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Scandinavian boost in German | ||
Tags: Scandinavian Languages | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4638 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 1 of 7 02 November 2013 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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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? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5455 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 2 of 7 03 November 2013 at 10:11am | IP Logged | |||||
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. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4830 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 3 of 7 03 November 2013 at 2:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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). 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6599 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 4 of 7 03 November 2013 at 3:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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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 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4709 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 5 of 7 03 November 2013 at 3:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6705 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 7 04 November 2013 at 11:10am | IP Logged | |||||
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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 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4709 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 7 of 7 04 November 2013 at 1:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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With regards to the Dutch in Denmark; it usually is.
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