Expugnator wrote:PeterMollenburg wrote:
Some questions if you get a chance to answer them, Expug. Thanks for dropping by, too.
1. Why do you say it is the most challenging textbook?
(I landed upon this textbook for a couple of reasons, the main one being I liked the rather detailed explanations of Norwegian pronunciation).
2. I also own Hugo's Norwegian in Three Months. A quick overview/review/impression on your account might be nice, as I could consider using the course at the same time as Learn Norwegian or jumping over to Hugo for while then coming back to Learn Norwegian. As per usual, I have read the amazon reviews and leafed through the course itself. Did you find Hugo better to start with?
I also own the Assimil course. However, as it does not focus solely on the Oslo dialect, but rather a collection of various dialects (or really pronunciation variants), I thought it was a bad choice to begin with but a great course later on perhaps.
Sorry for the delay, Peter. I didn't want to reply in a rush.
No problem at all, Expug. I sincerely appreciate your considerate reply, thank you.
Expugnator wrote:1. It's the most challenging because it is the most comprehensive one. It shows detailed IPA, it has long dialogues. If you're coming to Norwegian with no passive vocabulary background, you'll find too many words per new lesson. That is demotivating for me. it doesn't explain grammar that clearly, some issues are simplified while others are overlooked. It's the type of book I prefer to reserve for when things are getting serious. I can get an overview of the A1 (and A2) level(s) from books I wouldn't fear "wasting", books I know I'll go through which will just give me the minimal information for that level. That allows me to get to the most serious textbooks and take the most out of them, instead of expecting them to tell me about everything under that CEFR level.
2. Hugo is way better than the average TY/Colloquial in my opinion. It just looks more serious and it empowers the learner. It gives you translation, pronunciation, relevant exercises. It won't expect you to learn early vocabulary through dumb exercises that imitate crosswords. The dialogues are more relevant and realistic too. It's much lighter in information than Klouman's, another reason it works as a great intro.
Interesting and useful insights and experiences there to relate, Expug. Cheers. A few days back I got out my Hugo (I've always liked the practical natural of the Hugo in three months courses), and decided to balance things out and work with both courses. I'm not going to pressure myself to advance equally in both in terms of time or lessons or anything of that nature - I'm just going to use both for now and see how I feel. If I find Learn Norwegian is becoming too vague, the dialogues are too long and the vocabulary is overwhelming I'll just avoid it until I feel ready to come back to it. I'm getting smarter with resource choices, I feel, and certainly to begin with, for me, it's been great. I love the lengthy and detailed IPA, I must admit. That's exactly what I needed to start off and still want, but the other drawbacks you mentioned could annoy me in due course.
Having only just started the Hugo Norwegian in Three Months course, I can't say that much. I've not gone that far into Learn Norwegian either actually, in an attempt to get my head around the phonetics and my pronunciation solidly - I don't like to advance while making a mess of pronunciation, that's just not me. I'm nearing the end of lesson one and have gone over things multiple times. Anyway, with the Hugo Norwegian in Three Months course, currently it appears to complement the Learn Norwegian course well. It's explaining simple grammar I wasn't aware of already only a couple of pages in. And, to my surprise, despite my preference for IPA and wishing it was present in the Hugo course, the imitated pronunciation still does a fairly good job. I've never been a fan of such imitated pronunciation before, but if I need to, it is useful in the Norwegian Hugo course.
Expugnator wrote:Assimil Norwegian is one of the Assimils I dislike the most. The various accents don't bother me, it's their vocabulary choice. It goes way too much into the humor/obscure vocabulary for my practical taste. If I take a random lesson from the second half of the book now it will probably still look harder with a higher new-word density than a page from a novel by Tom Egeland.
That's disappointing to