AlOlaf

Discussion in 'Member introductions' started by AlOlaf, Jun 16, 2014.

  1. AlOlaf

    AlOlaf New Member

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    I’m another who loves HTLAL, but is increasingly frustrated by the technical problems. I’ve been reading the logs here for awhile and finally decided to join.

    I’ve always loved the sound of German. I studied it in high school and college, after which I didn’t touch it for almost 30 years. I started studying it again in 2007, this time on my own. I really didn’t know what I was doing, so I was very glad to discover HTLAL. The people there were and are an invaluable source of information and support for me as a do-it-yourself language learner.

    In 2012, I realized my goal of taking a trip to Germany and speaking nothing but German while there. I passed the GDS, so I’m supposed to be C2, but I don’t feel like it, especially when I end up in a discussion with a native speaker over something heavy like relationships or politics.

    I started studying Danish towards the end of 2012 and I’m not very good at it. I recently got some excellent resources, though, so I’m cautiously optimistic. It’s kind of disconcerting that I have yet to hear of a native English speaker who has succeeded in convincingly duplicating the myriad of idiosyncrasies in the Danish pronunciation, but I keep reminding myself of what a fabulous achievement it would be if I could ever manage to do it. Besides that, I’d really like to go to Denmark and be able to talk to those people over there.

    I miss the old HTLAL, the one I could get onto without it being a nerve-fraying battle, but I think it might be gone for good. I’ll still try to post there when I’m feeling patient, but I’m glad there’s an alternative that works so well.
    Last edited: Jun 16, 2014
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  2. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    Welcome to the forum!

    Regarding German, I myself after a year am around a strong B2 in reading and listening comprehension, so you are ahead of me there, and certainly in active skills. The only thing I could suggest about certain topics where you have difficulties is simply to read about them in German media, concentrating on the smallest sub-themes you can for a while (German politics and not world politics, etc.). This has helped me a lot instead of trying to be a generalist and browse aimlessly.

    With your Danish, doesn't German provide access to sources not available in English, i.e. for learning Danish through German? With Assimil the usual advice is to learn French first to access their offerings, but a lot of courses are available in German that are not in English (like Swedish). As for pronunciation I seem to remember from threads on HTLAL that Danish is rated toughest among the Skandi langs.

    Have you seen this old thread on HTLAL re Olle Kjellin's chorusing method? There are excerpts from another poster explaining this in detail. Apparently if you took a page full of sentences, or maybe just a long passage, all with an audio component, and then with Audacity or some software chopped it up into bite-size bits to repeat over and over (and over and over), you can get the pronunciation and prosody down pat (like after a month of concerted effort). Of course, perhaps vowel reduction, common mumbled/run-on speech or other factors are at play with Danish.

    Good luck with your battle!
  3. BAnna

    BAnna Active Member VIP member

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    Great to see you here, AlOlaf. Wilkommen!
    I think the past week or two on HTLAL has been particularly slow and bad in terms of errors, and I've also mostly given up, but I do still try to read posts from team Spaß when the forum lets me. Of course, it seems like a repeat of last year: all the enthusiasm has dried up and time has dwindled our numbers.
    BTW, the story you wrote about your cat was wonderful.
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  4. AlOlaf

    AlOlaf New Member

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    Thanks for the welcome, Peregrinus and BAnna! I haven't got the multiple quotes on one post thing sussed yet, so...

    @Peregrinus: Yeah, there are a lot of good German resources for Danish. I worked through the passive wave of Assimil’s Dänisch ohne Mühe and did about half of a German-based course called “Av, min arm!” before I found the Danish language pronunciation resources I’m using now.

    I think I ran across that post you linked to once before. I’ve been making repeat-after recordings using Audacity for years, but without doing the chorusing thing. I’m a great believer in repetitive mimicry.


    @BAnna: Your fearless German fiction writing on Team Schnitzel was absolutely inspiring. In fact, I find all of your contributions to be insightful and thought-provoking. And I'm really glad you liked the story. That was a hard one to write.
  5. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Hi AlOlaf, glad you are here! For multi quotes, just hit reply on all the post you want to reply to, and they'll all show up in the window. I'm not sure if that's what you were asking about, but I thought I'd mention it just incase.
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  6. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    Hi AlOlaf

    I love German also. My Dutch is my best foreign language, but German is my favourite. It's great that you are C2 in German, but why doesn't it feel like this? Germans love to write complicatedly haha.

    Yes, the Danish pronunciation seem very difficult but the language 's other things don't seem it. I think that it'd be very fun to learn Danish.
  7. AlOlaf

    AlOlaf New Member

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    Hi Kuikentje,

    Before I decided on Danish, I was thinking about learning Dutch. I impulsively bought a pile of books and self-learn courses, which now serve as attractive bookshelf furnishings.
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2014
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  8. biTsar

    biTsar Active Member VIP member

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    I've some of these type furnishings myself.
  9. AlOlaf

    AlOlaf New Member

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    I tried to put this in my last post, but it went fubar on me:
    I'm surrounded by English in my daily life and don't have many opportunities to engage in German conversation, so I find it impossible to maintain an active level high enough to be called C2. It seems the best I can hope for is to not go backwards.

    Oh, it is!
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2014
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  10. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    Bookshelf furnishings hahahahahahahaha :)

    Dutch is absolutely ugly and disgusting :eek: I hate the language's sounds, and Danish is funnier. But I suppose that Dutch is easier, for sure it's a billion times easier that German. For me, Dutch feel like German's slang or a dialect LOL Dutch can be fun as well, because it's so silly and ugly.

    Yes, it's so easy to forget the languages. It's why I like to practise on the forum. On some threads on polydog we have written in German, you can write there as well if you want.
  11. Bjorn

    Bjorn Active Member VIP member

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    Welcome to the forum!
  12. Cainntear

    Cainntear Active Member VIP member

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    Welcome, wilkommen and all that jazz. Nice to see you here.
  13. AlOlaf

    AlOlaf New Member

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    Thanks, Bjorn and Cainntear! It's nice to feel welcome.
  14. Josquin

    Josquin Member

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    Hallo, AlOlaf. Schön, dich hier zu sehen. Willkommen im Forum!
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  15. AlOlaf

    AlOlaf New Member

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    Danke, Josquin! Es freut mich sehr, dass du da bist.

    Gehe ich richtig in der Annahme, dass auch die Deutschlerner bei Polydog den Vorteil genießen, einen gütigen Paten zu haben?
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  16. Josquin

    Josquin Member

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    Aber natürlich! ;)
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  17. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    Grüß dich, Paten LOL

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