Why I Learned Norwegian as an American

This video is about my Norwegian learning experience and how I passed the Bergenstest / How to pass Bergenstesten (the Norwegian B2 exam) after 6 months of dedicated practice. I also tell you a bit about my story, why I decided to learn Norwegian in the first place.

When I was learning Norwegian I always found it really motivating to see other people who had learned the language (especially when those people were American, because we kind of have a reputation for not being good at learning languages.) I had planned to talk in detail about what I did to learn Norwegian, but it ended up being a story about why I learned Norwegian, which honestly might be more interesting and motivating anyway.

Also, I wasn't super clear about it in the video, but the title isn't really clickbait: I basically I learned a bit of Norwegian in 2015 and then didn't really practice at all until 2018 when I decided to schedule the Norwegian B2 exam for 6 months out. I then studied every single day using Memrise, Duolingo, iTalki, and I also read a grammar book called Norwegian Verbs and Essentials of Grammar. Other than that book I didn't use any other textbooks, but I did order an example test from a prior year from Folkeuniversitetet. To this day I kind of feel like someone made a mistake when they said I passed the test. Big time impostor syndrome? Or maybe I'm just good at taking tests.

There are a few simple grammar and word choice/word order mistakes in this video but I tried to film it in one take. There are some cuts from when I cut out long periods of me not knowing what to say next, but I tried to make it flow/coherent. I also still make errors with tonefall / Norwegian pitch accent. Just goes to show: B2 is not C2! I’ve spent just over 2 weeks in Norway so hopefully with more time and exposure to the dialect in a certain area these issues will go away. Whenever Norway opens their borders up, I’ll be on my way 😎

[AlexBerish]

Here's some of my favourite things I did to help me learn Norwegian, I'll edit this over time as I write out some of the longer ones:

1. Watch Norwegian TV shows and movies WITH Norwegian subtitles. Pause every time there is a word you don’t know, and use Google translate on the word or the word plus a few surrounding words to make sure it gets the context, then resume the show. This makes watching TV and movies boring, but at least it becomes *actually* productive instead of just feeling productive (like watching with English subtitles)

2. Talk to yourself in Norwegian, plan your day out loud in Norwegian, etc, and when you don’t know a word, pause to look it up and then add it to your brain.

3. Get the TuneIn app and listen to NRK P3, or just NRK, or, well, any radio station in Norway. If you haven't figured out the theme yet, here it is: Pause and look up a word whenever someone says something you know how to spell but aren't sure of the meaning. You can also just try repeating the word into speech-to-text on Google Translate.

4. I had a bit of Norwegian knowledge before my pre-test 6-month push, but honestly 99% of my grammar work came from this book (not a referral link!)

5. This is the Memrise course I used when I first started learning Norwegian. I prefer it over the official courses because every day you use this course, you hear a new part of a story about a family moving to Norway. The vocabulary and sentences you hear are therefore extremely practical, and a bit more rewarding than learning how to say “the spider ate the cheese”.



To get the course to show up on your phone, you might have to first sign in to Memrise on a computer, and then open the link above and add the course that way. It should show up on your phone after that.

[Flakka-]

I'm a norwegian, and your pronounciation and "tone of the sentence" is almost flawless. Like 95% of everything you say sounds 100% native. Really really impressive

[Henoik]

I mean, as a native Norwegian speaker I can hear that you're not native, but you speak almost perfect Norwegian. You probably have a better Norwegian accent than I have an English or Spanish accent :) It's just a few weird Norwegian pronunciations you don't have 100% right and the "pitch-accent" (or whatever "tonem" is in English) is a little bit off some places. I bet I'd be able to have really complicated conversations with you though. I'm impressed that you've managed this in 6 months!

[suexoxo]

As a Norwegian (born & raised) I would say that I have NEVER heard an American speak better Norwegian! That is absolutely impressive, especially the tone and pronunciation of å ø å, which are letters you don’t even have! I’d say you should start studying MORE languages, because this is definitely something you’re born to do! Bravo!

[aegean]

I've been learning Norwegian for couple weeks and this video motivates me a lot man, thanks! (btw it will be my 6th language :d)

[Muchoyo]

As a native Norwegian I get the impression that you have truly got the language under your skin. You're not just thinking in English and translating. Congrats👍🙂

[mjelves]

Cudos on your norwegian! You sound like you’ve been living here for at least 10 years!

[programclu]

I've been living here 4 years now and unfortunately haven't integrated myself much due to freelance work and friends speaking English. So to hear you better than me at 6 months of learning is a real kick for me to finally push myself more so I can be less anxious here. I have a lot of reasons now to need to get better (I live in Bergen). Very impressive!

[youngspiritsinging]

this is fantastic . Thank you! I need to learn Norwegian, because my granddaughter is little and learning it. She lives there now with her parents. I do not want to miss out.

[jennafloww]

You have made amazing progress in Norwegian! Hopefully you continue to make more videos, there is not that much content out there of those who are learning Norwegian to such a high level like you. I’m studying Norwegian too and this gave me a lot of motivation!❤

[womentreasures]

Alex, that is so impressive!!!! I feel so embarrased about my poor efforts in studying Norsk. Tuuusen takk for motivating !!!

[TiwidTV]

I am norwegian, and to me your accent sounds almost like a swede who is almost fluent in norwegian. Keep up the good work!

[KP-ovmg]

This is so inspiring to see what you've accomplished in just 6 months!

[LearnNorwegianNaturally]

Wow, veldig god uttale! 😀 Jeg er imponert - i flere av setningene høres det ut som du er fra Norge!

[lapis]

Wow! Det var imponerende! Du snakker jo bedre Norsk enn mange som har bodd her halve livet ! Veldig bra ! Skulle ønske jeg hadde hukommelse nok til å lære et nytt språk, men jeg er for glemsk . Ikke noe jeg bare sier;)
Ønsker deg masse lykke til videre! You got this and can succeed with probably most of what you attempt! 💪👍
Hope you feel welcomed in Norway! 🥰😘

[tahmidt]

Wow you spoke really well and your uttale was also quite nice! As a learner myself this was quite inspiring.

[Alex-RoadFire]

Awesome! Great sounding accent! My partner passed the written part of Bergenstest within 3 months by taking as many "example" tests as possible. Good luck to everyone taking the Bergenstest!

[jonslandfill]

This is very inspiring, thank you for making the video and congratulations!

[Zenstation]

At times your pronunciation is pretty much flawless. For example, at 1:53, when you say "eller 'rød' på spansk, " you sound perfectly Norwegian. Correct intonation and everything. Well done!

[NorgieGeordie]

Great video, as someone who moved to Norway in March, I’m around the same level as you, and learnt almost the exact same way, Norwegian TV/Radio/News. You just have to keep going and be patient! Congrats on the test, I should probably do that soon!