4. Norsk for utlendinger - a beginner's textbook

Michal Ryszard Wojcik (2001 July 30):

24 days ago I got myself a beginnerbook for Norwegian learners (Norsk for utlendinger by Harry Persson Oslo 1970). This book is written in Norwegian only and it is meant for zero beginners. At the end of the book there is a Norwegian-English glossary. I never used the glossary. It is my principle to learn Norwegian in Norwegian.

Today I finished reading this book. I was reading this book. "read" is a good verb to describe my action. There was no effort. I did not try to memorize anything. I did not worry about forgetting words. I simply kept on reading. The time I spent on this book was simply my leisure time. It was the same kind of pleasure as reading a normal book.

I learned the basics of Norwegian grammar:

• noun gender
• singular and plural forms of nouns
• definite and indefinite articles
• adjective forms
• the comparative form of adjectives (greater than, older than)
• personal pronouns (I, he, we, her, them)
• genitive (John's car, car of John, my, your, our)
• myself, yourself, ourselves, each other, one another
• adverbs
• numbers (1,2,3,4,5, first, second, third, fourth)
• verbs in all tenses
• demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those)
• structures like: the book I read, the city we live in
• passive voice in all tenses
• when, if, because, but, and, as, after, before
• and other things

I learned these things in a passive way. I mean that I can recognize them in written texts. I do not claim that I could build my own sentences fluently. That's why I used the word "passive". I do not build my own sentences. I only read sentences.

I have a Norwegian-Norwegian dictionary (Bokmaalsordboka definisjons- og rettskrivningsordbok). But I did not use it while reading this book. The book itself was enough to understand it. The texts were simple and new vocabulary was introduced gradually.

For the sake of truth, I admit that I used the dictionary a couple of times. I did not need it but I was curious how useful it could be. I wanted to see if I know enough to use it - after all I'm a beginner. The experiment showed that I could use the dictionary. I could understand most of its explanations. The dictionary gives many examples. The examples were very useful, probably more useful than definitions.

I found the dictionary to be so helpful that I would gladly use it. But the font is so small that I cannot read it comfortably. I decided not to use the dictionary because of its small font. If I used the dictionary, my pleasure of learning Norwegian would drop.

I have two conclusions: