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AlOlaf Danish TAC 2015 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5141 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes  Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 81 of 163 14 December 2013 at 12:18am | IP Logged | |||||
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It looks like it's time for a year-end summary. I think I can safely say that I made progress with Danish this year, but that could have something to do with the fact that I started out knowing essentially nothing and had nowhere to go but up.
I managed to complete Assimil Dänisch ohne Mühe and used it to make listen-and-repeat recordings for pronunciation practice. I bombarded myself with imput from Danish films and TV series, which seems to have improved my comprehension. I still need English (or German) subtitles to get the meaning of everything, but I'm starting to understand sizeable chunks of dialogue without them. One of my goals for 2014 is to wean myself off English subtitles and make the transition to Danish ones. I can see that my end goal of being able to understand everything without subtitles is far, far away. My Danish writing is at Cro-Magnon level. I have to consult my dictionary and grammar book constantly. I definitely want to improve in this area. I'm working on memorizing the irregular verb forms; I know I'll never get anywhere until I do that. It would help if I could summon up the discipline to go through the hundreds of Anki cards I've made. Lately I've caught myself making Iversen-style wordlists, probably some kind of subconscious avoidance maneuver. I've been reading Danish children's books (with lots of pictures) and trying to decipher articles in Politiken. I'd like to read the Harry Potter books in Danish in 2014 (I read them in German this year), but that might be unrealistically ambitious. Maybe I should shoot for "H.C. Andersen for børn", instead. As for speaking, the best I can say is that I'm enthusiastic. Kez was nice enough to ask me if I wanted to participate in a group Skype session and I immediately said yes, but now I wonder if maybe I shouldn't practice with an Italki tutor first to see if I can take part without torturing my teammates. I feel very fortunate to be on a team with so many experienced, accomplished language learners. I hope I can contribute something in 2014. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5141 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 82 of 163 21 December 2013 at 8:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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----------TAC 2014 Starts Here----------
I feel a vague sense of accomplishment. Yesterday, after much procrastination, I finally finished reviewing the 1,200 or so Danish Anki cards that I made while watching the first four episodes of Matador. For the time being, Matador is serving as my primary source for vocabulary, so every unknown word or idiom in the Danish subtitles receives a German definition and gets turned into an Anki card. It took me several days to look up and imput all the words I culled from these four episodes. Why so long? (A). I’m a beginner and don’t know very many words, (B). I’m putting noun declensions and verb conjugations on every applicable card and (C). I'm OCD and double-checking everything from my Danish-German dictionary against the information given in Den Danske Ordbog. The main problem with (C). is that the Ordbog’s Danish definitions often contain words I don’t know, so I end up looking those up, too. That’s not bad in itself, but sometimes I’ll run across an unknown word in a definition, look that word up and find another unknown word in its definition, look that word up and find yet another unknown word in its definition, etc. and so on until I’ve forgotten what word I started out with. I’m learning some interesting vocabulary this way, but it’s sort of slowing down the process and diverting me from my main objective, that being to understand all the dialogue in Matador. I'm also finding out that it’s possible for a Danish word ending in -e to be both a verb infinitive and a noun, for example “knibe” (to pinch/predicament) and “ske” (to happen/spoon). I guess that shouldn’t come as a surprise, since the same thing occurs in German with words ending in -en, but in German I can always identify the noun right away because it’s the one that’s capitalized. In Danish usage, I can rely on context to make the meaning clear, but with flashcards I have to either learn both possibilities together or find some way to differentiate them. I know it’s a niggling trifle, but I’m already in the middle of a sweaty, desperate battle with the twin Bluto-monsters Pronunciation and Comprehension and now this flashcard gnat flies into my eye. Uh-oh. Today there’s 235 cards to review. I think I’ll wait and do them on the job, when I’m supposed to be working. I just got the third season of Borgen on DVD! Edited by AlOlaf on 21 December 2013 at 8:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5141 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 83 of 163 24 December 2013 at 6:53am | IP Logged | |||||
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Now I remember why I quit using Anki. I take a two-day hiatus and there’s 768 Danish vocabulary cards to review. I managed to get through all of them while I was at work today (my boss is on vacation), but it used up every spare minute I had and ran all the juice out of my iPhone. I’m getting the uneasy feeling I’ve re-opened Pandora’s box. At the same time, I know Anki works and I’ve already decided to make it an integral part of my new TAC goal. If it weren’t for that and the fact that I paid good money for the mobile app, I’d probably make a video of myself deleting it and watch it over and over.
I’ve just got to get my mind set, like I do when I go to the grocery store. I have an aversion to grocery shopping that borders on phobia, but I enjoy the benefit I derive from its successful completion, so I steel myself, put my head down and push that shopping cart. I figure if I can bring myself to approach Anki in the same way, I might emerge with a level of vocabulary acquisition every bit as worthwhile as Cocoa Puffs and toilet paper. If not more. Edited by AlOlaf on 24 December 2013 at 6:57am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kez Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4350 days ago 181 posts - 212 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Swedish | Message 84 of 163 24 December 2013 at 11:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've got the same thing with Memrise. I reviewed over 2000 words last week, which took
quite a while and it's up to 800 right now. Just can't bother to do it at the moment. And hey, make grocery shopping more fun by writing your shopping list in Danish ;) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5141 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 85 of 163 25 December 2013 at 1:15am | IP Logged | |||||
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That’s a good idea, Kez. I think I’ll try it. I wonder how you say "Cocoa Puffs" in Danish.
Now it’s time to draw up my annihilation plan. In the interest of consistency, I’ve been careful to ensure that my 2014 goals for Danish are just as unrealistic as the ones I made for German in 2013. I'll be launching a three-pronged pincer movement designed to encircle the unsuspecting language and pummel it into submission. Prong #1: Decipher the Danish subtitles in the following films and TV series and enter all new vocabulary into Anki. TV Series 1. Matador (Monopoly) (complete series) (4 episodes out of 24 done) 2. Borgen (Government) (complete series) 3. Forbrydelsen (The Killing) (complete series) 4. Rejseholdet (Unit One) (seasons 1 & 2) 5. Livvagterne (The Protectors) (complete series) 6. Den som dræber (Those Who Kill) (first and only season) 7. Broen (The Bridge) (season 1) 8. Rita (season 1) Films 1. Festen (The Celebration) 2. En kongelig affære (A Royal Affair) 3. Marie Krøyer 4. Prag (Prague) 5. Efter bryllupet (After the Wedding) 6. Flammen og Citronen (Flame and Citron) 7. Mørke (Murk) 8. Jagten (The Hunt) 9. Elsker dig for evigt (Open Hearts) Prong #2: Read the text and complete all the exercises in the “Av, min arm” workbook and finish making pronunciation practice recordings from the audio. Prong #3: Read the Harry Potter series in Danish, using the German version as a reference, and listen to the corresponding audiobooks. The way I see it, I’ve got some built-in flexibility here because if I get bored or burned out with one prong, I can switch to another. And should one prong completely collapse, I’ll still have the other two. I’m convinced it’s a good plan. So what if I haven’t even finished reading “Grimms eventyr for børn"? Jeg skal prøve at skrive dansk så meget som muligt. Glædelig jul! Edited by AlOlaf on 25 December 2013 at 1:40am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kez Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4350 days ago 181 posts - 212 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Swedish | Message 86 of 163 25 December 2013 at 11:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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How many times do you end up watching something when you're learning the complete
vocabulary? Can't imagine the amount of work it must be! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5340 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 87 of 163 25 December 2013 at 1:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
That’s a strategy for victory! ;-)
Actually, joking aside, your strategy seems very reasonable and well-balanced. I wish you great success in TAC’14 and I will keep following your progress. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5141 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 88 of 163 25 December 2013 at 7:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
So far, three times seems to be working. The first time I watch in a relaxed way with English subtitles, as if I had no language learning objectives, just to enjoy the show and get the gist of the action. The second time I go through it with Danish subtitles, this time stopping to write down every word I don’t know in a notebook, along with a brief definition derived from the subtitles of the English version I’ve got going at the same time on a separate player. This may seem insane, but it often allows me to immediately identify idiomatic expressions that would otherwise send me off on tedious, time-consuming, motivation-sapping dictionary and internet searches. Once I’ve got my list of words, I use my Langenscheidt and Gyldendal German-Danish dictionaries along with Den Danske Ordbog to get detailed definitions, verb conjugations and noun declensions so I can make Anki cards. This is a lot of work, but I don’t know any way aound it if I’m going to learn this stuff. When all the words are in Anki, I go back and watch one more time with Danish subtitles to see if I can understand it all. I’ll be the first one to admit I don’t know what I’m doing. All I know is that forcing myself to memorize grammar rules out a textbook sucks the life out of me and makes me sleepy. With no immersion opportunity at hand, I’ve had to come up with something that works and yet contains enough fun to make me want to do it. So far, this is it. If I find a better way, I’ll adopt it. I’m counting on it getting easier as I go along.
Thank your for your encouragement, Emme, and thank you for all the work you’ve done for the team. I know it’ll be a miracle if I even come close to reaching my goals, but what the hell. I’ll be following your progress, too. Good luck in 2014! Edited by AlOlaf on 25 December 2013 at 7:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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