Customer Reviews

Hugo Language Course: Norwegian In Three Months (with Cassettes)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I spent about 1 hour per day for three months and started from scractch ven though my mother is norwegian. But even my norwegian relatives were impressed with my pronunciation. Be aware that there are several dialects (not to mention the two competing versions of Norsk: Bokmaal and Nynorsk), but the tapes provided give you a sense of two of the major ones. By the way, contrary to the other review, "uff da!" is considered by many Norwegians to be a Swedish phrase; when a tourist next to me said that phrase he received many looks of sad embarrasment.

This book makes learning Norsk fun; the exercises make you think, but not too hard. The course has an excellent overall design.

Unfortunately, this book is out of print at the moment. Hugo is republishing some of the "In Three Months" series (I see that Spanish and French will be re-released soon), but who knows if they will ruin the books by watering them down...

I have worked through several Norwegian course books. Teach Yourself has been my favorite, followed by Beginner's Norwegian. But, I REALLY wish I had found this Hugo text first. It's the only book with which I am completely happy with the presentation of the material. This book is extremely logical in its layout and presentation. It is so refreshing to have vocabulary laid out in lists, have grammar concepts presented in their entirety rather than having it split up and sprinkled throughout the book, and have a non-lopsided teaching method. This is also the only Norwegian book that has sufficient exercises to cement the concepts into your head. It's not perfect, but really, I just can't say enough about how much I like the way this book teaches the language.

Of course, there will be those who write it off as "old school." But if "old school" works, why should it be replaced, rather than just supplemented with the new technology and techniques? I think that's exactly what this book does. It has an audio component and is fairly user friendly. Yet it doesn't treat you like you have a learning disability. It doesn't present grammar and concepts in a contorted and watered-down fashion like most "new school" materials do. It's so refreshing to see this book telling you why a certain word is used in a certain situation rather than just having three versions of the same word introduced and never explained. For instance, the English word "by" translates to several words and uses in Norwegian. This Hugo book is on top of it--it tells you which to use and why you are using it. Other courses, on the other hand, introduce the several versions of the word and never satisfactorily explain which is used where. Another thing I did not like about Teach Yourself is the way it presented three or four versions of the same verb in three or four different places. For instance: hete, heter, hette, har hett... all tenses of the same verb (to be called or named). In Teach Yourself, these are scattered throughout the book as different words and the connection presented, but is not emphasized in the vocabulary like it should be. The grammar and vocabulary seem detached. In Hugo, the infinitive (the root tense) is presented as vocabulary (å hete), and you are taught to do your own conjugations--far more efficient! You learn it once and get the other three tenses at the same time. This means one vocab word to learn rather than four. Those relationships really streamline the learning process.

Anyway, I'd say if you just want to dabble in the language (and there is nothing wrong with that--I dabble in several languages!), this book would be a bit much. But, if you really want to dig in and learn the language, AND you want to understand HOW and WHY it works the way it does, you will love this book. Use it in conjunction with Teach Yourself and Beginner's Norwegian, and you'll really catch on to this stuff! Hopefully Hugo will republish it without destroying its clear, thorough presentation.

Hugo's "In Three Months" series is by far the best and fastest way to learn a language. After buying this book, I understood and spoke norwegian in a snap. I was amazed at how quick I learned to speak it. Buy this book if you want to say more than "Uff Da"...............FAST!!!!

This refers to the 1987 version of Hugo's Norwegian in three months, in that beautiful navy blue paperback binding.

I like the way the language is taught in this book. The first 10 lessons do the job fairly well, and do not tire the learners. However, the book seems to become a little harder in the last two lessons, and a bit confusing too. There are some points which the book needed to present in a better way. In those cases, the Hugo Swedish in three months book was excellent.

Some points need notice:

1. There are mistakes in this book, which need to be edited. They cannot be called mistakes really, just alternate words, not given in the vocabulary lists. Still, these could confuse and disappoint the learner. In the lessons 2, 5, 6, 9, and 10, the words given in the key to exercises, are not given in the vocabulary lists. Comparatively, printing mistakes are less in number. So are the spelling mistakes. Each of these count up to 2 or 3, but not more.

2. The pronunciation section explains about the tonal accent in a way that appeals to music-learners, showing the musical notation too! However, a general explanation about how the tones occur (like in two syllable words except those ending in -en, -el, and -er) is missing.

3. The vocabulary and usage sounds a little hard and old-fashioned. Nevertheless, the author has given a good sense of the current vocabulary and usage.

4. Referring to point 1., the alternate vocabulary is not given in the lessons, making the exercises a bit frustrating. For example, in the vocabulary list, the word given for insurance company is insuranseselskap, but in the key to the exercises, it is given as assuranseselskap. These prove as slight but annoying offenses.

5. As for 'hvilken' which means 'which', there is a common colloquial and written variant, 'hva for en', which is not touched upon. Such matters make the course sound 'old-fashioned'.

6. A major omission in this book, can be noticed in lesson 6, where all the days of the week (Sunday, Monday,..) are not listed! It is a part of the basic vocabulary of any language. With the names of the months listed in the book, but the names of the days of the week absent, this surely irks!

7. As for the grammatical notes, there appear some points of confusion.

a) In lesson 10, we might be confused by the examples, as well as the instruction, as to which nouns we should use the prepositions 'på' and 'i' with, just because of a printing error!

b) In lesson 9, the conjunction 'etter at' is shown as 'etterat' (one word), both in the notes and the key to exercises.

c) The grammatical notes regarding the usage of prepositions is reasonably well done, but appears confusing. This part has been really well done in the book, 'Swedish in three months', which leaves behind no doubt regarding the usage.

d) As for lesson 5, which deals with the past tense, the rules for formation of the past form are not given clearly, leading the learners to make hit and miss guesses. This too, was better done in 'Swedish in three months'. How the words get the endings, '-et', '-te', '-de', and '-dd', is simple to explain and follow, but not presented here.

All said and done, this is not at all a bad book. I expected much, but could not get it all. 'Complete Norwegian' of the 'Teach yourself' series, is a more interesting and instructive book. Still, if a newer edition ever gets released (I hope so), I hope this book gets edited and modified for the better. On the whole, not a bad buy at all!

This book is rife with mistakes. For example, incorrect vocabulary is provided in the lessons. Also there are errors in the answer section. I'd consider returning this book if were possible. I'm concerned that I'll be learning inaccurate vocabulary along the way. The worst of it is that there aren't very many of such books out there. Build the cost of a dictionary into the price of this book. You'll need it.