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Scandinavian boost in German

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sillygoose1
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 Message 1 of 7
02 November 2013 at 7:07pm | IP Logged 
How much of a boost would I get in German after having learned a Scandinavian language, especially Danish + English? Would knowing those two be equivalent to having Dutch as a native language in terms of vocab?

Even after going through 3 Assimils for German, it's still difficult to read Harry Potter which led to me taking a break from it for awhile. But since I've developed an interest in Scandinavia, I'm hoping that after learning one in the future, German will come easier.

I read the entry on the main HTLAL page, but that didn't tell me much. Could anyone chime in with personal experience?


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tractor
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 Message 2 of 7
03 November 2013 at 10:11am | IP Logged 
sillygoose1 wrote:
How much of a boost would I get in German after having learned a Scandinavian language,
especially Danish + English? Would knowing those two be equivalent to having Dutch as a native language in terms
of vocab?

German is probably a bit easier for a native Dutch speaker than for a native Danish speaker, so knowing Danish as a
second language can't be equivalent to having Dutch as a native language. That said, knowing a Scandinavian
language will definitely help.
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montmorency
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 Message 3 of 7
03 November 2013 at 2:52pm | IP Logged 
sillygoose1 wrote:
How much of a boost would I get in German after having learned a
Scandinavian language, especially Danish + English? Would knowing those two be
equivalent to having Dutch as a native language in terms of vocab?

Even after going through 3 Assimils for German, it's still difficult to read Harry
Potter which led to me taking a break from it for awhile. But since I've developed an
interest in Scandinavia, I'm hoping that after learning one in the future, German will
come easier.

I read the entry on the main HTLAL page, but that didn't tell me much. Could anyone
chime in with personal experience?




An interesting question, since I'm essentially doing the reverse: lots of years of
experience with German, then learning Danish (initially with TYS, followed by LR with
English, German and Danish versions of the same books, now just starting Assimil Danish
using German as a base language).

Going from German to Danish is easier in one sense: the grammar of Danish is a lot
simpler, and one sees a lot of similarity in the vocabulary.


What was the base language of your German Assimil courses? I'm not all that familiar
with the range of Assimil courses, and "Dänisch Ohne Mühe" is the first one I've looked
at seriously. It might be interesting for you to try that. With any luck, the text will
be based on the same material, so you will have familiarity on your side.

As you probably know, or will soon find out, written Danish is not a reliable guide to
spoken Danish, and certainly much less so than is the case in German. It also doesn't
sound much like German, but actually this can work in your favour, as it may mean there
is less interference between the two for you.

I'd also say try not to give up on German and your Harry Potter. If you haven't already
done so, make sure you are using the English version(s) to help you. I'd also say, if
you haven't already, get hold of a German audiobook version and listen to that, to get
the German pronunciation and stress, etc, well bedded in. Experiment with L-R, perhaps.

While Danish obviously isn't German, I think it's quite a good language to learn for
someone who has done some German (and hopefully wishes to continue with it). I think
the simultaneous study of them could help to reinforce each other, while not
interfering unduly.


It might be fun to try to get hold of the same Harry Potter book you were reading in
German in a Danish edition, and also an audiobook in Danish (if one exists, and if it
is (hopefully) unabridged).
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Serpent
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 Message 4 of 7
03 November 2013 at 3:28pm | IP Logged 
There are unabridged Danish audiobooks for all seven HP books ;) Or well I don't have the last one but I've LR'ed parts of all six and the whole 4-6.

Edited by Serpent on 03 November 2013 at 3:30pm

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tarvos
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 Message 5 of 7
03 November 2013 at 3:50pm | IP Logged 
tractor wrote:
sillygoose1 wrote:
How much of a boost would I get in German after
having learned a Scandinavian language,
especially Danish + English? Would knowing those two be equivalent to having Dutch as a
native language in terms
of vocab?

German is probably a bit easier for a native Dutch speaker than for a native Danish
speaker, so knowing Danish as a
second language can't be equivalent to having Dutch as a native language. That said,
knowing a Scandinavian
language will definitely help.


The gap for me to speak German is much smaller than it is for a Swede (or a Dane, but I
only speak Swedish, so I'll take that viewpoint). As a Dutchman, if I know the false
friends (e.g. the cognates that don't have the same semantic meaning), if I know the
things that differ in the grammar (i.e. get used to German cases, and note the little
word order differences in subclauses), and adapt to its pronunciation a bit, I
practically already have 80% of the language down. All you need is to know some
specific vocabulary by that point which is markedly different from Dutch, and the
connector words which can be different in German, plus idiomatics which are not always
the same. The only thing Dutch people trip over is the more complex case system which
gives us a hindrance, and Germans a boost when going vice versa (we don't add all the
redundant cases in Dutch, we don't use them anymore).

Swedish has things that differ much more like verb conjugations, a markedly different
word order especially in subclauses, no participles moving to the end, a markedly
different pronunciation, more divergent vocabulary, etc. You'll still get a lot for
free, but not as much as with Dutch, and English doesn't really bonus you up a lot
either because the similarities between English and German are usually in the basic
words...which tend to be the same in Swedish as well. The gift Dutch has is usually at
more advanced levels.
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Iversen
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 Message 6 of 7
04 November 2013 at 11:10am | IP Logged 
I would think that Dutch + English is slightly more useful than Danish or Swedish + English, based on the fact that I have been to the Netherlands many times and 'read' a fair number of texts before I even started to learn the grammar and vocabulary of the language - simply by treating it as a weird dialect of German. The main problem was of course understanding what the native speakers around me said, but that would presumably also be a problem for a Dutch person visiting Denmark.

Edited by Iversen on 04 November 2013 at 11:12am

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tarvos
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 Message 7 of 7
04 November 2013 at 1:03pm | IP Logged 
With regards to the Dutch in Denmark; it usually is.


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