AlOlaf's Log (Danish/German/Norwegian)

[AlOlaf]

I'm quite certain I misspelled Tuva Novotny's name twice in the post before last. Some kind moderator soul must have discreetly made the correction. Thank you, kind moderator soul.

Edit: Jeez. On second thought, I think I edited it myself and forgot I did it.

[AlOlaf]

I've left Pimsleur Norwegian behind and moved on to Assimil Norwegisch ohne Mühe. After properly completing the first 19 lessons, I got impatient and read the remaining 69 dialogs while listening to the audio, completely ignoring the exercises in the process. Written Norwegian looks a lot like Danish, so I understand most of it, but the pronunciation is way different. Instead of Danish's stød and blød d, Norwegian has pitch accent. One positive: I'm not finding the Norwegian vowel sounds to be as difficult to recognize and imitate as the Danish ones.

A Danish teacher once told me that if I wanted to speak, I would do best to pick out one native speaker whose accent I liked and imitate that person consistently. Good advice, but I've always found it necessary to select several favorite speakers, both for the sake of variety and to ensure I have enough source recordings.

I've noticed some Norwegians speak with the uvular (back of the throat) r, and others the alveolar (tip of the tongue) r. Since I've decided to adopt the alveolar, I'm collecting recordings of speakers who employ this type of r, mostly from Norwegisch ohne Mühe and Norwegisch Aktiv, but also from another fine German-based course I just got, Et år i Norge. It really does pay to know German when learning Norwegian (or Danish, for that matter), because in addition to yielding many cognates, it opens up a wealth of superb learning materials. The selection of English-based courses for these languages seems pretty measley in comparison.

As soon as I've accumulated enough audio, I'll cut it up with Audacity and put pauses in it. I usually make some recordings using short phrases I can easily remember without the text, which I turn into CDs for listening and repeating in the car. Others I make with longer segments for practicing sentence melody and to ingrain complicated constructions. These I tend to leave as Audacity files, so I can record my pronunciation and listen back to hear how it compares with that of the native speaker. I can't tell how close it is if I'm listening to what I'm saying while I'm saying it.

[AlOlaf]

Norwegian is going well. I've been watching lots of YouTube videos lately, and the experience has underlined how many different versions of the spoken language there are. I can't identify the various dialects, but I can usually tell when it's not the Oslo one. In order to decipher incomprehensible Norwegian dialect, I find it helpful to watch the Swedish versions of Norwegian documentaries that contain such dialect. Once I get the gist from the Swedish subtitles, it's amazing how many words jump out at me when I watch it again.

The same holds true for the English subtitles on my "I kveld med YLVIS" (a Norwegian talk show) videos. I have a hard time understanding the hosts of the show, who speak some kind of Bergen vernacular, so I often have to read the subtitles the first time through, and then re-watch while ignoring them.

I'm currently doing intensive reading with "Lars er lol", a teen-targeted novel about a girl who becomes "fadder" (Could this mean helpmate, perhaps? I don't know of any parallel in the United States.) to a boy with Down's Syndrome. I read a chapter at a time, first while looking up all unknown words, then again while listening to the audiobook, and then I just listen to the audiobook. I'm on chapter five.

My original plan was to also do extensive reading/ listening (not stopping to look up anything) with Harry Potter, but I've only managed the first chapter of the first book so far because it makes me sleepy. Maybe I'll switch to "En Mann ved navn Ove" for my extensive project. This book/audiobook was going to be my intensive reading/listening resource before I discovered "Lars", whose audiobook has a reader with a manner of speaking I particularly like.

I've put pauses in the audio of "Norsk fonetikk for utlendinger", and I think practicing with it is going to be a big help. It includes a section that focuses on pitch accent and stress within sentences, which I've read can be very difficult for learners to master.

[jeff_lindqvist]

(...)a girl who becomes "fadder" (Could this mean helpmate, perhaps? I don't know of any parallel in the United States.)

You're probably right. It's an umbrella term for godparent, sponsor, mentor; sometimes related to the church (e.g. during confirmation) or the school system (e.g. 9-year-olds helping the 7-year-olds in elementary school).

[AlOlaf]

Thanks for the explanation. Do they have them in Swedish schools, too?

[jeff_lindqvist]

Actually, I had the Swedish term in mind - I've heard friends referring to a godparent as a "fadder", some 35 years ago teachers spoke of "faddrar" (plural) in school, "fadderbarn" are sponsored children, you can sponsor a panda (or any other endangered species) and become a "pandafadder".

[AlOlaf]

Over helgen begynte jeg å skrive på norsk. Det var en grunn til at jeg gjorde det.

Jeg prøver å lære norsk og har brukt lang tid på å søke på nettet etter norske utgaver av filmer på DVD eller Blu-ray fordi jeg helst vil ha norsk teksting. Tidligere var det en norsk nettbutikk som leverte DVD-filmer til USA, og jeg kjøpte tre sesonger av DAG på DVD hos dem før butikken forsvant sporløst for cirka et år siden. Siden den gang har jeg lettet etter en kilde til norske filmer, men forgjeves, i hvert fall før lørdag, da jeg tilfeldig så en norsk nettside som gjorde reklame for nordiske DVD- og Blu-ray filmer.

Nettsiden så temmelig gammel ut, men det stod "levering over hele verden" på hjemmesiden, så jeg sendte en email og spurte på norsk om noen var der. Svaret kom straks tilbake: "Vi er her. (smilefjes emotikon)" Jeg hadde ikke forventet at noen ville svare så fort. Jeg trodde at nordmenn ikke arbeider i helgene.

Jeg sendte umiddelbart en annen email med spørsmål om levering og fikk en omfattende forklaring av mulighetene med det samme. I løpet av helgen skrev jeg en sluttsum på ni emails på norsk, og til slutt bestilte jeg 12 norske filmer hos denne butikken. Etterpå sa selgeren at etternavnet mitt var det samme navnet som nabokommunen sin. Grunnen til det er at forfedre mine engang bodde på en gård i området og hadde tatt navnet av gården da de flyttet dit. Så vidt jeg forstår var det vanlig å gjøre det der i gamle dager.

Nå må jeg bare vente to uker. Det virker for godt til å være sant. Hvis bare filmene kommer uskadet frem. Jeg liker å lære språk ved å se på filmer.

[AlOlaf]

Jeg er ferdig med å lese e-boka Lars er lol og å lytte til lydboka, og nå har jeg begynt med ei ny lydbok og e-bok, en norsk roman som heter En tiger for en engel. Lydboka fikk jeg fra kusina mi, da vi møttes på en familiesammenkomst i Sør-Dakota i juli. Hun hadde fått denne lydboka sammen med tre andre av den samme forfatteren i gave fra en venn, men ettersom hun ikke kunne snakke norsk ville hun gi dem til tremenningen min som påstod å forstå språket. Uheldigvis viste tremenningen seg å være nesten døv, så lydbøkene havnet hos meg.

En tiger for en engel er den eneste av de fire lydbøkene som også er
som e-bok tilgjengelig, så jeg kjøpte e-boka siste uke og begynte å lese den og å lytte til lydboka.

Denne boka er veldig vanskelig, mest fordi figurene snakker dialekt, og jeg må stadig gjette på betydningen av dialogen fordi ordene ikke finnes i ordboka. Jeg må vel bli vant til det.

Sporing viser at pakken med mine norske filmer ankom i New York i går. Jeg kan nesten ikke vente til den er her.

[Tillumadoguenirurm]

Hei, morsomt å lese postene dine. Du skriver veldig bra norsk. Lykke til videre!

[AlOlaf]

Tusen takk! Jeg er veldig glad for at du leser hva jeg skriver.