Well it was nearly a year ago that I made that last post....
Beginning April 2022 I promised that I'd go on an extensive reading mission for French. Well, instead on day one I picked up the Norwegian language learning courses and went a bit insane....
Why? My thinking was that my kids French and Dutch are under control. Spanish is in slow-growth mode, but they are at least familiar with the sounds from my reading aloud and some TV time. Yet, I want to teach my kids Norwegian too. To do so means I need to get to a reading and speaking level in which I'm not ruining the pronunciation. My Dutch is only half as advanced as my French (if that), yet I am still able to read aloud regularly to the kids, speak to them (with circumlocutions regularly employed along with dictionary use - always French-Dutch when relating to the kids, never English-Dutch) and their language level as well as mine keeps improving. Thus, without active Dutch study, the language is secure-enough for the time being. Kids absorb phonemes/melodies of languages more smoothly the younger they are, and yet they continue to grow
So, on the first day I used
Learn Norwegian by Sverre Klouman,
The Mystery of Nils and
Assimil - Le norvégien. I did three hours that first day.
Fast forward perhaps a couple of weeks and I'd also added in
Beginner's Norwegian and
Hugo's Norwegian in Three Months. Shortly after I added the 1990 version of
Ny i Norge. I reduced my study blocks to 45 minutes a piece, thereby rotating through four courses a day instead of three as I was still on 3 hour daily missions. Some days later I added a seventh and final course,
Le norvégien en 20 leçons, as I didn't want to return to this course after finishing the others due to it's less dense appearance as it would seem superfluous after completing the others. Best to add it into the mix now then.
My three hours a day (at my desk) of Norwegian study continued. I wound up with a perfect month. I'm not sure I've ever done this during any other month of language study. That is, three hours every single day of the month at my desk (sometimes at another desk, a table, on the floor, completing studies in work breaks and other such adjustments). I also focused on Pimsleur Norwegian during some commutes and other opportune moments. A tiny bit of TV for good measure, but I reduced those times down in my Norwegian learning time for the month, as I didn't see it as much being gained at this early stage.
I caught up to where I had reached before stopping last time round last year in most of my books. Some I moved into new territory, some I was on the cusp of it.
Thus, I finished
April 2022 with 106 hours and 37 minutes of Norwegian, plus five and half hours of Spanish (reading to the kids only), 7 and a half hours of Dutch (mainly reading to the kids, some study after Norwegian completed), and 8hrs 40min of French (again a mixture). I think I managed more Norwegian for the month than I did for the six weeks of the 6WC I won when I competed with Norwegian (mind you it was a low scoring leaderboard and I was lucky to have won truth be told).
However.....
While my motivation was at fever level, it wasn't healthy. I cut sleep short mornings and nights - sometimes both, more rarely just one of the two. I needed to rise early so that I could get my study out the way asap most days and have some time left for other things. This turned out to be not that much time. 3 hours study time often turns into closer to four when you get up to do things between blocks of study, even trying to be efficient. I ate terribly for days on end at times and still managed to continue to study (this was new for me) late at night. I don't think it's a skill I should be proud of - ignoring my body. I fought sleep. I stopped exercising. I read less to the kids, and pushed other things aside always. So keen was I to reach that 3 hours per day.
Where to from here?
A few days back I was considering doing this for a full year, or until I reached a thousand hours, or maybe even reached Norwegian C2 in some kind of PM record time, even before doing so in French (can't see myself flying to Norway anytime soon to take the test). Such is the grandiose ego-centric nature of my language learning mind sometimes.
Yet, something came over me today. We've been sick lately and the reasons I feel are pretty clear (we're both pushing ourselves). And yet a couple days back when I felt my worst, I still did the three hours. Thing is, we've got some 'significant' days coming up that aren't all about me and trying to forge three hours/day around these days would see some pretty torturous moments to get the study in (super extreme early, late, less than ideal locations). No thanks. Is it that conducive to good learning, to do so while fatigued, unhealthy and at times missing out? Motivation let me get past some torturous moments in April, but now reality is here and torture is torture.
I'll keep moving ahead with Norwegian for now. I deliberately missed my target of 3 hours today to take some pressue off. I've done 1.5 hours and I'm happy with that. I think mentally I just reached that point - 'enough now, let's be sensible'. My life is not the same as was when I was doing 3 hours/day of French several years ago now, and that's just reality.
So, some thoughts on Norwegian in general. Yep, straightforward grammar, nothing overly tricky so far. Pronunciation this time round is not a shock as I've been there before. It's just tedious. I'm not as finnicky about the tones this time as I feel I need to trust myself maturing with the language with time, but I still look up tones for all new words, as I want to start off each word on the right foot. The notes in the back of the Assimil book alone are enough for any a budding Norwegian learner who wants to develop a decent accent to let out a few expletives, throw their books in the air and proclaim some kind of self-justifying expressed exacerbation at the apparent ridiculous nature of this component of the language. Too many rules, exceptions to rules, exceptions to exceptions with regards to which tone to apply to which words and when. Still, I'll work on it gradually, without putting myself under the pressure of memorising such grammatical lists, which I did do with French - and I'm not sure it was worth it, as I developed a natural feel for such things eventually anyway. Memorising tediously lengthy lists of grammar rules isn't such a great approach.
I've ordered the French version of
The Mystery of Nils (
Le mystère de Nils). Why not?
I forgot how tediously slow it can be to learn a language in the beginning stages. When I read French now and sometimes Dutch, I am almost amazed and how fast I can read compared to Norwegian (which I actually can't read, unless it's a dumbed down text in the beginning pages of a language course). When I read French to the kids I sometimes have this realisation of late - 'yep, you're still improving, you just don't notice it overnight, it's subtle and it's gradual, but it's definitely still apparent'.