Smakebiter av norsk og Norge

Reviewed by: Pierre Thomson

Smakebiter av norsk og Norge
an 8-lesson Norwegian language course for adult learners
Kari Lie
self-published by "Kari Norsk", 2000
ISBN: 0-9702065-0-X

This is a unique offering in beginner-level Norwegian: a high quality home-made course with a text/workbook and THREE CD's! Here are my impressions:

First, although this is not a professionally published product, that does not mean it is of poor quality. The book is printed in color, with a rather "desktop-published" look and plenty of clip-art illustrations. It is 57 pages long, of which at least half are exercises, everything from freestyle writing exercises to crossword puzzles and word finds. The audio CD's include lots of Norwegian speech, slow and clear, with both a male and female voice. Each track is keyed to the book with a printed track number, so finding your place is simple. Spoken explanations are in (American) English.

The book is divided into eight lessons. Lesson One covers greetings, ABC's, numbers, simple questions and answers, and polite expressions, without getting into formal grammar topics. The entire first CD (about an hour) accompanies Lesson One, giving a strong emphasis on pronunciation from the start.

The following lessons introduce the parts of speech, word order, question and answer formation, pronouns and other grammar topics while introducing vocabulary related to identity, the classroom, family, time, food, etc. Cultural topics are integrated into the material.

Overall, I think this would be a good program for English speakers who want to get started in Norwegian. Using CD's rather than cassettes is a big advantage, both for locating materials and for replaying. It is definitely on the beginner level, and if you are serious about language learning you will want to continue with other learning materials.

On the negative side, I think the recordings are a bit TOO slow and clear. The speakers on the CD's never get close to the speed of normal conversation, so someone using this course will have a rude awakening when arriving in Norway. This is apart from the whole matter of dialects (though I did catch the male speaker slipping from "jeg" to "eg" once or twice!).

Conclusion: a good beginning course at a good price.

Available directly from: www.skandisk.com