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TAC 2010 - Team F - DaraghM | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 33 of 74 08 June 2010 at 11:11am | IP Logged |
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When I purchased Teach Yourself Danish, I knew I couldn't get by on just the one course, so I ordered Colloquial Danish at the same time. The course finally arrived during our long weekend here in Ireland. As has been mentioned, in numerous reviews on this site, the courses are similar in approach. Both courses make heavy use of dialogues, a minimal amount of audio, and have a phrase book approach to languages.
Comparing the two courses for Danish, I think the Colloquial course wins out slightly. The pronunciation guide for Colloquial Danish is far better. When I started with the TY course, it mentioned some features, but didn't go into details such as the soft d. The Colloquial course does a more detailed look at how this is sounded. They render it by pronouncing a 'th' sound against the back of the gum, rather than the back of the teeth. The pronunciation guide also covers more letter combinations, which didn't get a mention in TY. E.g. -og,-ov,-vn. In the book, they also say that Danish speakers of English sound like they're Irish because of the softer consonants. Does this give me an advantage speaking Danish ? I hope so. Time to Danish and Others Target: 73 hours Edited by DaraghM on 09 June 2010 at 11:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 34 of 74 11 June 2010 at 12:58pm | IP Logged |
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Just a quick update to discuss a few aspects of my Danish study. I found a bad error in Colloquial Danish last night. There is a line in a dialogue which is roughly as follows,
Du aldrig går til opera ? They translate it as, "Do you often go to the opera?". The correct translation I believe is "Do you never go to the opera?". It wouldn't be so bad, but the dialogue is part of a section teaching Jo\Ja, the two Danish words for yes. The response is Jo, as this is the Danish yes to counter a negative statement. It reminds me of the pero\sino contrast in Spanish. As a slight diversion, I decided to go through the glossary at the back, treating it as a wordlist. I managed to drill about 140 words, out of the roughly 2,400 it contains. Though I'd learnt the words off completely, I know they'll drift from my memory, unless I review them. I'm not too worried about this, but I'd like to go through the entire glossary before my trip. My biggest concern is that I'm guessing the pronunciation. This is not easy in Danish. Time to Danish and Others Target: 63 hours Edited by DaraghM on 14 June 2010 at 10:56am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 35 of 74 17 June 2010 at 3:52pm | IP Logged |
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I've diversified my study by reintroducing Russian. I'm also continuing with Danish, but the majority of this weeks study will be Russian. My Danish study is learning off the wordlist at the back of the Colloquial book. I'm also reviewing the grammar sections in the Teach Yourself Danish book.
Since returning to the Modern Russian 1 course, I've realised I really miss the FSI method of learning. I wish there was a comprehensive Danish course that drilled most aspects of the language in great detail. I took a quick look at the FSI Swedish course, and know exactly how a Danish course would look. The Swedish course has a lot of drills on the common and neutral gender, and various other aspects of the language. If I ever learn Swedish, this will be my first port of call. Returning to Russian has been a lot easier than expected. I was a bit worried, I'd forgotten the more recently learned cases, but thankfully I hadn't. Using my usual over learning strategy, I'm currently mastering all aspects of the singular genitive case. As the sounds drills are so thorough, I've learnt patterns without having reached the appropriate section. Time to Danish and Others Target: 49 hours (From 100 hours goal) Time to Russian Target: 141 hours (From 200 hours goal) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 36 of 74 17 June 2010 at 4:02pm | IP Logged |
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Mid Year Review
As I approach the middle of my TAC, I thought it appropriate to do a quick review. I'm not sure if I'll make the originally planned goals, but I believe it'll be close. As I know from previous years, it's extremely hard to plan out a years study. I could never have predicted that Danish would take up at least 50 hours of study, and might consume all my allotted time for other languages. I've still a lot of work to do on Russian and Spanish, so a busy year still awaits. Medals earned so far Spanish: Silver Russian: Bronze Others: Silver I'm also glad to see my fellow team mates still in TAC 2010. I think congratulations are due to nogoodnik and mgse for their regular posts. Go Team F. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 37 of 74 25 June 2010 at 10:39am | IP Logged |
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My return to Russian for a week was extremely useful. I felt I learnt more Russian using the Modern Russian course in one week, than I did Danish in 3 weeks with TY and Colloquial. I think this is mainly due to my learning style. The lesson on the genitive singular was very thorough, and covered possesion and also absence. By absence I mean constructions of the following sort.
был чай - There was tea. не было чая - There wasn't tea. There are so many sound drills on the course, using these patterns becomes automatic. You don't need to remember case endings, as they just happen. I think a similar process occurs under intensive L-R. With my diversion into Russian finished, I've returned exclusively to Danish. While studying Russian, I was still learning the glossary wordlists and some grammar. However, I'm still overwhelmed by Danish pronunciation. E.g. nogle\nogen (some) are pronounced identically. Aahh. Time to Danish and Others Target: 43 hours (From 100 hours goal) Time to Russian Target: 127 hours (From 200 hours goal) Edited by DaraghM on 25 June 2010 at 10:45am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 38 of 74 30 June 2010 at 3:56pm | IP Logged |
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Just a quick Danish update. I've decided to drop learning the glossary at the back of the Colloquial Danish course. I'd made very attempts at guessing the pronunciation, but a number turned out to be incorrect. This subsequently made it harder to relearn them. Instead, I've started learning vocabulary from a Berlitz Danish mini-dictionary. This has a very good pronunciation guide, and I can relate it to words I already know. It turns out the Berlitz dictionary was actually compiled by the dictionary company Langenscheidt.
Time to Danish and Others Target: 33 hours (From 100 hours goal) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 39 of 74 09 July 2010 at 11:02am | IP Logged |
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I've decided to change my front page and make Danish a separate goal. My target for Danish gold is 100 hours. I realised that Danish was taking up all my time for other languages, and this wasn't the intention at the start of the year.
My Danish study is steaming along, and I'm finally starting to get a feel for the language. Pronunciation of new words is still a problem though. I can't believe it's only 5 days before my trip to København. Jeg håber, jeg kan tale det danske, når jeg er der. (Is da better than når for then in this instance ?) Time to Danish Target: 12 hours (From 100 hours goal) Edited by DaraghM on 09 July 2010 at 11:03am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 40 of 74 20 July 2010 at 12:25pm | IP Logged |
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I've returned from København and my Danish study is complete. I completed Teach Yourself Danish but not in great detail. I picked a couple of random exercises per unit, and didn't focus on learning all the vocabulary. This meant I covered all the grammar the course contained, which helped a lot. While Danish grammar is relatively straight forward, it still has a number of subtleties. E.g. Mere vs Flere.
I did the Colloquial Danish course much more rigorously, completing every exercise per unit and learning all the vocabulary. I managed to finish about two thirds of the course. I preferred the audio on this course, as the voice actors had more pleasant accents. I tend to prefer a deeper pitched accent for listening. It's very hard to get through a course if the colouring of the voice is horrendous. E.g. Michel Thomas Spanish Vocabulary. Was Danish worth learning before travelling to Denmark? The simple answer is yes. While almost all Danes speak perfect English, they really do appreciate somebody attempting the language. I was asked how long I was living in Copenhagen for, and the person was shocked when I said it was only my second day there. They complemented me on my accent which is always encouraging for a language learner. However, this wasn't the main reason you should learn Danish if you're visiting the country. The main reason I was so glad I'd attempted the language was menu's. A number of restaurants we visited didn't have any English translations. As my partner is a vegetarian this made finding a place to eat a lot easier. It also meant we weren't retricted to the more touristy type places. Time to Danish Target: 0 hours (From 100 hours goal) Danish Medal: Gold Edited by DaraghM on 20 July 2010 at 12:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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