Keith Brooks is the man behind Pardon My Norwegian, a site dedicated to “everything cool from Norway from the eyes of a Kentuckian.” Prior to “marrying” the Norwegian language, Keith sampled a number of a potential languages in a project called 37 Languages. His “speed dating” or “taste testing” approach to choosing just the right “significant linguistic other” got picked up by PRI’s The World in 2009 (“Blogging the Love of Language“), and Keith was asked back again in 2010 to report on which language he finally chose to settle down with (“A Language Speed-Dater Gets Serious“).
In our interview, Keith and I discuss:
- His favorite tips and tools for learning Norwegian online.
- Why, contrary to what you might expect, it is indeed possible to learn Norwegian even in Louisville, Kentucky.
- Differences and similarities between Norwegian other Scandinavian tongues:
“Danish sounds like Swedish, but is written like Norwegian. Swedish sounds like Norwegian, but is closer to Danish. And then Norwegian, in my opinion, is the best one of them all!”
More Info
For more information about Keith Brooks, learning Norwegian, and his language speed dating experiences, check out PardonMyNorwegian.com.
Transcript
Complete transcripts are coming soon. Enter your email below to be notified when they are available.
Hei alle sammen! I wanted to thank John again for interviewing me, this was fun! I was trying to think of the best way to describe Norwegian/Swedish/Danish during the interview, and here is the quote I meant to reference:
“Norwegian is Danish spoken in Swedish.”
One can also say:
Norwegian + phonology – vocabulary = Swedish
Norwegian – phonology + vocabulary = Danish
I hope everyone enjoys listening!