Complete Norwegian Beginner to Intermediate Course: Learn to read, write, speak and understand a new language (Teach Yourself)

On the plus side, the grammar explanations are pretty good, there are good tidbits about Hungarian culture. Also, there are a lot of exercises with an answer key. The audio is available for free online. The audio is pretty good. The one big downside: this book moves really fast. I already know Hungarian from school, so I used this for review before traveling to Hungary, for which it was good. But if this were my first book, I would have hit a wall. It jumps to some complicated grammar and lots of it in just a couple of lessons. If this were your first Hungarian book, it would be like drinking from a fire hydrant. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of options out there. To say that Hungarian is a lesser taught language is an understatement. The best book for new learners is an out of print book called Colloquial Hungarian by Arthur Whitney (not to be confused with the contemporary Colloquial series by Rutledge). The Whitney book moves in very small manageable bites, and has very subtle dry British humor. There might be some used ones available online. For really dedicated learners Learn Hungarian by Banhidi, Jokay and Szabo is very thorough. But it is a Soviet era book, and might be hard to come by. Anyway, this book, Complete Hungarian is pretty good as long as you are aware of the pace.

The book arrived quickly. It's a good book to start your self instruction; however, the "free" audio that is supposed to be accessible online, isn't. It looks like you'll have to spend another 11 USD to purchase a copy.

Dialogues contain way too many unknown words - quite a chore looking up all the vocabulary in each dialogue.Grammar sections could use better tables and charts.Native Norwegians are puzzled by some of the sentences and expressions: "We don't say that!"

I've been reading the reviews and a lot of people got some audio disk... I did not get a disk with this item... Was I supposed to?

** For the audio: download the teach yourself app and easily download and listen to the audio materials. The auditory materials are very well done. Includes pronunciation guide, dialogues, and "do you understand?" audio quizzes. (Picture is a screenshot from the teach yourself app. Simply sign up and download the material. No code needed. The app is professional and seemingly flawless)The rest of this book is very professional and thorough. There are also a list of useful resources and some helpful knowledge related to Hungary.Ms. Pontifex seems to be an veteran expert in the field of teaching the Hungarian language.

This book is a good place to start. I’m enjoying my lessons and incorporate other books as well. Enjoy!

Very good book even if you start from zero. It would probably help a little if there were some silent period after each phrase of the dialogs so we could repeat, but other than that "kurset er ikke kjedelig"I also like the grammar explanations.

This is a very introductory sort of travel guide, and mostly a rehash of Margaretha's earlier editions. There are so many modern subject areas in common Norwegian everyday use that Margaretha doesn't cover , or even mention. Sorry, but the title " Complete Norwegian" really mismatches the content, and the whole theme is a bit of a bore. Perhaps, Margaretha should consult with me iwhen planning the next edition.

NOTE: the "audio support" comes in the form of a phone app. There is no CD, and the audio can't be played on a computer. You have to have a modern smartphone.I might up this rating as I get on through the book, but I'm on Chapter 4, and am feeling increasingly weary. The author makes a point of saying – in the introduction – that learners shouldn't be afraid to work things out for ourselves. To this end, the book incorporates the "discovery method ... a sort of DIY approach" (as though teach-yourself isn't already DIY enough), which we're told is more likely to result in more thoroughly embedded learning. Sounds sensible enough, but this results in a number of frustrating features: incomplete vocab lists (this is deliberate: earlier editions have complete word lists) – we're supposed to work it out for ourselves, remember, but this has left me floundering with some words and expressions that aren't in the appended dictionary (e.g. it took a lot of googling to find the correct meaning(s) of "skal" – present tense of å skulle); grammar seems to be presented first, and explained later, sometimes quite a lot later, resulting in confusion; sections in Norwegian, with no translation – meaning you have no way of knowing whether you've truly understood or not. I have no problem working hard to learn a new language (this is my 5th), but this book isn't yet suiting my learning style – which is being able to check and double-check my comprehension.All this said, the accompanying audio files are great (ignoring the *ridiculous* conversations the characters have) – particularly the feature that allows you to slow down (or speed up) the rate at which people are speaking. When very slow (0.5x), they all sound drunk, but at least you can pick out individual words. Other options are 0.75x (which works best for me), 1x (i.e. normal speed, which I find too fast), 1.5x and 2x (neither of which I've tried yet). It's a shame the audio can't be downloaded to a laptop, but it's been no bother playing it on my phone. The worksheet-type questions also work well for me, although the space given to write your answers is ridiculously, and unnecessarily, small; and there are errors (p.48, for example, is littered with them); THIS IS UNFORGIVABLE IN A TEXT BOOK. (Sorry for the shouting – Amazon doesn't allow italics!)Could work if you already have some grounding in Norwegian and don't mind a lot of head-scratching, and have reliable internet access (for all the googling you're going to be doing). Oh, and a smartphone.

Overall, I liked this course but I don't really agree with all the gushing praise that you can read on Amazon. But I've only been through it once, reasonably quickly, to be fair. Here are some of my thoughts:- Things suddenly get much harder/faster as you get into double-figure lessons, unexpectedly so (to be fair, such a sudden leap seems to be a feature of many language courses)- The writing part of the course is very weak – you only fill in the odd word in sentences that are otherwise written for you and the required words just repeat what has already just been iterated in the text – the "Get Started" course was much better for this- Would have liked to have seen a section on or some treatment of the Norwegian Fjords as these are v. popular travel destinations- The English characters seem a bit jerky, whereas the main Norwegian characters seem only nice!- Sue only got the job in the hotel in Bodø because the boss fancied her?? Jobs are not usually that easy to land.- The course is quite good for reading and rather good for listening. Of course, it is harder to measure the active skills- Drilling of the grammar points is good and to have commonly-confused grammar points drilled is useful- To have an entire section on Easter seems a bit overkill- The material covered, overall, though, is well-conceived, useful and quite wide-ranging- There are occasional mistakes in the material

Firstly, as someone with no previous experience of learning Norwegian I must say the course itself looks as though it lends itself well to studying independently. The explanation section at the front of the book explaining how the course works and how to use the 'discovery method' is really helpful and gave me some additional tips to use on my language learning journey. This leads nicely on to a section on pronunciation with accompanying audio which is incredibly helpful in my opinion. Even for the absolute beginner! Whilst there are aspects that will just require lots of practice it was really rewarding going into the first chapter proper and being able to grasp the pronunciation of the words. I was even able to get a number correct without listening to the audio beforehand. Whilst some might be tempted to skip this section I really would excise patience and really stick with it. It'll be worth it in the long run! I can't comment on much of the course from chapter two onwards but my first impressions are very positive and I'm excited to see how far this course can take me.However, I have some complaints that might be minor to some but are just too frustrating for me to ignore. Having completed the Teach Yourself French course years ago I was expecting a similar package i.e. book and 2 CDs. The pictures on amazon do look as though you are getting a book and CD pack as does the ISBN listed on the amazon product page.There are NO CDs!! Which perhaps explains why what I thought was a bargain at just over £20.00 wasn't quite the bargain I was expecting to drop through the letter box.To be fair Teach Yourself do provide an online audio for free which is admirable especially as the cost of undertaking a course has now effectively halved. I do however prefer the physical CD copies simply for the fact that I can choose whether to use them, how to use them and for how long. The digital copies take that choice away and I do wonder with the courses undergoing regular revisions and updates, how long the audio provided will remain relevant to the current edition of the published book. Furthermore, with the audio being locked in to the teach yourself app/website access to said audio lies wholly with the publisher. For some this won't be an issue at all but as someone who likes to go back over time and refresh things etc I do wonder whether this will remain possible.Another issue lies in the fact that the website is clunky and offers limited audio playback tools - limiting itself to skip back/forward, play and pause. I would love to the say the app was better but am unable to use it on my Samsung phone. I just get constant error after error including errors such as "please tray again". This bugginess isn't limited to just my own experience as reviews on the google play store are quick to point out.Luckily they do offer an option through the website of downloading the individual files as MP3 files which I've found solves my own bugbears above. Its just a shame that the actual quality of the product is dragged down by the awful buggy app and I'm just glad that they included an MP3 download link on the website otherwise I'd probably look for alternatives!

This is well presented as are most books in the Teach Yourself series. A definite must is the audio download which provides an indispensable guide to pronunciation. Norwegian is a relatively straightforward language, particularly when compared to its elder relative Icelandic. This book is an excellent primer for the would-be student.

This course comes complete with book and the MP3 Audio CD. I have learned languages with Teach Yourself before and quite liked it - and this one does not disappoint. It moves at a good pace, covering all the basics. I am using this one to prepare for a Norway trip later this year. I wanted a proper course, not just a phrase book and Complete Norwegian is exactly that.