How you learnPosted by Louise Sand Apr 27, 2009 14:57:04It’s okay to study grammar. Especially if you enjoy it. If not, then forget about it. As long as you do your flash card repetitions and listen A LOT, you will be fine. If you do love grammar however, then be careful not to overdo it. Remember, the Danish language is spoken by people in flesh and blood, not by computers. Many of the things we Danes say all the time are impossible to explain even to the best grammarian. And furthermore if you become so good at grammar that you only ever spak 100% correct Danish sentences, then… I am sorry to tell you this, but I have to be honest … you will sound like a joke. And you will probably speak very slowly too. With that said, it doesn’t hurt to learn the most basic rules for singular and plural, past and present constructions. It can speed your learning process and help you speak more correctly so people will take you seriously. But if you hate grammer, then just rely on your ear and listen, listen, listen…
How you learnPosted by Louise Sand Apr 27, 2009 14:55:36You can design any activity for learning Danish. Sign up for yoga classes if the instructor speaks Danish. Study vocabulary by writing it on your shower curtain. Practice cooking Danish meals while watching Danish TV chefs. It doesn’t matter. As long as you do something and keep doing more. But there is one activity I strongly recommend. One activity to support all the other activities. One activity is king of all the other activities. In fact, without this king, any attemt at learning Danish is likely to have a poor outcome. This activity is flash cards. You need to do flash cards every day if you want to speak Danish fast and fluent. It’s just like training your abs. If you want a flat stomach, get out of that bed every morning and do you abs. It’s painful and boring. But it becomes easier the more you do it. And the same goes for flash cards. Flash cards is a method for studying while increasing your memory. The method was invented by Sebastian Leitner. It’s extremely simple. And extremely efficient. For every fact (word, sentence, expession, slang, vocabulary item etc.) you want to learn, you create a piece of paper with the fact on one side (in Danish) and the translation on the other side. Now, you need to repeat each card again and again until you never forget the facts. Lots of excellent software is available to do the job for you if you’re not so good with a pair of scissors or if you just don’t want to store tons of small pieces of paper. The software solution has another advantage. It spaces your repetitions according to how well you have learned a fact. I think ANKI is a great software for this purpose. I have personally learned 500 Japanese characters in 5 months using flash cards. And did I tell you about the law school student who spent less time studying than his collegues but had better exam results – all thanks to flash cards. What is there to say but: Flash cards will change your life! Forever! And you will learn Danish. That's for sure.
How you learnPosted by Louise Sand Apr 27, 2009 14:34:16How should you listen to Danish? This is not the question. (Quoting Hamlet)…the question is: How MUCH should you listen? And the answer is A LOT! So anything Danish that you can stand listening to for at least 10.000 hours, well anything like that will be fine. You will find podcast versions of regular Danish radio programs here. It doesn’t matter if you listen to football games, radio news, talk shows, music or audio books about how to grow vegetables in you garden. As long as you keep listening. And never stop…that is if you want to be fast and fluent.
How you learnPosted by Louise Sand Apr 27, 2009 14:31:23How do you learn languages? Well, it’s nothing like learning math. Understanding it and analysing your target language is not enough. You need to be able to use it. Someone asks you a question in Danish and you want to give them an answer. But if it takes you 60 seconds of brain work to put together your answer, people wont have patience to talk with you. You need to be fast. Danish words must become part of your life. You need to know Danish words and use them just as quickly and smoothly as when you make yourself a cup of instant coffee. That’s why you need to listen a lot. And do lots of repetitions (flash cards). This is far more important than studying grammar.
How you learnPosted by Louise Sand Apr 21, 2009 23:12:05Here's an advice: Get started! No reason to wait for class to begin. In fact, you don't even need a teacher. What you really need is you. What you need are a few guidelines and a lot of persistence! So get started and don't quit. Here's what I mean:
"Persistence isn't using the same tactics over and over. That's just annoying.
Persistence is having the same goal over and over."
Marketing guru Seth Godin said this. And I'll be surprised if he wasn't talking about learning Danish.
Are you smarter than a kid?
My advice to you is to do something every day in order to learn Danish. And don't make it a punishment. It should be fun. For instance if you like watching football make sure to watch with Danish speakers commenting the game. At www.dr.dk you can listen to Danish radio. You can turn it on when you are are doing less demaning work at you computer or when you play computer games, if you do that. Long term passive input works. You wont understand much in the beginning. But the brain stores it somewhere and eventually the strange noises turn into words. That's how it works for children!
But off course, you are not a child. And you have many competencies that a child doest not have. So you can use LOTS of different learning strategies at the same time. And it's good to experiment. Personally I am always inventing new study methods. Otherwise I get bored. And if I get bored, I stop studying. So the point is to enjoy learning your target language. Turn it into a game. A game you win every day, every time you study, listen or even think about Danish.
Your back bone: SRS
I am going to suggest one particular activity, that is VERY useful for learing, storing and remembering what you learn. If you want to OWN it, then this is a good way: SRS is short for Spaced Repetition Systems. You can increase your brains capacity for storing vocabulary, sentences etc. by several 100% using SRS.This has been scientifically proved. Here is a short video that explains how and why: http://ichi2.net/anki/screencast1.html Please check it out. IT IS AWESOME!
From http://ichi2.net/anki/screencast1.html , you can down load (FOR FREE!!) a great SRS software tool. The software allows you to create and study your own flash cards. But what should you put in those cards? Well how about the 3000 most frequent Danish words that make up 90% of the Danish language used in everyday life.
A good place to start. And once you know these words you will have the tools to understanding 90 % of a Danish newspaper. I'm working on a deck of online audio flash cards covering these 3000 words. So from August 2009 you use them. But you don't have time to wait for that. So in the meantime, you could do one flash card for each word with the help of a Danish dictionary or the help of a Dane (sorry, no link provided) in order to translate them. But where do you find a Danish language partner? Well, that is easy. You will find several at the 'Facebook' of language learners http://lang-8.com/ Basically, you can create flash cards with any sentences, expressions or slang you want to learn. All of this input will eventually enable you to make your own sentences and express your own ideas in Danish. And don't be afaid of making mistakes. Danes will LOVE you, just for trying. Trust me!
10 new cards a day
If you are really hard core or if your are in a hurry because you need to marry a member of the Danish royal family, you can actually get 90 % of the Danish language under your belt in just 10 months. All you have to do is add 10 new cards every day and stick to your routine doing repetitions every day. Within 10 months you will have learned those 3000 words that make up for 90 % of the content in an ordinary Danish newspapaer article.
Bottom line is, just do it. I wont waste any more of your precious time worrying about theory and
methods. I will let you get back to work and learn some more Danish!
Venlig hilsen
Louise Sand
