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AlOlaf Danskdeutsch Challenge Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5145 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes  Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 1 of 74 22 April 2015 at 4:00am | IP Logged |
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I want to see if I can record 100 hours each of spoken Danish, German and Norwegian by the end of the year. I plan to post my weekly progress here. Perhaps an explanation is in order. Perhaps not. Here’s one, anyway:
In the past eight years I’ve taken trips to Germany, Austria, Denmark and Norway. In the process, I found out that the best motivation for improving my communication skills in a foreign language is knowing I’ll soon be in a country where that language is spoken. Unfortunately, it seems I've come to rely on this type of motivation far too much. Like a junkie going through withdrawal, I've been feeling pretty distracted and directionless lately, and I think it's because I don’t know when or if I'll ever go back to Europe. I lack focus. I'm trying to come to grips with Danish pronunciation while simultaneously wondering if I'd be better off studying Norwegian. While absently surfing the forum a few weeks ago, I saw rdearman's Output Challenge and signed up for Danish (audio only). The audio objective is to record 100 hours of spoken target language by the end of the year, a tangible goal for me to latch onto and strive for. Over the years I've made it a habit to put pauses in the audio of my self-learn courses and record myself repeating after the native speakers, so that's what I decided to do for the Output Challenge. Sure, it’s mindless parroting, but that’s right up my alley. I’ve been at it for three weeks now, taking the total length of each recording I make and dividing by two to get the amount of time I actually speak. But now Danish alone doesn't seem to be enough, so I've decided to up the ante and add 100 hours each of spoken German and Norwegian to the pot. I've already got plenty of repeat-after recordings for both these languages, so I can start right away. I think this will be a good way to keep my German from going away, and maybe I’ll be able to get a handle on Norwegian before my brain ossifies. I anticipate murderous interference between Norwegian and Danish, but I'm ready to go for broke. In order to successfully complete this challenge, I'll need to average 1.17 hours of speaking time in one language or another every day for the rest of the year, which comes out to an average of 2.34 hours of repeat-after recording time per day. No, wait. I forgot to count the 7.26 hours of recorded Danish I’ve already done, so it’s actually 1.15 and 2.30 average hours per day, respectively. Seems doable. Since the rules for rdearman’s Output Challenge allow only one language at a time, I guess this is an unsanctioned, renegade project. Not to mention imprudent. What the hell. Even if I fail, it's better than feeling directionless. And so much focused activity might well suggest a life full of purpose. Edited by AlOlaf on 17 June 2015 at 3:42am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5145 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 2 of 74 29 April 2015 at 10:41pm | IP Logged |
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I didn't get much recorded this week because I ended up spending four days putting pauses in the audio of "Uttaleøvelser til Norsk fonetikk for utlendinger", which is sort of like the Norwegian version of the Danish course "Dansk udtale øvebog", in that they both break down pronunciation into hundreds of audio examples and exercises.
Because Danish and Norwegian look so much alike, but sound so different, my biggest challenge will be to avoid mixing them up. Through intensive long-term listening and repeating, I hope to eventually develop some degree of oral competence in both. The year I spent repeating after FSI drills improved my German pronunciation and helped me to internalize the grammar, so I hope a similar approach will work for this project, too. There's only one way to find out. I decided to start fresh and not count the Danish I previously recorded for rdearman's Output Challenge. Hours recorded in the last week: Danish: 1.2 Norwegian: 1.4 German: 0 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5145 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 3 of 74 06 May 2015 at 2:26pm | IP Logged |
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Getting seriously behind now. I didn't record anything Saturday because I had to work, and then I spent the entire day Sunday using Audacity to double the prompts and pauses in my template recordings so they'd all have two repeats. I think my OCD is showing.
On the plus side, I can already hear an improvement in my rusty spoken German. Hours recorded in the last week, with total hours in parentheses: Danish: .8 (2.0) Norwegian: .4 (1.8) German: 2.5 (2.5) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5145 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 4 of 74 13 May 2015 at 6:41am | IP Logged |
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I recorded myself repeating after my (German) Assimil Perfectionnement Allemand audio this week. I had forgotten how short I made the pauses. The level of the language in the dialogues is pretty high, and I had to really concentrate in order to finish speaking before the next prompt. This is good. I have a tendency to drag out the little "ch" words that native speakers pronounce in a millisecond, such as "doch", "noch", "sich" and "auch", and the brevity of the pauses wouldn't let me get away with it.
Meanwhile, Norwegian has already infected my poor, fragile Danish pronunciation. Even though I probably stand a better chance of besting a honey badger in a wrestling match than of ever sounding Danish, I'm not ready to stop trying yet, so I think I'll lay off the Norwegian for awhile. If my Danish still sounds ridiculous after 100 hours, I'll have to do something rash. Hours recorded in the last week, with total hours in parentheses: Danish: 1.8 (3.8) Norwegian: 1.4 (3.2) German: 6.4 (8.9) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5145 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 5 of 74 20 May 2015 at 5:50am | IP Logged |
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An encouraging development: Saying stuff in Danish has become a little easier, and listening back to it a little less painful.
Hours recorded in the last week, with total hours in parentheses: Danish: 8.5 (12.3) Norwegian: 0 (3.2) German: 0 (8.9) Edited by AlOlaf on 20 May 2015 at 5:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5145 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 6 of 74 22 May 2015 at 3:07am | IP Logged |
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Yesterday evening I was on the Italki website and saw that one of my Danish teachers was available for instant tutoring. I had decided I wouldn’t take any more lessons until I felt more confident about my pronunciation , but I just couldn't resist. I contacted him and we talked for half an hour almost entirely in Danish, which reminded me what a leap it is to go from repeating after text to carrying on a spontaneous conversation. I could understand everything he said, but on several occasions, as I focused on what to say and how to say it, I heard my decidedly non-automatic pronunciation go right out the window.
To my knowledge, the only remedy for this is practice. Since I can't afford daily Italki lessons and I don't live in Denmark, repeating after the audio of self-learn courses is the best I can do. Announcing to a bunch of people that I intend to record myself performing this activity for an arbitrary amount of time prior to the expiration of a made-up deadline may sound silly, but so far it’s supplying me with some surprisingly strong motivation. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5145 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 7 of 74 27 May 2015 at 4:24am | IP Logged |
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Week 5
Nothing but Danish again this week. I had to work on Saturday, so I didn't accomplish as much as I would have liked, but what I did manage to record sounded a little better than what I did last week. After having struggled with Danish pronunciation for a long time without seeing any improvement, even the slightest trace of progress is enough to make me deliriously happy. Hours recorded in the last week, with total hours in parentheses: Danish: 5.0 (17.3) Norwegian: 0 (3.2) German: 0 (8.9) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5145 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 8 of 74 03 June 2015 at 5:48am | IP Logged |
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I dreamed in Danish last night.
Hours recorded in the last week, with total hours in parentheses: Danish: 6.6 (23.9) Norwegian: 0 (3.2) German: .5 (9.4) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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