u/Refleksjon

I think the most important thing is finding something you can somewhat enjoy doing - so you stick with it on a (preferably) daily basis.

If you're a fan of TV then figuring out an easy way to view them in Norwegian is probably a good start. Here many people love NRK for having a huge amount of shows available for free, but the catch is that you'd need a vpn to get access if you're not currently inside Norway. No matter where you end up getting your material from though, if it's a movie or a series it's still important (if you are looking to actually improve) that you use either just norwegian sound, or norwegian sound + norwegian subtitles. To take it a step further pause and write down some words you dont understand, and either look it up straight away or after you are done with the episode.

If you don't mind spending time digging into grammar and building a solid understanding of it - then I'd really recommend the Mjølnir app on the appstores. I think their design and app itself looks and feels a little bit meh, but the content is just amazing and clearly made with love by actual Norwegian Teachers.

At last to cover reading I'll sneak in some self promo - If you are looking for some light reading and listening material I have recently released 250 stories on storiesinnorwegian.com (50 of which are free without signing up). Where all stories are divided into 12 different difficulty levels from "A1 easy" to "B2 Hard".

Extra tip at the end: When I was learning Japanese and really wanted to level up my listening skills... I had a 2 month period where I always had the japanese radio on in the background NOMATTER what I was doing 24-7. That also meant If I went out on a walk or grocery shopping I'd put the radio on my airpods and keep going. For the first couple of weeks my brain was melting before dinner, especially since I wasnt understanding more than a few words here and there - but eventually my brain got much much better at understanding the flow of the langauge and I geniuinely think it was the single best "study hack" I did. ..Although it did cost me my sanity for the better part of two full months.

No worries about the long comment, I was more than happy to hear more in depth about where you are coming from - also I think I might even have outdone you in my reply in terms of length... Whoops

First I just want to state that I really like that we both genuinely seem to have people's best interests in mind behind our beliefs. Makes it easy to belive we can find a lot of common ground!

So..!

I'll start by admitting that I'm carrying quite a lot of personal baggage from having made norwegian learning software as an extra "unpaid part time job" for a large part of the last 5 years or so. When my Japanese wife first arrived in Norway back then I looked for good resources to give to her and instead I ended up realising I would have to make stuff myself. One of which became "norskappen" - which as a happy surprise so far has helped 70 000+ people learn Norwegian for free as an duolingo alternative. This was also pre-AI being good at basically anything so I spent a looong time coding, designing and making and/or sourcing the content for it.

Unfortunately it turned out that I'm a somewhat decent programmer, but a bad marketer, and an even worse salesman. So I think I've thrown about 2 to 3 thousand hours into this niche, and I'm probably 5 thousand dollars in the red, without counting my 0 dollars hourly wage. NOT saying that I was owed a single dime, just explaining how I've come be a bit bitter towards the field of Norwegian learning itself.

Especially bitter as the both the national and local government refuses to listen to my pleas or applications for proper funding for actual software + creators to come together to make something properly good. After all I would like to believe it's in a country's best interest to help their immigrants learn Norwegian in a fast/cheap/reliable way without putting even more pressure on the severely understaffed language schools (my wife had to wait 9 full months before she was given her spot at the local language course).

Recently, building projects like this with the help of AI doesnt (to me) feel like it takes away jobs, as I've seen next to no development in the Norwegian Teaching space over the last 5 years (except for the app Mjølnir - those guys rock at making really Really good flashcards and grammar explanations...albeit with a pretty dated and not very userfriendly app design, but the core material makes up for it in spades!

Uhm sorry got off track.. but yes almost no new good learning tools seem to be appearing. So I don't see the harm in basically filling a hole within the space (with a good mix of generative AI).

I do believe some of the reason behind the severe lack of adjusted reading material in Norwegian is partly because the writing process itself can often be somewhat tedius when you have to dumb down your own language for the sake of the intended reader. The biggest reason, I suspect, is that the space is also so small overall that you can almost never expect to make your time spent making the material worth even close to minimum wage - unless you could somehow sell it directly to all classrooms in Norway (also why I so dearly wish the government would just listen to me).

^Contrary to what I argue above, I have actually seen 1 person make it past these hurdles - The guy behind the free norwegian learning podcasts at https://laernorsknaa.com/ (a good friend of mine) who ended up deeply researching norse mythology and then publishing a slightly adjusted B1-B2 story book about it (with his own voice as a bonus audiotrack!). He has seen quite some success with the book I believe, undoubtedly because he has such a dedicated following who knows he only delivers great quality. Yet needs to be said that he clearly is an exception to the rule, as not all writers should be expected to spend 3 years or so creating and delivering a top quality podcast biweekly just to release a single semi-successful (financially speaking) book later down the line.

Lastly just to reel it back in to the topic of AI good/bad. I want to make a case for that many of the software products I have developed in the last 2-3 years (which often included AI for translation help, have had the possibility to be used by those not privileged enough to know English - and therefore basically had 100 times fewer (or even zero) resources to choose from as alternatives. As I'm writing this I also have several agents working on adding multiple new langauge translations to the story website, and two years ago I was able to publish a dictionary app that people from minority languages from say a smaller country in Africa could actually use - in cases like those, even clunky AI Norwegian (as it was back then) was still so much better than nothing.

It is a cherry picked example I will admit, AI does a whole lot more than help with language learning, both good and bad - and I really do wish AI would hurry up and start doing the dishes or fold my laundry at the very least before it insisted on killing the hopes and dreams of so many creative individuals.. Including myself who had secretly hoped I would find a way to make it as a writer someday in my later years.

Well that’s a perfectly valid value to hold, and I very much appreciate that you were willing to tell me you enjoyed the product besides it clashing with what you stand for!

I think that you will maybe find some usefulness in a competitor I found while doing market research https://mikrohistorie.com/ seems like a lovely team of passionate real authors and voice actors who I’d love to see rewarded for their work (Norwegian language learning is such a tiny niche so any support is a godsend for each and every creator).

All that aside, I’d love to hear a bit more about your stance if I may? I’m particularly curious as to your underlying reason to not support ai products, is it the unfairness of how the training data was acquired by the hypocritical AI companies who never paid nor credited those they took it from and now also refuse to share any data of their own, or is it more about wanting to consume the product of real people? Also do you also avoid using AI in daily life to search for answers to practical things?

Wohoo! That’s so cool!

The entire production is a pretty good mix of me and AI over a lot of months.

Quickly summarized the stories are my ideas, then I let the ai draft and come in at the end to do a final edit of the texts. (Even though i work as a developer my background is actually a bachelor’s in literature, which has been fun to “use” finally.

Voice is all AI though, I had to listen through everything about 2-3 times to try to fix most pronounciation issues that i could spot with my native ear (I’m sure i missed some though, but at this point it’s too good to not use).

The final goal is to get actual teachers from all over Norway to record with their own dialects! That would make this so much more valuable i think.

But to do that I’d need to compensate them for their time, which i definitely cant afford yet, but mayyybe if this project becomes popular i might be able to use the proceeds to slowly but surely make the dream come alive 😁

Edit: Also yes I would love spesific feedback! Good and bad!

Edit2: oh maybe you were asking what type of feedback i was looking for? 😅 if that was the case then I am most curious if the website is easy to use, and also just if the “levels” feel appropriate. I used a lot of official documentation from the EU on how to write for the various a1,a2… levels, but it’s impossible for me as a native speaker to know if i’ve hit the mark or not.

Yay! Really means a lot that my first "real feedback" is such a kind and nice comment! So thank you too! And dont be shy to DM me here or email me any feedback or things you'd like improved

Hey, im still in the middle of polishing the page and apps, but i have published 50 free stories on

https://storiesinnorwegian.com/

Hopefully either one of you might appreciate it?.

Just make sure to start from the appropriate level (A1 is beginner, A2 novice, B1 intermediate and B2 intermediate+)

Also if she gets stuck on a word she can just click it to see the translation and meaning in context). All stories have pretty good audio as well!

In total there are 250 stories (50 free, 200 paid), and you can unlock all of them with a one time purchase of ~10 dollars.

By the end of the week I might be able to release a side by side feature so you can read the story in two languages at the same time. (Like norwegian on the left and ukranian or english on the right).

This is my first time posting about it publicly, so it might have some problems. I would love some feedback!

Hi there OfferTall. I didnt realize but Apple took it down temporarily as I had failed to update a user agreement.

I think it should be back on the iOS appstore now. Let me know if not!

Seems like the marketing worked nonetheless as I got curious and checked it out.

2 things:

1 - I see you support google auth, but how is the process for setting up Sign in with Apple? (As that always is a requirement for apple apps if you already have a google sign in)

2 - Your website seems to jump a lot while i’m browsing on mobile. Not sure where to send a screen recording (but im using an iphone 15 on chrome broser and it basically jumps up or down about 1/3rd of a page every 5-6 seconds.

… just went back and figured out why. It’s your first code animation causing the ugly layout shift. Maybe a good solurion could be to make sure it doesnt play the animation when user has scrolled below it? 👍

Edit: didnt know hashtags + numbers changed formatting

Brute force is the way to go, very few «clues/rules to help you I’m afraid).

Like anamorphism said: I’ve added a small game for that in Norskappen.

I’ve also added a newer game for that inside my new app (Snakk Norsk).

It has a lot more nouns to practice and a couple more settings (plus it has some nicer animations!)

I actually made an app like that and I'm looking for testers. Try searching "Snakk Norsk" in the app store on your phone and give it a try.

It's free to try for a couple of conversations! But DM me if you run out and still dont feel sure so I can give you a free month or something in return for some feedback!

ios - https://apps.apple.com/in/app/snakk-norsk-talk-norwegian/id6754522216
android - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.norsktutor.app

Hvis du søker på «merchant of record» får du en fin forklaring på hvorfor det kan lønne seg å velge slike løsninger istedenfor stripe! (F.eks Polar som nylig er blitt ganske populært).

De tar ca 1-2% ekstra, men til gjengjeld er de ansvarlig for salget i skattelovens øyne og du slipper uhorvelig mye arbeid med skatterapportering (spesielt om du har kunder i flere land).

Hei! I would recommend you also try posting this in r/stavanger as most of the users in this sub (r/norsk) are people learning Norwegian.

Good luck on your language learning journey!

(Edit) Oh, just noticed you already did post it in the stavanger subreddit, my bad 🙈

Neat! I’m not sure if you are aware, but there’s a really cool YouTube video about somebody who made an app like this 3 years ago, it got really popular during covid.

Not sure if your app has some different technology though. Either way just thought id share in case you didnt know about the potential competition:

https://youtu.be/akqcQezTZPA?si=n9OUPaxDA9bya6Ig

Glad for å kunne være til hjelp, god helg!

Jobbet på elkjøp en gang i tida og leste meg ganske mye opp på akkurat det for å faktisk kunne fortelle litt til kunder som såklart ofte spurte.

De fleste går for oralB, type rund.

Lite vits med de aller dyreste (med mindre du vil tannbleike med ekstremt lite skånsom «drillfunksjon» .. anbefales egentlig ikke, men sjekk gjerne i spesifikasjonene på modellen du kjøper at den har over 40 000 omdreininger i minuttet, og hvis du har en tendens til å pusse litt hardt (de fleste som kun har brukt vanlig tannbørste gjør det) kan det være lurt med trykksensoren som lyser.

Ser faktisk nå at de har sluttet med den type motor som oppgav omdreininger (2000-9000 seriene) og har gått over til iO teknologi~~woOoO. Virker som det egneltig bare er en måte å snurre like fort, men mer skånsomt for tannkjøttet og litt mindre vibrasjon i handa når du holder den. (Kanskje jeg burde kjøpe meg en sånn en, fordi den jeg har rister sånn at jeg får kløe i nesa av og til..) 😅

Uansett nå er jeg langt inne det som skulle vøre et kort svar, beklager!

Virker som at du kommer best ut med iO2 eller 3 isåfall. 700-1000kr

Tipper også at det garantert kommer en tannbørste på black friday salg her om litt, men såklart ingen garanti at det blir en av de fornuftige modellene.

Hei there OP, first of all awesome project!

Looks like a fun addition to learning Norwegian. I’m always happy to see more people make something in this ultra-niche genre of «norwegian-learning-software».

(Fun to see the Brutalism design as well).

I don’t necessarily have any good recommendations in regards to the nrk api.

But have you considered using youtube videos that already have subtitles added?

Last time I made a list I think I found at least 20+ different vloggers that often add norwegian subtitles to their videos.

Can I ask you what you are using for text to speech btw? Elevenlabs is so expensive still, so I’m always looking for decent alternatives.

I really would have expected some images or samples to be on the landing page. Something to show what the user would actually get once they’ve logged in

It’s been off the google play store for a month or two due to google requiring some updates that I havent been able to keep up to date with.

Many are sending me the exact question so im hoping to get it fixed sometime next week 👍

Hey thanks, looks like you got a fun project as well! I figured I'd try to make the assistant for the chat element on the site:

https://imgur.com/a/jemO3Ss

Your project looks really nice!

Here you go: https://imgur.com/a/Ld9TwAE

I noticed the style of your screenshots was in a very clean and easy-to-understand style. So I tried to keep the mascot a little bit simple in design as well. A server in itself was a fun challenge though!
(Seems like im not getting a lot of requests yet so let me know if you were thinking something in another style and I can try again, or generate some more variations if you'd like).

Thanks for sharing it though, and thanks for making open-source projects!

(edit: missing word)

I sat down and made a short list sometime last year-ish.
There's at least 10 of them on the list that doesn't do it for educational reasons.

https://www.norwegian.app/learning-resources/youtube-channels

If you scroll to the bottom there are also lists for artists that sing in norwegian, and movies and tv shows that many people have recommended for the same learning purposes.

Good luck with your Norwegian journey!

My first guess would be «fy faen» which is a typical way to curse. It’s somewhat similar in use to damn/holy shit

Without further context it’s hard to guess what else it could be though.