David Keefer

My Story with Norwegian

20 October 2024

How My Interest Began

My interest in the Norwegian language and culture began in 2017 when I first played FIFA 16. In the game’s soundtrack, there is a song called "Conqueror" by Norwegian song artist Aurora. Now the song is not in Norwegian, but being a fan of Aurora’s music led me down the path of different Norwegian music genres. Since I played her songs so much on Spotify, Spotify started recommending me different Norwegian artists. Soon enough I became obsessed with the band called No.4. Their songs are in Norwegian, and they are what influenced me to learn the language because I wanted to understand what they were singing about. I then started to research resources to learn Norwegian and start my learning journey.

Starting with Duolingo and Other Resources

The first resource I used was Duolingo. I first used it in high school for Spanish class but dumped it because I never thought I would use it again. I went back to it in the Fall of 2018. It had been about three years since I used it, and I surprisingly still had my account. Duolingo does present language learning in a fun, interactive way that makes it better to use than other sites. The game like features have you matching words, speaking a sentence out loud, translating sentences by using a word bank, and filling in the blank all to progress forward with each lesson. One of the main features to keep you coming back are the streaks. Keeping my streak did influence me to come back each day. My streak only lasted about three or four months after I started because I became unmotivated to keep it. Completing lessons each day just to keep my streak started to feel like a chore. One of the most beneficial features Duolingo had were the forum and community pages. In the forums and communities, you could chat with other learners and exchange ideas. Many forums had a list of resources outside of Duolingo for learners to utilize. Luckily, the most popular Norwegian community had plenty of resources available. I eventually stopped using Duolingo in favor of the better options available. Before Duolingo decided to discontinue forums and communities due to poor moderation, I copied every Norwegian resource available as I did not see myself going back to Duolingo. I began to gravitate away from using Duolingo in favor of other resources.

After giving up Duolingo, I started to use e-textbooks, read and translate Norwegian news sites such as NRK and Klar Tale, watch Norwegian shows, and listen to new music. I found that these resources increased my motivation to learn but I was always slowly making progress. I believe Duolingo is a great starting point for learning a language but, you can not solely rely on it.

Integrating Music with Learning

On top of Vettakollen Peak with view of Oslo and the Oslofjord
On top of Vettakollen Peak overlooking Oslo and the Oslofjord

One of the best ways to learn a language is by listening to music. Singing and listening to songs in a foreign language helped me with pronunciation and memory. I have listened to hours of Norwegian music and the music helped me learn new phrases, understand pronunciations, and retain vocabulary. A fun way I incorporated music into my learning was to listen and sing to Disney songs. Since the songs are directed towards kids, the songs use simple words and phrases. An obstacle I have faced is understanding different dialects of singers. The dialects in Norway can change from one city to the next but most stay in the same range depending on what region you are in.

An example of Norwegian dialects in music are in the singing of Michelle Ullestad and the band No.4. Michelle lives in Bergen, which is on the western coast, while the members of No.4 live in Oslo, near the southeastern border with Sweden. No.4 sings with a more traditional Bokmål pronunciation that you would learn from Duolingo or a textbook. If you listen to their songs and read the lyrics, you will recognize a few pronunciation differences. For instance, members of No.4 will pronounce the word for "I" as "jeg" (/jæɪ/) and Michelle will pronounce it as "eg" (/æg/). Understanding another dialect has helped me expand my knowledge of the language. Even though I did not run into any dialect problems while learning, it is beneficial to know that other dialects exist and to get a sense of how they differ.

Experiencing the Language and Culture in Norway

In the summer of 2022, I was fortunate enough to study aboard in Oslo, Norway. I applied to the International Summer School at the University of Oslo where I took an Introduction to Norwegian language course for six weeks. The class was Monday-Friday, three hours a day. There were people from all over the world in the program. It was an amazing experience to meet people from different cultures and backgrounds and experience Norway with them. Traveling to Norway is an experience that I recommend to everyone because Oslo is one of the vibrant cities in Europe with plenty to do.

I spent a lot of my free time going to museums and doing outdoor activities. One of the museums I visited was the National Museum in Oslo. It opened a few days before I arrived, so I had to make it a top place to go to. There are three floors containing Norwegian history and culture, classic and modern art, and sculptures. On the third floor, there is an outdoor area overlooking the Oslofjord. Another museum I visited was the Edvard Munch Art Museum. This museum contained many famous works from Munch including The Scream. The Munch Museum also had many interactive areas where you can create your own art. In addition to museums and cultural sites, Oslo has many opportunities for outdoor activates.

Summers in Oslo are beautiful. The temperature is in the 70s during the day and then falls to the 50s at night. One activity a group of us did was go swimming at Sørenga Sjøbad dock in the Oslofjord. The dock has olympic sized swimming lanes, a diving tower, and plenty of sunbathing areas. The water wasn’t cold, but it was tough to swim in. While swimming, jellyfish appeared beneath us which was shocking because I never thought that jellyfish lived in Norway. A couple days later, I took the train north to Vettakollen to hike up the Vettakollen Peak trail. The trail was very rocky and steep. The top of the trail provided an amazing view of the city and Oslofjord. I stayed there for two hours to take in the view. One day I want to go back and do everything over again.

How to Keep Advancing and Stay Proficient

Norwegian is not a difficult language once you understand the basics. The hardest parts about learning Norwegian, as with any language, is building your vocabulary, speaking, and listening. Some words sound and look like their English translation but other words, mostly nouns and verb conjugations, will be difficult to remember. The best way to study vocabulary would be creating flash cards or using Duolingo. Learning vocabulary comes with the need to learn grammar and Norwegian grammar can be tricky at times. Even though Norwegian follows a subject-verb-object (SVO) sentence structure like English, there are many rules that change the written and spoken structure. These rules are vital to memorize. Norwegian is a beneficial language to learn with enough pracrtice.

List of Resources

Below I have listed links to what I have come across and what has been useful for me to learn about the language and culture. If you are interested in learning Norwegian, I encourage you to explore all of them.

YouTube Channles:

Norwegian Singers and Bands:


Vi sees! (See you later!)

David Keefer