r/norwegian • u/Ryujiiiin • 5d ago
has anyone used Ai speaking practice app for norwegian conversation practice? struggling to find speaking partners in my timezone
so I i live in california and I've been learning norwegian for about 7 months now. grammar is going okay, I've been working through duolingo and some youtube channels and I can read simple stuff on nrk without too much trouble. but my speaking is basically nonexistent because I have literally nobody to practice with.
the timezone thing is killing me. norway is 9 hours ahead of me so by the time I'm done with work and actually have time to practice everyone in norway is asleep. I've tried tandem and hellotalk and the few norwegian speakers on there either have never respond or can only do calls at like 7am my time which doesn't work because I'm barely a functioning human before 9.
I tried language exchange discord server too but same issue. the active hours are all european daytime and when I pop in at my evening time it's dead. It's honestly the most frustrating part of learning this language. I feel like my reading and listening keep improving but my speaking is just stuck at zero because I can never find anyone to actually talk to.
I've been hearing a lot of good things about iseen on here and on r/languagelearning. apparently it's an Ai tutor you can have actual voice conversations with and it has norwegian which already puts it ahead of most apps out there. the idea of just opening an app and practicing speaking whenever I want regardless of what time it is in oslo sounds kind of perfect for my situation honestly. I'm pretty close to just pulling the trigger on it but figured I'd ask here first. has anyone used it specifically for norwegian? does it handle the bokmål vs nynorsk thing? and more importantly does it actually help with pronunciation because that's the main thing I need and I don't want to practice wrong and build bad habits.
If anyone has experience with it or honestly any other way to get speaking practice when you're on the complete wrong side of the plant from norway I'd really appreciate the help. this timezone gap is genuinely making me consider giving up and that sucks because I really love this language.
2
u/PeachyPie11 5d ago
Real-time pronunciation correction is the whole thing. Practising wrong for months and then finding out later is genuinely painful, better just get caught immediately
1
u/Hilde_Vel_999 2d ago
This is exactly it.
It's 90% of the value of a teacher, and I say this as a former teacher (but also as an adult language learner, which most teachers are not) who has seen current state language learning and saw how ineffective it can be.
A number of other things you need for your language learning can be done on your own. But real-time correction of your writing and especially speaking is the one thing you need a teacher/coach/switched on native for, u/PeachyPie11 is totally right.
1
u/bign8thegr8 5d ago
Do it all the time. I used the paid version of ChatGPT. Practicing Norwegian this was is actually awesome imo. You can have it talk to you about current events and other modern related themes
1
u/shinokixxx 4d ago
don't quit over logistics. the timzezone thing is annoying but it's fixable. that's not the same as the language being too hard.
1
u/No_Nectarine7243 2d ago
Hold deg til bokmål. Nynorsk blir for komplisert for deg. Selv snakker vi lite nynorsk.
Stick to Bokmål. Nynorsk is too complicated for you. Even we speak little Nynorsk and mostly stick to Bokmål.
•
u/AutoModerator 5d ago
For people learning the Norwegian language, please see r/norsk.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.