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Germanic language order? | ||
Tags: Germanic Languages | Study Plan | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6438 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 9 of 14 21 May 2007 at 2:37am | IP Logged | |||||
There's Assimil Swedish (for French, Dutch, German, and Polish speakers - I don't see it for English speakers), Norwegian (for French, Dutch, and German speakers), and Danish (for French and German speakers). Pimsleur also has a Norwegian course. Beyond this, there are textbooks and phrasebooks. Also, after English and German, reading some free grammar outlines online and going to Wikipedia, or other sites in your target Scandanavian language, should be enough to get started reading native material with a reasonable level of comprehension; with fairly little German and no Dutch knowledge, I found Swedish quite easy to pick up a basic passive understanding of when I dabbled with it. One unusual approach to Norwegian is described at the Norsk report - a guy taught himself to a reasonable level, largely using a catalog of Norwegian books (the catalog itself, not the books in it), and later using some actual books in Norwegian. Eventually, he gave it up as he found that Nynorsk and Bokmal were more mixed with each other and less standardized than he liked, and undergoing too many reforms [I don't know to what extent this is true - I've never studied Norwegian]. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6664 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 10 of 14 21 May 2007 at 3:55am | IP Logged | |||||
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There is Schwedisch Aktiv and Norwegisch Aktiv. Both are available only in German. I only know the Swedish course (but I guess the Norwegian is similar). It's very comprehensive and should be enough to get you to a level where you can study by means of newspapers, books, music, etc.
The Assimil courses for Norwegian and Swedish are both excellent. For Swedish the German version is preferable (it contains both tomes of the French version and the layout and comments have been updated). As I said, it's a good idea to learn German first, it gives you access to good learning ressources for the Scandinavian languages. (That's because Germans are huge Scandinavia fans, see for example Schwedenstube or Schwedengate) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Maxwell Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6681 days ago 29 posts - 29 votes Speaks: French, English* | Message 11 of 14 21 May 2007 at 10:36am | IP Logged | |||||
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Great input and links and it certainly puts a little more into perspective.
I am learning Dutch first which may not be the best it appears as German seems like the logical choice given all the above, however Dutch is a necessity for me and the language that sparked my interest in learning the Germanic language group. After reading all this would you guys and gals think it a good idea to go straight onto German after Dutch using the Assimil course (which I find great) but using a Dutch base? Do you think that it would be too confusing and more prudent to move onto a Scandinavian language? I just think that learning German next would open up a wealth of material. After this I would move onto Swedish but using a German base. Obviously these are long term goals. Maxwell. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7020 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 12 of 14 21 May 2007 at 10:49am | IP Logged | |||||
There is nothing wrong with that approach. Dutch is easier for an English speaker than German. With a Dutch background, you should find German fairly easy. I found I could understand a lot of Dutch, without having studied it, from my study of German. Dutch will also give you easy access to Afrikaans. You may want to use an English base to learn German after Dutch, just to keep them (Dutch and German) straight. Edited by orion on 21 May 2007 at 10:51am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6664 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 13 of 14 21 May 2007 at 1:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think it would be a good idea to learn German right after Dutch. There will probably be more confusion than with a Scandinavian language, but as German is so much more useful, it's better to learn it early in the process (unless you have a particular reason to learn another language first). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Linguamor Decaglot Senior Member United States Joined 6617 days ago 469 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch | Message 14 of 14 21 May 2007 at 3:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The easiest learning sequence for a native English speaker would be
Scandinavian (Norwegian, Swedish, or Danish) Dutch German 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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