ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6307 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French
| Message 33 of 85 19 November 2007 at 9:30pm | IP Logged |
Good stuff!
You know, I found this quote while browsing Wikipedia:
"Due to its proximity with German, Fan Noli, linguist and translator of Ibsen’s works, said that “those who know German can learn Danish in fifteen days”"
I'm not altogether sure I agree with that...
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Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6694 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 34 of 85 20 November 2007 at 4:33am | IP Logged |
It depends on what you mean by learning Danish, - if you know German AND you have a lot of experience in learning languages AND you spend a lot of time during those 15 days, then it should be feasible to reach the point where you can at least read Danish at day 15. Understanding the normal spoken language would be more difficult, and speaking it yourself would for most people take much longer, even with a sound knowledge of German. I'm in fact impressed with the progress of several of our Danish learners at this forum, considering that they also have other things to do.
B.t.w. it is more likely that Norwegians and Swedes should be able to learn Danish in 15 days (under ideal study conditions), because these languages are even closer to Danish than German is and you get most of the words served on a silver plate. By analogy, how long time would it take for a standard German speaker to learn Platt, and how long would it take to learn Dutch (or Flemish)?
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William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6263 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French
| Message 35 of 85 20 November 2007 at 6:48am | IP Logged |
I know German and have found Danish written texts vaguely comprehensible, largely because of German cognates or loanwords. I have never tried to actually learn Danish. By all reports, the spoken language is something else.
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glossa.passion Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6312 days ago 267 posts - 349 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, EnglishC1, Danish Studies: Spanish, Dutch
| Message 36 of 85 20 November 2007 at 10:14am | IP Logged |
Thanks for the congratulations Iversen and Fränzi!
I can't say how long it really takes to learn Platt or Dutch (Flemish), but there are both on my list and the study material is already at hand. Today I'd say that I'll need probably 1 year for Danish, half a year for Dutch and three months for Platt. But that's only a guess and I am interested how long it really takes - so I just will try it out and post the results.
15 days for Danish is really not realisic. Although there lots of cognates and loanwords, there is a bigger amount of words not being similar to German. And I can't imagine that anyone, even a German linguist, can learn this vocabulary in 15 days...
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glossa.passion Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6312 days ago 267 posts - 349 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, EnglishC1, Danish Studies: Spanish, Dutch
| Message 37 of 85 25 November 2007 at 2:26pm | IP Logged |
Week 17 - uge sytten
Thanks to Iversen for the tip to the new audiobook by Dan Turèll in another thread!! I'll order it as soon as possible.
With Assimil I'm now at lesson 38 and with Rosetta Stone at Unit 4 lesson 7.
I've read the third book of the Turèll's series completely in German and read now the book completely in Danish. So far it works well. I don't use a dictionary at all, although I do not understand everything, it just flows so nice...
To my great pleasure there are to new Danish programmes - DR1 and DR2 - available on the computer.
Last week I visited the expolingua in Berlin for the third time. At this language fair there's always Assimil at present with all of their courses, even those in other languages like French or English. The "Vietnamesisch ohne Mühe" caught my eyes and I couldn't resist to buy it... But I will definitely stay with Danish!
Edited by glossa.passion on 25 November 2007 at 2:59pm
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glossa.passion Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6312 days ago 267 posts - 349 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, EnglishC1, Danish Studies: Spanish, Dutch
| Message 38 of 85 02 December 2007 at 8:01am | IP Logged |
Week 18 - uge atten
This was a nice Danish week. I completetd Rosetta Stone's Unit 4 with lesson 11 and worked through Assimil til lesson 40. I'm halfway through the Danish book - Mord på medierne - and still enjoy reading it.
Some friends of mine made a short trip to Denmark and brought back a little gift for me: a mug with little Danish flags overall. It's a funny feeling, reading på dansk and drinking coffee out of this Danish mug.
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glossa.passion Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6312 days ago 267 posts - 349 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, EnglishC1, Danish Studies: Spanish, Dutch
| Message 39 of 85 09 December 2007 at 11:00am | IP Logged |
Week 19 - uge nitten
With Assimil I'm at lesson 41 and with Rosetta Stone it's Unit 5 lesson 5.
The reading practice makes good progress. I have finished the third book and started reading "Mord i Rodby", but without reading it first in German. It works fine for me. By now - the forth book - I am used to the writers style and his vocabulary, so I still read without using a dictionary. I can fully understand the story, but of course not every single word. Eight more books by Dan Turèll are waiting for me. Afterwards I would like to read some non-fiction in Danish, preferably about Danish history.
I highly appreciate the words learnt from context. For example, one sentence closed with "uden tvivl". There was absolutely no doubt about the meaning :-)
Sometimes I have only a vague feeling about the meaning of some words. But when they are used later, I still have that vagueness in mind. And sometimes I suddenly get a clear view.
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ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6307 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French
| Message 40 of 85 28 December 2007 at 3:09am | IP Logged |
Glossa.passion, how natural/fast is the speech on the Assimil course? I'm definitely considering buying it (well, the French one), but I've heard some of the newer courses are spoken far too slowly and artificially to make for good shadowing and/or repetitive listening.
Edited by Fränzi on 28 December 2007 at 3:10am
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