Reddit reviews Teach Yourself Complete Norwegian (TY Complete Courses) [Including double CD] (Teach Yourself Language Complete Courses)

First of all, you'll find that there are two different writing standards for Norwegian, Bokmål and Nynorsk. You will almost certainly want to learn Bokmål, the most common. There are also a wide range of regional dialects; you will almost certainly want to learn Standard Østnorsk. It's nothing to worry about, as Bokmål and Østnorsk are almost always the ones taught to foreigners, but do be aware that you will find Norwegian that doesn't conform to what you've learnt.

As for somewhere to start, I'd suggest Norwegian on the Web, a basic introductory course covering grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary, built up little by little in each of ten chapters. To have a minimal understanding of pronunciation you will need to read up to at least chapter 6; for grammar at least chapter 8.

I know you say you can't really sink money into it, but in my opinion the most valuable book, if you were to buy one, is Norwegian: An Essential Grammar. Most of your Norwegian learning can be done on the Internet, but I've not really found another decent reference for more complex Norwegian grammar. That can wait, though.

You'll probably also be recommended Teach Yourself Norwegian at some point, but in my honest opinion I don't think that's a particularly good book, especially considering the free courses you can find online. Just make sure to use a course from a reputable source — there are guides written by non-natives that are misleading or just plain wrong.

Once you get past the level expected for courses, you can try having a go with actual Norwegian text and speech, perhaps beginning with resources for people who are still learning Norwegian, like Klar Tale and SkoleTV.

Lykke til!

Copy and pasted from a comment I posted on a similar question.

When I first started I thought I probably wouldn't be speaking so much so I'll concentrate more on writing and reading. If there was one thing I wish I did more it would have to be actively seeking out speaking partners or finding Norwegian friends on the internet. Reading and writing is picked up pretty quickly but speaking and listening with real Norwegian people is a whole other thing. I'ts understanding the dialects and learning the slang that really brings you up the next level and you'll be at a real disadvantage if you travel to Norway after say a year of focusing just on writing and you'll find yourself wondering why you can't understand anything anyone is saying. Anyway rant over! :D

I used Lang-8 for writing and if you start using it early on it can be fun to look back on sort of like a log of your writing progress.

As for resources, personally I used the Teach Yourself Course while also listening to the Pimsleur Norwegian audio lessons.

The Teach Yourself Book which I used doesn't get the most amazing feedback on here I don't think but for me if was perfect as a beginner who had just listened to a few Pimsleur audio lessons and read some stuff on the internet. I could feel myself improving at a pretty rapid rate, I remember being half way through the book and thinking that i could have a half decent conversation with a norwegian person. So yeah for a start it worked great for me.

I followed that book up with the Norwegian Verbs and Essentials of Grammar, this book was mainly to give the information that i felt the TY course was lacking in. I ended up just picking out the things I needed to know and then it went on the shelf without actually being fully read. However I know it's a good book as it gets recommended quite alot in this subreddit.

Norwegian on the Web is also a pretty good well structured resource however it was something I found when I was coming towards the end of my studies so didn't use it that much. Also the case with the Norwegian Duolingo although I should probably still use this as it's a good fun way to learn new vocabulary.

The last thing i'll say is that if you really want to make some good progress and you find yourself slacking just try and do one thing everyday related to Norwegian. It doesn't really matter what it is, could be listening to an audio clip, reading the newspaper, a book, online course, whatever, even if it's just for 15 minutes it's better than nothing and it all adds up to helping you on your way.

Good Luck! :D

P.s Norway is awesome!