Hei! I feel like you've been asked this a lot XC, sorry. How long did it take for you to reach this level of fluency in Norwegian? What would you recommend a complete beginner to do (something free, if possible. I can't order anything online and the current situation means I can't go out shopping either (and stores in my country won't have anything I'm looking for) )? PS: I've just finished the first checkpoint on Duolingo! Your posts motivate me everytime I feel down.
Hi there! No worries, I always like talking about learning Norwegian ^^
It depends on what you count as time spent studying Norwegian, because Iâve taken breaks from it and I basically didnât know what I was doing during the first year or so lol. I usually say about 4-4.5 years. Itâs possible to reach that level a lot more quickly though (I was reading a post on NorsklĂŚrer Karenseâs facebook group and some people were like âyeah I went from zero to B2 in 3 monthsâ lol rip) but for some people it takes longer. It all depends on the time you put in, how much exposure you have, how many opportunities you have to practise and how naturally you pick up languages.
As for free resources for complete beginners:
NTNU has a free course
Memrise is a good website/app with several Norwegian courses (I recommend starting with Norwegian 1, but there are loads of vocab lists on there)
Other apps include Drops and uTalk. Iâm not big on Drops, but I quite like uTalk, even if the amount of coins you earn seems to be completely random (donât be fooled into thinking you have to buy coins to progress!)
Lingohut has loads of lessons suitable for beginners
CALST is pretty great, focusing more on spoken Norwegian, and gives you the option to learn dialects (I recommend just learning Oslo dialect if youâre a total beginner, unless youâre moving to a specific area of Norway)
God i Norsk is a course in Norwegian for adult Norwegian-learners with lots of listening, reading, grammar and vocabulary exercises
Bildetema is also good for learning vocab and is available in both bokmĂĽl and nynorsk
Lesnorsk has lots of texts of different levels (Iâve linked you to the beginner level texts)
Norskpodden is a Norwegian podcast for beginners that comes with transcripts and games to test your understanding
Norwegian Teacher Karin on youtube has lessons suitable for beginners (check out her beginners playlists)
NorsklĂŚrer Karense is a qualified Norwegian teacher - her videos are entirely in Norwegian so youâll need some basics first, but theyâre a fantastic free resource (here you can find her videos specifically aimed at beginners)
Learn Norwegian Naturally is another good youtube channel
Hereâs an English-Norwegian / Norwegian-English dictionary
Some other things I recommend:
Stick the radio on in the background while youâre doing housework/scrolling tumblr etc. You wonât understand anything at first, but thatâs not the point - the point is to get you used to the rhythm of the language. I recommend NRK P2 as it has more talk and less shitty English music
Keep a journal. By that, I donât mean write about your day in detail - obviously thatâs not going to happen when youâre a beginner - start by writing things like âtoday is Wednesday. I wake up at 8am. I eat breakfast.â The purpose of your journal is to practise using the language, not to write coherent, connected prose with perfect or even good/correct grammar (my Finnish journal entries, for example, consist of 2-3 short sentences, using the only two tenses I know). You can share it if you want, but I keep most of my journal entries to myself.
Listen to Norwegian music. Search ânorsk (your favourite genre)â on spotify for playlists.
If you havenât already, create a langblr. Use it to reblog resources, vocab lists, posts about grammar etc. Write short posts and ask for feedback if you feel brave enough (itâs scary at first, but I find getting corrections is the most effective way for me to learn). Ask other langblrs questions about grammar and vocab (even if they donât know the answer, there are usually a lot of native speakers lurking that are always willing to help!)
Sorry this got a bit long - I hope that helps you! Also, thank you so much for your kind words, and congrats on reaching the first checkpoint on Duo! I hope you enjoy your Norwegian journey.
This is a great list of suggestions. Songs definitely helped me improve pronounciation, before I could understand anything much. Attempting to sing along let me develop the needed new sounds (e.g Ì,ø,ü,skj). Duolingo and reading aloud books aimed at children helped sentence structure and general understanding.
Remember to practice speaking as well as reading and listening. It took me 6 months for conversational and within a year I was working in Norwegian (not excellently but passable). However I had immersion on my side.

























