Hvordan jeg har lært norsk

The semester is almost over, and my experience as a student is almost complete. As expected, I have learned quite a lot, and I’ve been humbled. Learning another language at the age of 41 is really hard!

In my class, we had to write five 300-word essays in the course of the semester. In my second-to-last one, the feedback from my teacher boiled down to, “None of this is really wrong, but it is very clearly an English essay written in Norwegian, rather than a Norwegian essay,” which, to be honest, I’ll take. In celebration of all I’ve learned, and to demonstrate the (lack of?) complexity in the thoughts and sentences I can now express, my final submission with the Google translation is below.

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Fortell hvordan du har lært norsk. Hvordan kan man best lære seg et nytt språk, og hvor viktig det er å kunne språket i det landet man bor?

Jeg har hatt to sabbatsårer så jeg har bodde i Norge to ganger, i ett år hver gang. De to ganger var sju år fra hverandre. Før jeg kom til Norge for første gang, studerte jeg norsk på Duolingo. Jeg lærte noe viktige ord og noe enkelt grammatik fra det. Da flyttet jeg til Trondheim, ble jeg trist å se at dialekten var veldig forkjellig fra det Duolingo bruker. Jeg forsto ikke folk. Det året studerte jeg ikke, men det var norsk rundt meg, så jeg lærte noe i hvert fall.

Før flyttet jeg til Trondheim det andre gangen, studerte jeg med Pimsleur i bilen. Pimsleur fokuserer på å snakke og å høre. Jeg hører ikke godt, så det er vanskelig å forstå det jeg hører. Av den grunn er Pimsleur bedre for meg enn Duolingo. Jeg gjørde denne med dattera mi i bilen, så hun kunne høre norsk også.

Jeg studerte mye før ekaminen for å være i Trinn 2. Jeg studerte med grammatikk.no og lærte nok å være i Trinn 2. Da tok jeg kursen! Kursen har vært veldig bra for meg. I tillegg hører jeg ofte på en norskspråkk podkast. Jeg studerer også mange flashkorter hverdag for å lære vokabular og preposisjoner (kanskje har det ikke hjulpet med preposisjonene).

For å lære å snakke, må man tenke om språket hele tiden. Det er veldig vanskelig, men det er ikke annen vei, spesielt hvis man er 41! Vi må flytte tilbake til USA-en, så nå snakker jeg på Engelsk hjemme, så dattera vår hører godt engelsk, ikke dårlig norsk. Hun hører godt norsk i barnehagen, men hun må snart bli amerikaner igjen. Grammatikken hennes er en blanding av norsk og engelsk.

Det er veldig viktig å snakke språken i det landet man bor. Det er vanskelig å kjenne venner hvis de må snakke i en andre språk for å snakke med meg. Også, å prøve å snakke språken viser respekt. Jeg vil ikke være den amerikaner i en andre land som kan bare snakke på engelsk.

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Translation:

Tell me how you learned Norwegian. What is the best way to learn a new language, and how important is it to know the language of the country you live in?

I have had two sabbaticals so I have lived in Norway twice, for one year each time. The two times were seven years apart. Before I came to Norway for the first time, I studied Norwegian on Duolingo. I learned some important words and some simple grammar from it. When I moved to Trondheim, I was sad to see that the dialect was very different from what Duolingo uses. I didn’t understand people. That year I didn’t study, but there was Norwegian around me, so I learned something anyway.

Before I moved to Trondheim the second time, I studied with Pimsleur in the car. Pimsleur focuses on speaking and listening. I don’t hear well, so it’s hard to understand what I hear. For this reason, Pimsleur is better for me than Duolingo. I did this with my daughter in the car, so she could hear Norwegian too.

I studied a lot before the exam to be in Trinn 2. I studied with grammatikk.no and learned enough to be in Trinn 2. Then I took the course! The course has been very good for me. In addition, I often listen to a Norwegian language podcast. I also study a lot of flashcards everyday to learn vocabulary and prepositions (maybe it didn’t help with the prepositions).

To learn to speak, you have to think about the language all the time. It’s very difficult, but there’s no other way, especially if you’re 41! We have to move back to the USA, so now I speak English at home, so our daughter hears good English, not bad Norwegian. She hears good Norwegian in kindergarten, but she will soon have to become an American again. Her grammar is a mixture of Norwegian and English.

It’s very important to speak the language of the country you live in. It’s hard to know friends if they have to speak a different language to talk to me. Also, trying to speak the language shows respect. I don’t want to be that American in another country who can only speak English.