Norsk, nordmenn og Norge 1: Textbook for Beginning Norwegian

I recommend the textbook NORSK, NORDMENN OG NORGE 1 by Kathleen Stokker and Odd Haddal as well as the accompanying workbook by Louis Janus (both published in 1981, second edition). The two books are available on Amazon. As I will explain below, unfortunately this textbook was NOT made with beginners in mind who would like to start studying Norwegian on their own. For this reason, those who want to have just one textbook for absolute beginners, should look elsewhere. Although these two books have so much to offer, they are not “Teach Yourself” type of books. Most people will probably find them too frustrating and too inaccessible in their first steps into Norwegian. However, I highly recommend this textbook and its workbook as a WONDERFUL SUPPLEMENT AND COMPANION to another, more accessible, introductory course of Norwegian.Be sure to get the second edition of the workbook because it provides answers to the written exercises and transcripts to the oral exercises. [The oral exercises are recorded and available in MP3 audio from University of Wisconsin Press.]Do not be misled by the fact that these books are almost 40 years old. While visually the two books may not seem very attractive for modern standards (there are no color photos and other visually attractive fireworks common in modern textbooks for languages), they are unique in that they offer A LOT OF PRACTICE AND EXERCISES, with solutions. To the best of my knowledge, you will not find anything like this published in US. Moreover, a tremendous value of these books lies in the availability of many hours of audio recordings made for the textbook and the workbook.While the books may seem rather expensive to some people, consider that the textbook is a nice hardback edition with 635 pages. The workbook is a large paperback with 325 pages. And THE BEST THING: you can buy the accompanying audio recordings in MP3 from University of Wisconsin Press for just ten bucks! [Look for: AUDIO COMPANION TO NORSK, NORDMENN OG NORGE 1]. The audio recordings are of good quality (but not excellent) and you get almost 9 hours of audio: 456 minutes of recorded exercises and dialogues and 83 minutes of pronunciation drills. The tracks of the recordings are rather long. On the same track you have audio for both the textbook and the workbook for the same lesson. You will need the two books to fully profit from the audio.The textbook and the workbook are not very user-friendly for modern standards. However, they have so much to offer to someone who has enough patience to dig into their rich contents. In the textbook, there are dialogues, texts, drills, exercises and almost nothing is rendered into English, that is, every lesson is almost completely in Norwegian. There are only very few short explanations in English in the footnotes every now and then. In the table of contents, at the beginning of the book, the authors indicate what kind of grammatical topics are covers in a specific lesson. Unfortunately, the same info is not repeated at the beginning of each lesson. There is Grammar Summary (40 pages) in English at the end of the book followed by Glossary (80 pages). Regrettably, the authors do not make references to that grammar summary in the lessons. Therefore, the student has to figure it out on his/her own where to find a relevant grammatical information for each lesson. The Grammar Summary has a lot of illustrations in Norwegian and these are all accompanied by their English translations. There are lists of words to learn for each lesson, but there are no English equivalents. You must find the meanings on your own using the Glossary at the end of the book. It must be stressed that the Glossary is excellent. Nouns, adjectives and verbs are given all the important forms that a student of Norwegian must know and this is very convenient. I even use this glossary when I look for meanings of words and phrases for other books.The fact remains that this classroom-oriented organization of the material in the textbook may seem very discouraging at first. Many reviewers were very unhappy about it. And I perfectly understand their frustration. However, it must be stressed that this book was conceived as a CLASSROOM TEXTBOOK WITH A TEACHER in mind four decades ago. Ideally, the authors should have mentioned it in the title of the textbook, something like: ''NORSK, NORDMENN OG NORGE 1. Norwegian for Beginners with a Teacher''. It is a pity there is no preview of the textbook on Amazon. It would be helpful for people to have a glimpse into the nature of this textbook before deciding if they want to buy it or not.SUMMING UP: NORSK, NORDMENN OG NORGE 1 is not a textbook designed for people who would like to study Norwegian on their own, outside the classroom without a teacher. However, this textbook and its workbook, especially with their audio recordings and numerous drills, can be a great supplement and companion to a more accessible introductory textbook like MYSTERY OF NILS, also available on Amazon. NORSK, NORDMENN OG NORGE 1 is not the best choice for absolute beginners who would like to study Norwegian on their own. However, MYSTERY OF NILS - a much more attractive and accessible textbook - does not offer as many audio recordings, exercises, practice and pronunciation drills as does NORSK, NORDMENN OG NORGE 1. In my experience, MYSTERY OF NILS and NORSK, NORDMENN OG NORGE 1 can complement each other very well.To those who can read German I recommend NORWEGISCH MIT SYSTEM (2016), an excellent textbook with 4CDs included in the whole set, with great audio recordings for texts, vocabulary and some practice. The dialogues in the first 10 lessons are recorded twice, with fast and slow speech, which is great for beginners. Moreover, the glossary at the end of NORWEGISCH MIT SYSTEM is fantastic because it has phonetic transcription for all the words and phrases, which I found extremely helpful. Keep in mind that the relation between the Norwegian script and speech is highly complex, with many exceptions and and many words with silent consonants (= consonants that are written but not pronounced). Without the phonetic transcription I often had doubt about the correct pronunciation and I made many mistakes. The whole set was 43 euro on Amazon Germany. In my view, it is even better for absolute beginners than MYSTERY OF NILS.

Just thought I would put a note in here for other Norwegian learners. I've only gone through the first two units, but I think it's important to know before buying that if you are looking for (what I at least think of as) a traditional language textbook, as you might have encountered in high school learning French or Spanish, where there are large sections of grammar explanation in English, then you will be disappointed with this book. It is mostly, except for small footnotes, in Norwegian and mostly what I would think of as exercises. [Note: I do not have the accompanying tapes, so there may be more instruction on those.] There aren;t the sections of vocabulary and definitions that I am used to. Having said that, I think it is very useful for really immersing yourself in the language and forcing yourself to learn, and I think it is very do-able for a beginner (you won't be lost).Overall I am happy I purchased this book, even though I might not have had I really looked closely at it before buying. You may want to use it in conjunction with another book that has more instruction or check out the audio tapes.

Maybe it's the class I'm taking...but I find Norsk, nordmenn og Norge to be one of the nicest language textbooks I've ever used. It's not fancy...not in color...but the lessons are clear...broken up into understandable chunks...and the book's refusal to use English...while daunting at first...eventually forces you to learn the vocabulary quickly. The class I'm taking also requires the workbook...which is a good complement to the main textbook. (There's a set of audio files available from the publisher's website that are also handy.)The only minus? It's heavy. I hope Amazon eventually offers it in an e-reader format.

I love this textbook. I am learning so much from it, and although it does not have much English, the translations of all the Norwegian words to English are in the back so it's not too hard to use. would 10/10 recommend to any beginner who wants to learn some basic Norwegian. I also recommend pairing it with the workbook for some extra practice.

This is an excellent book for people who are interested in Norwegian language and culture and are ready to start learning Norwegian. It will take you from beginner level to intermediate level of reading, writing, and speaking Norwegian.

A bunch of the pages didn’t get printed properly. There’s blank spaces in many pages that makes it hard to read. I ordered a replacement and it came the same way. Sending both back.