learning Norwegian last year during my seasonal job.
Just out of curiosity, did you have a summer job in Norway? I would love to spend most of my summers in Norway and am wondering how difficult it might be to get a summer work permit?
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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby Raufoss » 2012-05-26, 14:05

имен wrote:I have yet to find a good Norwegian online wordbook
nob-ordbok.uio.no doesnt have an english version :(
There used to be an english version that I used on a regular basis, but it was removed from the site. :(

имен wrote:I didnt expect Bokmål—polsk would translate to Bokmål—English-Polish, bra :)
Ja, dette er flott. :y:

I just bookmarked Bokmål—russisk:

Bokmål—russisk
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Re: How did you start learning Norwegian?

Postby Raufoss » 2012-05-26, 23:57

TeneReef wrote:I also have ''the green dictionary'' (by E. Haugen), and it is very good (B+N, tones, genders), but it does not have the latest informal expressions, slangs or things like that. It's more of a classical dictionary. It hasn't been updated since 1971, and the author is no longer alive, so I don't think we'll be getting a modernized version any time soon. :?
I also have that Einar Haugen Green Dictionary too. :) I found it on Amazon three years ago when I was planning my fall of 2009 Norge tur.
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