Want to Learn Norwegian?

This week we've got another great article from the Culture desk! Colin Thomsen has put together a great piece about where folks can find Norwegian language lessons online.

Want to impress your relatives? Need to learn a few phrases for that trip coming up? Got some old letters you’d like to translate? Whatever your goals, Sons of Norway can help you get started learning the Norwegian language.

Our website, www.sonsofnorway.com, has two great language programs for members. The first one, “Norwegian in 5 Minutes a Month,” consists of 37 lessons of simple phrases, written in Norwegian with English translations and pronounced by native speakers. They are all aimed at the beginner level, but they will give you a sense of what the language sounds like and how it works. The second, newer program is called “Norwegian for Reading Comprehension.” As the title indicates, this program focuses on reading for general understanding, rather than speaking or writing. Norwegian for Reading Comprehension shows you how the Norwegian language works and teaches you a strategy for breaking down sentences, paragraphs and passages piece by piece. Since there’s so much variation in the Norwegian language, this program includes instruction on the two different forms of the written language as well as tips about reading older texts.

To try either of these programs, just sign into the “Members Login” section of www.sonsofnorway.com. If you’re not yet a member, you can join instantly by clicking here.

If you’re interested in studying Norwegian at a local university, check out this list from the Less Commonly Taught Languages project. For more information and help about learning the language generally, check out Norskklassen, a free online community and resource bank. There are also many fine books, CD-ROMs and other tools available from Viking Magazine advertisers.

Lately we at the Culture Desk have been spending more of our free time than we would like to admit brushing up on our Old Norse with this free online introduction to the language. Old Norse, of course, is the language of Viking-era Scandinavia, the ancestor language that spawned modern Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic and Faroese (and a few others…more on that another time). Generally speaking languages have become much more user-friendly in the last thousand years, so the grammar of Old Norse can be quite challenging. But then again, we at the Culture Desk never shrink from a challenge, especially one that’s grammatical in nature. This course starts nice and slow and uses a healthy dose of humor and sarcasm that we appreciate, plus it emphasizes vocabulary words that one needs for reading myths and sagas. Pretty cool.

Pretty cool, indeed. Thanks again, Colin. We hope you enjoyed today's blog post and hope you'll let us know what other kinds of information you'd like to learn about in the future. Leave us a comment below and let us know your thoughts. Have a great weekend everyone!