I think i would go for ordinary Norwegian (bokmaal), it's understand by all Norwegians. You will be able to communicate with people from Sweden and Swedish speaking Finns. Also most danish speaking people will understand most of what you are saying.

Grammar wise, I think they are about the same, depending somewhat on your previous knowledge. If you know some icelandic, I'd recommend new-norwegian. It's also closer to old-english, though not by a huge degree - e.g. litle (conservative) = little, somme = some. If you know some german there are a lot of german loanwords in Norwegian Bokmål and danish - though I'd recommend against danish because of it's particular pronounciation. Swedish is the most widely spoken, somewhat poorly understood by danes, though used formally in Finland. I'd recommend it in general, unless you have previous knowledge/interest in old languanges/icelandic - then I'd recommend new-norwegian. If you're interested in denmark or know some german, I'd recommend Norwegian bokmål...

Hi Laurence! I've tried to learn Scandinavian languages, I think that if you practice with native speakers you can learn, but for me is really difficult because sounds is strange for me, but I've tried! I like to learn Finnish and Swedish! I recommend you to visit this sites: http://www.101languages.net/ http://www.swedishlingq.com/ http://www.learn-swedish-language-software.com/index.htm http://www.ats-group.net/languages/language-learn-norwegian.html good luck, I hope this help you!