Tag: Norwegian

Remembering King Harald V: Norwegian Podcasts for Learners

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Norway lost a deeply loved national figure when King Harald V died on 28 August 2026, at the age of 89.

In the days since, Norwegian broadcasters and podcasters have produced a wealth of thoughtful audio reflecting on his life: his childhood during the Second World War, his long fight to marry Sonja Haraldsen, his love of sailing, and his 35 years as Norway’s king.

Of course, this is not a moment to turn a nation’s mourning into just another language-learning exercise. But listening carefully to Norwegians tell King Harald’s story can be a respectful way to learn more about the country, its recent history and the affection in which he was held.

Here are some of the best, most elucidating recent Norwegian-language episodes I’ve come across in the past week or so. The suggested levels are only approximate – archival recordings, regional accents and multiple speakers can make individual sections more challenging (but also more rewarding).

1. Oppdatert: Kong Harald – Slik var livet hans

Length: 1 hour 2 minutes
Suggested level: B1–B2
Best for: A comprehensive overview

NRK’s Oppdatert is always a good follow anyway, and on the day of his passing, released a full-length special to the King’s life. It places his personal story alongside many of the defining events Norway experienced during his lifetime.

At just over an hour, this is the most substantial of the recent broadcast retrospectives. NRK’s polished narrative style makes it reasonably approachable, although the length and any changes of speaker may require a couple of sittings.

Listen to “Kong Harald: Slik var livet hans”

2. Forklart: Kong Harald V (1937–2026)

Length: 29 minutes
Suggested level: B1–B2
Best for: A clear first listen

Aftenposten’s Forklart is another excellent choice for intermediate Norwegian learners. Each episode takes one subject and explains it through a structured conversation between a presenter and a knowledgeable guest.

Here, presenter Marte Spurkland speaks with veteran commentator Harald Stanghelle about the different sides of King Harald: folkekongen, the people’s king; idrettskongen, the sporting king; and a monarch unafraid to show emotion. It also covers the long struggle that preceded his marriage to Queen Sonja.

The combination of clear studio audio, a strong narrative thread and a manageable running time makes this my recommended starting point.

Listen to “Kong Harald V (1937–2026)”

3. Historier som endret Norge: Kong Haralds liv – Plikt, kjærlighet og krone

Length: 1 hour 9 minutes
Suggested level: B2–C1
Best for: The fullest biographical treatment

This extensive conversation with historian and royal commentator Ole-Jørgen Schulsrud-Hansen was originally recorded for King Harald’s 89th birthday, before his death, and respectfully republished afterwards.

It follows Harald from his birth in 1937 through wartime exile and post-war reconstruction, placing his childhood within the development of Norway’s relatively young modern monarchy. There is plenty on the famous Sonja eller ingen ultimatum—“Sonja or no one”—as well as his accession following the death of King Olav V.

Because it was recorded as a historical discussion rather than a breaking-news response, this is perhaps the best choice for learners wanting a rounded biography. The spontaneous conversational style and historical vocabulary make it better suited to confident listeners.

Listen to “Kong Haralds liv – Plikt, kjærlighet og krone”

4. Historisk podkast: Kong Harald V – Vår egen folkekonge

Length: 52 minutes
Suggested level: B2
Best for: Personal memories within modern Norwegian history

This special episode remembers both the monarch and the man. It combines the broader story of King Harald’s reign with memories of his visits around Norway, presenting his life as part of a chapter in the country’s modern history.

One especially useful feature for curious learners is the detailed source list accompanying the episode. It offers plenty of avenues for follow-up reading on subjects including the royal family’s wartime escape, Harald and Sonja’s relationship, the transition of 1991 and the King’s response to national events.

Listen to “Kong Harald V (1937–2026): Vår egen folkekonge”

5. Stopp verden: Vi levde i kong Harald Vs tid

Length: 43 minutes
Suggested level: B2–C1
Best for: The bigger historical picture

This is not a straightforward biography. Instead, historian Tor Bomann-Larsen joins political editor Torbjørn Røe Isaksen to consider the long development of Norway’s modern monarchy, from Haakon VII to the new King Haakon VIII.

The conversation explores the world over which King Harald presided and how the monarchy evolved with Norwegian society. It also traces the history of the royal motto Alt for Norge—“Everything for Norway”.

The speakers assume a fair amount of cultural and historical knowledge, making this the most demanding episode in the list. For an advanced learner, though, it offers an exceptionally rich blend of biography, history and political vocabulary.

Listen to “Vi levde i kong Harald Vs tid”

6. A Short Listen: Slik husker folket kong Harald

Length: 7 minutes
Suggested level: B1–B2
Best for: Hearing ordinary Norwegians remember the King

If an hour of historical Norwegian feels daunting, this short Oppdatert episode is a more manageable alternative. It gathers some of the moments and qualities for which people across Norway remember King Harald.

The short running time makes it ideal for repeated listening. However, naturally spoken contributions and changing voices can sometimes be harder to follow than a single studio presenter—so do not be discouraged if this brief episode proves surprisingly challenging.

Listen to “Slik husker folket kong Harald”

Reading Alongside the Podcasts

For further Norwegian reading, the National Library has created a beautifully illustrated overview of King Harald’s life through items in its collections.

King Haakon’s deeply personal memorial address to his father is also available from the Royal House. Its language is clear, heartfelt and dignified.

Taken together, these recordings offer something more than listening practice. They allow learners outside Norway to hear the country remembering a king whose warmth, humour and humanity meant a great deal to its people.

Hvil i fred, Kong Harald.

Knowing Me, Knowing U- : Norwegian’s Prolific Pejorating Prefix

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If you recall Humpty’s un-birthday present in Lewis  Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, perhaps you already realised what a scandi thing he was doing with the English language…

Un-, of course, is still quite a productive prefix in English today. Pop it onto a word and you usually trigger a kind of semantic reversion. With adjectives, it’ll tend to mean ‘not that’, giving us unfriendly, unhelpful and so on. On a verb, it’ll often mean the undoing of the original action: think unfriend. Imagine a world where some new tech allows us to splook something; it’s not too outlandish to imagine that unsplooking might quickly become an equally common concept.

Where it’s not so productive in English is precisely where Carroll used it above – with nouns. What would an undog be, for instance? Or an unholiday? We can sort of use our imaginations to come up with plausible meanings, as Carroll did, but they still sound a bit… odd.

An u-engelsk prefix

Now, Norwegian has an equivalent prefix to the English un-: the even snappier u-. It can work in exactly the same way as it does in English, too. If you know the base word, you get the u- version for free, with ulovlig (unlawful) and uimotståelig (irresistible) being fairly transparent semantically. (By the way, check out this gloriously insane MGP song if you wonder where I picked up the latter word!)

But, unlike English, Norwegian can pop that prefix onto nouns, too. And rather than the sense of opposite, we get something a little more nuanced than the un- in un-birthday. Norwegian u- + noun gives us  the idea of “a bad version of X”. It’s a pejorating prefix, making negative all it touches.

And this wasn’t always foreign to English, either. Old English used un- in exactly the same way. Take the word unfrēond (unfriend) – oddly farmiliar to us today. But in Old English, it was a noun with the meaning of enemy. Take that, unfriends!

A Few Un-Words

In English, prefixes like non– and mis– stepped in to fill this function eventually, while un- narrowed to adjectives and verbs. It’s still very much a thing in Norwegian, though, and here are a few of my favourites:

  • vær (weather) → uvær (un-weather : inclement weather)
  • dyr (animal) → udyr (un-animal : a monster!)
  • år (year) → uår (un-year : a bad year – think ‘failed crops’ of the type they lynched Denmark’s Olof over)

There are tons of them about when you start looking. In Oslo recently, I also spotted the following sign in a public loo – i ustand. Plainly speaking, that’s just out of order, but taken literally it’s ‘in an un-state’, which is so much more to-the-point!

I wonder what Lewis Carroll would have made of it?

Sign in an Oslo public loo saying “out of order”; the Norwegian “i ustand” shows the u- prefix

Sign in an Oslo public loo saying “out of order”; the Norwegian “i ustand” shows the u- prefix

The Norwegian flag - the flag of Norway

#TikTokNorge – TikTok for Norwegian learners

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We’re slaves to the algorithm…. or are we? The great thing about TikTok is that you can engineer that algorithm with a bit of persistence. A search here, a like there, a comment somewhere else, and you subtly shift your TikTok-verse.

Of late, I’ve been nudging my own towards  serving up content that makes my aimless swiping a bit less aimless and a bit more, well, educational. And there’s a lot going on in #TikTokNorge! Mini lessons, everyday life, sketches and gags… Norwegian is well-covered on the platform – if you can uncover it first to coax onto your For You tab.

Here are some of the accounts helping me maintain and improve my own Norwegian lately – I hope you find a couple of gems in here too.

Norsk med Aria

Aria is a Norwegian teacher with a wealth of micro-lesson content on his feed, which he updates regularly. His videos are slick and well-edited, with a good balance between formal grammar tips and colloquial usage. He uses English as a presentation language, so it’s all accessible, too – a great place to start as a newcomer, as well as great revision and tips for more intermediate learners.

@norsk.med.aria

Ordering a coffee in Norwegian #norwegian #norsk

♬ original sound – Norsk med Aria – Norsk med Aria

Hilde Elise

Hilde Elise is an online Norwegian teacher who posts very regular monologues about life in Norway. She covers a huge range of topics from work and family to politics and current affairs, all at a level around A2-B1. This is delivered in clear, measured Bokmål too, so her videos are perfect for taking your language skills beyond simple sentences.

If you like her, also check out another teacher from her online school, Norsklærer Karense!

@hildeelise

Jeg elsker sola! #lærer #adjektiv #norskopplæring #morgen #norway

♬ original sound – Hilde Elise

Ola Norwegian

Ola, like Aria, uses English as his presentation language, giving his videos a more formal ‘classroom’ feel. But his content is top-notch, covering both grammar and word use. I’ve expanded my vocabulary with quite a few bits and pieces since following him.

@olanorwegian

Hvordan si “anyone”, “anywhere”, “anytime” osv? Jo: Du bruker frasen “som helst”! Men: En litt mer avansert frase er “however”. Vi kan nemlig IKKE si “Hvordan som helst”. Hmm. Har du svaret? Skriv i kommentarene! grammatikk norwegiancourse norskkurs norsk norwegian lærenorsk lærnorsk norskgrammatikk småprat smalltalk howtolearnnorwegian learnnorwegian norwegisch norskspråk norwegianlanguage norwegianculture norweski norway norge lifeinnorway explorenorway newtonorway noruega noruego oslo vocabulary vokabular

♬ original sound – Ola Norwegian – Ola Norwegian

Learn Norwegian with Preben

Preben is a worldly guy whose videos more often than not come from far-flung places well beyond Norway. But he has a focus on everyday Norwegian that is quite refreshing – casual, not overly analytical, and more like a mate telling you how to sound natural. For colloquial, idiomatic norsk, he’s your man!

https://www.tiktok.com/@norwegiancommunity/video/7533273676561550614

ilyantisocial.teaches

Like Preben, Ilya is a fan of the casual, colloquial approach to language. He’ll pick out everyday quirks and trip-ups that you won’t find in textbooks. His methods are a bit more organised, and you’ll get more chalk-and-talk in his videos, which may provide the yin to Preben’s yang!

@ilyantisocial.teaches

How to say hungry in Norwegian? How to say full in Norwegian? #norway #norwegian #languagelearning #language educational, speaking Norwegian, teacher things

♬ original sound – ilyantisocial.teaches

norwegian.with.tor

Tor was one of the first Norwegian content creators I discovered way back in the day on Instagram. Well, probably just a couple of years ago – an age in Internet terms. His content is perfect for the Insta reel format – fun, snappy sketches and gags with a learning slant. And he’s now popped up on TikTok, feeding your #NorwayTok algorithm with more micro-content.

https://www.tiktok.com/@norwegian.with.tor/video/7535920722074537238

So there you have it – six norsk content creators to transform your own algorithms with. Have I missed any of your own favourites? Let me know in the comments!

The Norwegian flag - the flag of Norway

Norwegian on Insta: Feeds That Actually Help You Learn

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If you’re learning Norwegian, you’ll know the value of little and often. A bit of vocab here, a useful phrase there – it all adds up. And lately, I’ve found Instagram to be a surprisingly handy way of keeping the language gently ticking over in the background.

Last week I shared a few of my favourite Instagram accounts for Greek learners, and since then, I’ve had a few people ask what I follow for other languages. So this time, I’m turning the spotlight on Norwegian.

As with Greek (perhaps a little less so, admittedly), there’s a growing community of educators and learners sharing genuinely useful Norwegian content on Instagram. And best of all, it’s bite-sized, varied, and free. Here are some of the accounts I keep coming back to.

norwegian.with.tor

A good-natured feed full of easy-to-digest nuggets. Tor’s posts are clean and well-presented, with plenty of English support, so they’re ideal for learners getting started with Norwegian. He blends vocabulary and phrase explanations with encouragement and gentle study tips — a warm, reassuring presence in your feed. He also runs online classes if you want to take it further!

norsklaerer_karense

Karense has long been a staple in the Norwegian learning world, and for good reason. Her posts are accessible, encouraging, and full of everyday language tips. She covers everything from pronunciation to sentence structure, often through short video clips. Like Tor, she has a well-presented online teaching presence, too, if you want to move from bite-sized chunks to organised lessons.

norsk.med.aria

Aria’s posts are thoughtful and clear, with a strong focus on inclusive, supportive learning. She makes great use of carousels and short-form video to explore vocabulary themes and everyday grammar points. Her content often includes cultural insights too, which adds welcome depth beyond just words and rules.

norwegian.with.ilys

Ilys creates content that goes that little bit further than just language – you’ll find book recommendations as well a fun, interactive and regular random question slots. As a second language learner herself – she moved to Norway from France – her explanations are sharp and well-structured, with a good dose of humour and learner empathy.

learnnorwegian_ec

This feed hasn’t been updated in a while, which is a shame – it’s packed with example sentences, key vocabulary, and everyday phrases, as well as some great cultural references.

norskproven.tips

Geared towards learners preparing for the Norskprøven exam, this account is full of practical language you’ll actually use. There’s a particular focus on writing and structured expression, so it’s a nice complement to more conversational feeds. Ideal if you’re looking to polish your formal register a bit.

Got any favourites I’ve missed? I’m always keen to discover more, so feel free to share your own go-tos in the comments or drop me a message.

The Flag of Sweden, the Scandinavian country where Swedish is spoken. Image from Wikipedia.org.

Scandinavian Swapshop : Switching Teams Late in the Game?

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I always think Scandinavian languages are like football teams. You pick one and you stick with it.

It was Norwegian that I plucked out of the polyglot hat very early on. Admittedly, as with many of those early language choices, it was my Eurovision favourites that led the way. I positively lapped up Norway’s entries in the 90s, so resolved to learn as much as I possibly could about the country and language (or languages, as I soon found out).

Scandinavian Value for Money

The thing is, with a Scandi lang, you get bang for your buck. First-language speakers of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish grow up with this in mind. They readily understand each other’s languages – to varying degrees – and consume media from each other’s countries with few issues.

As a second-language speaker, you too can gain access to that value for money party to some extent. Learning Norwegian equips you with an ability to read Danish and Swedish with little difficulty, and, I soon found, to follow the gist to the most animated of Melodifestivalen presenters. You can even fake speaking one of the other languages semi-successfully by adjusting your accent and tone. It’s like supporting your team, but nipping over to see a rival team’s games now and again.

But this year, of course, Sweden went and won Eurovision (again). And if there’s anything that makes me want to learn a new language ‘properly’, it’s the thought of visiting a country to attend said Eurovision. How hard can it be, I thought? Norwegian and Swedish are so similar, it’s just a case of tweaking here and there.

Little Difference, Big Difference?

Ohhhh, no. I soon realised that it’s a slippery slope to assume any of the Scandilangs line up with each other perfectly. As I delve into formal Swedish study for the first time, I’m learning how unintentionally hilarious that assumption could be. For instance, the Norwegian word ful can mean clever or sly. Don’t go calling anyone in Sweden that, though. There, it means ugly.

Other mismatches are perhaps less likely to get you into actual trouble, but will still give you away as a blagger, not a speaker. You’ll need to remember that a newspaper is a tidning, not an avis, for example. You don’t like (like) and huske (remember) but rather tycka om and komma ihåg, using phrasal constructions that Swedish seems so much more partial to than Norwegian. And before you cry wolf, be aware that it’s a varg, not an ulv (incidentally, Swedish ditched the latter due to superstition, a fascinating phenomenon known as taboo replacement).

In any case, having a real go at Swedish is opening my eyes to how different the languages are from each other, and challenging the flawed assumption of equivalency. Maybe soon, I’ll be singing along to those Melfest favourites in the original language, and not my best faux Swewegian.

I’m still Team Norway – but might have sneakily bought a Sweden scarf to whip out at the right moment now and again too.

False equivalencies - the equation 1+1=3. Image from freeimages.com.

Equivocal Equivalencies : Avoiding the X=Y Trap in Language Learning

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When starting out with language learning, it’s tempting to assume a one-on-one correspondence between your native and target language for everything you come across. It seems like a simple game of equivalencies: X equals Y. But you quickly learn that it’s not always as simple as that. Different languages carve the world up in subtly different ways.

It’s most obviously the case with content words. For instance, ‘sad’ in English covers both the person feeling the emotion, and the situation causing it. In Greek, it’s two words: λυπημένος (lipiménos, the former, with a Greek passive adjective ending) and λυπηρός (lipirós, the latter). Now that would have scuppered Elton John’s sad sad situation.

But function words differ, too. Grammatical categories that have lexically crumbled into each other in English remain resolutely separate in other languages. Take the word where. In English, you can use this as an interrogative:

Where is the bank?

And you can use it as a relative:

I know where you are.

Same word, two completely different functions. It leads English monolinguals to assume that they’re equivalent, identical. For sure, their function is related – both referencing place – but they’re performing different jobs, respectively standing in for missing information and joining two clauses.

False Equivalencies

Something that took me a little time to get my head around was the same situation in Scottish Gaelic. The interrogative and the relative are different words here, càit(e) and far:

Càit a bheil e? (Where is he?)
Tha fios agam far a bheil e. (I know where he is.)

Norwegian behaves in a similar way, although with a further complication. Generally, hvor is the interrogateive, and der the relative:

Hvor er du? (Where are you?)
Jeg vil være der du er. (I want to be where you are.)

But when a question is implicit, the relative is just hvor, as in English:

Jeg vil vite hvor du kommer fra. (I want to know where you come from.)

Incidentally, it’s the same situation with Norwegian then, which is variously når or da, according to the rule above.

Interesting tidbits of language, for a geek like me / us. But they serve as a reminder to delve a little deeper into usage using a resource like Wiktionary when you learn a word that seems to correspond neatly to one in your native language(s).

It may be less than half the story!

Icelandic horses. Image from freeimages.com.

Learning Icelandic and Norwegian Together : Close Buddies and False Friends

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There are advantages and disadvantages to learning very closely related languages together. And despite the benefits generally outweighing the snags, false friends are probably the most irksome spot of that downside. Icelandic and Norwegian are one such pairing that seems really popular in polyglot circles lately.

Because of the conservatism of Icelandic, tackling the two often feels like studying contemporary and ‘historical’ Norse side by side (although we need to be careful not to fall into that trap – Icelandic is a modern language that has been developing from Old Norse as long as Norwegian has).

That closeness gives us plenty of hooks to transfer knowledge. For example, Iceland þ (th) will show up as Norwegian t where the latter has inherited the same word:

🇮🇸 þreyttur – 🇳🇴 trøtt (tired)

But elsewhere, even when there is a really transparent cognate pair, meaning and use have drifted in the sands of time.

Traps to Trip You Up

One subtle cognate slip-up occurs with sem / som, the relativiser in clauses such as the book that I read. Icelandic and Norwegian agree as far as that is concerned:

🇮🇸 bókin sem ég las – 🇳🇴 boka som jeg leste

But that’s all they can agree on. Firstly, sem is not optional in Icelandic, whereas Norwegian can do as English does and simply say boka jeg leste.

What’s more, they also fall out when it comes to the other, more prepositional use, as in like a cat:

🇮🇸 eins og köttur – 🇳🇴 som en katt

That’s, like, a bit tricky.

Taking a Liking

Likewise, líkur / lik (alike) don’t always map onto each other like for like. While ‘they are alike‘ can be:

🇮🇸 þeir eru líkar – 🇳🇴 de er like

…in Icelandic, you’re more often than not going to come up against that eins again to mean ‘alike’:

🇮🇸 þeir eru eins

As eins clearly derives from the number one, it’s not hard to connect this to phrases like one and the same in English, or en og samme in Norwegian. Still, Icelandic uses eins pretty much everywhere that Norwegian uses like, so it’s another distinction to mark on the map.

Add to the fact that Icelandic uses cognate líka for also (også in Norwegian), and it has even more potential to be a confuser.

Do You Really Like It?

And like it or not, we’re not finished with like yet. It actually turns out that it really likes to mess with us. The Old Norse verb líka has ended up in both languages (just as English ended up with like from a more distant common ancestor). However, in Icelandic, líka is used in purely impersonal expressions:

🇮🇸 mér líkar það (lit. to me likes/pleases it)

…whereas in Norwegian, it works just the way like does in English, with the liker as the subject, and a direct object as the liked thing:

🇳🇴 jeg liker det (I like it)

Not only that: while expressions with líka in Icelandic do translate as like, they’re not the most colloquial way to express liking any more, and may come across as rather archaic. These days, you’re better off with a phrase using skemmtilegur (amusing, entertaining) like:

🇮🇸 mér finnst það skemmtilegt (to me finds-itself it amusing)

Admittedly, these quirks can seem less than amusing as a beginner learner, to be sure.

Crazy House

Funnily enough, it’s the realm of house and home where a little cluster of words diverges quite radically in meaning. Perhaps it’s not surprising for words relating to everyday living arrangements; as customs and practices change, old terms get repurposed and attached to ever more differing concepts. But stand by: this set seems like it went through a tumble dryer.

Norwegian rom will be familiar to English speakers as the cognate room. It meant largely the same in Old Norse – any room or internal space. But in Icelandic, it can now have the meaning bed. There’s quite an interesting theory for how that shift happened here.

Meanwhile, Norwegian seng, which means bed, is cognate with Icelandic sæng – which means duvet. And Norwegian dyne, which is duvet, materialises as Icelandic dýna – which means mattress. Utter bedroom confusion (as if deciding which side to sleep on wasn’t hard enough already).

Honorable Mentions

There are, predictably, plenty of these pitfalls between the languages – far too many for a short article. But amongst the hotchpotch of favourite falseish friends between Icelandic and Norwegian are two more favourites of mine.

Firstly, the word lag can mean layer in both languages. In Icelandic, however, it can also mean song. It’s notably a word in the title of one of Iceland’s most successful Eurovision entries, the boppy Eitt lag enn (one more song) of 1990. In Norwegian, on the other hand, it can mean team. One more team just doesn’t sound as fun, does it?

Along similar lines, we have grein (spelt gren in some varieties of Norwegian), which means branch to both Icelanders and Norwegians. But in Icelandic, the very same word is used for an article in a newspaper. A case of a word branching out, perhaps?

Variety Show

It’s all fun and games, of course, and one of the reasons it can be so fascinating to learn languages within the same grein of a family tree. For one thing, you end up collecting juicy etymological trivia in droves (the kind of stuff you can spin out for an upbeat language blog, for instance).

But a final point for fellow dual learners concerns the variety of Norwegian you learn. If, instead of vanilla Bokmål, you study Nynorsk, or any of the traditional dialects of Norway under that umbrella, you might well come across a few more cognates and similarities to Icelandic. Bokmål, as the heir to Riksmål and the imported Dano-Norwegian of centuries past, has levelled out some of the more Norsey features of traditional norsk. Dialects often preserve these beautifully. If you’re up for exploring this further, then a good place to start is NRK’s language programme Språksnakk, which regularly answers questions on local vocab features that bear more than a passing resemblance to islenska.

Do you have similar experiences with this or any other pair of languages? Let us know your favourite drifting cognates in the comments!

Five stars - what you hope to get from your TV picks in a foreign language! Image from freeimages.com

Joyful, Joyful TV for Maintenance Language Impetus

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I type this fresh from the jubilance of seeing my favourite Stjernekamp (Star Fight) contestant sail through to the final of the popular Norwegian TV series. Alexandra Rotan, known to many as one third of Eurovision act Keiino, sang her heart out and won a place in the final two.

Watching light entz and pop culture in your target language is always a popular tactic in polyglot circles, and for good reason: it’s just plain fun. I spotted a recent #langtwt tweet cheekily polling people’s favourite ‘trash’. And while I’m far too nice to call it that, I do get the sentiment – it’s content which is far from high-brow, but unthinkingly, unchallengingly cosy and feel-good.

So it is with the wonderfully joyful Stjernekamp.

The Sun Always Shines on (Target Language) TV

The thing is, I’ve not been making a deliberate effort to get more of it into my life lately. Norwegian is one of my most beloved and strongest foreign languages, but currently, I’m just maintaining it rather than working actively on it. The reason it keeps budging its way in, hitching a ride on Stjernekamp and other vehicles, is impetus.

Back in my active learning phase, I’d done the groundwork already. I’d followed norsk favourites like Stjernekamp, Skal vi danse and Maskorama on all my social media channels, filling my daily scrolls with target language. I’d downloaded on-demand apps from Norway, and set up notifications for all those shows. And they’re all still there, popping up in my line of sight, without any effort on my part.

And that is the very essence of maintenance.

Keeping It Light

Granted, it’s getting easier and easier to do this today. A click of the Subscribe button, and you’ve forged a pipeline supplying language input 24/7. With international TV franchises, a lot of that input is warmingly familiar, too.

But a word of caution: I’ve found the tone of what you choose really colours your attitude towards the language. Stjernekamp – much like other musical reality shows, like the BBC’s Strictly – is a thing of pure joy. Frivolous, fanciful fun. In my Norwegian fallow season, it has become what the language is to me. My heart leaps a little when a notification pops up.

On the other hand, for some languages, I ignored those instincts. I added – gulp – serious news feeds instead. Now, I’ll backtrack a little here, as I’ve sung the praises of adding current affairs feeds in the past. That’s because in some cases, it does work a treat. For instance, many apps, like NRK’s news service, allow you to select the topics to be alerted on. Science and technology? Tick for me. And other services, like podcast series News in Slow and Radio Prosty Polski, break the stories down into short, manageable chunks.

On the other hand, the Polish TVP Info app just gives you everything in all its shocking, miserable detail. And, especially lately, everything in the news can be a bit… hmm… depressing? That’s not to mention the elevated style of news articles and frequent pomposity of style. Give me singing, dancing celebs over that any day. Needless to say, I dejectedly swipe away most of those TVP alerts. I clearly need to spend more time streamlining my Polish apps and socials to redefine what Poland is to me in a much happier light.

The moral here, of course, is be mindful about your media. It can make the difference between switching on and off to your target language(s).

What pop culture media helps you stay switched on to your target languages during a maintenance phase? Let us know in the comments!

 

Triangulation - a polyglot approach to language learning. Image by Nils Thingvall, FreeImages.com

Everyday Triangulation : Three Sides to Every Language Story

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A study colleague popped up in our group forum this week, sharing an interesting resource. It was a set of quiz flashcards for the current term’s Swahili vocabulary. But it came with a triangulation twist. It was a Swahili-Spanish set, rather than Swahili-English.

Triangulation – learning one of your foreign languages through another, rather than your first – is nothing new, of course. A beloved technique of polyglotters, it can be an easy, quick-win strategy to learn and maintain / strengthen skills at the same time. Many readily available resources support it, too. Both Duolingo and Glossika have options for learning via a different base language.

The assumption is often that it works best with quite different language pairs, like my colleague’s Swahili-Spanish set. There is certainly a logic to this, as some might expect possible counter-interference with closely related languages. I’ve certainly got some good use out of Langenscheidt’s Polish course for German speakers (a slightly more updated version of my ancient copy is available here!).

Close Triangulation

That said, triangulating with close language pairs does come with a unique advantage. Namely, it shines a bright light on false friends and misleading pairs, which might otherwise remain invisible if English is the medium to learn both.

Take Norwegian and Icelandic, for example. There is an apparent cognate in Icelandic líka and Norwegian like. However, they mean different things: also and alike respectively. If you learn both languages via English, the two will never come into contact with other (at least in your mind), and that discrepancy will remain in the dark. Well, at least until you confuse them in conversation with a native speaker (yes: guilty!).

However, if you create a set of learning resources in Icelandic and Norwegian that makes explicit this (dis)connection, you have a head start.

The same happens with words that are cognates, but slightly overlap in usage. For instance, Icelandic and Norwegian have the cognates sem and som. These can both be used as relative pronouns (the dog that I saw, the doctor that treated me and so on). However, Norwegian som can also be used for the comparing like, as in noen som ham (someone like him). In Icelandic, that doesn’t work at all. Instead, you have to use the term eins og, giving us einhvern eins og hann for the same phrase. It’s exceptionally tricky to learn that distinction if you learn Icelandic and Norwegian through English, but separately from each other.

Triangulating Existing Resources

Great, if you are just starting out, you might say. But what if you are already halfway down the road? By the time I realised the benefit of triangulating Iceland and Norwegian, I already had a ton of English-based Anki flashcards in separate decks for each one. Starting a third set for Icelandic-Norwegian was a less than fun prospect. It felt like treading the same ground all over again.

Tech tools to the rescue, though. There are some clever tricks you can play with your existing data sets to create triangulated versions without starting over. This export / collation technique using Anki and Excel, for example, produces a merged list than can then, in turn, be used to create a fresh Anki deck.

Aside from that, auditing via Excel is a great way to check what you know in one of your languages but not the other.

 

Christmas is coming! Make it a language learning one.

Last Minute Gifts for Language Learners

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Yes, Christmas is just around the corner! And, if you’re anything like me, you enjoy a healthy (and very human) mix of perfect prep and last-minute lunacy. However well I plan, there are always a couple of things that sneak onto my to-do list in the last couple of days.

Never fear: if you still have language learning friends and family to treat, these are our top gift picks for linguistic stocking fillers.

Teach Yourself Tutor Series

There’s nothing more exciting to a linguist than a brand, spanking new language learning book. This year, Teach Yourself have really come up trumps with their ever-growing Tutor series of graded grammar lessons and drills.

The fact that these tomes are aimed at “Advanced Beginner” and above makes them particularly appealing to polyglot hobbyists, who often approach grammar with a ton of existing knowledge that can make basic primers boring. Add to that the fact that they’re available in some  lesser-studied languages with fewer available resources, and the series is a real winner. Props to Teach Yourself!

I’ve already invested in a couple, and am impressed at the clarity of explanation and usefulness of the exercises. I’d be smiling if I woke up to any more of these on Christmas Day, let me tell you.

My only request for the Teach Yourself Santa: please, an Icelandic version next year?

 

Virtual Chinese assistant

This tech project has been catching fire recently on funding site IndieGogo. It’s a virtual, conversational assistant designed specifically with the goal of learning Chinese in mind. Hěn hǎo!

It’s possible to pre-order Lily as a backer right now, which is a pretty exciting way to get in on ground level as an early adopter and supporter.

It is just available in Chinese for now, sadly (well, sadly for those of use who haven’t tackled Chinese – yet!). However, there is a hint that further languages will be added in future. Definitely worth bookmarking that page!

Otherwise, alternative virtual assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home have a slowly growing selection of language learning utilities, too. Amazon even introduced software for you to teach Alexa new languages in 2018, underlining a commitment to making the device more polyglot-friendly.

iTalki credits

Books and gadgets are ace, of course. But good old, human, face-to-face contact will add some real-world shine to someone’s Christmas language baubles.

There are few platforms as effective and reasonably priced as iTalki for online lessons. Whether your friends and family are already familiar with it or totally new, you can boost their learning with the gift of iTalki lessons credits.

I burn through mine at a rate of knots, so like-minded linguists will really appreciate some gifted learning time!

App Store credit

Similarly, we language learners can end up spending money like water when it comes to subscriptions for learning platforms. Babbel, Duolingo, Memrise… Premium tier access all adds up.

And it’s not just language-specific services, either. General productivity utilities like Evernote are fantastic learning tools with monthly or annual price tags. Netflix and Amazon Prime also have burgeoning collections of foreign-language viewing that linguists can devour.

As most such platforms are app-based, users can usually pay with app store credit directly on a mobile device. That makes gifting credit for app stores like iTunes or Google Play a great way to support your linguistic loved ones in their online language quest.

You can even acquire app store gift card codes for free through survey sites like Swagbucks. Surveys for pressies? Sign me up!

The gift of time

I’ve said it many times before, but the greatest gifts don’t have to cost anything. Solo learning can be a lonely business, and a bit of people power goes a long way. Why not commit to partnering a friend in their learning?

It’s not just about being a study buddy at the same language level, either. Studies repeatedly support the notion that we learn by teaching. In light of this, why not volunteer your time to your nearest and dearest as a peer student? That’s a gift to them and to you. Win-win.

However you celebrate this year, a wonderful Christmas to one and all. Good tidings of language learning joy – have a great one!