Language Learning In Progress

I'm Melissa. I have a lot of target languages and not a lot of motivation.

[nordic-language-love]

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 I’ve taken breaks from it and I basically didn’t know what I was doing during the first year or so lol. I usually say about 4-4.5 years. It’s possible to reach that level a lot more quickly though (I was reading a post on Norsklærer Karense’s facebook group and some people were like “yeah I went from zero to B2 in 3 months” 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. I’m not big on Drops, but I quite like uTalk, even if the amount of coins you earn seems to be completely random (don’t 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 you’re a total beginner, unless you’re 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 bokmål and nynorsk

Lesnorsk has lots of texts of different levels (I’ve 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)

Norsklærer Karense is a qualified Norwegian teacher - her videos are entirely in Norwegian so you’ll need some basics first, but they’re a fantastic free resource (here you can find her videos specifically aimed at beginners)

Learn Norwegian Naturally is another good youtube channel

Here’s an English-Norwegian / Norwegian-English dictionary

Some other things I recommend:

Stick the radio on in the background while you’re doing housework/scrolling tumblr etc. You won’t understand anything at first, but that’s 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 don’t mean write about your day in detail - obviously that’s not going to happen when you’re a beginner - start by writing things like “today is Wednesday. I wake up at 8am. I eat breakfast.” 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 “norsk (your favourite genre)” on spotify for playlists.

If you haven’t 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 (it’s 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 don’t 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.

[trondheimimmigrant]

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 æ,ø,å,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.

[nordic-language-love]

Norwegian TV shows you don’t need a VPN to watch

With us being all on lockdown, there’s a lot of time for language-learning, and a fun way to do that is to watch TV shows in your target language. For Norwegian-learners, NRK TV has a lot of choice. Although a lot of shows are geoblocked, there are many that are available worldwide, so here are some that I like. Feel free to reblog and add your own!

Current Affairs & Talk Shows

Kveldsnytt - daily news featuring the main headlines, sport and weather. Usually 15-20 minutes long, features news from in Norway and worldwide. Really good starting point for breaking into Norwegian TV.

Debatten - debate show about current political issues, usually 30 minutes long. Host speaks very clearly with an easy dialect, guests vary but tend to be well-spoken.

Einig? - 2-4 people sat in a room trying to have sensible discussions about politics

Sånn Er Norge - another good show for breaking into Norwegian TV as it covers cultural aspects of Norway and the host speaks in clear Oslo dialect.

Quiz Shows

Hva Feiler Det Deg? - medical quiz show where a team of three doctors go head-to-head with a team of three normal people with internet access to try and guess a person’s medical condition. Lots of medicine-related vocab so ideal for anyone wanting to go into a medical profession

Nytt På Nytt - comedy quiz show about current affairs (Norway’s version of Have I Got News For You). Lots of slang and humour related to Norwegian celebrities and politicians so better suited to higher level learners.

Documentary

Fra Bølle Til Bestevenn - reality-documentary series following six dog-owners and their naughty doggos through doggy bootcamp with a pro trainer. If you don’t fall in love with Anton then we can’t be friends.

113 - documentary series following first responders in Trondheim. Again, good for those who are interested in medicine as you’ll pick up lots of relevant vocab. Dialects vary but you’ll get a good helping of trøndersk.

Dialektriket - documentary series about different dialects throughout Norway. Super interesting if you wanna learn more about dialects and how they’re perceived by Norwegians.

Folkopplysningen - documentary series about how easily we’re influenced, covering topics related to health, science, politics, media and all sorts. Andreas speaks really clearly so it’s good for A2+

Evig Ung - documentary series about ageing and how to avoid it. Good for science nerds wants to learn/practice science-y vocabulary.

Drama

SKAM - well, it had to be mentioned! Chances are you’ve already watched (or at least heard of) this show. Lots of drama, romance, scandal and everything else you’d want from teenagers living it up in secondary school (linked episodes have english subtitles).

Blank - drama series about teenagers being teenagers. Kinda similar to SKAM but it follows completely new characters each season and is a bit less OMG DRAMA.

Lovleg - series following 16yo Gunnhild starting a new life at a new school in Sandane. Also similar to SKAM with slightly less drama. Mostly vestlandsk dialects. Wlw in season 2.

Comedy

Side Om Side - sweet and light-hearted sitcom based around the day-to-day lives of three very different families.

Parterapi - comedy series about couples in partner therapy. Short (10 min) episodes.

[allthingslinguistic]

académie française: you can’t just make up new words willy-nilly like that!!! linguists: haha language machine go brrrr

[nordic-language-love]

WAIT I THINK I UNDERSTAND HOW NORSK VERBS WORK: They work similarly to english verbs with a verb for past tense (like i ran) present tense (i am RUNNING) and future tense (i am gonna run). Please tell me I'm somewhere close I've been looking at this verb table for a month and i think it just now clicked.

That’s pretty close - let’s break it down and take a closer look.

Note: this is going to be a quick overview, so I won’t go into detail about every single rule or exception. I’m also going to focus on bokmål rather than nynorsk.

Here’s a verb table for a nice regular verb, taken from UiB dictionary: å spise (to eat)

Because Norwegian verbs don’t conjugate according to person, we only ever have to worry about the tense and mood. Here we have the infinitive / present / preteritum (past tense) / present perfect / imperative. The v2 indicates that it’s a type 2 verb, which we’ll come back to in a moment.

Keep reading

[marilingo]

Filler words in Norwegian

Can’t learn a language without fillers!

altså - “well…” or “so…” It’s often used to enhance confidence, whether it’s strong or weak. Altså, mamma sa at jeg får lov til å gjøre det.. / Well, mum said I’m allowed to do it..

vel - “well”, can be used in the same way as in English. You can also combine it with altså: Vel, altså, her er planen… / Well, so, here is the plan…

liksom - the Norwegian equivalent to “like” - use it everywhere! It can also be used to enhance sarcasm. Har du liksom tenkt å gå med det der? / Are you seriously like, going to wear that thing?

da - this literally means then, but we often use it to end sentences, especially if we’re saying something that another person might want to argue with. And since it means ‘then’, you can also use it in the same way as in English. Jeg skulle jo liksom bare prøve den på, da. / I was just going to like, try it on.

ehh / øhh - uhh, uhm. Super useful.

på en måte - “in a way” or “kind of”.  Han er litt merkelig, på en måte. / He’s a little strange, kind of.

bare - “just” Jeg skal bare innom butikken. / I’m just gonna pop by the store.

ikke sant? - translates to “not true”, but is used for saying “right?” “don’t you agree?”. Around Bergen, people usually drop the “ikke” and just say “sant”. I’m from Bergen so I didn’t know that not everyone says this until I googled it lol. 

skjønner du / skjø’ - used at the end of sentences in the same way as “you see” in English. It comes from the word “å skjønne”, which means to understand, to realize or to “get it”. “Skjø’” is not really used in the southern regions, but if you’re around Trøndelag, you’ll hear this a lot. In other regions one would say “skjønner du”. Han er lærer, skjø’/skjønner du. / He is a teacher, you see.

Feel free to ask me questions about these or request more specific fillers!

[positivityforbaddays]

LHBT = LGBT Skeiv = Queer (the most commonly used umbrella term. literally “not straight”)

Lesbisk = Lesbian Lesbe = Lesbian (Informal, sometimes used negatively) Homo = Gay (please note that it’s not negatively loaded like in English) Homse = Gay (Informal, sometimes used negatively) Homofil = Homosexual Bi = Bi (pronounced like ‘Bee’) Bifil = Bisexual Biseksuell = Bisexual Transkjønnet = Transgender Interkjønn = Intersex Aseksuell = Asexual Cisperson = A cisgender person Ciskjønnet = Cisgender Kjæreste = Boyfriend, Girlfriend, or Significant other (completely gender neutral) Legning = Orientation Orientering = Orientation Polyamori = Polyamory

Kjønn = Sex OR Gender (there is no seperate term for the two in Norwegian) Kjønnsidentitet = Gender identity Androgyn = Androgynous (Å) Komme ut = (To) Come out Likekjønnspar = Same gender couples Regnbueflagg = Rainbow flag

Hen = Gender neutral pronoun

[too-cool-for-facebook]

[pansoph]

for chinese new year they get all these famous actors and comedians together and they do a lil show and one of the comedians was like “i was in a hotel in america once and there was a mouse in my room so i called reception except i forgot the english word for mouse so instead i said ‘you know tom and jerry? jerry is here’

[beefmilkthings]

jerry is here

[eruriholic]

my chinese teacher once shared this story in class about someone who went to the grocery to buy chicken, but they forgot the english word for it, so they grabbed an egg, went to the nearest sales lady and said “where’s the mother”

[cuddlyaxe-deactivated20190218]

When I was a teenager, we went to Italy for the summer holidays. We are German, neither of us speaks more than a few words of Italian. That didn’t keep my family from always referring to me when they wanted something translated because “You’re so good with languages and you took Latin”. (I told them a hundred times I couldn’t order ice cream in Latin, they ignored that.) Anyway, my dad really loved a certain cheese there, made from sheep’s milk. He knew the Italian word for ‘cheese’ – formaggio – and he knew how to say ‘please’. And he had already spotted a little shop that sold the cheese. He asked me what ‘sheep’ was in Italian, and of course, I had no idea. So he just shrugged and said “I’ll manage” and went into the shop. 5 mins later, he comes out with a little bag, obviously very pleased with himself. How did he manage it? He had gone in and said “'Baaaah’ formaggio, prego.”

I was done for the day.

[ravenpuffheadcanons]

This makes me feel better about every conversation I had in both Rome and Ghent.

[elodieunderglass]

I once lost my husband in the ruins of a French castle on a mountain, and trotted around looking for him in increasing desperation. “Have you seen my husband?” I asked some French people, having forgotten all descriptive words. “He is small, and English. His hair is the color of bread.”

I did not find my husband in this way.

In rural France it is apparently Known that one brings one’s own shopping bags to the grocery store. I was a visitor and had not been briefed and had no shopping bag. I saw that other people were able to conduct negotiations to purchase shopping bags, but I could not remember the word for “bag.”

“Can I have a box that is not a box,” I said.

The checkout lady looked extremely tired and said, “Un sac?” (A sack?)

Of course. A fucking sack. And so I did get a sack.

[kat2107]

I once was at a German-American Church youth camp for two weeks and predictably, we spoke a whole lot of English. 

When I phoned my mom during week two I tried to tell her that it was a bit cold in the sleeping bag at night. I stumbled around the word in German because for the love of god, I could remember the Germwn word for sleeping bag.

“Yeah so, it’s like a bag you sleep in at night?”

“And my mother must probably have thought I lost my mind. She just sighed and was like ‘So, a Schlafsack, yes?”

Which is LITERALLY Sleeping sac … The German word is a basically a one on one translation of the English word and I just… I failed it. At my mother tongue. BIG

[eridaniepsilon]

My former boss is Italian and she ended up working in a lab where the common language was English. She once saw an insect running through the lab and she went to tell her colleagues. She remembered it was the name of a famous English band so she barged in the office yelling there was a rolling stone in the lab…

[backonrepeat]

I’m Spanish and have been living in the UK for a while now. I recently changed jobs and moved to a new office which is lost somewhere in the Midlands’ countryside. It’s a pretty quaint location, surrounded by forest on pretty much all sides, and with nice grounds… full of pheasants. I was pretty shocked when I drove in and saw a fucking pheasant strolling across the road. Calm as you please.

That afternoon I met up with some friends and was talking about the new job, and the new office, and for the life of me I couldn’t remember the English word for pheasants. So I basically ended up bragging to my friends about “the very fancy chickens” we had outside the office.

Best thing is, everyone understood what I meant.

[eridaniepsilon]

I love those stories so much…

[acleverforgery]

Picture a Jewish American girl whose grasp of the Hebrew language comes from 10+ years of immersion in Biblical and liturgical Hebrew, not the modern language. Some words are identical, while others have significantly evolved.

She gets to Israel and is riding a bus for the very first time.

American: כמה ממון זה? (”How much money?” but in rather archaic language)

Bus Driver: שתי זוזים. (”Two zuzim” – a currency that’s been out of circulation for millenia)

[learningftw]

that’s hilarious

[shiraglassman]

I am officially screamlaughing at my desk from that last one OH MY 

[speakertoyesterday]

Does everyone know the prime minister who promised to fuck the country?

So in Biblical Hebrew the word for penis and weapon are the same. There is a verb meaning to arm, which modern Hebrew semanticly drifted into “fuck”: i.e. give someone your dick.

The minister was making a speech while a candidate, bemoning the state of the world. “The Soviet Union is fucking Egypt. Germany is fucking Syria. The Americans are fucking everyone. But who is fucking us? When I am prime minister, I will ensure we are fucked!”

[andhishorse]

What the hell Biblical Hebrew.

[moral-autism]

Just guessing: The path from something like “give someone a blade” to “give someone a blade, if you know what I mean ;)” is probably not that difficult or unlikely.

[liminalreader]

^Given that the Latin word for sheath (like, for a sword) is literally “vagina”, I can verify that this metaphor is a time-honored one. 

[liminalreader]

Oh yeah and one time my Latin professor was at this conference in Greece and his flight was canceled, so he needed to extend his hotel stay by one more night.

Except he doesn’t speak a lick of modern Greek, and the receptionist couldn’t speak English.  Or French.  Or German.  Or Italian.  (He tried all of them.)

Finally, in a fit of inspiration, he went upstairs and got his copy of Medea in the original Greek (you know, the stuff separated from modern Greek by two and a half thousand years).  He found the passage where Medea begs Jason to let her stay for one more day, went downstairs, and read it to the receptionist.

She laughed her head off, but she gave him the extra night.  

[madenthusiasms]

Reblogged just for Medea

[localshortqueer]

@verysadbee

[lostboylovestory]

My cousin’s mother tongue is English, but she also speaks Spanish, French, and Arabic so you could say she’s pretty good with languages. She also has an extensive English vocabulary. She spent two years in Peru and spoke nothing but Spanish while she was there. For the first few hours after we picked her up from the airport, she was fine and used her crazy advanced vocabulary like she hadn’t left. But we were eating dinner and she was telling a story and said “There something on the…” she said something in Spanish. We’re like “Sorry Meg we don’t speak Spanish. She huffs and says “You know, the /thing/.” She points down and waves other hand in a flat plane. After her struggling like this for another 30 seconds my uncle is just like “Do you mean the ‘ground’, Meg?” She slammed her hand down on the table “YES!”

[offisiellenorskblogg]

Norwegian PDFs!

I have three Google Drive PDFs here of books in Norwegian - one collection of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales and two school editions of plays by Henrik Ibsen and Nordahl Grieg. Enjoy and let me know if there are any problems with the links!

H.C. Andersen - Eventyr (Fairy Tales)

Henrik Ibsen - De unges forbund (The League of Youth)

Nordahl Grieg - Nederlaget og utvalgte dikt (The Defeat and Selected Poems)

[whatlanguageisthis1-deactivated]

hi! do you have any good norwegian shows you'd recommend for beginners? (:

Hi! Hmm, I don’t know about shows that would be good specifically for beginners I’m afraid… However, here’s some platforms and shows that I think are good regardless, so you can see for yourself what you like! 

On NRK Super there are lots of children’s shows, but I don’t know how many of them are available abroad or if they are any good.

On NRK you can find a variety of different shows and movies. I don’t watch a lot of Norwegian TV, but here are some shows I enjoyed:

SKAM

Blank

Dama til

Dialektriket

If you want to go directly to a list of shows and films in the NRK archive that are available abroad, you can click here.

There might also be some interesting videos on VGTV.

I hope this helps!

[mylanguagesandme]

THE ULTIMATE NORWEGIAN RESCOURCES LIST:

(original post: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/9816578)

“your welcome”

Courses, Grammar Lessons, Educational Books, Etc.

YouTube • Norwegian Teacher Karin • Learn Norwegian Naturally • Norwegian Class 101

Memrise • A1 Beginner Norwegian with Audio • 5000+ Most Common Words Part 1 • Duolingo Norwegian Vocab • Learn Norwegian with News

Interactive Grammar & Vocab Excercises • Exploring Norwegian Grammar • Norsk som andrespråk • Språkrådet  • Håndbok i grammatikk og språkbruk • Norsk start: 1-4 | 5-7 | 8-10 • Kaleido | Lek med språket • Kaleido | Main Site • På vei • Stein på stein

Pronunciation • Learn-Norwegian.net | Pronunciation Guide • Norwegian Teacher Karin | Norwegian Sounds • Learn NoW by NTNU: Alphabet | Vowels | Dipthongs | Consonants | Consonant Clusters | Retroflex Sounds • Sounds Good App   NTNU - this app helps you differentiate between similar sounds in both speaking and listening

Courses • Learn NoW by NTNU • Learn NoW by NTNU 2 • CALST by NTNU • FSI Norwegian • Sett i Gang

More Vocabulary & Grammar Sites • Gramatikk.com • Nynorsk Senter • Lexin | Bildteman | Bokmål & Nynorsk Picture Dictionary • Book2 | English-Norwegian Audio Course

Dialect-Specific • Dialect Database (click kart, then click a square on the map, then click the .mp3 or .wav file to hear an excerpt from Nordavinden og Sola read in that dialect) • CALST by NTNU (listening & speaking exercises for different dialects, and FYI this only works well in Chrome)

Textbooks & Grammar Guides Sometimes publishers put previews, or occasionally whole books, online. Sometimes books are so old that they become open to the public. And sometimes, I’m given a link to an awesome Google Drive folder with a bunch of ebooks in it (which are probably not supposed to be available to the public for free, so use them wisely). [RB = Recommended Book/s]

• The aforementioned Google Drive folder {RB: Håndbok i Grammatikk og Språkbruk | Sånn kan du si det | Hva vi sier og hva vi mener • GAN Aschehoug (Publisher) {RB: Nye Ord 5, 4, and 3 • Fagbokforlaget (Publisher) {RB: MiniGrammatikk | Ordriket • Cappelen Damm (Publisher) {RB: Kaleido textbooks - I can’t get the link to work so go here, search for Kaleido, then click filters> language> norsk (these are textbooks for Norwegian primary school students, so they have easy explanations and short stories) • På Vei Textbook

Culture & Life

YouTube • AmeriNorge • Teaandtoastify • Visit Norway

Blogs • Life in Norway • My Little Norway • A Frog in the Fjord

Art, Mythology, & Folktales • Stand Still. Stay Silent. | Webcomic “A post apocalyptic webcomic with elements from Nordic mythology, set 90 years in the future.” Not strictly Norwegian-themed, but very interesting nonetheless. Includes this cool comparison of Nordic languages. • Study In Norway | Culture • Norwegian folktales in Norwegian, in English, and in audio book form • Visit Norway | Arts & Culture • Norse Mythology • Shmoop | Mythology (scroll down a bit to see the sections on Norse mythology) • Internet Archive | The Heroes of Asgard: Tales From Scandinavian Mythology

TV Shows, Cartoons, Etc.

I Kveld Med Ylvis (a talk/comedy show) [PG16 for language] • IKMY Season 1 (full season & subs) • IKMY Season 2 (only 3 subbed episodes) • IKMY Season 3 (just a few clips from the season) • IKMY Season 4 (full season & subs) • IKMY Season 5: Unicef Spesial | Ep. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | (nearly all episodes subbed) Other Ylvis Shows & Videos: • Ylvis in English | ALL • Norges Herligste

NRK (a Norwegian TV channel - everything from comedy to nature programs) • NRK Super (kid’s shows) • NRK TV (all programs available outside Norway) • NRK Skole (basically Norwegian PBS or Discovery)

Other • Nickelodeon • Peppa Pig • TinySchool.TV • Pocoyo • Cartoon Network

Music & Podcasts

Radio/Streaming • Norwegian Stations on TuneIn • Norwegian Stations on ListenLive • NRK Radio • hknyildirim’s Spotify playlist • kim-gab’s Spotify playlist

Albums & Playlists • Siri Nilsen: Skyggebokser | Alle Snakker Sant | Vi Som Ser I Mørket • Jahn Teigen: Lys | Til Kongen • Bjørn Eidsvåg: Landet Lenger Bak | Hittil og Littil | En Vakker Dag | Nåde • Madcon: Contakt • Lars Vaular: D'E Glede | Du Betyr Meg | Helt Om Natten, Helt Om Dagen | Helt Ute På | La Hat-Et Nytt Dagslys | 1001 Hjem | 666 Alt | 666 Gir • Disney Songs in Norwegian • Kaizers Orchestra: 250 Prosent | Våre Demoner | Evig Pint | Maskineri | Violeta Violeta Vol. I, Vol. II, & Vol. III | Ompa til du dør • Bergtatt: YouTube playlist • Razika: På vei hjem | Ut til de andre | Program 91 • Karpe Diem: Heisann Montebello • Wardruna: Yggdrasil | Gap Var Ginnunga

Songs (I either couldn’t find whole albums or there were mostly English songs on them) • Ylvis: La Det På Is | Sammen Finner Vi Frem | Unnskyld, Kjære Oslo | Jeg Heter Finn | Da Vet Du At Det Er Jul | Ka Kan Eg Gi Deg? • Gabrielle: Regn fra blå himmel | 5 fine frøkner | Mer | Ring meg | Sitter her | Mellom skyene | Mildt Sagt (album) • Staysman & Lazz: En godt stekt pizza • Norges nasjonalsang | Norway’s National Anthem • Respekt for Grandiosa (a song about frozen pizza - embrace it) • NRK Super: Sveve på luft (yes it’s from the kids’ channel but it’s really good) • Sondre Justad: Det e over | Nu har du mæ/Nå har du meg | Riv i hjertet • Verdensrommet: Alt det du sier | Gi meg alt | Der hvor du aldri kan stå | Nytt

Podcasts • NRK Radio (this is just the link to the main site, there are many different podcasts on it) • Klar Tale

News, Comics, & Other Reading Material

Norwegian reading for non-grammar related purposes.

News • Klar Tale (made specifically for learners): Main Site | News in Images | Nynorsk News • Dagbladet • Aftenposten • NRK • VG • TV2

Comics • Nettserier • Bergens Tidene | Tegneserier • Aftenposten | Tegneserier • Dagbladet | Tegneserie

Reading Materials • Norske Folkeeventyr | Norwegian Folktales (you can also listen to folktales here) • Norsk Wikipedia • Bokselskap (free ebooks)

[whatlanguageisthis1-deactivated]

hei! i am a native english speaker trying to learn norwegian, but i'm not sure where to start! i have some very basic vocabulary down but nothing close to being able to talk to people. i'd appreciate some help !

Hi! It’s so cool that you want to learn norwegian! 

I’d recommend taking a look at this post by @the-inverted-langblr, it gives a good overview of things you can do to work on and improve your norwegian! Also, here are some resources that might be helpful:

Duolingo - It often gets a lot of criticism from the langblr community, but in my opinion it’s a really good place to start in order to familiarize yourself with the basics of grammar, vocabulary and sounds.

Norwegian on the Web - Free online course by NTNU

Norwegian: An Essential Grammar PDF - Great book in English that clearly explains the different aspects of Norwegian grammar. 

If you’re having trouble, feel free to send me an ask and I’ll do my best to help you!

Hope you find this helpful! Good luck with your studies!

[kjaerekrake]

Norwegian YouTube Masterpost

Here is a list of youtubers that I like to listen to for listening comprehension of Norwegian along with some small shows and educational channels to watch. I mainly made this list to help everyone with some exposure to spoken Norwegian, since in my opinion it’s a bit difficult to find Norwegian speaking youtubers.

(not all of the youtubers are from Oslo/speak the Oslo dialect/standard østnorsk, but I think it might help quite a bit with some exposure to other dialects too. It’s helped me at least.)

Alfonso Dingo Torres - channel that posts Steven Universe videos/songs in other languages. He doesn’t have a Norwegian specific playlist but if you scroll through his videos, I’m sure you find the Norwegian ones right away.  

Cartoon Network Norge - It’s Cartoon Network, but in Norwegian, which means shows like Steven Universe and Adventure time are available (but not the full thing usually).

Hei Briskeby - Okay, yes, I know they aren’t going to upload again but they are from Oslo and there are transcripts of their videos in English. I feel like that might help you get used to just understanding how the language is supposed to sound along with a translation to help attach sound to meaning.

Hjartholm90 - I’m pretty sure he’s from Bergen. His dialect sounds either bergensk or similar but I might be wrong about that. (correct me if you think or know otherwise). Also is a gaming channel if you’re into that.

Lykke Sofie Myrås  - She is from Stavanger. Miscellaneous channel, from makeup to vlogs to routine videos.  She hasn’t uploaded much recently but she does have a snapchat which is lykkesofie

makeupmalin - She is from Holmestrand, which, is eastern Norway. She does makeup as well as other things and is a pretty big channel.

Miriam Lie - Definitely from the west (please correct me if you know). Does mostly makeup videos.

Nellie - She is from Tigerstaden. She does a wide variety of types of videos, such as humor and relate-able videos.

NorskTegnefilmSang - a channel for cartoons dubbed in Norwegian

Norwegian Teacher - Karin - Obviously from Oslo. Remember, she doesn’t just do teaching videos, she does vlogs and other videos about life in Olso as well as other places she goes.

NRK P3 - Literally  NRK’s channel, with music, interviews and more.

OLEJOHA - He is from Oslo. He does vlogs as well as funny videos. He also talks about Skam ;)

Rakkerstreker - Pretty sure they are from east Norway, please correct me if you know otherwise. They are another gaming channel that plays quite a big variety of games. This is their main channel.

Sangfugl -  From Oslo. She does a big variety of videos and has subtitles both Norwegian and English on most of her videos. I just think she deserves more subscribers to be honest lol.

Stina Talling - She is from Bergen. She does a wide variety videos, specifically comedy and entertainment videos.

Sunny - She is from Oslo. Yes, I know she doesn’t do much speaking in Norwegian but she have some videos where she explains slang terms or swears

tim lektor - mainly grammar lessons that are pretty in depth plus some audio books  

Veernacular - You might know her as Vee or letslearnnorwegian on here ? She just has a pronunciation video but I feel like this is a good place to get started if you still don’t know some pronunciation, plus she’s going to be making more videos soon !

Weird Norwegian - from Trondheim (specifically Steinkjer). Doesn’t specifically speak Norwegian all the time but will do videos about his dialect, Norwegian  swear words or translating things into Norwegian.

Amalie Olsen - (reccomended by @archlover-9) from Vestfold, which is very near Oslo. She does humor, makeup and beauty videos as well as some vlogs.

Kristine Bremnes - I’m not exactly sure but i think she’s from Trondheim or somewhere near it? she does vlogs, hauls and some makeup videos.

JOSU - from Narvik which is far north (closish to tromsø). He mainly does vlogs.

Norsklærer Karense - as @toramor put it, “She is a professional Norwegian teacher and has hundreds of videos where she explains Norwegian grammar and phrases. I’d reccomend her channel to those at a more intermediate level. Her videos are great practice as they’re all in Norwegian, but they’re easy to understand because she speaksslowly and explains more difficult words.”

BeasVerden - (reccomended by @fremmedsprak)  from Oslo (or as she put it, a “portugese girl from oslo). She does a lot of humor videos and skits, from what i can tell.

LenaRedmo - (also reccomended by @fremmedsprak) From Trondheim. She does beauty, vlogs hauls and other things.

Johannes Høsflot Klæbo -(also also reccomended by @fremmedsprak (ily im so sorry for tagging you so much lol)) He’s from Trondheim also. He does vlogs mostly about athletic activities (skiing, running etc.) His vlogs also include English subtitles which can be of help 

Nordic ScreensTV - Norway’s own Youtube network (according to their description, it’s the first and biggest network) that brings together Norwegian Youtubers and has them collab, doing challenges or other random activities together.

x, x, and x are episodes of Charlie and Lola, a children’s show, that, to me, are very simple and easy to understand for listening comprehension in my opinion. (it’s also on the nrk website, but unless you know a way around it, it’s blocked there.)

x is a playlist for a show called The Moomins (Mummintrollet in Norwegian)

x is a playlist for the little mermaid (songs and speaking) in Norwegian

x is a playlist for Moana songs in Norwegian

x is a playlist for Pocahontas I & II songs in Norwegian

x is a basic guide on norwegian

Annd that’s all I have. Please please please feel free to correct or add to this list, I’d greatly appreciate it. And I hope you enjoy ! ♥️

(Edited) List as of January 16, 2018

[marilingo]

Filler words in Norwegian

Can’t learn a language without fillers!

altså - “well…” or “so…” It’s often used to enhance confidence, whether it’s strong or weak. Altså, mamma sa at jeg får lov til å gjøre det.. / Well, mum said I’m allowed to do it..

vel - “well”, can be used in the same way as in English. You can also combine it with altså: Vel, altså, her er planen… / Well, so, here is the plan…

liksom - the Norwegian equivalent to “like” - use it everywhere! It can also be used to enhance sarcasm. Har du liksom tenkt å gå med det der? / Are you seriously like, going to wear that thing?

da - this literally means then, but we often use it to end sentences, especially if we’re saying something that another person might want to argue with. And since it means ‘then’, you can also use it in the same way as in English. Jeg skulle jo liksom bare prøve den på, da. / I was just going to like, try it on.

ehh / øhh - uhh, uhm. Super useful.

på en måte - “in a way” or “kind of”.  Han er litt merkelig, på en måte. / He’s a little strange, kind of.

bare - “just” Jeg skal bare innom butikken. / I’m just gonna pop by the store.

ikke sant? - translates to “not true”, but is used for saying “right?” “don’t you agree?”. Around Bergen, people usually drop the “ikke” and just say “sant”. I’m from Bergen so I didn’t know that not everyone says this until I googled it lol. 

skjønner du / skjø’ - used at the end of sentences in the same way as “you see” in English. It comes from the word “å skjønne”, which means to understand, to realize or to “get it”. “Skjø’” is not really used in the southern regions, but if you’re around Trøndelag, you’ll hear this a lot. In other regions one would say “skjønner du”. Han er lærer, skjø’/skjønner du. / He is a teacher, you see.

Feel free to ask me questions about these or request more specific fillers!

[positivityforbaddays]

LHBT = LGBT Skeiv = Queer (the most commonly used umbrella term. literally “not straight”)

Lesbisk = Lesbian Lesbe = Lesbian (Informal, sometimes used negatively) Homo = Gay (please note that it’s not negatively loaded like in English) Homse = Gay (Informal, sometimes used negatively) Homofil = Homosexual Bi = Bi (pronounced like ‘Bee’) Bifil = Bisexual Biseksuell = Bisexual Transkjønnet = Transgender Interkjønn = Intersex Aseksuell = Asexual Cisperson = A cisgender person Ciskjønnet = Cisgender Kjæreste = Boyfriend, Girlfriend, or Significant other (completely gender neutral) Legning = Orientation Orientering = Orientation Polyamori = Polyamory

Kjønn = Sex OR Gender (there is no seperate term for the two in Norwegian) Kjønnsidentitet = Gender identity Androgyn = Androgynous (Å) Komme ut = (To) Come out Likekjønnspar = Same gender couples Regnbueflagg = Rainbow flag

Hen = Gender neutral pronoun

[helplessgermanstudent]

How to know which language level you’re at and tips for improving your skills - divided by proficiency level!

These are all my personal thoughts and experiences from reaching a proficient level in one language, and an intermediate in another!! Feel free to correct me or add whatever you wish<3

 1. A0 - Knowledge Level: Nothing

At this stage, you have absolutely no knowledge or very little knowledge about a language. My advice is to start out slow: the alphabet, pronunciation rules, basic pronouns, colors, etc. At this point, there’s not much you can improve on (Reading/Writing, Listening and Speaking) since you’ve got no actual knowledge to expand upon. Try apps like Duolingo, have fun with translating words such as your favorite animal, plant, or swear word. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself at this point, it’s all in good fun! Try starting a notebook in which you write down new words, (i.e. all of them) or watching a couple videos on Youtube, even if you don’t understand much.

2. A1 - Knowledge Level: Just a Bit

This is when you slowly exit the stage of “is this even a language” and enter the “beginner” world. You know a couple basic verbs (to be, to have, eat, sleep, walk, talk, etc) and some sets of basic nouns/pronouns. (weekdays, months, numbers, colors, objects you find around the house, and all that fun jazz.) You can string together a couple sentences you’ve heard twenty times on Duolingo! Regardless of the fact that “The boys drink milk” is not really something you’ll need in irl conversation, it’s good that you’re getting familiar. By this time, you should start looking into proper grammar rules such as verb terminations, tenses, noun declinations, pronouns, etc. Children’s books are a good way to learn a lot of stuff you’d need. The language is simple and it goes straight to the point, which is the only type of writing you understand, mostly. Right now, speaking is not really an option aside from learning to pronounce words right. Listening, on the other hand, can be done really easily! If you find that Youtube channels in your target language are boring or too hard to understand, music is the way to go. You’re especially lucky if you’re a Disney fan, because most of their songs are easy to remember and are dubbed in a lot of languages, so have fun with finding what fits you best!

3. A2 - Knowledge Level: Basic/Preliminary

Now we’re beginning to see some major improvements. You pick up words easier, you can read almost perfectly even if you don’t understand everything, and you can form really basic sentences by yourself. For speaking, by now you should be able to say your name, the place you live in, and maybe talk about your hobbies or your favorite stuff! It depends on if you’ve worked with a teacher until now or not, so don’t worry if you’re still struggling. As a stepping stone between beginner and intermediate, this level can either be the one when you slowly improve or make a really big jump in your skills. Listening to songs and youtube videos should be easier, but nobody is expecting you to actually comprehend everything. As for vocabulary and reading, learning new words should come more intuitively by now, but again, you’re still in the early days. Writing is still something that can be difficult, so try maybe linking a couple sentences together to make a short story and translating some simple texts. But it you don’t find it difficult, writing a hundred words once a couple days may be the way to go.

4. B1 - Knowledge Level - Intermediate

Finally, we’ve reached the intermediate stage! By now you should be able to hold very basic conversation and reveal information about yourself. You should be able to pick up words you know from the people around you, and understand mostly everything if spoken slowly and clearly to. Reading light books or magazines should be challenging but okay, while you should be able to remember certain words without making too big of an effort. By this stage, active learning is still essential, as you probably have a lot more ahead in your language learning journey. I encourage you to write short stories or several sentences about your day in a diary, depending on what works for you. Watching Youtube videos should be something you do often, because it improves listening skills greatly and gets you accustomed to informal speech patterns and filler words.

5. B2 - Knowledge Level - Advanced Intermediate

Yay! You have officially reached the advanced intermediate stage! You should be able to hold everyday conversation without too big of a headache, listening probably isn’t a breeze for you but still, if you watch a basic youtube video you can pretty much get all of it. YA books should be a regular part of your reading, since they’re not too hard to comprehend but still a good reading exercise. Vocabulary probably isn’t a bother anymore, since you know most of the words you need and the ones you don’t, you hear them once or five times and they stick to you. At this level you can probably write some basic fanfiction, or anything that doesn’t require advanced language skills but is still challenging. Congrats! You’re almost at an advanced level!

6. C1 - Advanced

If you’re still here, means you’ve got a strong sense of dedication. C1 is the advanced level, where you have pretty much everything that you need to comfortably live your life in a country which speaks your target language. If you’re already here and most of the above things seem far, far away to you, then maybe it’s time to get down on some serious reading. Look up local classics, or contemporary works that stimulate your mind. Writing essays, reviews, reports, etc, should be something you are able to do, as you have a good grasp on both formal and informal language, both literary concepts and idioms/phrasal verbs/slang. Listening should come easily, with the ability to understand everything that is spoken to you without worries, as long as they don’t have an alien accent. Speaking, too, should be a breeze by now, with everyday conversation being a piece of cake and more formal conversations not posing too big of a challenge. If you want to reach the next– and last– level, it can be done through thorough preparation of skills that are usually required by exams or for language-related jobs. If you don’t care about either of these, congrats! You learned a language! 

7. C2 - Proficient

Long past fluency, you now wish to master a language, down to its very core and history. Pick up some of the big classics to read. Watch a bunch of those complicated videos explaining complicated concepts. Write poetry and prose,and speak to people in contexts which require more than the average range of vocabulary. If you’re still not satisfied, get a damn teacher. Tumblr can’t help you now.

[jeparletoutesleslangues]

Toki Pona Overview pt. 1 (Words)

**sources: Wikipedia and tokipona.net**

Toki Pona is a minimal conlang.

The Vocabulary (essentially these are all the words in the language)

-words may be used as nouns, adjectives, verbs, or adverbs, therefore the meaning given in the picture is HIGHLY flexible

-writing systems: latin script (eg. “telo”), sitelen pona (i.e. hieroglyphic representation like the two waves above “telo”), sitelen sitelen (i.e. syllable based hieroglyphics), Tengwar script, and even Kanji 

-there is also a sign language format!

-FUN FACT: many of the words are derived from English, Finnish, Tok Pisin, Georgian, Dutch, Acadian French, Esperanto, Croatian, Chinese, and a few other languages

~ Alphabet & Pronunciation ~

9 consonants: p, t, k, s, m, n, l, j, w

5 vowels: a, e, i, o, u

-the letter sounds are very similar to English except “j” has a “y” sound (which is similar to Esperanto and German)

-vowel sounds do not change: father, met, peel, more, and food respectively represent the sounds of a, e, i, o, and u

-the first syllable of a word is always stressed

-most words have 2 syllables (70%), though some are 1 syllable (~20%) or 3 syllables (10%)

~ Pronouns/Possessive Adjectives ~

-mi: I, we, me, us, my, our

-sina: you, yours

-ona: any 3rd person identifier 

~ Nouns ~

-no NUMBER is expressed. singular and plural verbs appear the same

-lots of noun phrases/compound words must be used (eg. jan + utala = person + fight = warrior/soldier; telo + kili = liquid + fruit = juice)

-no proper nouns exist so they are expressed by noun + distinct adjective (eg. to refer to me [my name is Leeza], you would say jan Leeza [jan= person]. Note: you can also “tokiponize” a name)

~ Modifiers ~

the order is important from comprehension!

- noun + modifier 1 + modifier 2 is read as (noun + modifier 1) + modifier 2

that is…. jan pona lukin (person + good + look at) is read as ‘a friend who is looking,’ not ‘a good-looking person’

- noun + “pi” + modifier 1 + modifier 2 + modifier 3…..etc

this structure allows you to group as many modifiers as you need. “Pi” means of. Eg. jan pi pona lukin = a good-looking person

- demonstratives (ni), numbers, and possessive adjectives follow other modifiers 

~ Numbers ~

nanpa: number

wan: 1

tu: 2

luka: 5

mute: 20

ali/ale: 100

-there are two numerical systems which will be explained in a future post! They are probably the biggest drawback to the language because they’re not very efficient/distinct though.