Not sure where to begin? Keep it simple.

The Norwegian Puzzle is designed to help you build your Norwegian one puzzle piece at a time. You don't need to listen to everything in order – choose the topics that are useful to you right now.

Listening episodes are available at different levels, from A0–A1 to B1–B2.

Not sure about your level? Try one first and adjust if needed. Aim lower than you think you should. It feels better to be able to go up a level afterwards, than feeling overwhelmed, but insisting at staying where you are.

Also remember: Your listening level is very often not the same as your speaking, reading or writing level - you might be suprised! Plus: your listening skills will depend on the topic (how well you know vocabulary related to the topic), your interest for the topic and your ability to focus at the moment.

You can browse the podcast by level or by topic.

Some episodes focus on listening comprehension, while others help you with grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, expressions or culture. Sometimes it's a mix of  several categories. You can see which categories each episode fall into right above the title.

You don't need to catch every word.

Listen for the main idea first. Notice words and expressions you recognize, and don't worry about the rest.

Then listen again. You'll often understand more the second time. Most episodes have an updated transcript as well that  you can look at if you feel like it, but try without it first. You want to train your listening skills, not your reading skills. It's a muscle and it takes time for your brain to learn to prosess words in a foreign language at a the same speed as it prosesses your mother tongue.

Patience, my dear! :) You'll get there!

Premium listening episodes come with pedagogical resources to help you understand more of what you hear and learn useful language along the way.

A simple way to use them:

First listen: Listen without reading and focus on understanding the main idea.

Then read: Use the transcript and vocabulary explanations to check what you missed and notice useful words and expressions. Perhaps you want to add some words/expressions/phrases to a flash cards app like Norsk Hub or Brainscape to make sure you get repetition? 

Listen again: Go back to the episode and see how much more you understand.

You don't need to memorize everything. Focus on the words, expressions and language patterns that feel useful to you.

Listen while you're walking, commuting, cooking or doing something around the house.

Some days you might want to study carefully with a transcript.

Other days, just listen.

Choose your level or topic and start listening.

One puzzle piece at a time.

The more you listen, the clearer you will see the bigger picture.

And the more you will want to finish your puzzle. 

You can use The Norwegian Puzzle for free and learn from all the free episodes.

With Premium, you also get access to additional episodes including graded listening episodes (from total beginner to upper intermediate: A0-B2) along with pedagogical resources with transcripts, vocabulary, expressions and explanations to help you get more out of your listening.