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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Ryder Diglot Groupie Norway Joined 6584 days ago 67 posts - 70 votes  Speaks: Norwegian, Russian* Studies: English, French | Message 1 of 47 06 November 2006 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello.
I am a Norwegian man, age 33, and I'm new to this forum. Since Norwegian is my mother tongue, it's not easy for me to say what is difficult about the language and grammar. I would like to know how Norwegian language is seen by foreigners. *Do you think it is a difficult language? *And if so, why? *What's difficult about it? *For whom would it be difficult I suppose if you speak good English or/and German, then Norwegian will come easy. But for others? Is it easy for French-speakers, or Russians for example? Many immigrants in Norway can't speak correctly, especially when it comes to grammar. I'm just curious about it, and it would be fun for me to hear about. Comments anyone? And if anyone has any questions about Norwegian language, I'll be glad to answer! :-) (That is, if I'm capable to explain it in English) -Ryder- Edited by Ryder on 06 November 2006 at 8:10pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| That_Guy Diglot Groupie United States Joined 7089 days ago 74 posts - 87 votes Studies: Hindi, English*, Spanish | Message 2 of 47 06 November 2006 at 8:00pm | IP Logged | ||
Hi Ryder, welcome to the forum! I actually do have a question. How do Norwegians view English. For example, if someone who spoke only Norwegian looked at something written entirely in English, how much of it would they be able to understand? For me, when I look at a page of Norwegian text I can understand 1-2 words for every 3-4 sentences. Thanks, Ryan 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ryder Diglot Groupie Norway Joined 6584 days ago 67 posts - 70 votes Speaks: Norwegian, Russian* Studies: English, French | Message 3 of 47 06 November 2006 at 8:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Ryan.
English is very easy to learn for Norwegians. Not just because the languages are related, but also because in Norway we don't dub anything (we have sub-titles instead). So we hear English very often on TV, cinemas etc. It hasn't always been like that, but most Norwegians born after 1960 speak very good English. Norwegians learn English in school from a very young age + that English is very often heard, which makes it easier for us to learn. Also, English grammar is less complicated than Norwegian grammar. Elderly Norwegians though, often know very little English. If they didn't know any English at all, they would probably understand 2-4 words for every 2-3 sentences, I'd guess. -Ryder- Edited by Ryder on 06 November 2006 at 8:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JK Triglot Newbie Norway Joined 6884 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English, Norwegian*, German | Message 4 of 47 07 November 2006 at 3:27am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi!
Just a small comment: I have noticed that Norwegian has a difficulty rating of 3 out of 5 in the Language Profiles section. When taking into consideration that a language such as Spanish has a difficulty rating of 2, I feel that the rating for Norwegian is incorrect. That is, I'm willing to bet that Norwegian is a somewhat easier language to learn for a native speaker of English than Spanish, and thus 2 out of 3 would be a more appropriate rating. This should apply to the other scandinavian languages as well. Or do you people disagree? ;) I could give some persuasive arguments, but first I would like to know what you think. -JK Edited by JK on 07 November 2006 at 5:41am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ryder Diglot Groupie Norway Joined 6584 days ago 67 posts - 70 votes Speaks: Norwegian, Russian* Studies: English, French | Message 5 of 47 07 November 2006 at 2:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Are the ratings based on if you have English as your mother tongue?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Linguamor Decaglot Senior Member United States Joined 6609 days ago 469 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch | Message 6 of 47 07 November 2006 at 4:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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For a native English speaker, I would say Spanish is easier to learn than Norwegian, but Norwegian is easier than German. I would give Norwegian a rating of 2 1/2.
Spanish is easier for an English speaker because Spanish is a Romance language, and English has borrowed much of its vocabulary from French and Latin. Beyond a beginner level, Norwegian vocabulary gets more difficult, whereas Spanish remains relatively easy. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7012 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 7 of 47 07 November 2006 at 7:20pm | IP Logged | ||
And in the US we hear MUCH more Spanish than Norwegian. Its on most product labels here also. I find I am learning a fair bit of Spanish, without trying, simply by shopping at the supermarket and looking at labels! I have dabbled a *little* with Norwegian. I bought a Language 30 set (I know its not the greatest) at a garage sale for a quarter and listened to all of it. After studying German, it didn't seem too hard. I heard some Danes talking at Yellowstone. It was cool, it sounded like German at first, but I couldn't understand any of it. Of course they all spoke flawless English! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6611 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 8 of 47 08 November 2006 at 1:15am | IP Logged | ||
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I am a native English speaker and Norwegian is probably the easiest language I have ever encountered (for an English-speaker to learn). It is so easy it almost jumps into your head without much effort.
The one difficulty with Norwegian is the dialects. So even though you could probably learn bokmål in a few months without much difficulty, you still won't understand a lot of people. (But they will understand you.) There isn't much help to find in learning to understand the various dialects. You have to learn mostly by exposure. There are still some I find difficult to understand, but then again, native Norwegians have trouble with some of them too. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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