How to learn Norwegian (or any language)

I have not written any posts this year. In addition to classes I will hopefully manage to write a complete learning from A-Z in stages on my homepage Norwegian Learning. At best it will take a long time to finish. At worst it will be too demanding to finish.

What I'm writing about here is the demands and tips to learn a language in general and Norwegian in particular.
1. Learning a new language require a lot of work. If your motivation is to learn some languages and Norwegian is more or less randomly chosen you will probably quit before you reach your end goals.

2. To learn Norwegian you will need to study on a semi-regular schedule. Start with a simple grammatical element and learn it properly by studying a little every day. The law of diminishing returns does not apply to language learning. Doubling your efforts will more than double your learning.

3. Take control of the learning process but use the assistance of a tutor. The bulk of your learning process will have to be done by yourself and not in classes. If you don't study yourself but only learn in the classes your process will be very slow indeed. Instead you should study a lot between classes and the tutor should be able to correct your errors, answer your doubts and provide you enough tasks for you to do between classes. Just studying on your own has the risk creating bad habits that are very difficult to change later.

4. Use good tools and materials. Which learning materials are the best varies from person to person. Some prefer to learn language with grammar books while others prefer to use mostly texts and audio. In addition to this material there are other tools you should use. One I and many other like to use is ANKI. This is a free program using flash cards. That you have to fill in the data yourself is not to be considered a disadvantage. It will make it much easier to remember what you fill in.
Another resource that can be very useful is the tasks provided by the site of the main book used in Norwegian language schools - Pa Vei. The tasks can be found for Pa vei 2004 and Pa Vei 2012. In addition, try to get good verb list in order to remember the conjugations of basic Norwegian verbs.

Following the above rules, Norwegian is not a particularly difficult language to learn. As with all languages, however, if you are only somewhat motivated to learn the language it is very difficult to learn. If you seriously are willing to do the work - you can get very well on your way in less than 6 months.

If you are looking for a Norwegian tutor you should visit my site to Learn Norwegian.

Learning Norwegian - the basics

In my experience there are several issues that causes problems for someone who are learning Norwegian with English as their primarily language, or someone who uses English as reference because their native language is too different.

Firstly, whenever you start to learn Norwegian you will have to learn the basic elements. Some prefer to learn Norwegian through a lot of not basic texts. This can seem great in the beginning. Instead of learning through the lame dialog found in basic book, you will learn through more interesting texts. In the beginning you might not care that you don't understand completely everything. Problem is that you will probably develop bad habits that can be difficult to shake later. Regular Norwegian classes follows the layout of the Norwegian Course outlined. Often I see these errors among those who have not learned Norwegian step by step:

1) Remember that Norwegian do NOT have -ing form in verbs. The present is, for regular verbs, simply made by adding -r. This is not among the more common errors, but it is a very serious mistake. Norwegian does have -ing words but they are describing the act of and are not verbs.

2) More common errors, but not as serious as the one mentioned in 1), are pronunciation errors. There are many special rules and sounds in Norwegian. E.g. "gj" usually turns into "j" when spoken. Commonly some letters are also silent in the end of words. Native Norwegians will generally be able to understand you if this is the only kind of mistake you are making. The problem, however, is that it will be very difficult to understand when Norwegians speak when the words don't sound exactly the way they look.

Bryggen in Bergen, Norway

3) The Third problem that is very common is the word order. It is not too difficult to learn the position of the verbs in Norwegian. That being said, it often become more difficult if you have developed a bad habit. In addition, this kind of error will make your Norwegian sound really amateurish.

I will hopefully include some further instruction about these elements later.

The Norwegian Classes

The Norwegian Classes I offer on my site - Learn Norwegian Online - follow a set pattern. Naturally the pattern is adjustable, but it follows this pattern for a reason. The aim is to train all language aspects.

1. The first element in each language part or chapter is the grammatical part. Every class has a brief overview of the rules that will be gone through in the next topics in the class. Purpose is to be aware of them when we have training with the text and communication.

2. Text and reading. This part gets modified based on the level of the course. At the beginner's level focus is on repetition where in order to In the beginning the focus is on repetition where teacher reads the text first and it is to be repeated. Purpose is to both have training in common phrases and pronunciation. When you are at an intermediate level the added focus is also on vocabulary (in addition to more advanced grammar). Purpose is for you being able to have skills for a more and more advanced Norwegian including its vocabulary. This element is of the utmost importance for those who whom want to take the test "Bergenstesten".

Regardless of level there are discussions in connection with the reading tasks. Best way to learn is by production of the language one is learning. 

3. Listening tasks are an integral part of the classes. This is particularly important in the beginning to be used to hear Norwegian in various different dialects. It also encourage a stronger focus, because listening to newly learned words is more demanding than solely rely on the text.

4. Homework. When learning new topics and when classes are just a few times a week it is a huge advantage to do some training in between classes. This includes a written task that gets corrected for free.

A picture of the city of Bergen in Norway

Contact info for more information about the Norwegian classes:
email@norwegianlearning.com

Current Price for individual classes (60 minutes) in 2015: US$ 20

Use of infinitive in phrases

When making phrases in Norwegian using two verbs in sequence, the principles are the same as when writing or speaking in English. Even so, it is sometimes difficult to transfer the rules to another language. Not too strange considering that so much of English is not directly transferable to Norwegian.

Same as with English it is very common when combining to verbs in sequence that the second is in infinitive with the article. This is regardless whether the first verb was in present or past tense, but here I will use present tense to make it easy.

English: He loves to eat chocolate
Norwegian: Han elsker å spise sjokolade

Some exceptions are for certain verbs, however, where the second verb will be in the infinitive format but without the article. These verbs are primarily in its present tense form : Kan, Skal, Vil, Må, Bør (Can, Shall, Will, Must, Should).

English: He can eat chocolate
Norwegian: Han kan spise sjokolade

Norwegian adjectives

Norwegian adjectives are not very dissimilar to English adjectives.
The conjugation for most of them are: Mer (more) and Mest (most).
For plural the adjectives generally ends in -e. For the words in the example below the plural version becomes: "praktiske" and "normale"

Examples of conjugation.
Praktisk (Practical) - mer praktisk - mest praktisk
Normal (normal) - mer normal - mest normal

There are huge number of exceptions. However, the exceptions are generally based on the ending of the word and therefore something one will get used to after practice with the Norwegian language.
For example with -ig ending the word follow a particular pattern.

Alvorlig (serious) - alvorligere (more serious) - alvorligst (most serious)

Common irregular verbs

In a previous post I have emphasized that the present tense in Norwegian is quite easy for regular verbs. To create the present tense you only add "-r" to the infinitive form, and the conjugation of the verb doesn't change based on who does the action. Example, Jeg spiser (I eat) han spiser (he eats).

Unfortunately not all verbs are regular and some of the verbs are impossible to avoid. Some very important irregular verbs are:
Å være (to be) - Er (present tense) - Var (past tense)
Å gjøre (to do) - gjør (present tense) - gjorde (past tense)
Å vite (to know) - vet (present tense) - visste (past tense)

In addition there are the "modalverbs", verbs that usually has an additional verb in the infinitive form. Example, jeg skal spise. "Skal" is the infinitive form of "skulle". However, these are the topic of another post.

Another language course Curso ingles Porto Alegre

Speaking Norwegian

To properly pronounce Norwegian you will have to get used to certain "rules". One set of rule that causes some problem in the beginning, but soon is learned is the tendency of a vowel in front of a single consonant to become long, whereas it becomes short in front of a double consonant.

Samples of words with short vowel are: katt (cat), snakke (speak), spille (play), inne (inside)
Samples of words with long vowel are: mat (food), pen (pretty), hage (garden), hus (house)

To practise pronunciation the best is to use a Norwegian Teacher.