May 16, 2022. A good friend wanted to start a new language after German. We didn’t have a favorite. His girlfriend wanted Norwegian so she could read Norse authors in the original. Apparently that’s how you should do it if you’re serious about reading. Fine, Norwegian it is.
Two weeks in, she forgot about it. The two of us kept going.
Duolingo got us about 200 days deep into a solid A1. “Solid A1” sounds nice. In reality Duolingo gives you very little. You can spot words on a flashcard. You cannot follow a conversation, you cannot read a book, you cannot watch a movie without subtitles.
So I switched: books and movies. That’s where the language actually lives.
Some months later I could follow most of what was said on screen and hold a real conversation with a native. The weird music of Norwegian started to make sense. Then I got pulled toward the dialects from the north, which sound nothing like Oslo Norwegian and have their own beauty.
Two recommendations from that rabbit hole:
- “Gærnt med mæ” by Joddski and Ágy. Northern dialect, cocky, fun.
- “Harpa Toner” by Kati Rán. Nordic folk, slow, hypnotic.
If you’re starting a language seriously, skip the gamified part as soon as you have a working A1. Books and movies will teach you ten times faster.
Vi snakkes.