November Update

Well, it has been a busy month! I have been accepted to teach in Vietnam, so I will be heading over there in January. I have also been writing a book, which is available to buy on amazon if anyone is interested. It is called 61 Tips to Succeed in any Language! and brings together many of the tips and tricks that I have picked up over my language learning career. It isn't that long, but it has solutions for many of they problems that people face when they learn a new language. It is my first ebook so I am especially keen to hear any feedback, both positive and negative!

Update #3

What's new:

• I have added more links to the resources page, specifically to news sites for easy Norwegian news.
• On Monday I reviewed Norwegian on the Web, a great, free, online course complete with audio and exercises.
• Another Duolingo post, this time about the common complaint that it doesn't teach you "useful" phrases. Is this really a problem? Read my post to find out!

I am also looking into teaching English abroad, specifically in Vietnam. I am hoping to do this in January if everything goes to plan, I'm thinking that this will be the focus of a new blog. I am not sure how this will affect this one, I hope to still learn Norwegian and make regular posts but we will just have to see!

 

 

 

Update #2

So I haven't posted in a few days because I've been helping my Dad do up his house and it was very tiring.
Anyway, now my plan for the next week is to have a proper look into NoW (Norwegian on the Web) and do a review. This is another free resource that I haven't actually used yet so I want to see if it stands up to the book courses and how it compares to other online courses.
Other things I have been doing to help my Norwegian have been listening to the radio and watching the Norwegian news on TV, but this has met with varying success! The podcasts KlarTale are pretty easy to understand as it's basically just a guy reading the news very slowly and clearly so it is good to get a feel for the rhythm of the language, but when you move onto watching the news, as you can on NRK you do notice a massive jump in the speed at which real news readers speak at. I did try the other day to watch the bulletin whilst doing housework and I repeated it a couple of times, but in all honesty at the moment a lot isn't really going in so it's more background noise at the moment. However, I think that is better than nothing as obviously you get the odd word and the more exposure you have to the language the better.
One good resource I used to use quite a lot is Lang-8, a website where you write something in the language you're trying to learn and someone corrects it for you. This is great as obviously you get to practice writing in the language and you get actual feedback on what you've written, which unless you're in a class you don't get normally.

That's it for now but check back for my experiences on NoW and anymore tips, sites and videos I come across over the next week!

Update #1

I have added a load of links to the Resources page so go have a look! See if you find anything helpful and as always, let me know if you find something on the Internet that I should add. Over the next week I have a lot of articles coming up which I am excited about, including Duolingo Part 2, which is my follow up review, as well as a look at an old school grammar course and a few other bits and bobs. So keep checking back!