L-R English L1-Danish L2-Book Suggestions (Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies) Language Learning Forum

L-R English L1-Danish L2-Book Suggestions
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Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies

16 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

montmorency
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Studies: Danish, Welsh

Message 9 of 16

09 June 2012 at 4:40am | IP Logged

jazzboy.bebop wrote:

montmorency wrote:

jazzboy.bebop wrote:

Avoid the Millenium
Trilogy for L-R. Unfortunately, whole
paragraphs seem to disappear in the English versions. Found that to my annoyance when
trying to L-R the second book in Norwegian.

That's a shame.

I wondered if they rushed those out for commercial reasons? :-(
Thanks for the warning, anyway. I might just give it a shot, anyway, and hope I don't
miss too much.

Quote:

The Harry Potter books, however, seem to be more or less universally translated very
well. The Norwegian translations are excellent. Getting used to all the new names for
characters and magical things takes some getting used to though.

:-) Well, I do like the HP books in English, and have read them all, some of them
several times, especially the later ones, where it's all getting a bit dark.
I'd thought they could not possibly work in translation, because of all the English
word-play, but ... well, maybe :-)

Thanks for the ideas.

You could still use the Millenium Trilogy for general reading and keep the English
translation handy for reference but it gets confusing trying to L-R it when so many
random sentences and some paragraphs vanish.

For a very easy starting book though, check out the Danish translation of "Naiv.Super."
by the Norwegian author, Erlend Loe. It's written in fairly simple language but the
subject matter remains interesting and is quite endearing. It's quite short but the
style of writing makes it very accessible for L-R or just reading alongside a
translation. There is the odd sentence dropped in the English translation but very very
few. I read through it Norwegian with the English translation and it made moving on to
Harry Potter much more manageable.

Tak for det!

Saxo.dk have this in Danish, and also an audiobook (in Danish), so this could be a
winner.

(They had several other book-&-audiobook pairs for Erland Loe).

Quote:

I'd imagine using Albert Camus' "The Stranger" (or Outsider in some translations) with
the Danish translation would also be a good beginning book as it also uses pretty
simple language on the whole. I'd recommend the English translation by Joseph Laredo
published by Penguin as "The Outsider". It is much better than the translation made by
Stuart Gilbert and keeps much closer to the original French. Whatever you do, avoid
Gilbert's!

Hopefully you'll be able to find a good Danish translation of it.

Looks like arnoldbusck.dk have it ... and an audiobook by the look of it.
And I think we may have it in English somewhere...I'll just have to check on the
translation.

OK, that should keep me out of mischief for a while! :-)

May I ask, how are you getting on with Norwegian?

I sometimes I wish I'd tried a little harder with Norwegian, and persevered.
On the other hand, I suspect I will find travelling to and in Denmark slightly easier,
and maybe marginally cheaper, not that Norway isn't a fascinating country.

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jazzboy.bebop
Senior Member
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norwegianthroughnove
Joined 5341 days ago
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Norwegian

Message 10 of 16

09 June 2012 at 11:05am | IP Logged

Erlend Loe tends to write in a simple style so his books are good ones for language learners. For some odd reason, only Naiv.Super. was translated into English but most of his books have been translated into various other European languages.

My Norwegian is coming along nicely thanks. Ever since I started regularly reading in Norwegian and basically focusing on input my comprehension has jumped a lot and I've found my speaking has been improving a lot too. I reckon I'll be at about B2 in a couple of months at this rate.

How long you been studying Danish? Think I'd like to learn it at some point in future, Denmark's a lovely country. Definitely a bit cheaper than Norway too! At least when you get comfortable with one Scandinavian language, the others are pretty easy to learn to understand (Icelandic excepted) so you could learn Norwegian later.

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montmorency
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Studies: Danish, Welsh

Message 11 of 16

09 June 2012 at 11:07pm | IP Logged

jazzboy.bebop wrote:

Do you get fazed by the different dialects at all? EDIT: spelling of fazed
corrected! Sorry.

BTW, I happened to be looking at some of Prof. Arguelles YouTube videos recently, and
he was talking about the difference between Bokmål and Nynorsk, and showing them side
by side. I'd heard and read varying opinions about them before, but he is someone I
would take seriously, and he seemed to be reassuring us that basically it wasn't that
big a deal for the learner, so long as you knew which you were reading, and he gave a
few quick clues as to what to look for. I had previously thought it was much more of an
issue.

Dialects on the other hand, do seem to be a genuine issue that a learner would have to
be concerned with.

Quote:

How long you been studying Danish? Think I'd like to learn it at some point in future,
Denmark's a lovely country. Definitely a bit cheaper than Norway too! At least when you
get comfortable with one Scandinavian language, the others are pretty easy to learn to
understand (Icelandic excepted) so you could learn Norwegian later.

Barely started really. In my 2nd week or so. I've whizzed through the TYS a couple of
times, and am now going through it a bit more carefully, plus looking for other input.
I'll probably get the Copenhagencast transcripts, and then hopefully a couple of
audiobooks+real book pairs. Also a few film or TV series DVDs, but I have to watch it,
or I could easily burn out my credit card on those :-)

BBC4 hasn't given us any Norwegian drama yet, I don't think, although apparently they
have bought "Lillehammer", but no idea when it will be shown. We did go to see
"Headhunters" at the cinema, and it was great, but I couldn't follow very much of the
language I'm afraid :-(

Although it's another compromise, I've noticed that a Swedish and a couple of Danish
online DVD sellers are selling some of the old Rolf Lassgård "Wallanders" which BBC4
hasn't so far shown (and I suspect never will), and they mostly seem to have Danish
(and Norwegian) as well as Swedish subtitles (but no English). I think they'd make for
some interesting watching & listening from a linguistic point of view! (I've already
read the stories several times, so hopefully lack of English shouldn't be too much of
a problem).

Edited by montmorency on 13 June 2012 at 10:26pm
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montmorency
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Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

Message 12 of 16

09 June 2012 at 11:37pm | IP Logged

This may be of interest:

http://scancrime.wordpress.com/2011/01/08/politiken-the-dani sh-king-of-crime-has-
sold-
2-mio-copies

(I can't get that to work as a clickable link).
EDIT For helvede, I can't get rid of that space in between "dani" and "sh-
king...etc". When you copy and paste it into a browser address bar, you will have to
manually remove the space. The URL then works. Curiouser and curiouser.
Alternatively:
Go to:
Scancrime blog
and search for
"Politiken: The Danish King of Crime has sold 2 mio copies"
(it's quite a long way down the page).

Talking about Jussi Adler-Olsen, but other Danish authors are mentioned; see the
comments also. (Although sadly I could only find 1 English title in amazon.co.uk (plus
1 in Latvian!).....no, there are a few more if one keeps looking. I think the search
facility is getting a bit confused by the double-barrel name or something.

Edited by montmorency on 10 June 2012 at 1:58am
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jazzboy.bebop
Senior Member
Norway
norwegianthroughnove
Joined 5341 days ago
439 posts - 800 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Norwegian

Message 13 of 16

10 June 2012 at 2:56am | IP Logged

montmorency wrote:

Do you get phased by the different dialects at all?

Thankfully I find that through context you can generally understand the gist of things and figure out slightly different versions of words from those you'd find in Bokmål. There are resources available for learners on some of the dialects in Norway from different regions so that can be very useful for some. I think the dialect issues aren't as bad they are sometimes made out to be but I suppose my perspective is a bit different from normal due to the long-term exposure I've had.

I've been visiting Norway every summer since I was a baby as my mother is from there. She would never speak Norwegian back here in Scotland though so I only learned and used the language when visiting family.

Thanks to that exposure though, I can clearly make out the different words in sentences at natural speed even if I don't understand the words. It means I can learn a fair bit of vocab through just reading and then have little trouble identifying it when spoken. I have no trouble with pronunciation thanks to hearing the language since I was a baby but my intonation gives me away as a foreigner.

For a starter book for input, definitely go with Naiv Super. It is not a fast-paced kind of book and the Norwegian reading in the audiobook goes at a much slower tempo than most books I would say. Would imagine the same would be done with the Danish audiobook.

Yeah, I've noticed a lack of any Norwegian drama on the BBC. If Jo Nesbø gets more of his books made into films or gets a series made based on his Harry Hole novels, I'd imagine the BBC would snap them up quickly. Still to see Headhunters myself, got it on DVD a few months ago but I'd prefer to watch it when my vocabulary is a bit wider. No English subs.

You might well find English subs online made for the Wallander DVDs so it shouldn't be too much of a problem if you get them. Would like to see those episodes myself, only so a couple on the BBC but I really liked them.

Thanks for the blog link, looks pretty interesting! Will definitely be reading through that tomorrow.

Best of success with your studies!
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ikinaridango
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Message 14 of 16

11 June 2012 at 7:02pm | IP Logged

Can anyone comment on the quality of the Danish translation of Philip Pullman's His Dark
Materials trilogy? To my great surprise (and delight) I found the first two volumes
(Northern Lights and The Subtle Knife) in a second-hand bookshop near me and bought them
on the spot. I know that Harry Potter has become the standard-bearer for the LR
technique, but it's seldom a bad thing to have a few other options!
1 person has voted this message useful

jazzboy.bebop
Senior Member
Norway
norwegianthroughnove
Joined 5341 days ago
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Norwegian

Message 15 of 16

11 June 2012 at 9:32pm | IP Logged

ikinaridango wrote:

Don't read Danish myself but I know that the translations for the Danish versions of the trilogy were by Hanna Lützen who also did the Harry Potter series. She has won at least one award for her translation work and seems to be held in very high regard so it should be very well done.
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montmorency
Diglot
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Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

Message 16 of 16

13 June 2012 at 10:59pm | IP Logged

jazzboy.bebop wrote:

montmorency wrote:

Do you get phased by the different dialects
at all?

OK, thanks; very interesting.

(& apologies, especially to non-native speakers of English, but I mis-spelled
"fazed"! Now corrected in my original posting).

Quote:

For a starter book for input, definitely go with Naiv Super. It is not a fast-paced
kind of book and the Norwegian reading in the audiobook goes at a much slower tempo
than most books I would say. Would imagine the same would be done with the Danish
audiobook.

.
Well my copy of the English translation arrived today. I see what you mean. A very
simple style, and as you say, quite endearing. I'll read that a couple of times, then
hopefully download the Danish translation in e-book and probably audiobook form.
.
.

(I also got the 1st of Jussi Adler Olsen's "Department Q" novels in English, 2nd hand,
so that will be queued up behind).

Quote:

Yeah, I've noticed a lack of any Norwegian drama on the BBC. If Jo Nesbø gets more of
his books made into films or gets a series made based on his Harry Hole novels, I'd
imagine the BBC would snap them up quickly. Still to see Headhunters myself, got it on
DVD a few months ago but I'd prefer to watch it when my vocabulary is a bit wider.
No English subs.

I've noticed that with Swedish/Danish DVDs from Scandinavian online shops, it seems a
bit random whether you get English subtitles or not. Understandable I suppose.
More often than not, Scandinavian DVDs on sale in England only have English s/t, as far
as I can see (although "Borgen" seems to be an exception).

Quote:

You might well find English subs online made for the Wallander DVDs so it shouldn't be
too much of a problem if you get them. Would like to see those episodes myself, only so
a couple on the BBC but I really liked them.

Well, I've now got the DVDs that just came out of the ones the BBC showed, and of
course, only s/t in English! (the other side of the coin). So I might try looking for
the Swedish/Danish subtitles for those online, as well. I checked with the Danish
online shops, and they also had it, but I think it was the identical edition, with just
English s/t. If I ever get the DVDs for "Sebastian Bergman", I think I'll try to get
the Scandinavian editions.

(Edit: And I was pleased, watching a few of the episodes from the Wallander DVD set,
to recognise at least a few more words than I had done first time around, because of
similarity with Danish).

Quote:

Thanks for the blog link, looks pretty interesting! Will definitely be reading through
that tomorrow.

Best of success with your studies!

Tusind tak!
Og det samme til dig!

Edited by montmorency on 13 June 2012 at 11:05pm

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