PM's Norwegian Plandemic

[PeterMollenburg]

There's a new pandemic... it's everwhere! It's Norwegian! That's the plan!

French and Dutch will continue in my life, in somewhat of a maintenance mode.

Norwegian is now centre-stage.

Given I'm going Norwegian, full-steam-ahead, I decided a new log was in order.




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Here are the links to the last pages of my old logs:
PM's French Adventures in the Matrix
PM's Target Europe - FR, NL and on again off again NO
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And here is my post regarding the 6 Week Challenge, posted in tangleweeds' new Norwegian group Nytt på Norsk (have I got that right, Nordmenn?) for those focusing on the language during the 6WC:
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Thanks tangleweeds for creating this group.

I'm also in the 6WC this time around with Norwegian.

Here are my resources:
*All of these resources have audio, which I will be utilising

Learn Norwegian by Sverre Klouman
Quite an old-school style textbook. Perhaps the most hefty of all the resources I have here.
Positives: Phonetics displayed for the learner for a good portion of the book, including tonal markings. Drills that can be appreciated by some learners.
Negatives: No feminine forms noted at all (only common gender), some slightly outdated language, dry old-fashioned textbook approach, dry drills? (depends what you like).

Beginner's Norwegian by Laura Ziukaite-Hansen
A modern book perhaps like similar to Teach Yourself, Hugo or Colloquial but also different.
Positives: Feminine forms noted, audio for vocabulary lists included (as well as the conversations), audio to the conversations comes in two speeds (one for repetition).
Negatives: Tones not marked although stress is, a minor negative but grammar and vocabulary introduced immediately after conversations, usually I prefer the other way around (I find I'm approaching each lesson somewhat backwards).

Norwegian in Three Months
A bit old school. Although my least favourite in the beginning, I suspect this one might grow on me.
Positives: Audio has two speeds in conversations. Vocab lists are recorded with audio.
Negatives: Vocab lists don't clearly mark indefinite forms. Tones not marked.

The Mystery of Nils
Follows an intriguing storyline which sets it apart from the other textbooks in this list
Positives: Good for monolingual learners who might be somewhat daunted by the task of learning a foreign language, as it uses a 'gentle' learning approach. Nice cultural information and presented attractively.
Negatives: Tones not marked, vocab introduced without audio at times contradicting the gentle approach.

Assimil - le norvégien (sans peine)
Positives: For me, I really like that it's from a French base. Tones marked in the texts throughout all the conversations!
Negatives: Not a negative for me, but course only available in from a French base. Assimil known to be light on grammar by design, although this can be a positive too. Not certain yet, but i suspect that the feminine forms might not be noted except for some more common words in which fem. form is common.

Pimsleur - Norwegian
Audio only based learning.
Positives: Excellent for developing one's ear for the language and pronunciation. Feminine forms included.
Negatives: Audio only, however that is what it's meant to be. Only 2 levels available (but used to be only one, but still two is better than none!).

[Ogrim]

Seeing the title, for a moment I thought it was about some new weird conspiracy theory that it was the Norwegians who invented the virus .

Best of luck with your Norwegian progress, I will be following with interest, and if you have any questions I and other natives are around to help.

[iguanamon]

It's too late, Ogrim. PM has been infected by the Norwegian virus. He has already exhibited symptoms of a an overwhelming urge to learn tones and to get pronunciation right. It will no doubt manifest into a full-blown desire for lutefisk by Christmas!

Good luck, PM. Looking forward to following your journey in Norsk.

[Ogrim]

It's too late, Ogrim. PM has been infected by the Norwegian virus. He has already exhibited symptoms of a an overwhelming urge to learn tones and to get pronunciation right. It will no doubt manifest into a full-blown desire for lutefisk by Christmas!

Good luck, PM. Looking forward to following your journey in Norsk.

At least the Norwegian virus is not lethal, but the many mutations (dialects) can cause some strain on the infected.

Lutefisk- you love it or you hate it. Many Norwegians eat it as a ritual and make sure to disguise the taste with lots of bacon, pie mush, mustard and a few shots of akevitt - which most of us also only taste at Christmas.

[PeterMollenburg]

Well it feels like I've been ran over by a few buses over the last few days....

I forgot how involved moving house is... with 3 kids and around work! What a ride! I had absolute hours on end that I could've used to listen to Norwegian in the last couple of days during long drives and the big tidy up (painting, repairing, cleaning) of the house that used to be ours for the last seven years. I couldn't do it (listen that is). I needed to zone out and just move on with the work and focus 100% on what I as doing, as time was critical as well. Normally I'm pretty bloody good, I'd say, at using stolen moments, listening while doing other things etc. I just couldn't. Once upon a time, pre massive language study, music was in my life for hours every day. Well in recent days it came back, and with it the memories of times gone by. Where do the years go? Time is amazing. Or more correctly, the journey of life, as time is simply a tool to measure against, but you know what I mean, I think.

Nevertheless prior to the last two to three days I did get stuck into the Norwegian for some of the long commutes with trailer-loads of furniture and the like.

So, I've been using Pimsleur and some Teach Yourself audio (Get Talking Norwegian, and Keep Talking Norwegian) resources on the earlier drives and prior to all that, back in our hold house I went from using all the Norwegian courses listed in my initial post in this thread to cutting back to two main ones - Assimil Le norvégien and The Mystery of Nils. I started to really appreciate the tone markings in the Assimil course and no longer was afraid of the idea of different speakers of various regions in the course, as I'd been told.

So, I thought, why not for once actually complete an Asismil lesson every day (until the move interrupted that plan). In the past I've not done this with Assimil, I'd stick to an hour a day and complete lessons over two or more days, perhaps to perfect it and completely know the content before moving on. This time with Le norvégien, I thought, why not just take as long as it takes to complete the lesson on the day (within the day) and with any further spare time afterwards, fill that in with The Mystery of Nils since there'd be insufficient time to add all or even a couple of the other courses as well.

Also, I wanted to use one course which actually acknowledges the feminine forms (Hugo Norwegian in Three Months and Learn Norwegian don't) and I didn't want to use the Hippocrene Beginner's Norwegian course at this stage, opting for a simpler course in tandem with Assimil (which also doesn't acknowledge the feminine forms) that would be a nice contrast. Hence The Mystery of Nils.

But, as I mentioned, then we moved. Now I'm looking at considerably longer drives on average for work as I return to my old town for work here and there and seek to work at other locations preferably closer and closer to home. Today I'm 1 hour from our new home where i've worked before. Next week I've some work lined up 47 minutes from home. Tomorrow I'm 1 hr 20 min from our new home back in our old hometown. Lots of driving, lots of listening time. I need more Norwegian listening content! Or perhaps I study NO at home and use a good portion of the listening time to keep my other languages alive. All in all, more driving than I used to do for a while yet.

This has been a bit of a rushed post, hopefully it makes sense!

[PeterMollenburg]

Okay, so I've been plodding along doing okay-ish with Norwegian, all things considered. Some time ago (perhaps 1.5 years back) I posted I'd hit a kangaroo and smashed the crap out of the car I was driving, and apologies to wildlife lovers (me too), the animal didn't survive.

A number of nights ago I had my first ever run in with a wombat and my car. And yes, it smashed the crap out of the car again, and the animal (apologies, I do sincerely feel for the animal). It seems I'm on a killing spree as today I ran over a gallah (parrot-like bird). It totally wouldn't move and I had no time to react, not to mention I've done really well at training myself to not swerve for animals as that is extremely dangerous. The wombat seriously damaged my car (yes I think the wombat's life is more important than a damaged car), and an hour drive was a marathon-feat at 5 hours with several stops and some towing involved. Hitting a wombat at a decent speed is like hitting a solid rock with a layer of carpet over it - it's very tough and not exactly like hitting a rock directly, but not far off. So, with this and the house move and very long commutes to work, I'm finding next to no time most days to study at my desk using textbooks, which I much prefer to audio content alone (especially in Norwegian, a language which has much less audio content than French when I used a whole host of audio courses on commutes). I've done Norwegian Pimsleur level 1 to death now and I'm getting bored of it. I have some Teach Yourself audio courses, but I'm not that impressed, but still I will complete them. I cannot currently afford the second level of Pimsleur as the house moving and other such things are putting holes in budgets. Anyway, my Norwegian study times are still decent, but I'd prefer to be getting stuck into my books much more.

It's an interesting situation with this 6 week challenge, as I've almost dropped French and Dutch formal studies for the last few weeks and I feel uncomfortable with it at this point now. I feel like both my French and Dutch are weakening. I think I might always feel this way with my French as I see it as my main FL and one I'd like to almost always be actively studying and improving. I feel like I never reached what I should've in French, but I also know I was getting stale, so I don't regret introducing other languages. Still, now with a little spell, I'm considering an hour of French every day so that I actively improve little by little. My Dutch has not advanced enough to feel comfortable dropping it most days and so I feel like I need to get back to an hour a day of Dutch as well. I'd be pushing to get 3 hours desk study done most days wanting to fit Norwegian in as well, which I want to advance quickly in. I know that when I return to a mixture of all three languages after the 6WC, I'm going to feel like I'm not progressing enough in Norwegian and it will be a battle with time. I'll likely have to come up with some kind of more flexible routing. Yep, I've run into that classic issue yet again - a desire to learn several languages and an insufficient amount of time to do it as quickly as I'd like. I'll keep battling I hope you are all well out there!

[Montmorency]

Makes me grateful that where I live, as far as the animal kingdom is concerned, we mostly only have cats, pigeons, and the occasional dog to worry about on our roads. (I don't swerve, but I'll always slow down or stop if possible, and if it's reasonably quiet). Not quite the only thing, as there are deer on the loose in some woods not far away, and they will occasionally stray onto some quiet minor roads, and I've been told that hitting one of them is not fun for either of the parties involved.

[DaveAgain]

Makes me grateful that where I live, as far as the animal kingdom is concerned, we mostly only have cats, pigeons, and the occasional dog to worry about on our roads. (I don't swerve, but I'll always slow down or stop if possible, and if it's reasonably quiet). Not quite the only thing, as there are deer on the loose in some woods not far away, and they will occasionally stray onto some quiet minor roads, and I've been told that hitting one of them is not fun for either of the parties involved.

If you cycle on rural roads there's no end of dead animals. Mostly rabbits, but also foxes, badgers, hedgehogs, deer etc.

[rdearman]

Completely off topic, but recently I read scientists believe some animals are evolving to not freeze in the glare of headlights. Something to do with a badger study

[PeterMollenburg]

Completely off topic, but recently I read scientists believe some animals are evolving to not freeze in the glare of headlights. Something to do with a badger study

I have noticed on occasion when foxes have run onto roads, that they are much more aware or is at that they are more afraid/wary of vehicles? In any case, they seem to be able to discern when they should back track and get off the road as opposed to other animals which seem to not have much of a clue.