Celebrating 100k Norwegian learners!
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The Norwegian course just hit 100,000 learners, and this calls for a proper celebration! :D
Seeing as we, quite literally, couldn't have reached this milestone without each and every one of you, we're inviting you all to celebrate with us here on the fora with all sorts of Norwegian inspired posts - and maybe even some exciting contests. If there are any specific Norwegian or Norway related topics you would like us to cover, feel free to suggest them in the comments below.
We'll be kicking off the party a little later this evening with a Team Norwegian AMA (or AUA, technically), so if you have any questions you've been itching to ask us regarding the course then today's the day!
Here's some Norwegian eye candy to keep you entertained in the meanwhile. :)
Edit: The AMA can now be found here.
83 Comments
Well, Duolingo it is so much better (not to mention cheaper) than language courses of Oslo Voksenopplæring Rosenhof, I wouldn't be surprised to know that many of the learners are already living in Norway.
Beautiful video, but for some reason when I saw Norwegian eye candy I was expecting some pictures of handsome Norwegian men. Wishful thinking maybe. ;)
Huge congratulations on 100,000 learners, I am proud to be one of them.
Those are the Ylvis* brothers, Bård and Vegard I believe their names are, I don't pay much attention to them myself.
*actual surname is Ylvisåker
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The only thing that would make that more perfect would be if Vegard were standing in front :P :D
I honestly thought the same thing. Actually, first thing that popped into my mind was "oh no, it's Ylvis doing the Saxobeat thing". But then I clicked on it and felt relieved. I don't know why I hopped to that conclusion so quickly, lol :)
Hahaha I was worried it was going to be the bringing sexy back thing from their Stockholm concert, I have to say I'm glad it wasn't :P
Congratulations Norwegian course!!! I've been watching this course since it came out in the incubator. Norwegian sounds so beautiful when you hear it spoken...
Gratulerer! Do course creators have any way of seeing how many have completed the tree? Those statistics would be interesting too.
Tusen takk! We don't, but Duo definitely keeps track of it.
What we are shown are the dropout rates for each lesson, to help us pinpoint what users are struggling with, but these are based on shorter periods of time.
Duo should really publicize these -- I think it could inspire competition among learners of different languages!
I'm afraid quitting a lesson is a poor indicator for difficultly level. I think number of errors per lesson would say more. I rarely quit a lesson and the main reason is I am too tired to learn more or I made an error on the first question and can get through quicker if I start over.
That would skew the results and make them unusable for us. ;)
It doesn't work quite like that. What the dropout rates tell us is how many people don't continue with the next lesson after that particular lesson - for a specific period of time (I think it's about a week). So if you do the first lesson in the "Adverbs" skill, and find it so frustrating that it turns you off the course for days, then that's what it measures.
We also see error percentages for the sentences, which are very helpful:
Wow! I am glad to count myself among the 100,000!
I liked those articles that compared a Norwegian city with the number of Norwegian learners.
Gratulerer!
I have always wanted to learn Norwegian since I visited the country for six weeks as a young child. Thrilled to have the opportunity to learn it now :D
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I'm learning Norwegian because of Ylvis, and I'm probably not the only one! Just got back from 3 weeks in Norway, and got to see them in concert in Sandefjord. Came to Duolingo too late to learn enough to speak Norwegian while I was there, but better late than never! Congrats on 100,000!
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jealous! We were only there for 10 days and there were no Ylvis sightings :D Congratulations on deciding to learn Norwegian!
How was it? I'm hoping to be there later this year for IKMY5, if I can manage to get myself some tickets. Ylvis has been a big influence for me to learn Norwegian, so I totally get you. So great that you had a chance to go there and see them! :)
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The concert was great! It was a fairly low-key event - no pyro or fancy visuals like when they played at Spektrum, but one of their strengths is that they can play any type of venue and deliver an impressive show. I would love to get to a taping of their show - last year they had meet & greets after the show for their foreign fans, so you might get a chance to meet them if you go!
So true. I really love that about them - they manage to wow me every time, no matter what they're doing. And really? It would be absolutely amazing if they did that again this year. I'm waiting impatiently for news about ticket sales. :D
Thank you!
While you may not have started Norwegian in time for your visit, I'm sure the three weeks of immersion were beneficial to the learning you're doing now. :)
Yay for the course of the Nords! I was literally waiting months for Norwegian to be brought to Duolingo. It felt like it'd never happen. >.<
That's amazing, congratulations! And thank you for all the work you've put into this course, a big celebration and an AMA (AUA) is in order :)
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Thank you for posting the YouTube video of Norway! It is incredibly beautiful!
My brain hurts learning Norwegian at times, but it's wonderful to learn. To sit down every day and not know a word or 30 and then to know them all, and somehow this sequence of letters I didn't know to make perfect sense.
Norway is the most beautiful country on earth, my ambition is to live my time on earth there some day, thanks to the Duolingo team it's a wonderful resource, from the highest mountain and fjord to the deepest lake, it's inspiring to be here.
Congratulations on 100,000!
Tusen takk! Learning the language is definitely going to make it easier to move here eventually.
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It is so amazing that so many people are learning Norwegian! When I began learning maybe 2 years ago, I felt so very alone on my journey - I had no idea that so many people were interested in Norway and the language! So, the very day that the message came that the Norwegian course was ready on Duolingo, I signed up! I have to say that adding this program to my study routine has made a HUGE impact, and has closed those little gaps that I just quite couldn't figure out via other books, lessons, etc. So, tusen hjertelig takk to all of those who had a part in creating these lessons, and to the members as well for making it a friendly place to come together and learn :)
Bare hyggelig! I'm a bit shocked at the amount of interest as well, but definitely not complaining! ;)
100,000 learners! That video is amazing! It makes me want to go to Norway now:) I wish I could drop everything and go!
I'll do a trip around Norway. Start in Oslo, fly to the top and drive down the coast back down to Oslo:) I'll be able to see many dialects, even some Nynorsk! Maybe I should see Svalbard as well.
That's a great plan! You could even travel part of the stretch by boat for a bit of variation. There are some spectacular views along the coast. :)
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Congratulations! I'm not learning Norwegian myself, but I can see that all the contributors do an amazing job creating courses and providing assistance on the forums. ;)
Thank you!
Now what do we have to do to make you start learning Norwegian... bribe you with brunost? ;)
Yay, congratulations on reaching that milestone!!
I was in Norway around the time the course was added to the incubator and like many others here was constantly checking for updates! It was well worth the wait. The team has done a brilliant job and I've personally had a lot of fun working through the whole tree and have learnt a lot - tusen takk! It's also really exciting to see so many other people learning Norwegian and sharing tips, stories and resources. Looking forward to learning more (and bonus skills!) :)
ps. Thanks for sharing that video too, it's made me impatient to go back now. Hopefully I'll be a bit braver about speaking to people next time ;)
Thank you, Ella! And may you be as brave a Viking the next time you're in Norway! ;)
Tusen takk, to the people of Norway who are helping us learn their language.
Gleden er på vår side! It's inspiring to have such enthusiastic learners. :)
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Jeg er kanskje litt sent til festen, but what is being a tad too late if not a perfect opportunity to make a Norwegian-inspired post by sharing some Kittelsen?
My heartiest congratulations to the Norwegian team for breaking the milestone - here's to you lovely lads and lassies breaking a dozen more! Thanks to you, my old dream of driving across Norway has rekindled itself and has snuggled down in the back of my head, flickering or maybe winking at the sound of fanfare after every completed exercise. If it's not koselig, I don't know what is.
Huzzah! Gratulerer, norske laget!
So, this is maybe not what you had in mind by questions, but it's something I'm curious about: what would you say is the biggest thing that draws tourists to Norway? I know in some ways it probably depends on where exactly they're touring (In the US, tourists in Washington DC are taking in the monuments and museums, while tourists in Montana either love nature or have gotten very lost!), but sometimes you can make broad, sweeping statements. Like when I was in Jordan, and basically all of us foreigners were either doing work related to archaeology or were touring around ancient historical sites.
Tusen takk!
Our scenery is the biggest attraction, and Ranvin already mentioned the other usual suspects.
It also depends on where the tourists are from. Quite a lot of the American tourists are Norwegian Americans who come to connect with their heritage somehow (check out the tv show 'Alt for Norge'), Chinese and Japanese tourists seem to find Norway very exotic, while the Germans tend to be interested in either historic sites or fishing.
I'm sure we get some tourists who just watched Vikings or Frozen as well. ;)
The scenic nature and the northern lights, Unesco sites and taking a cruise along the coast are very popular tourist attractions here.
There's also a lot of fishing tourism from elsewhere in Europe, some extreme sport tourism, even pilgrims (to Nidaros primarily).
I've never been to Norway, but the scenery, the northern lights and the (roll your eyes if you will) Viking history draw me there. Also, my family's distant ancestry is reputed to lay in Norway and I would like to try to confirm this. Last, but not least, I have met a few Norwegian people (mostly through work) and they were all very nice people... I would love to be able to surprise my next Norwegian customer by being able to converse with them in their native language. And if they have tried to learn Chemistry, I would love to be able to commiserate with them!
As it happens, I found out one of my regular customers is from Norway, and I managed to tell him "Jeg snakker moen Norsk!" So thrilled!
Then he spoke to me in Norwegian and I realised I have a lot more to learn. But it's fantastic that in my small town on the east coast of Australia there now (as far as I know) 1.5 Norwegian speakers, thanks to DuoLingo. Tusen takk!
What dialect are they using in Lilyhammer TV show? Is the TV show good for learning Norwegian?
I have watched the first season with Norwegian soundtrack and subtitles without understanding much first, then I started translating each single phrase with Google Translate.
With the help of this course in Duolingo, I can already understand something on the fly :) Thank you for the great job. The course feels very professional and high quality.
Tusen takk!
There are many different dialects present in the show, so in that sense it should be good listening practice. I wonder though, since the show switches between English and Norwegian so much, do you find it hard to snap back into Norwegian after the English dialogue? Or does the English dialogue work more like a beneficial break between the chunks of Norwegian?
Thank you for your kind words about the course, we're thrilled it's working for you! :)
It may depend on the person. Personally, I don't find it difficult to switch between the languages. Actually, it is a bit of a relief when I hear them speaking in English because this way I can understand everything in real time with no need to stop and translate the subtitles.
But I heard some people saying that when they encounter phrases in two languages mixed together then they loose it and mix up words. They prefer to focus on one language at a time. Maybe to them this TV show would be confusing. Good point.
The only Norwegian programming we got on TV (Australia, for the moment has a free-to-air foreign broadcasting service, SBS) was the movie Dod Sno (which translates as "Dead Snow"), a horror-comedy move about a group of Norwegian teens being slaughtered by zombie SS men (okay, now it's starting to sound like a Satyricon album). However, last week, my fiancee and I stayed up late and happened to catch the movie "Max Manus", which was about the eponymous WWII Norwegian Resistance fighter. The movie had subtitles, but thanks to Duolingo's Norwegian course, I was able to understand some of the movie without subtitles. Now I'm hoping for more Norwegian programming on SBS, but I'm not holding my breath.
Also, antonxt, I agree! I visited some friends in a town 300 kilometres from where I live. I mentioned I was learning Norwegian and because of the understanding of Norwegian I have gained from Duolingo, I was able to construct sentences, from scratch, about how their son spoke Norwegian, and about how my fiancee and I liked their cats.
Vet dere om noe sted jeg kan lære nynorsk? Jeg er veldig interessert i det. Takk i forveien.
So glad to discover this forum (and DuoLingo).
My grandmother grew up speaking Norwegian, but like so many first-generation immigrants, made a point of losing it to fit in in America.
I'm hoping to be able to speak some Norsk when I go visit my four different great-grandparents' hometowns (Stavanger, Trondhjem, and two little villages up in the hills).
And also to be able to rely less on the subtitles when the next season of "Okkupert" finally comes to the states!
