GH 1.8 - The Final Countdown

The Final Countdown

During this last week of my Norwegian project, I finished four more lessons. I am officially seven lessons ahead of where I had originally planned on finishing. I finished three of the major checkpoints in the Duolingo app and each lesson within those checkpoints has been mastered.

I really came to love this language. It is beautiful and weird at the same time. If I could go back and do it all again, I definitely would change some things. I would use multiple programs besides Duolingo and perhaps take more time to find a Norwegian show to watch. I feel like a greater variety of options for learning the language could've improved my learning process.

I'm pretty proud of how far I got through my action plan, but I wish I would've done more. I would've liked to have had a more enriched learning experience with the Norwegian so that I could be more proficient with the language. Overall, this project was a success and I really enjoyed it!

Takk og farvel!


Just some fun phrases:

Jeg hater mandager. --- I hate Mondays.

Alle dør. --- Everyone dies.

Jeg fryser. --- I am cold.

et fly --- an airplane

Du kjenner meg ikke, men jeg kjenner deg. --- You do not know me, but I know you.

Studerer vi fisken eller studerer fisken oss? --- Are we studying the fish or is the fish studying us?

Vi spiser fordi vi er sultne og lei meg. --- We are eating because we are hungry and sad.

For de vet ikke hva de gjør. --- For they do not know what they do.

GH 1.7 - Just Some More Norwegian

Just Some More Norwegian

This week, I completed the lessons for dates, work, and infinitives. It was a pretty boring and straightforward week with no real difficulties. I'm not quite sure whether or not I'm simply coasting through the lessons without retaining anything, or if I'm actually learning stuff. I think it's a really fun and beautiful language, but there's not very many exciting things to report. I'm continuing with my daily practice and I seem to be flying through the sections. This is a pretty positive thing, but I just hope that I can remember all the information that I get through. I definitely will have surpassed my end goal for the project, but I won't get through all of the lessons for Norwegian that Duolingo provides. I might continue to learn it after the project is over, but I don't know how much time I'll have for it. I guess I'll just have to figure it out as it comes!

Some random phrases I learned this week:

Jeg vil huske deg. --- I will remember you
     (The literal translation actually is: I want to remember you)
Jeg vil se deg. --- I want to see you.

GH 1.6 - Quality Family Time

Quality Family Time

This week, I learned the basics of describing people's qualities, words describing family, and how to tell time. It was a decently boring group of lessons, but some words and phrases were fun. One phrase translated to "My aunt loves her husband that is a bear". Those type of sentences make the lessons absolutely worthwhile.
As I get further along, my ability to recognize the meanings of the words I'm reading continues to increase. I have officially completed through week 8 on my action plan. From here on out, I will be learning more about Norwegian than I had previously planned on learning. My plan is to continue to learn more of the basics through Duolingo, and possibly research/learn more in depth about the culture of Norway. I'm excited to continue in my learning process, even though I'll now be making it all up as I go. Wish me luck!

GH 1.5 - Describing Stuff and Things

Describing Stuff and Things

This past week, I searched and searched for a Norwegian show, but I couldn't find one! It was so sad. I'm thinking I might search for a Norwegian Youtuber or something next week. Although, that might not turn out so well. I guess you never know until you try!

Despite not finding a show, I kept up with my Duolingo and enjoyed all the lessons. This week I learned about prepositions, adjectives, and colors. The colors are super fun and I'm excited that I can now describe things better. I've noticed that I'm not very good at creating my own sentences quite yet. Instead, I'm much better at recognizing words and sentences written down. I don't know exactly how to overcome this issue, but I'll try to brainstorm some ideas so that I can improve my speech.

My favorite phrase this week was: "Jeg er trøtt". It means "I am tired". I relate to that, so I'm going to start using it more often.

GH 1.4 - Busy Times Call For Desperate Measures

Busy Times Call For Desperate Measures

This past week, I was in Missoula and didn't have much time for my Norwegian practice. I still got three lessons completed, but I had wanted to try out Kaylee's advice and watch a Norwegian show. However, I couldn't find one on Netflix in the short amount of time I was able to look. I'm hoping I can find one this next week and watch it, or maybe I'll just try to switch the language on a random show to Norwegian if I can. I think that would make my practice a lot more interesting! I had also been hoping that I would find time to get even farther ahead on Duolingo this past week, but that's all right, I'm still pretty far ahead of my action plan.

Even though I didn't go above and beyond this week, I still enjoyed the lessons I got done. I completed the clothing, that/those, and direction lessons. They were relatively easy, but I hope I'll be able to retain the words/phrases as I continue. I tend to have a bad memory at times, but I'm crossing my fingers in hopes that as I make my daily practices more consistent, I'll get even better at recognizing the basic structure of the language, at least.

Wish me luck this next week! Maybe I'll have a more interesting blog next time. ;)

GH 1.3 - Every Lesson Counts

Every Lesson Counts

Some lessons are pretty boring on Duolingo. The lessons repeat the same words and phrases over and over again. It gets pretty annoying. However, I know that every lesson matters. The more words and phrases you learn, the more Norwegian you will be able to understand and recognize. Even when the lessons are boring, getting through them is still important.

I have actually been doing my daily practice! As I did my daily practice, I got through lessons much faster. I checked my action plan, and I've actually completed through week 5! It's crazy! I'm hoping that I'll be able to continue my daily practice. That way, I'll be able to learn more Norwegian during the eight weeks of the project. Hopefully, I'll keep up with my daily practice this week! Wish me luck!

GH 1.2 - Procrastination Kills Success

Procrastination Kills Success

Since this is a blog, I'm going to be completely honest. I definitely forgot about the Genius Hour project until Wednesday of this week. I still got my goal completed from my action plan for the week, but I didn't achieve my goal from last week to practice every day. Truthfully, procrastination and forgetfulness are going to be my worst enemies for this project. 

Despite my failure of being lazy, I did learn some interesting things about Norwegian today. When you are saying "the" in front of a subject, you put "en" at the end of the word. I found that to be really cool and helpful. Some of the words/phrases sound weird and some words are super hard to pronounce. One word that threw me for a loop was "kjøtt" (meaning meat), which is pronounced "shet". That was pretty hard to figure out when I was just reading the word, before I heard it pronounced.

In spite of the confusion, learning Norwegian is a lot of fun. I really am enjoying myself and I can't wait till I am able to speak at least decently normal. In order for that to happen though, I'll need to avoid procrastination and push myself to actually make Norwegian a daily habit. ;)

GH 1.1 - Learning Norwegian for Dummies

Learning Norwegian for Dummies

Starting to learn a new language can be difficult. It takes time, patience, and unrelenting focus. Within the first week of learning Norwegian, I have already failed in all three of these categories. 

1.   I had made a goal to take 15 minutes each day to work on Duolingo. However, I ended up only using the time I was allotted during class for the Genius Hour. This is no beuno (I haven't learned that phrase in Norwegian yet) because learning a new language requires daily practice. As I get better at making my practices a part of my daily routine, I will begin to recognize the Norwegian phrases more readily and with greater ease. 

2.   Through the Duolingo program, it can sometimes be hard to have patience. I was hoping to at least learn the basics of Norwegian, as in regular conversational phrases, but that's not how Duolingo works. With the program, you start out with a few words in each category, which you build off of as you continue to learn. It can be frustrating to learn random words at the beginning before you get to learn "normal" words. I guess I will just need to gain more patience and just follow the program.

3. Well I obviously didn't have focus on my Norwegian aspirations. I got distracted easily while I was learning/practicing and slacked on memorizing the phrases that I learned. As I put more time into my practicing, I'll also set aside any distractions so I can put all my focus into my lessons.

Despite my many failures, I did succeed in one thing: I completed three categories! This had been my goal for the first week, but I wasn't quite sure I would accomplish it. I learned some weird words and enjoyed testing out the Norwegian accent. It's a fun language and I think I'll learn to love it. Hopefully next week there will be more success than failure to share!

Phrases I learned this week:

Jeg elsker eskrem.     Meaning: I love ice cream.

Jeg er en jenta.     Meaning: I am a girl.

Han spiser en fin smørbrød.     Meaning: He is eating a fine sandwich.