Re: The vent thread

[Muzjhath]

Aye, Thelos is right that the best way to learn a language is to use it not learn it.
The absolutely quickest way to learn a language is to get a job in a place you'll be exposed to it. Bartender, Waiter, super market cashier. Any job where you'll work with people and can survive being barely understood. Keep one of those for a month and it'll seem like magic. Then add up.

[Darilas]

Eira, I studied Norwegian in the university of Amsterdam using the official textbooks and audio for immigrants, they are called: 'på veg' and 'stein på stein'. The first starts with the very basics and gradually you learn more complicated vocabulary. I also had a grammar book and a basic grammar instruction guide from university. When I'm home I can look up what the grammar book was called, the instruction guide I could scan in for you. Another good way to learn is reading books in the new language, start with children's books and then move on to (youth)literature when you progress. NRK.no had a very entertaining program called 'typisk norsk' which we watched in class to improve our passive Norwegian. I'm not sure it's still on there but your s.o will probably know of other shows. Hope this helps a bit!

[Lavian]

[quote="Antistia"]

Also, you might want to use post its. It's going to look very silly but I think it might work. Write both the Norwegian word and the English word on the post it you place on the object. Then every time you use the object, say the fridge, you read it. It's probably an easy way to learn the words for a lot of household items.

You're onto something here, be right back getting post its.

And Thelos that advice is certainly the first of it's kind in this topic oO. Do you know of anyone else who took this "approach"? apart from your uncle I mean. Not saying you're wrong or it isn't effective but it is certainly not advice I had been told of before!

[Drustai]

Thelos' advice is actually what I hear people say most often. That you learn a language far better by simply being immersed into it than you ever do by trying to learn it through study.

[Seranita]

hehe i spent a week on a french exchange trip.. I learnt 2 words Un Poor meaning door and.. the other I have forgoten since XD

[Lavian]

Eira, I studied Norwegian in the university of Amsterdam using the official textbooks and audio for immigrants, they are called: 'på veg' and 'stein på stein'. The first starts with the very basics and gradually you learn more complicated vocabulary. I also had a grammar book and a basic grammar instruction guide from university. When I'm home I can look up what the grammar book was called, the instruction guide I could scan in for you. Another good way to learn is reading books in the new language, start with children's books and then move on to (youth)literature when you progress. NRK.no had a very entertaining program called 'typisk norsk' which we watched in class to improve our passive Norwegian. I'm not sure it's still on there but your s.o will probably know of other shows. Hope this helps a bit!

Thank you. : ) I appreciate this alot. I'll look into these and I would appreciate the name of that grammer book. I'll see if she has any children books actually as she does have ALOT of books but I think for the most part they are English or advanced reading in Norwegian.

[Thelos]

And Thelos that advice is certainly the first of it's kind in this topic oO. Do you know of anyone else who took this "approach"? apart from your uncle I mean. Not saying you're wrong or it isn't effective but it is certainly not advice I had been told of before!

Yes, one of my best friends actually moved to Lyon (France) for little under a year and came back with flawless (at least to my inexperienced ears) French. Like Muzja suggested, he took a job waiting tables there.

As for myself I've been considering following a few courses in the University of Berlin to improve my German, but knowing me, I'll probably end up being much too lazy to be bothered with such an adventure.

[Aldric Essalus Helmfrid]

Sitting on the bus reading my book... Chav walks on.. here is what follows. Haven't laughed so hard in a while.

Haaa freak! What are you reading a -book- for you freak!

Maybe you should read one, you never know you might find some intelligence..

Haaa joke's on you I can't read! *strolls to the back of the bus like a pro*

*facepalms*

[Lavian]

And Thelos that advice is certainly the first of it's kind in this topic oO. Do you know of anyone else who took this "approach"? apart from your uncle I mean. Not saying you're wrong or it isn't effective but it is certainly not advice I had been told of before!

Yes, one of my best friends actually moved to Lyon (France) for little under a year and came back with flawless (at least to my inexperienced ears) French. Like Muzja suggested, he took a job waiting tables there.

As for myself I've been considering following a few courses in the University of Berlin to improve my German, but knowing me, I'll probably end up being much too lazy to be bothered with such an adventure.

Fair enough, now I shall be conflicting what the best approach really is. As of current I am learning and making myself be patient enough to develop through my lecture's and "light" reading. Everyone has a way of learning their language I suppose so guess it all leads down to experimenting the best way for that individual.

[Thelos]

What book were you reading? I bet it was Althus Spake Zarathustra.

One thing I forgot to mention that there is one massive downside of having learned English trough media like cartoons and videogames; and that is the absolute incapability of sticking to either one; UK English or American English. First I went trough an English-purity phase, where I tried to purify my English from the foul yankee influences, only to totally revert into an American phase, where I took a liking the charms of a more simple and phonetic style (thank you Mark Twain). Now I'm stuck somewhere in between, spelling colour with a U and honor without. It's a total mess.

Fair enough, now I shall be conflicting what the best approach really is. As of current I am learning and making myself be patient enough to develop through my lecture's and "light" reading. Everyone has a way of learning their language I suppose so guess it all leads down to experimenting the best way for that individual.

Just do everything, that way your success will be guaranteed! Languages are hollistic; every word is connected to many others, and the more words and sentences you learn the faster you will learn others. It's a snowy-snow-snow-snowball baby!

[Antistia]

As far as I know I don't have that problem at all! Though I do pay a bit of attention to retaining my American accent and spelling. Not easy when everyone around you talks with a British (or Dutch) accent.

[Thelos]

The absolute worst thing to me is yokels trying to badly imitate a British accent. Revolting. I'll stick with my thick Dutch Jan-Peter Balkenende accent, thank you very much.

...Though I have been mistaken for a Dane in Germany a few times. Apperantly the Dutch accent sounds identical to the Danish accent to many foreigners. Interesting stuff.

[Drustai]

I'm the same way, Thelos. For most of my time on the internet, I've been around EU people. So I've often come to use UK English. But then school/the rare American communities I'm in encourage me to use US English. Ugh.

[Drustai]

Adding on to that, the worst part is dates! Oh my God, I never know if I need to do M/D/Y or D/M/Y anymore.

[Thelos]

I must admit that whenever I write anything scientific, I stick to US English, but even in Academia people seem to screw up regularily and confuse the two. I wonder if we are, trough the wonders of the internet, moving once more towards a unified English spelling.

And lest you forget the metric system, Dru >:]

Ah, the wonders of Europe! We welcome you with open arms, sister.

[Antistia]

I'm the same way, Thelos. For most of my time on the internet, I've been around EU people. So I've often come to use UK English. But then school/the rare American communities I'm in encourage me to use US English. Ugh.

This. Oh god, this. My school also encouraged me to use British English. To me it was so fucking annoying.

A funny thing I've noticed is that my accent becomes more American when I'm in France. Or at least it feels like it. Hell, compared to them I sometimes feel like I'm talking with a Texan accent. I find it funny though.

And Thelos, I doubt we will get a unified English spelling.

[Guest]

...Though I have been mistaken for a Dane in Germany a few times. Apperantly the Dutch accent sounds identical to the Danish accent to many foreigners. Interesting stuff.

Yep, until you put a dane and a dutchie next to each other. Then the difference is quite clear
Danish is very flat, barely have any harsh consonants and certainly none of that dutch rrrrrrrrrhrhrhrhrhrhrh. There's also the soft d's, which is actually the hard part of saying "rød grød med fløde", not the ø's

[Drustai]

Thelos wrote:
I must admit that whenever I write anything scientific, I stick to US English, but even in Academia people seem to screw up regularily and confuse the two. I wonder if we are, trough the wonders of the internet, moving once more towards a unified English spelling.

And lest you forget the metric system, Dru >:]

Ah, the wonders of Europe! We welcome you with open arms, sister.

Ugh. Measurements. http://www.onlineconversion.com/ is a lifesaver and the first link on my Bookmark list.

<.<

[Kristeas Sunbinder]

I'm the same way, Thelos. For most of my time on the internet, I've been around EU people. So I've often come to use UK English. But then school/the rare American communities I'm in encourage me to use US English. Ugh.

This. Oh god, this. My school also encouraged me to use British English. To me it was so fucking annoying.

A funny thing I've noticed is that my accent becomes more American when I'm in France. Or at least it feels like it. Hell, compared to them I sometimes feel like I'm talking with a Texan accent. I find it funny though.

And Thelos, I doubt we will get a unified English spelling.

I remember my english teacher telling us to imagine we have cotton in our mouths so we speak proper english.

And if there's a unified English spelling, I hope it's not that horrible American "Ur, Nite, etc." that I've heard from reliable sources is in use.

[Drustai]

That's hardly just an American thing. That's a cell phone and internet chat thing.

[Thelos]

which is actually the hard part of saying "rød grød med fløde", not the ø's

Haha, you have no idea how many times I have been asked to say this phrase in bars. It's almost gotten demeaning!

Funny thing, my High School encouraged me to use British English back when I was in my rebellious phase, which caused me to say "Fuck you" and deliberately use US spelling on tests. At the University they dont really care as long as you remain consistent, which I find to be the best policy. There's just no sense in trying to force your students to use a spelling that deviates from what they are used to hearing from most videogame and internet news sources. "Honor points", not "Honour points".

[Antistia]

You know, I mean we have all this amazing technology and yet computers have turned into basically four figure wank machines. The internet was supposed to set us free, democratize us, but all it's really given us is Howard Dean's aborted candidacy and 24 hour a day access to kiddie porn. People... they don't write anymore, they blog. Instead of talking, they text, no punctuation, no grammar: LOL this and LMFAO that. You know, it just seems to me it's just a bunch of stupid people pseudo-communicating with a bunch of other stupid people at a proto-language that resembles more what cavemen used to speak than the King's English.

- Hank Moody (David Duchovny)


I fucking hate people who talk like that. It's not English, it's not cool, it makes you look dumb and it makes you harder to understand.

[Thelos]

There's a great beauty in butchered English. Slang is beautiful, and something researchers in a few hunders years will look back on with fondness. Artifical slang is particularily great. Or does no one here remember A Clockwork Orange?

"Oh bliss, bliss and heaven... Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh... And then, a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal, or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now... I knew such lovely pictures"

[Antistia]

I'm fine with slang, just not with things like 'nite' etc.

[Rmuffn]

Don't know if it's any help, but I taught myself English by watching English spoken movies (and series) with Dutch subtitles. Maybe watching Norwegian spoken movies (and series) with English subtitles, if possible, might be a good idea.

First things first; What Anti said is really a good way of learning, truly.

Secondly. A british accent in a scandinavian language is actually very nice. So don't be too fussed with how you'll end up sounding.
There's a theatre teacher on my school, from England. He speaks swedish, sometimes changes to english. But his swedish accent is so lovely. Doesn't sound crude at all.

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