Norwegian Language Books For Beginners
Anthony
My advice for learning Norwegian is to start with comic books or illustrated books. It is also important that the theme is something you find interesting and that you like the illustrations in the books you choose.
Many years ago, I moved to Italy with no Italian language skills. Knowing English and Norwegian did not help much, so I had to learn the language. I started attending language school and began reading Italian comic books. The combination of words and images and understanding the text through both those elements made learning easier.
After some time, I could read simple books, then books without illustrations that were slightly more challenging. I did not look up every word I did not understand. It was better to try to understand them through the context. This way, I learned many new words more or less subconsciously.
I still try to improve my Italian language skills, and I read, for instance, Italian novels. You need to be patient. You have to read a lot and not care that you do not immediately understand everything you read. Slowly but surely you will start to learn more and more Norwegian.
Summary by Leser sker bok: Anna Fiske has met many trees in her life, and many of them have strong memories connected to them. The story follows Anna throughout her childhood, teenage years, and adulthood, and the trees are always there.
Through happiness and sorrow, always with a poetic and sincere look at the trees and people.
Summary by Leser sker bok: 150 years ago, women had few rights. They did not have the right to vote or get an education. How have women all over the world fought for justice and equality? When did the fight for equality start? And what is its status today?
Summary by Leser sker bok: In a country ravaged by war, a mother and daughter are sitting in a basement. They are waiting for the planes that are coming soon and the bombs that will fall. They think about the time before the war. And how everything has changed. The book is about how it is to grow up in a country ravaged by war. The contrast is not the best, but there is a lot of air around the text.
Summary by Leser sker bok: Askeladden som kappt med utlendingen is a book for adults. It is a beautiful book with a powerful message. The style is based on the Norwegian fairy tales. This is a modern story about Askeladden/ The Ash Lad, fearless and curious, who fights the scary foreigner. It is up to the reader to find out who the real trolls of the story are.
Summary by Leser sker bok: Honest and sometimes brutal about loneliness and depression. But the poems also contain a lot of humour.
The poems are short and simple, yet contain a lot of content. The texts can feel liberating for someone who has experienced depression, who may recognise and acknowledge the content. Those who have not experienced something like this can learn a lot.
As a multilingual person, I found learning Norwegian particularly difficult. Not because of the language itself, but because everybody speaks perfect English, minimizing the need to use it outside of class. But reading books can be done anytime, without any pressure, and it helps to speed up the learning process just as much. Here you can find tips from both locals and international students on what books they would recommend for a fun and engaging experience. There is something for every level!
Sara, an exchange student from Singapore, has been trying to learn Norwegian from the moment she knew her exchange semester would take place in Norway. When asked about books that helped her improve, she insisted that Short Stories for Beginners must be mentioned, as it has helped her when learning Korean, French, and now Norwegian.
Proactively trying to help me learn, Olav has been sending me book tips from the day I told him I attended my first Norwegian class. He described this one as "the book based on an old German folk story that features a little mole who wakes up with a poop on his head. He then walks around the farm to find out who did it so that he can enact his revenge." Since I had hard time wrapping my head around the fact someone would write such a book, Olav spent over an hour searching for it in the children's section in Bjrvika library to prove the point, and this is why he thinks you should read it, too:
Barbara, once an international student trying to learn Norwegian, now language assistant leading conversation classes for A1-A2 level students, says that while she does not read much, Folk og rvere i Kardemomme by is a book they read in class when she started learning the language and it stuck with her.
Not being a beginner yet not being nearly fluent can be confusing, often frustrating, especially when trying to lead a conversation and struggling to properly express everything you would like to because words are not yet coming to your mind fast enough. Reading books could be a way to fast track the process of making the language become more natural for you. According to Barbara, students should aim to not stop to translate every word but rather keep reading and learn to derive meaning from the context, as that is what you need to do in conversations. Below you can find some books containing relatively simple vocabulary so that you set yourself up for a smooth reading experience.
When I asked Kristen about a recommendation for people trying to learn Norwegian, just like many others, she answered "any children's books." But to provide a more specific tip, she tried to think of a book not too difficult, yet versatile enough so that one could invest themselves in reading it. She landed on Gubben og katten in the end:
Congratulations on your mastery of another language! At this point, you are probably able to read almost any book and understand the majority of it. Enjoy it and make use of it, for example, by opting to read books of Norwegian authors in their original forms, as that allows you to truly savor every nuance the author intended to convey.
I have seen this book shared in a Facebook group that posts Norwegian literature translated to my native language (Slovak). When writing this article, I reached out to my friend Eva to ask if she has read it as, rather unusually for a French person, Norwegian is her third language. Plus, she is very engaged with the topic of feminism. Of course she has read it, and this is what she wanted to share about it:
Oscar Wildes heis is a book I once saw my friend Eirik reading during a break between classes. When language assistant Ekaterina mentioned one of the stories in the book, I texted him to ask about it and this is was his response:
An avid reader, Thomas, an exchange student from France, has been on the quest of using the opportunity of being in Norway to get to know more local authors. He found Ut og stjle hester particularly impactful because of how it conveys the gravity of various events.
Her writing style is short and to the point. So if you do not enjoy volumes of paper dedicated to world building (and think Lord of The Rings could have easily been shortened by half), you might be pleased that Hanne rstavik does just that, not leaving any time for you to become impatient about what shall happen next.
Originally a humorist writer, in later works Loe moves towards satirical commentaries. If you need a reason to laugh, be it about funny occurrences or about the misery of the world we live in, you should try to read some of Erlend Loe's books.
When a new book of Jo Nesb would come out, it would always be displayed at the entrance of any bookshop I have visited, be it in France, Belgium, Slovakia, or Korea. Nesb's international fame speaks for the quality of his work, and you have likely heard of him, too. And now you can read his works as they were originally written! Many of us, international students, are currently fearing how to cope with the darkness of Scandinavian winter, but you can use it to your advantage, as it sets up a perfect atmosphere for the crime, horror, and mystery fiction Jo Nesb is known for.
Considered the father of realism, Ibsen is one of the most important Norwegian writers. Although the language of his plays might be difficult to understand since they were written a long time ago, it is certainly worth a try.
You can listen to a native speaker read some of the texts in each chapter, as well as practice listening comprehension by listening to the audio tracks that go with the listening exercises in the book.
I finished the entire thing and really enjoyed it. I think having it follow one storyline, rather than random dialogues and texts, really takes it up a notch. The grammar lessons in each chapter also seem really thoughtfully picked.
Short stories or books made for language learners that are story-based (aka graded readers) are hard to come by in Norwegian, so I consider this one a gem! This is my go-to recommendation for anyone wanting to work on their reading comprehension in a fun way.
Stein p Stein is your basic run of the mill textbook, honestly. It includes an online component through its website where you can listen to audio for further listening practice. There are also extra exercises you can do to practice more.
There is also an online course you can take instead, where you pay 249kr (roughly $30) per month. It includes the texts, exercises, listening practice, and helpful videos to expand upon topics mentioned in the book.
Part of sorting through the best books to learn Norwegian is finding what works for you. At this level, you have all the written texts made for native speakers available to you. So treat it like you would finding a book to read in your mother tongue!
So pin this to Pinterest so you can refer to it later, and share it with your language learning friends so they too can find the best learning Norwegian books to reach Norwegian fluency.
1) Register in a language course, a.k.a norskkurs
There are many schools and institutions in Norway giving such classes. Some are public such as Rosenhoff (this is under the Oslo kommune), some are private such as Alfa Skolen, and others are something in between such as Folkeuniversitetet (subsidised by the State and available all over the country).