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Learning Swedish to practice Norwegian?

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15 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
Happyphantom
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 3949 days ago

4 posts - 5 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Norwegian, Thai, Russian

 
 Message 1 of 15
11 December 2013 at 4:16pm | IP Logged 
I've recently taken up Norwegian to be my first foreign language (after
playing with a few others before), however I'm nearly at the end of my Teach
Yourself course.
So my question is this; would it be worth learning Swedish to improve my
Norwegian?
I understand this isn't obviously logical but my primary problem with
Norwegian is the lack of opportunity for me to speak it!
So my solution is to buy the Rosetta Stone Swedish course. I have used the
software before and found it great for pronunciation practice. I don't know
what sort of reviews the software gets though and whether it'd be worthwhile.
I had intended to study Swedish in the future regardless, but I wouldn't want
to confuse myself with the two languages.

So does this seem like a viable route to success?
Any advice or alternatives will be gratefully received!
1 person has voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5280 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 2 of 15
11 December 2013 at 4:51pm | IP Logged 
That, is quite possibly the absolute worst suggestion when it comes to learning languages that I have heard
in my entire life.

Oh. And welcome to the forum, by the way :-)

I have heard very little good about Rosetta Stone to begin with, and mixing the two languages at an early
stage sounds like a disaster bound to happen.

Others will know more than I do about finding language partners, but there are several possibilities - send
Tarvos a PM - he could probably help you find the Internet based places where you can find it. If you find no
one then send me a PM and I'll see if I can squeeze in something myself.
4 persons have voted this message useful



Happyphantom
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 3949 days ago

4 posts - 5 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Norwegian, Thai, Russian

 
 Message 3 of 15
11 December 2013 at 5:51pm | IP Logged 
I had a suspicion it might not be successful! I just wasn't sure if there was
any logic behind my reasoning, a bit of a madman moment but I'm glad I asked.

Would you suggest finding another course? Or just toughing it out and
attempting to read books/watch films in Norwegian?

1 person has voted this message useful



nicozerpa
Triglot
Senior Member
Argentina
Joined 4272 days ago

182 posts - 315 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, Portuguese, English
Studies: Italian, German

 
 Message 4 of 15
11 December 2013 at 7:07pm | IP Logged 
Welcome to the forum! I think that learning a similar language to improve another is a
bad idea, because you run the risk of mixing both languages.

Happyphantom wrote:
Would you suggest finding another course? Or just toughing it out
and attempting to read books/watch films in Norwegian?



I agree with this. Try to find material about topics you are interested in.
Good luck!
1 person has voted this message useful





jeff_lindqvist
Diglot
Moderator
SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6855 days ago

4250 posts - 5711 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 5 of 15
11 December 2013 at 7:10pm | IP Logged 
The only time I'd "study a language in order to practice another" would be if I had plenty of practical opportunities with one language and no resources BUT plenty of resources (preferably free) in another extremely similar language.

In other words: if you're already studying Norwegian, why not do the opposite and use it to chat with Swedish speakers?

Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 12 December 2013 at 12:02am

1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6543 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 6 of 15
11 December 2013 at 7:27pm | IP Logged 
Happyphantom wrote:
Would you suggest finding another course? Or just toughing it out and attempting to read books/watch films in Norwegian?
Both. Do an intermediate course if possible and try to read some simple books/articles (without waiting until you complete your course). Listen to music too. If there aren't enough exercises, write your own sentences or texts and post them to lang-8.com . Don't reread them too much before you manage to get corrections from a native.

Here's a wikia article about improving your pronunciation. Try shadowing (linked there) and self-talk.

Not to boast too much, but apart from listening to music in the background, if you do any single thing I mentioned it will be more useful than Rosetta Stone. (which is mostly an expensive flashcard software that doesn't even use spaced repetition.)

Edited by Serpent on 11 December 2013 at 7:29pm

4 persons have voted this message useful



daegga
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Austria
lang-8.com/553301
Joined 4467 days ago

1076 posts - 1792 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian
Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic

 
 Message 7 of 15
11 December 2013 at 7:49pm | IP Logged 
Please read through
Expugnator's log to get an overview
over available material for Norwegian and sound strategies to learn it. You will also
get an impression of how much you can progress even with limited time.

Also, you should consider joining (or at least observing) the Scandinavian TAC team for
2014 (see the sticky thread in the log subforum). At least two other members
(Expugnator and me) in the team are studying Norwegian too, scheduling some speaking-
practice sessions should be doable.

Software for pronunciation practice is crap by the way. They suggest it is possible to
automatically judge your pronunciation, which unfortunately isn't the case yet. Such
software is very inaccurate and might lead you in the wrong direction.

Edited by daegga on 11 December 2013 at 7:51pm

3 persons have voted this message useful



Medulin
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Croatia
Joined 4614 days ago

1199 posts - 2192 votes 
Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali

 
 Message 8 of 15
11 December 2013 at 9:31pm | IP Logged 
There is more Swedish learning material, if that's what are you trying to say.
Swedish: A Comprehensive Grammar: 3rd Edition (Routledge) is a must.
Norwegian grammars in English are very basic, and not that interesting either.
I found the transition from Nynorsk to Swedish very easy (the conjugation is almost
the same, with verbs that have -ar present tense having the 2nd tone,
and the verbs in -er present tense having the 1st tone,
Nynorsk female nouns (exept for those in -ing) get -er or -or plurals in Swedish,
Nynorsk masculine nouns (and female -ing nouns) get the -ar plurals in Swedish,
(except for those masculine Nynorsk nouns that have -er plural in Nynorsk: ven->vener,
in Swedish these get the -er plural too: vän -> vänner).


Edited by Medulin on 11 December 2013 at 9:40pm



2 persons have voted this message useful



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