15. How I read and listen (Det norske politiske systemet)

Michal Ryszard Wojcik (2002 January 14):

About three months ago I found a Norwegian website dedicated to social science. I think that it is a learning resource for Norwegian kids who have social science at school. There is a section about the Norwegian political system. There are a number of text pages together with sound files for the text.

I printed out some of the pages and I compiled two audio CDs from those sound files (about 85 minutes altogether). This is how three months ago I obtained a large portion of Norwegian text in the written and audio form at the same time.

I bless the Internet and the webmaster of that website:
http://kasper.svev.no/svev.cfm?Lang=nb&kat=Samfunnslaere&ukat=Politikk

How I read

I read about the Norwegian political system in the waiting-room way:

• while sitting in a bus
• during a boring lecture
• while sitting in a waiting room
• while waiting for something when there's nothing else to do.

Notice that this way does not require special time. My reading about the Norwegian political system has no time cost.

How I listen

I listen about the Norwegian political system in the background way:

• while doing math
• while answering email
• while writing for my website
• while reading in Norwegian
• while eating in the kitchen
• while washing the dishes.

I listen while doing something else. My listening is a background activity. I don't need to find special time for listening in Norwegian. It has no time cost.

But sometimes I devote special time to listening:

• in the morning - after waking up and before getting up
• at night - in bed before falling asleep.

I like to begin and finish my day with Norwegian.

It's been over three months now since I started working on the text about the Norwegian political system. I listened to it a countless number of times. I don't know how many, maybe even 100 times. And I have noticed that my understanding grows steadily without any effort on my part. It seems that it's enough that I listen in the background way and read in the waiting-room way.