German or Norwegian?

Question

Which one do you think I should learn? I am interested in both but which one would you prefer, which one is more challenging and do you know any books/websites where I could learn them?

Answer 1

Well I might be able to help you. German is spoken by roughly 75 million people. While norwegian is about 6 million.

So obviously there are much more resources in the world for learning German. And a lot more people to practice speaking with. Though learning to speak Norwegian would be awesome, also.

My advice: First, learn German really well, and if you do that, learning Norwegian will be pretty easy, as you'll find you can already recognize a decent amount of verbs and other words, because they would be spelled or sound somewhat similar.

Answer 2

I'm Norwegian, so Norwegian!

Answer 3

Well, Norwegian is part of the Germanic group of languages and if I were you, I would learn German first so that if you learn Norwegian, then it will be more easier for you to follow. It's just my opinion. :) Also, I think German is more popular than Norwegian.

EDIT: German is similar to English, I think German would be easier.

Answer 4

GERMAN

Answer 5

i think german would be funner to use =]

i think that rosetta stone or something....?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Sto...

lol, not might sound useful, sorry v_v

Answer 6

German. :)

You should just go check out some books from your library.

I'm half German & half Norwegian. :)

I can speak German & I use it a lot more than the few words I

know in Norwegian. So yeah, German is more useful. :)

Answer 7

German...

oma..grandma in German!

http://www.howtolearnhardcoregerman/life...

Answer 8

While German is more widely spoken and taught than Norwegian, I urge you to consider Norwegian seriously. Of course it depends greatly on why you want to learn either one. If you are interested opera or music, German is probably more useful. If you are interested in world peace or polar exploration, then it's Norwegian.

Many former Norwegian students tell us that their Norwegian study / expertise sets them aside from many other people in their job search, since it's a little more 'exotic.'

Norwegian's grammar is slightly simpler -- for example verbs do not have different forms depending on the subject. Jeg er, du er, han er, hun er, vi er, dere er, de er ('er means 'am/is/are')/ Norwegian does not have subjunctive or conditionals as separate forms. Word order is slightly simpler in Norwegian (the famous verb at end of dependent clauses in German does not happen in Norwegian0.

Norwegian has two official written forms, and myriad dialects. To my mind, as a linguist, that makes Norwegian a wonderful subject.

As far as websites, I can recommend that you have a look at my Norwegian website. I have archived a number of email lessons in Norwegian that I sent out in 1995 (called NorWord). And other simple lessons about Norwegian verbs are archived on the site. (the URLs are below). Also I recommend you join Norskklassen and lurk a bit, to see how the almost 4000 members help each other with Norwegian

Please let me know if I can provide more info on Norwegian. (Besides, Norway is the most beautiful country in the world! :) )

[e-mail]

Answer 9

I think that German might come more useful! I'm not sure where to you can learn them though.....Try online programs or your local lybrary!?

Answer 10

I'm German, so I'd definitely go with that.

If you have an iPod, there's plenty of how to learn German podcasts.

I'm sure they'd have something for Norwegian too.

Hopefully.  

Answer 11

Study German first.  It will be more useful.  Once you feel like you have it pretty well under your  belt, try studying Norwegian.  You'll probably find it's a breeze!