Starting to learn Dansk!(Danish).

Hej! Hvordan gÅr det?
Hi! How are you guys?

I'm personally doing pretty well, and getting pretty darn excited about Danmark! I got all of my information from my exchange program a few days ago, and it's super fun to look through. I got some boring stuff(i.e a handbook from my exchange program), but also some really cool cultural information about Denmark itself from the Danish branch of YFU.
I'm done with school for the year, I got out about a week ago, so I've been spending a lot more time working on learning Danish.
Oyyyyy, did I get myself in for something. This language is rough guys. Maybe that's just because when I was learning German, I already had a pretty strong background in the language, and I don't have any with Danish....but still. Pronunciation for native English speakers like myself is just really, really difficult. Not very phonetic at all to my foreign eyes.

However, with all of this language work, I do have a few suggestions for starting to tackle a foreign language. (Particularly one that is not-so-common).

The first thing I did when I was delving into this whole thing was look at my school's library. Fortunately, my school has a pretty great one, so they ordered two different Danish learning tapes for me to use. One royally sucked. It was just out of date, and the guy made you want to fall asleep. Also, there was no user participation, so nothing stuck. I don't even remember what the program was called, but, it's so old, you probably won't have any trouble avoiding it anyway. The second program I tried I am still using currently and LOVE. It's a pimsleur method program, the only Danish one available  It's WONDERFUL. I would definitely definitely definitely recommend the program to anybody looking for a good system. It really engages you, and you get to participate in terms of speaking the language tons. I guess the only downside is that if you really want to get everything you can out of the program you sort of have to be by yourself(screaming, "un-skul" 50 times to try to match the speaker's pronunciation might not be so entertaining for somebody other than yourself....).

You can also look at picture books for kids that are in Danish(or whatever language)! These are awesome for starting to learn because they use very basic vocabulary and grammar....as you would assume when dealing with kiddos. Look around on Amazon, but also around the web. I found this really cool website that has about 15 different kids books for free that you can view and download, and in many languages(Danish included!).

Another thing you can do is look at apps on your iphone or ipad(or ipod, like me), that are designed to help little kids work on their danish. I found a few I really like, and they're really good practice for trying to figure out situations even if you don't understand *everything* that is being said.

While we're talking about apps, another sort of app that can be helpful are danish learning apps. I found one called, "learn Danish in a month" that is WONDERFUL for vocabulary, and for emphasizing basic grammar that you're learning through a different program.

Okay, so we have audio/traditional programs, apps for kids, picture books, apps for vocabulary, and I do have one more suggestion. I found a program through scouring the internet called 'Byki'. Byki is a downloadable program(it's safe, I promise.), that teaches you vocabulary. You can download the basic version for free(the one that I have), or you can buy the premium version for $50. Nothing fancy, the program basically is composed of a flashcard layout that first lets you learn the words, then slowly makes you produce the word through first giving you the danish word and asking for english, then vise versa. It works really well for vocabulary! I highly recommend it.


Alright, I think those are all of the tips and tricks that I can really give you. Of course, if you are lucky enough to personally know someone who speaks the language you're trying to learn(like myself), utilizing those people and practicing having conversation is obviously going to be the best thing you can do besides full emersion...but if you don't have that sort of access, these other strategies can really give you head-start!

Alrighty guys, thanks for sticking me through this thing, and I hope some of these methods help you out!!
Write soon,
in best regards,
-Rowen