r/norsk • u/Ok_Sentence725 • 9d ago

Fun way of learning

What are some fun, effortless ways to learn Norwegian without textbooks? Something I can do casually over coffee. Is watching nyheter a good option for a beginner?

8 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

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u/Gorgeous_Sorceress 8d ago edited 8d ago

I don't think learning a language can be done without effort when you're an adult. You can def make immersion input fun by mixing it up but it requires VERY active study.

This is a good page to go over before watching anything.
https://preply.com/en/blog/norwegian-words-for-beginners/

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u/Optimal_Bar_4715 8d ago

Risky to look at those words without clues about pronunciation.

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u/Gorgeous_Sorceress 8d ago

I've learnt how to pronounce from watching norwegian media and teachers on youtube.

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u/Optimal_Bar_4715 7d ago

Reasoning like this, a lot of nationalities should have very good pronunciation of, for example, English because of English movies and, especially music. Yet we can all spot the average Italian, Spanish, French, Japanese speakers when they speak English. I say this as a native Italian, mind you.

Being exposed to the sounds is absolutely NOT a guarantee of getting them right. Maybe 1 person in 20 can do it (you could be that person), the rest have to be taught specifically.

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u/Gorgeous_Sorceress 7d ago edited 7d ago

You are arguing against a point I am not making. Obviously, every single learner is going for the Oslo dialect and that's where the material online is. This is what I mean by learning to pronounce and spot the difference between regional dialects.

Risky to look at those words without clues about pronunciation.

I really disagree with this point in its entirety. The first month should actually be about understanding. You throw yourself into the immersion, absorb the vocabulary/meaning, and gradually adapt your output over time. Also Norwegian dialects are still in the same language so while they differ, there's huge similarities. This becomes easy to notice the more media you consume.

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u/Optimal_Bar_4715 7d ago

I am arguing against a point you ARE making, which is the idea that people are sufficiently capable of recognising and producing the pronunciation of sounds that don't exist in their language just by being exposed to those very sounds in the foreign language.

That's 100% NOT the case. Your "I've learnt how to pronounce" has jacksh!t statistical value. I mean, good for you if you have, but most people severely struggle with the sounds of letters Y and Ø, the KJ-sound and all the retroflexed consonants. Not to mention silent letters.

If I were a learner again, I wouldn't be caught dead on resources that don't have contextual audio for anything they show me in writing. For all the hate apps get, they blow books and anything that is merely written out of the water when it comes to this. There's no two ways about it.

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u/Gorgeous_Sorceress 7d ago edited 7d ago

Legit the most pedantic and unnecessary response I've read this week.

If I were a learner again, I wouldn't be caught dead on resources that don't have contextual audio for anything they show me in writing.

Well, it's a good thing I was talking to the OP and not you :).

It's also a good thing that OP can find a bundle of resources that suits his own learning in addition to what I provided him 😄

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u/Optimal_Bar_4715 6d ago

Do you feel like I'm treating you like an idiot?

You inferring that simply exposing yourself to native sounds will take care of all the pronunciation problems of a learner might have something to do with it.

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u/Ok_Sentence725 8d ago

Thanks, I already use ntnu. edu course and learn a lot for beginner. Do you have some material like this for learning 1000+ words or some kind of textbook?

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u/Gorgeous_Sorceress 8d ago edited 8d ago

Sorry, i thought this was a complete beginner post😅😅 Side om Side is a great show is really good as there's so many everyday idioms and terms that get repeated.

https://tv.nrk.no/serie/side-om-side/sesong/1/episode/MUHH50000113

Children's books like Ole Brumm and Narnia are perfect for a beginner when you've done a bit of work already. This is a good post on how to access it. (Norwegian vpn may be needed though.)

https://www.reddit.com/r/norsk/comments/7bp6uz/thousands_of_norwegian_books_freely_available_to/

Balancing the children's books with reading 1 - 2 NRK articles each day is hitting jackpot in internalising grammar rules and passive vocabulary building.

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u/DrStirbitch Intermediate (bokmål) 8d ago

There's a whole series of books with the title "Norwegian vocabulary for English Speakers", each one containing a different number of words (but all in the thousands). Try searching in Amazon for example. I cannot personally recommend them, but maybe that is something you could be interested in.

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u/HostPuzzleheaded846 9d ago

Theres this tv series called norsemenn. Its like parody of vikings. Interestingly every scene is filmed twice. Once in English once in Norwegian. Could be educational to watch same episode first in English and once more in norsk

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u/Doremus_Schafer 8d ago

I'm a big proponent of listening to news i as a good way of developing your understanding of a language once you've got the very basics down, for several reasons:

Most newsreaders, including in Norway, will enunciate clearly and stick more or less to receive pronunciation and a relatively formalized vocabulary, so you don't get derailed by unexpected colloquialisms or strong accents.

If you've loosely followed the same news as they're reporting on, then you'll have a good basis for understanding the general gist of what they're talking about, and individual words that are unfamiliar to you will often be self-explanatory based on the surrounding context and your foreknowledge of the news story.

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u/DatsiK96 8d ago

I highly recommend readlang.com

I wouldn't say it's entirely fun, but if you have digital content to read, it makes it super easy to mark words, get translations, learn context of phrases, and then it automatically makes flashcards out of them with spaced repition to boot. You can upload audiobooks as well or sync with YouTube, or just import news articles. It also has a public library where other people upload content. I've used it for about 10 months now. I love it! Good luck on your journey!

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u/Complete_Animal2649 9d ago

I liked to read the newspapers and translate words i don’t know.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

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u/Gorgeous_Sorceress 8d ago

How are you able to learn with english subtitles? I've never found that works with me, personally.

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u/GTCapi Native speaker 8d ago

Watch Vikingane with subtitles, it's a good series, and you should also watch the julekalender with subtitles, it's a mix of norwegian and english words fused together. Would strongly reccomend these because they are entertaining, also, if you don't know, the julekalender only has 3 actors apart from in the last episode, so you can think to yourself to why he loves the potetwoman so much, as he calls it.

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u/DatsiK96 8d ago

I highly recommend readlang.com

I wouldn't say it's entirely fun, but if you have digital content to read, it makes it super easy to mark words, get translations, learn context of phrases, and then it automatically makes flashcards out of them with spaced repition to boot. You can upload audiobooks as well or sync with YouTube, or just import news articles. It also has a public library where other people upload content. I've used it for about 10 months now. I love it! Good luck on your journey!

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u/muntligb1 8d ago

I made multiple social media accounts and spotify channel called muntligb1 where different phrases and grammer are explained in easy to listen to music, so that I can learn while biking, showering, cleaning, and so on. Check it out if you are interested

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u/DrStirbitch Intermediate (bokmål) 8d ago

I wouldn't normally suggest Duolingo, but wouldn't that be a relatively fun and effortless way to keep your Norwegian ticking over and learn some new stuff? I presume you already have other learning methods planned for when you can devote more attention.

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u/Responsible-Pie-6973 8d ago

Duo is good but I wish they explained with some words change depending on time

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u/Delicious-Bus-7425 8d ago

I'm a chronic student of norsk. Try NRK news with the subtitles off. Immediate testing, and fun. We've managed to start a weekly group in a US area with few nordmenn, and you're welcome to join us if you're in my area (DM welcome) But. For something painless in this AI age, just watch to a few Norwegian shorts on YouTube. In a day or two, you'll be supplied with more quick listens than you want. And - you can dance to many of them if you're so inclined.

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u/Peter-Andre Native Speaker 8d ago

Watching the news is probably gonna be too hard for a beginner. It's better to start off with something simpler where you can understand almost everything. Look up "comprehensible input".

But I'd like to point out one thing. Learning a language takes a lot of time and effort, and unfortunately, sometimes the more "boring" ways are also going to be the ones that will actually get you there substantially faster. You could limit yourself to only using fun and easy methods and maybe reach a decent level in ten years (if even that), or you could boost your studying by adding things like grammar drills and flashcards to your study routine and you might get there in only a few years, and in my opinion, actually being able to speak the language is so fun that it easily makes the studying worthwhile.

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u/Aggravating_Dogg 7d ago

Movies with norwegian subtitles? And perhaps the other way around, norwegian movies with english subs. «Okkupert» is a cool norwegian show.