Short Stories in Norwegian for Beginners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn Norwegian the fun way!

by Olly Richards

An unmissable collection of eight unconventional and captivating short stories for young and adult learners of Norwegian.

"Olly's top-notch language-learning insights are right in line with the best of what we know from neuroscience and cognitive psychology about how to learn effectively. I love his work - and you will too!" - Barbara Oakley, PhD, Author of New York Times bestseller A Mind for Numbers

Short Stories in Norwegian for Beginners has been written especially for students from high-beginner to low-intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, a feeling of progress and most importantly - enjoyment! Mapped to A2-B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages, these eight captivating stories are designed to give you a sense of achievement and a feeling of progress when reading.

What does this book give you?

- Eight stories in a variety of exciting genres, from science fiction and crime to history and thriller - making reading fun, while you learn a wide range of new vocabulary
-Controlled language at your level to help you progress confidently
-Authentic spoken dialogues to help you learn conversational expressions and improve your speaking ability
-Accessible grammar so you learn new structures naturally, in a stress-free way
-Pleasure! Research shows that if you're enjoying reading in a foreign language, you won't experience the usual feelings of frustration - 'It's too hard!' 'I don't understand!'

Carefully curated to make learning a new language easy, these stories include key features that will support and consolidate your progress, including:

- A glossary for bolded words in each chapter
- Full plot summary
- A bilingual word list
- Comprehension questions after each chapter.

As a result, you will be able to focus on enjoying reading, delighting in your improved range of vocabulary and grasp of the language, without ever feeling overwhelmed. From science fiction to fantasy, to crime and thrillers, Short Stories in Norwegian for Beginners will make learning Norwegian easy and enjoyable.

Genres: Language, Fiction, Short Stories, Audiobook

237 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 23, 2020

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the length of the chapters as well as the short quizzes at the end of each one. The given vocabulary explanations were also very helpful. I also thought the stories were not too difficult to understand!

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Den Norske ABC

[Parisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's finally done!!! 10 months but my excuse is that every story except for the last one were lowkey boring but at least ik how to say warrior in norwegian :)

[Arvid Frydenlund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good pairing with Duolingo

The book makes a good companion with the later part of the Duolingo Norwegian course. The stories may not be the most interesting (though some are interesting) but they are set up for learning and advancing reading skills.

[Coral · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fácil de ler, bom livro de entrada na sua língua-alvo. Algumas histórias são um pouco estranhas, então eu recomendaria pular as que você não achar tão interessantes.

[Annika · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was such a great language-learning book! I listened on audio and was surprised by how well I was able to follow along. if you’re learning a language (and at around an intermediate level—I certainly think “for beginners” is generous) I would definitely recommend looking for one of these books for your language. some of the stories were less interesting than others but overall they were good for short, basic stories.

my complaint about the audio (Audible specifically) format is that it should definitely be split up by chapters and not just whole stories. very hard to remember your place or know how much time left in a chapter!!

[Apple · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think my language level was already a little too high so the book didn't help a lot with that and I didnt find the stories very interesting, probably also due to their simple vocabulary.
I see how it might help others but it was not right for me.

[Amélie · Rating 2 out of 5]

altfor kjedelig og weird. hvis du leser boken du kommer til å forstå hvorfor mange folk liker ikke å lese.

[Astrid]

So happy to finally be done with this one. I can now focus on proper Norwegian literature 💞
Not a huge fan of the stories tho

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeg har leser min første bok i Norsk sin!
(dette er ikke en barn bok)

[Truncarlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sirve a su función estupendamente. No hay muchas lecturas adaptadas de este estilo en noruego. He aprendido un montón. Kjempebra :)

[Andreas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Language immersion is crucial, so anything in Norwegian is better than nothing.

Note that this book is not geared toward total beginners. For context, I found it challenging but ultimately understandable. I am a native English speaker who is roughly 3-4 months into Norwegian, studying around one hour a day, using either Duolingo (currently unit 57, halfway through) and LingQ (7k known words). The book perfectly fit my needs at this point in time.

On the one hand I couldn't help but feel that there are better, free resources. For example, the "Lær Norsk Nå" podcast. It is targeted toward a beginner/intermediate audience, (obviously) has expansive audio content, has transcripts, and has significantly more content. The topics are varied and deal with current events, Norwegian culture, history, folklore, plus a sprinkle of scientific themes. Definitely check it out.

On the other hand, it is hard to find written Norwegian content, so this book, however flawed, is welcome. Norway has a small population and it is deceptively difficult (and expensive!) to find Norwegian books/ebooks.

Two points:

The stories are not very interesting. Boohoo.

More importantly, I wish the bolded "defined words" had been better curated. I can't count the number of times the definition of "merkelig" was provided, or extremely obvious cognates were defined ("ekspedisjon", "kamera", "bonus", "radio"). Yet many important, unique words, on which the story hinged, would be left untouched.

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the stories aren't great, but I liked the way it's set up to improve your Norwegian skills.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Perfect for learners at the CEFR A2-B1 level. For a student, there is real satisfaction in reading a story all in Norwegian. It makes you feel like you are making progress. Yes, it's simple Norwegian, but it still feels like an accomplishment. The stories themselves are interesting, if not a little silly. Sometimes very silly. But the stories are great at introducing new vocabulary and expressions and then using them repeatedly. The first time I saw "senket blikket," I had to look it up. But the next five times it came up, I knew it and now I will never forget it. My method was to read it once with the dictionary. Then listen to the audio (purchased separately) while reading it. Finally, I listened to the audio without the book. I think "Short Stories in Norwegian" will be frustrating for total beginners, because it's way more advanced than that. And it will be super easy for advanced learners. But for those of us at the intermediate level, it's a great addition to your Norsk learning library. En veldig nyttig bok.

[Danae - WordPeace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this language reader for Norwegian. It helped prepare me for the official Norwegian language exam and I passed with a B2 in reading. Much of the highlighted vocabulary wasn’t new to me, but there were other words in the texts that I wish had been pulled for the vocabulary glossary instead. The multiple choice questions were also very easy. Regardless, the stories were all a good length, engaging and cute and endearing, and it helped me become familiar with expressions and phrases that I also found useful for the writing section of the exam too! Very much recommended as a fun tool that helps you feel more confident with the language!

[Aurelija Zagurskytė]

I had to abandon it. Sorry, I tried. I din't find the stories interesting at all. The length of these 'absolutely no or boring plot' stories were just too long which made it hard to follow. It's not an ad, but ever since I started using Duolingo premium (for Spanish at the beggining) every other practice of this sort is just meh. Of course, Duolingo app unlikely will take you from the beginner to being fluent, but neither will this book. Overall, it's a nice book and hopefully will be useful for others. Peace.

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first book read in Norwegian! Its obviously for beginners so its not like there is some remarkable prose hidden in the stories, but there are some short stories that are actually pretty interesting for what they are.

[Becks]

En fin bok for folk som nettopp har begynt å lære norsk og ønsker å utvide ordforrådet. Lengden på tekstene er god og historiene er ok. Vanskeligere ord ble ofte utelatt i ordboken, mens andre ord var overflødige.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great way to learn a lot of words in Norwegian. I started learning with Duolingo, but adding a book like this is helping me understand a lot more Norwegian vocabulary. I’m sure I will read some of the stories over and over again.

[Clara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Denne boka er god for å lære norsk ordfårrad. Noe historier er ikke så interessant, men det er greit.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Such a good way to learn a language, with interesting short stories suitable for adults.

[Elizabeth Solverson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historiene var litt kjedelige, men det var greit for å lære. Hver historie er litt mer vanskelig en den som kom før. Det passer bra for A2-B1 nivå.

[Gin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historiene kunne ha vært mer spennende men det var ei fantastisk bok for å øve på å lese mer norsk! Takk for det!

[Gabriela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Det var den første norsk boken jeg leste og det var gøy!

[Wallis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeg syntes historiene var morsomme og spennende. En god måte å lære norsk på. Det er en mini-ordbog til slutten av boken.

[Kenn]

;)

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent easy reader for studying Norwegian.