Product Description

This stand-alone, all-audio course can be used by those who have little or no knowledge of the language, by those who want to learn or brush up basic conversation skills, and by more advanced learners who require extra audio material to complement their current courses.

The ten units or 'conversations' cover the situations you are most likely to find yourself in while on holiday or on business abroad. They are divided into two parts, with a dialogue in each part. The dialogue in Part 2 reuses the vocabulary and phrases from Part 1 in a slightly different context. Both parts start with an introduction to the words and phrases you'll need, followed by the dialogue. Finally it's 'Over to you': you take part in the same dialogues following the English prompts, playing all the roles in turn. So you get lots of opportunity to practise! Frequent track markers divide the CDs up into short, easy-to-use clips.

Vocabulary and phrases in the first two CDs are kept to the basics and are introduced gradually with lots of opportunity to repeat and practise, to improve your confidence in both speaking and understanding. The third CD concentrates on helping you improve your understanding, so that you will be able to hold two-way conversations with people who speak very fast or use words and phrases you do not know.

The course comes on three 75-minute CDs and has an accompanying 48-page booklet which gives the dialogues and the translations of the dialogues, for those who like to see the written word or want additional practice. The booklet also provides a basic glossary of the words and phrases used.

This is the perfect complement to 'Teach Yourself Norwegian' and, like it, is written in Bokmål. Bokmål is the standard Norwegian language, used by approximately 85% of Norwegians. It has developed from the Dano-Norwegian, originating during the 400 or so years when Norway was part of Denmark.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #154785 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-29
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD

Review
"I am a big fan of this series. Commercial packaging, simple concept and a competitive price make these well worth trying....One to watch." (The Bookseller )

About the Author
Margaretha Danbolt Simons is Norwegian, but has lived in England for many years. She has been teaching at the University of Surrey for the last ten years. Her course, Norwegian ab initio, which is part of the MA/Diploma in Translation Studies, attracts 15-20 students per year. She uses her own book 'Teach Yourself Norwegian' as her textbook and main teaching aid. Other subjects she teaches at the University of Surrey are Medical and Literary translation, English into Norwegian, and an introductory course of Interpreting. She runs two Norwegian classes at the Guildford Adult Education Centre, one for beginners and one intermediate, and also teaches on a one-to-one basis. Students include diplomats and businesspeople. Recent translation work includes Ibsen's 'Ghosts' for BBC Radio.

Customer Reviews

Good basic introduction, but a little dry
It's true that the level of Norwegian you reach through this short course isn't very high, and the language is spoken rather slowly. But for a complete beginner, this is about right - you learn enough basic structures and vocabulary to make yourself understood in Norway. No beginner's course will ever fully equip the learner to understand the range of language they will be exposed to in the target language country, so it would be unfair to dismiss Teach Yourself Norwegian Conversation for failing to help the learner achieve fluency.

What does let it down slightly is the slightly dry style - but publishers have often struggled with creating engaging audio material for language courses. It is otherwise well structured, offering lots of listening material around set topics, as well as a really useful third CD with general hints and practise which is not topic specific. A good introduction, and for many people much easier than a full-blown Norwegian introductory course with a coursebook to work through.

Very good
I am a complete newbie when it comes to Norwegian, so I bought this and I achieved a huge comprehension on my trip to Norway, the only thing that was hard is that I went to a place where they speak a different language, so it's sometimes hard to assume some words sounds the same when they don't, but now when i watch TV in norwegian I can at least know what they are talking about...

Very good choice for those that can't seem to find the time to go to a school to learn it. The best part is that you can learn while you are doing something else.

Note: As stated on product description, this is for complete beginners or people who have very little knowledge of Norwegian. I doubt someone will benefit as much if they already know a fair amount.

Conversations are way too slow
After finishing this course one has no chance understanding spoken language. Dialogs on first two CDs are so slow that even my friend who doesn't speak Norwegian at all said it was too slow for her. I'm on intermediate level, so I wanted something complimentary to improve my conversation skills. But I found out that even dialogs on third CD, which are supposed to be spoken at normal pace, are slower than dialogs on "På vei" CD, which I used for learning. For anyone knowing any Norwegian, this course is of no use, and complete beginners shouldn't expect to learn too much.