PM’s French Adventures in the Matrix

[PeterMollenburg]

I took one semester of Norwegian when I was in law school. As a former German major it was fun, but in the end I found the language too similar to German to maintain in the long run, with German materials being so much easier to get your hands on.

What was special about the course for me was the audio. When I had studied German I only had snippets of the textbook on the audio cassettes. (I’m old.) This course includes audio for the entire lesson, similar to FIA. It made me focus on pronuncation from the start before I could fossilize mistakes. Also, the entire course is in Norwegian and uses pictures to convey meaning, so no use of L1.

It also covers a fair amount of Norwegian cultural content, as it is aimed at immigrants to Norway. So Assimil would probably give you the same amount of accessible audio, but not the same amount of cultural content.

Do you need it? Well access to comprehensible audio is a whole different ballgame now that we have online media. It’s just not as valuable as it used to be. You could watch kids shows on NRK instead. But it is a really well done course.

Okay, so it sounds good, and it sounds unique when compared to my other NO courses but not perfect, although no course is. I was really hoping you'd confirm it was full of IPA transcriptions and tone markings. You've almost sold it to me but I'm not 100% convinced, so I'll think on it. Mind you, I prefer honest feedback and not a sales pitch, which is what you have provided, so thank you Lawyer&Mom for your reply to my query. Oh, and online media, you are right that it's abundant nowadays, but in the beginning I still prefer course audio as opposed to easy TV for working and developing good pronunciation (although easy TV would factor at some point), so the course sounds like it contains a good deal of audio and could be a good resource for pronunciation from that perspective. Thank you again!

[Lawyer&Mom]

I had no idea Norwegian is a tone language until you started looking for courses with tone markings... So no. No IPA, no markings, but great audio.

[PeterMollenburg]

I had no idea Norwegian is a tone language until you started looking for courses with tone markings... So no. No IPA, no markings, but great audio.

As you probably know, there's no standardised form of Norwegian, but rather a collection of dialects and it's encouraged that each person speak their dialect with others not a standard form. Not all dialects use tone. That said, the Oslo dialect, which does use tone, is most often the one focused on within course materials, but not always. I'd rather learn this than not.

[jeff_lindqvist]

As you probably know, there's no standardised form of Norwegian, but rather a collection of dialects and it's encouraged that each person speak their dialect with others not a standard form. Not all dialects use tone. That said, the Oslo dialect, which does use tone, is most often the one focused on within course materials, but not always. I'd rather learn this than not.

From a Swedish perspective I'd say that most Norwegian dialects/accents that I have heard use tones - but not necessarily the same ones. As in Swedish, how they are manifested will vary a lot, and it's that feature which makes an accent stand out.

Again, from a Swedish perspective, we're used to hearing a number of dialects/accents every day, IRL and in media. Many of them would have very different tone curves, but say, pitch#2 is still pitch#2 even if it rises/falls-then-rises/whatever.

[tractor]

As far as I know, Finnmark is the only region with dialects without tones.

[Xenops]

But PM, you must understand: I want a French in Action course, but for Norwegian. Or at least a Genki equivalent, with its tons of exercises and (good) audio content.

No idea what Genki is, but an FIA style Norwegian course would be nice. Still, have you looked at the Norsk, nordmenn og Norge: https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/1847.htm which can be purchased from University of Wisconsin Press? It arrived for me a few weeks back (parts 1 and 2). The books (2 for each level) are quite hefty and chock full of Norwegian. The audio companion I believe doesn't exist for the second level, but for the first level it totals 9.5 hours of audio, which is a good deal compared to other courses (examples: Assimil = 4 hrs, Hippocrene Beginner's Norwegian = 1hr 51 min, Learn Norwegian by Sverre Klouman = 4 hrs 4 min, Pimsleur level 1 = almost 15 hrs!). Only Pimsleur is more on that short list, but the style of Pimsleur is a slow pace and it's audio only. Anyway, this review from an Amazon reviewer is worth a read:


Could you mix this with The Mystery of Nils and Norsk, nordmenn og Norge? Maybe then you'd have something approaching FIA... uhh, sort of?

Hey PM, just letting you know that I purchased Norsk, nordmenn og Norge, and I'm really liking it. I started chapter 3 today. The audio is good, and I like how they give different examples/exercises for each grammar point.

Thank you for the recommendation.

[PeterMollenburg]

But PM, you must understand: I want a French in Action course, but for Norwegian. Or at least a Genki equivalent, with its tons of exercises and (good) audio content.

No idea what Genki is, but an FIA style Norwegian course would be nice. Still, have you looked at the Norsk, nordmenn og Norge: https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/1847.htm which can be purchased from University of Wisconsin Press? It arrived for me a few weeks back (parts 1 and 2). The books (2 for each level) are quite hefty and chock full of Norwegian. The audio companion I believe doesn't exist for the second level, but for the first level it totals 9.5 hours of audio, which is a good deal compared to other courses (examples: Assimil = 4 hrs, Hippocrene Beginner's Norwegian = 1hr 51 min, Learn Norwegian by Sverre Klouman = 4 hrs 4 min, Pimsleur level 1 = almost 15 hrs!). Only Pimsleur is more on that short list, but the style of Pimsleur is a slow pace and it's audio only. Anyway, this review from an Amazon reviewer is worth a read:


Could you mix this with The Mystery of Nils and Norsk, nordmenn og Norge? Maybe then you'd have something approaching FIA... uhh, sort of?

Hey PM, just letting you know that I purchased Norsk, nordmenn og Norge, and I'm really liking it. I started chapter 3 today. The audio is good, and I like how they give different examples/exercises for each grammar point.

Thank you for the recommendation.

Ah, good to hear, Xenops! Glad I could assist. Lately I've been slowly working through The Mystery of Nils and Learn Norwegian, myself, but definitely have all the Norsk, nordmenn og Norge materials ready to go at a later stage. There is a ton of audio for level 1, so if you like it, you'll have plenty to keep you occupied! I don't believe there is any audio for the second level, but if anyone knows otherwise, I'd be happy to be corrected. I get a sense that level 2 was never meant to have audio.

In the meantime, I've been collecting more Norwegian resources (textbooks, a decent grammar reference, dictionaries), but due to time constraints and French and Dutch studies I'm doing around one hour a day of Norwegian currently. Slowly but surely.