STATUS
[flag]da[/flag]
I'm already fairly strong in written. My difficulty is definitely with spoken Danish. I can speak haltingly and make myself mostly understood, but understand Danish is another matter. If a native speaker speaks slowly and clearly (something which very few seem to be able to do ), I am able to understand quite a bit. So, I've concluded that it's not so much my understanding of the vocabulary and grammar that needs to be worked on but just my general comfortableness in the language, though perhaps increased vocabulary comfort would contribute to the general comfort level.
My grammatical grasp on Danish is quite good (if I do say so myself ). I've gotten several compliments on my grammar from natives (Yaaaaaay! I'm good at something!!! ). My main struggles are word order (I have the annoying tendency to americanize my word order ) and those annoying time expressions. A little study should iron those out.
My vocabulary is rather wimpy when it comes to real life. I have thus far learned mostly from books (a mistake when you're aiming for fluency ). As a result, my vocabulary is quite strong in the literary department, but being able to make smooth literary transitions doesn't help you when you are on Strøget shopping for shoes...or baking æbleskiver from your grandmother's recipe...or just about anything in life. I need to beef up the wordhoard with words from daily life.
[flag]de[/flag]
Just about zilch in the German department. I’ve started in on my book, so I know a bit like the alphabet, counting, introductions, and exchanging basic information about people. I love that German is so much easier than Danish to understand in spoken form. I think that, considering it shares Germanic roots, I’ll pick it up quickly.
GOALS
[flag]da[/flag]
I’d like to be solidly advanced in Danish by the end of the year. For me, this means getting to the point where I can almost effortlessly understand spoken Danish at almost normal speed. I also need to build my vocab and eliminate the last grammatical problems.
[flag]de[/flag]
My goal for German is to become solidly beginner. I’m new to the language, so I’m not quite sure what that means yet.
METHODS
[flag]da[/flag]
I seem to have exhausted every semi-decent Danish book available to me, and none of the websites I’ve found take you beyond the basics, so I’ve had to come up with my own tactic.
- Brainstorm a list of topics (I’ve come up with about 40)
- Collect a bunch of articles and/or podcasts and/or videos about said topics
- Pore over said resources noting any vocabulary related to the topic I don’t know (I’m trying to not get too obsessive here. Fluency isn’t the goal…yet)
- Practice these words in all possible ways:
[flag]de[/flag]
I inherited a copy of Deutsch: Na Klar!, which is probably not the best book for solo learning. I had planned to learn with a friend, but she backed out at the last minute, so I’m just gonna make do with Na Klar and supplement as needed. I’ll probably only be able to work on it occasionally (mostly Saturdays)