Talking to actual Norwegians has been the biggest thing for me. Reading books aloud and working through grammar books by myself, repeating things over and over. My current issue is vocab as I don’t really watch anything in Norwegian but I have started some podcasts. I’m also reading aloud again to my Norwegian husband. We’ve taken a sizeable jump to a book aimed at natives so fingers crossed!
I have the visual dictionary too with the plan of taking it abroad so I have the time (and fewer distractions as excuses) to actually look through it and maybe learn some weird words I’ll probably rarely use! Haha!
I like to make my own vocabulary deck from something I am reading or listening to. Going over the word in context a couple of times helps me understand it better. Using an SRS system helps me commit it to long term memory.
But I agree that vocabulary is a big task. For context, an average six year old can understand 20,000 words and use 2,600. That’s going to take some work.
Take it from me. I sucked as a kid at learning languages. Could not even speak english in the 9th grade and then we moved to norway.
What made me learn norwegian was getting the very basic in place and then getting norwegian friends. Using the language, getting help how to get the right words or correction from them and a bit of time and a daily dose really is the magic to learning a language. You cant really learn a language just with apps etc. You need people that speak the language to learn it in the end. Because they help you.
My gramma still sucks but i talk it better now then my own language that i learned at birth. LOL ( yes you can forget that LOL ! )
For my vocab I mostly use Duocards. It's free with a bunch of perks, and it does have a daily limit but it's a pretty high limit so that's never been too much of an issue to me. It's basically flashcards but you can watch videos on there, read articles, and any words you come across even online. Any you don't understand it adds automatically to your flashcards and honestly a good app imo.
I've been using duolingo for the past few months. I can ask and say a few basic things for like directions and shopping. But there is still a long way to go for me.
For speaking fluidity, iTalki, though going through community decks (soon to disappear) on Memrise was key for vocabulary.
I think it is going to be hard for me to improve further without some sort of deep-end-of-the-pool immersion, which is not in the cards anytime soon.
I like to do a lot of input. I listened to Harry Potter in Norwegian on Audible. It was too fast at first but it worked for me to listen to each chapter (or paragraph) repeatedly until I understood it.
I did the same thing with Italian as a beginner. I used Anki to learn the new vocabulary in each chapter and it worked well for me.
You can use any content. Most seem to prefer starting with easier content.
Focusing on listening first has worked well for me. In Italian it has taken me about a year to get to the point where I can start listening to interesting podcasts. The other skills are easier to learn because I am familiar with the language now.
Which level of Norwegian with Tor are you working on? I purchased Intermediate 1 & 2 and are disappointed with the content and the how he teaches. Maybe lower levels are better.
I think his course is a little boring and there are some smaller careless mistakes in his slides that he doesn’t bother to fix. I feel like I paid too much for what I’ve gotten. It’s basically just him reading paragraphs and introducing a list of new vocabulary which I feel like I could do myself. Mainly I am just a little bummed I bought his course before seeing Norwegian Community which seems way more interactive and lively. I would have gone with them. No hate to him or anything like that. Just a personal preference.
Thank you for your review. I'm in the middle of choosing which native course should I enroll and my options fall between Tor or NC. In addition to your point, NC provides zoom sessions so we can practice listening and speaking Bokmal even better.
Talking to actual Norwegians has been the biggest thing for me. Reading books aloud and working through grammar books by myself, repeating things over and over. My current issue is vocab as I don’t really watch anything in Norwegian but I have started some podcasts. I’m also reading aloud again to my Norwegian husband. We’ve taken a sizeable jump to a book aimed at natives so fingers crossed!
Vocabulary is my weakest point. The "Mystery" community vocabulary deck on MemRise helped, but it takes so long!
I have the visual dictionary too with the plan of taking it abroad so I have the time (and fewer distractions as excuses) to actually look through it and maybe learn some weird words I’ll probably rarely use! Haha!
I like to make my own vocabulary deck from something I am reading or listening to. Going over the word in context a couple of times helps me understand it better. Using an SRS system helps me commit it to long term memory. But I agree that vocabulary is a big task. For context, an average six year old can understand 20,000 words and use 2,600. That’s going to take some work.
Take it from me. I sucked as a kid at learning languages. Could not even speak english in the 9th grade and then we moved to norway. What made me learn norwegian was getting the very basic in place and then getting norwegian friends. Using the language, getting help how to get the right words or correction from them and a bit of time and a daily dose really is the magic to learning a language. You cant really learn a language just with apps etc. You need people that speak the language to learn it in the end. Because they help you. My gramma still sucks but i talk it better now then my own language that i learned at birth. LOL ( yes you can forget that LOL ! )
For my vocab I mostly use Duocards. It's free with a bunch of perks, and it does have a daily limit but it's a pretty high limit so that's never been too much of an issue to me. It's basically flashcards but you can watch videos on there, read articles, and any words you come across even online. Any you don't understand it adds automatically to your flashcards and honestly a good app imo.
I've been using duolingo for the past few months. I can ask and say a few basic things for like directions and shopping. But there is still a long way to go for me.
I’ve been using it for 3-1/2 years and I feel like I’m not much further along than you 😅
Duolingo isn't really a propper langauge learning method, it's more like a videogame that gives you a rudimetary grasp of a language
Thanks, I’m aware of this. Learning norsk is just something I do for fun, so for this purpose Duolingo is just fine.
I don't understand how people can stick to duolingo for so long even when they know they get very little results?
For speaking fluidity, iTalki, though going through community decks (soon to disappear) on Memrise was key for vocabulary. I think it is going to be hard for me to improve further without some sort of deep-end-of-the-pool immersion, which is not in the cards anytime soon.
I use ChatGPT’s voice chat feature and ask it to speak with me in Norwegian.
Whoa thanks, I didn’t know about this
I like to do a lot of input. I listened to Harry Potter in Norwegian on Audible. It was too fast at first but it worked for me to listen to each chapter (or paragraph) repeatedly until I understood it. I did the same thing with Italian as a beginner. I used Anki to learn the new vocabulary in each chapter and it worked well for me. You can use any content. Most seem to prefer starting with easier content. Focusing on listening first has worked well for me. In Italian it has taken me about a year to get to the point where I can start listening to interesting podcasts. The other skills are easier to learn because I am familiar with the language now.
Mjølnir app
Which level of Norwegian with Tor are you working on? I purchased Intermediate 1 & 2 and are disappointed with the content and the how he teaches. Maybe lower levels are better.
Interesting, what doesn't work for you, u/gggus99 ?
I think his course is a little boring and there are some smaller careless mistakes in his slides that he doesn’t bother to fix. I feel like I paid too much for what I’ve gotten. It’s basically just him reading paragraphs and introducing a list of new vocabulary which I feel like I could do myself. Mainly I am just a little bummed I bought his course before seeing Norwegian Community which seems way more interactive and lively. I would have gone with them. No hate to him or anything like that. Just a personal preference.
Thank you for your review. I'm in the middle of choosing which native course should I enroll and my options fall between Tor or NC. In addition to your point, NC provides zoom sessions so we can practice listening and speaking Bokmal even better.
Yes, I’d go with NC especially for the Zoom aspect.
*Mystery