I love Norway and decided to learn Norwegian :)

Freelander   Mon Sep 28, 2009 2:06 am GMT
I love this country from my childhood and it is absolutely irrational, I even can't explain it for myself :)

Now I'm 37 years old and decided to learn Norwegian. It is the time :) The problem is that I can't find any school where I can study Norwegian as English in an English school. I found one school, but that place located more than 200 kilometers from me. So, it looks that I have to do this by myself. I am ready, but the biggest problem is pronunciation.

I will be very thankful, if somebody could suggest the best links to resources for effective self learning of Norwegian.
a demotivator   Mon Sep 28, 2009 2:23 am GMT
I could tell him the bad news now or let him find out for himself... Should I say it or turn a blind eye?
K. T.   Mon Sep 28, 2009 3:17 am GMT
Maybe "a demotivator" means this:
http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t6465.htm

BOOKS
Some people have enjoyed "Teach Yourself" Norwegian. One of the people who used to post here, a gentleman named Earl or Earle, used the 10 minutes a Day book, I think. You can search the site here as well.

BEST OVERALL RESOURCE
The best resource to check is HTLAL (just type it in google), and look for "Norwegian" on their site. They have plenty of serious language learners over there and some people who really know how to learn languages. They give advice on resources, books, recordings, etc. Another choice would be to look at Omniglot, a great language site.

PRONUNCIATION
Listen everyday to recordings in Norwegian. You can relax and close your eyes while you listen or you can play it in the background while you do something like search the internet. After awhile the sounds should start to become very familiar.
a demotivator   Mon Sep 28, 2009 4:08 am GMT
I was referring to the brutal fact of almost insurmountable failure confronting this guy. Let's examine the factors stacked up against him:

- 37 years to get the required motivation to begin... the motivation to continue is 100 times that required to begin....
- Learning alone with only books (good for some, but not for others... I have a feeling he is an 'other')
- Not learning in Norway...
- Norwegian is not a high profile, resource rich language... High quality material will be scarce...
- Even if he goes to Norway, who's going to speak to him in Norwegian...
- Soon after beginning he will suffer the "not cool any more syndrome", that is, once you learn the language of a country that used to be a source of magical fascination for you, you come slowly to lose your interest in that country as you realise that they are just normal stupid people with the same issues as you and that there really isn't any thing special about that country at all. All the mystery dissipates and you're left with ordinary boring people like your next door neighbours... You'll find out that everything you thought you knew is false or exaggerated - they don't really like that traditional stuff; they don't like that Norwegian music that you heard and loved, but rather they love American music; they don't eat that traditional dish, but rather eat McDonalds; and so on... You'll have a hard time overcoming the demotivation this implies.
- People will demotivate you at every step: "why the hell would you learn Norwegian if you already speak English!?" Many people will consider you a wierdo and may avoid you.


And so on... it pains me to mess with your 37 year old dream, but it's for your own good. Why make an effort at all?


Always remember:
"If at first attempt you don't succeed, give up. And if success is unlikely to begin with, don't even make a first attempt."
- a wise demotivator
Freelander   Mon Sep 28, 2009 4:51 am GMT
K. T.,

Thanks a lot for very useful information :)
I will use it.
The only problem is that I'm living in small village in Ukraine and in this hole even impossible to order something from Amazon (I found a lot of books in Norwegian there). That or so, I will solve this somehow. :)

I also found NRK website where they have many netTV and netRadio, so this problem solved :)
Freelander   Mon Sep 28, 2009 5:02 am GMT
demotivator,

I see the situation from other perspective. I spent 37 years preparing for decision :)) Once I decided, I WILL DO ;)
I have have been to Norway, but just for 2 hours. I think 2 hours is not enough time to learn language.

Ikke vaer sa skeptisk til meg ;)
okoi   Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:49 am GMT
Norwegian pronunciation should be quite easy for an English speaking person.. shouldn't it?
I have always thought that Danish, Swedish and Norwegian were the easiest languages to learn for English speaking people. The pronunciation is not that different and grammar is quite easy, much easier than Spanish for instance, at least you don't need to conjugate tons of verbs like in the Romance languages
a demotivator   Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:51 am GMT
"Ikke vaer sa skeptisk til meg"

See. You love Norwegian so much but you can't spell "vær" and "så" correctly. One of the first things in learning a foreign language should be learning the orthography. Especially when both Bokmål and Nynorks are relatively easy to learn.
Karioka da Gema   Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:23 am GMT
I love Nynorsk.

Brasil er den største staten i Sør-Amerika både i flatevidd, folketal og bruttonasjonalprodukt. Landet grensar til alle andre statar i Sør-Amerika utanom Chile og Ecuador. Brasil er kjend for å ha store areal regnskog, og har fått namn etter brasiltreet, som voks i store mengder i området då landet blei oppdaga av europearar.

Kart over Brasil

Hovudstaden i landet er Brasilia og andre store byar inkluderer São Paulo og Rio de Janeiro. Brasil er nesten like stort som USA og er rikt på naturressursar.

Ekvator går gjennom Brasil, og landet har derfor hovudsakleg tropisk klima. Mykje fukte har ført til veksten av den store regnskogen i Amazonas nord i landet. Eit opnare, tørrare landskap av åsar og låge fjell sør i landet har gjeve rom til mykje av det viktige landbruket i landet.

Langs atlanterhavskysten ligg fleire fjellkjeder som kan ha toppar på om lag 2 900 meter. Pico da Neblina på 3 140 moh. som ligg nord i landet, i Guiana, er likevel den høgaste fjelltoppen.

Amazonaselva, er ei viktig elv i Brasil og ei av dei største i verda. Andre viktige elvar er Paranáelva, Iguaçu, Rio Negro og Tapajós.
guest   Mon Sep 28, 2009 11:10 am GMT
<< You love Norwegian so much but you can't spell "vær" and "så" correctly >>

He/she probably just doesn't know how to type those characters on a keyboard yet. You don't need to be so negative...this person seems quite keen on the language and has every right to learn it. Yes, Norwegians may wonder why you would bother, but Bokmål Norwegian is probably one of the easiest languages out there to learn for a speaker of English, so it's not like you have to expend much effort.

Freelander: a compact, cheap and attractive little guide that you might want to pick up is Norwegian Verbs And Essentials of Grammar, by Louis Janus.
Tom   Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:59 pm GMT
Demotivator: Thanks for summing up the reasons why I never managed to learn a foreign language other than English properly. All of your points are valid, but the lack of interesting content is the deal-breaker for me. I cannot even find compelling content in German or Spanish. All the good stuff is in English! I don't even want to think about backwater languages like Polish and Norwegian (nothing against Norway). The only things that could motivate me to learn Norwegian and follow through would be living in Norway or having a Norwegian girlfriend.

Anyway, I will keep your post for future reference. :)
a question for you   Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:42 pm GMT
Tom, do you dislike your first language?
furu   Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:44 pm GMT
Nynorsk seems more similar to Swedish than to Danish.
Freelander   Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:58 pm GMT
I strongly disagree.

In my country people say: "As many languages you know, so many times you are human".

You should be very pity person, if the only stuff is important in your life. By the way, more or less 10 years ago I learned Polish and consequently I have many friends in Poland. Just two of them are speaking English.

Generally I speak 5 languages and I do not regret this.

Jeg elsker Norge :)
Johnny   Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:05 pm GMT
<<I love this country from my childhood and it is absolutely irrational, I even can't explain it for myself >>

That's the problem. I wouldn't be able to learn a foreign language just for the sake of it. It would be a waste of time, it would be very difficult to stay motivated, and once learned it would be difficult to "maintain" (that is, keep using it and not let it go rusty).

I would like to learn another language, but I really can't find any motivations other than "for the sake of it". It's hard to admit that once you've learned English, you have everything you need, but that's the truth.
As Tom said, moving to a certain country or having a foreign girlfriend are the best motivations I can think of. There are others, but "for the sake of it" is not a motivation at all.

I think I'd like to learn Chinese or Japanese, but my current best motivation would be "because it'd be cool to brag that I knew such exotic and complicated languages", and that's not enough as a motivation.
So think about it twice, because maybe you'll find that it is much more useful to spend your time improving your English, or learning how to play an instrument, or going to the gym.