Norwegian Language

The Headstart language courses were originally created by the US Defense Language Institute for US service personnel who needed to learn the basics of the language in the countries where they were stationed. They focus on teaching the vocabulary and expressions you need for everyday communication while remaining light on grammatical explanations.

There are actually two recognized forms of Norwegian, the written language, known as Bokmål, and Nynorsk, the spoken language. However, since this is a course in spoken Norwegian, the emphasis is on the latter.

Norwegian Headstart was first published in 1981 and is divided into eight units that can be studied in any order – except that Unit 2, which deals with numbers, needs to be covered before you tackle Unit 3.

Within each unit, there are five sections. The first section lists the unit’s learning objectives, the second presents the new words and phrases for the unit and the third provides further examples of the new language in the kind of contexts you are likely to encounter it in. The fourth section consists of a series of drills for practice, and the fifth section takes the form of a dialog, giving the language further context.

Each unit is also accompanied by an audio recording that includes the new vocabulary, drill exercises and dialogs for the unit along with all the necessary instructions.

Finally, at the end of the course, you will find a comprehensive introduction to Norway that, although now a little dated, provides a wealth of information on the country as well as its culture and traditions.