I've been 'learning' Norwegian for two years now. It's only since I finished my exams that I've properly started trying. Which got me thinking about learning in general.

I have a friend who's 'learning' a different language. He'll always say that he's learning it, but will then admit that he hasn't looked at his language book for weeks, or more recently, for months. If I ask him why, he'll say that he'll get round to it. Considering that he hasn't had any responsibilities for months (except for a brief stint with a part-time job), I take this to mean "I can't be bothered trying".

It's not easy learning a language. This seems obvious to most people until they start learning one and find that it's _really_ not easy. It doesn't have to be impossible, but it requires so much practice - which in turn equals time and thought - that it seems that for a lot of people the whole endeavour goes tits-up pretty soon after they start.

People like my friend bring me to the conclusion that they dream about the end result but don't actually want to put in the work to get there. They'll sometimes tell themselves that the journey isn't as hard as it really is, or that they'll "get round to it" - a euphemism for "I'm procrastinating because this is hard".

In truth, it's not hard to detect that mindset. More significantly though, is that I think that people's strategies for learning are often too linear and unimaginative, thereby leading to such great difficulties and procrastination. My friend has a book - it looks like a pretty good one - for learning his language of choice. Lovely. But is he going to learn to hold conversations in that language if he merely reads the cunningly chosen snippets of dialogue that are in the book? How about scouring through pages of grammar? Maybe. But it doesn't seem to be working for _him_. Maybe he's missed the point of the book: as a foundation for learning the language, not a convenient encapsulation of the entire journey.

The first book I bought was Teach Yourself Norwegian. It has a couple of good reviews there on Amazon. I didn't really like it. I'm now sure that this was because I didn't supplement it with some other means of learning that suited me. I've now got a dictionary and a grammar book, and www.aftenposten.no and the Bokmål version of Wikipedia are at my disposal. I can read articles on those websites to develop my reading skills and learn a bunch of new words and phrases (along with some idioms). Once I understand an article, I can try to explain its contents in Norwegian a few hours later. I can have banal little conversations with myself about the fact that I've mislaid my wallet somewhere in the flat or that I can't see the fridge from where I'm sitting in the livingroom.

Having silly little conversations with myself works for me. Reading silly little conversations between unrealistic characters didn't. Not on its own anyway. I can't be sure if my friend isn't employing the right learning strategy for himself; maybe he's just lazy. But if he's not helping himself to learn anything, he's helped me to learn how to learn. :)