AlOlaf's Log (Danish/German/Norwegian)

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AlOlaf
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Re: AlOlaf's Log (Danish/German/Norwegian)

Postby AlOlaf » Mon Oct 02, 2017 3:34 am

I just discovered they have "Matador" episodes with synstolkning on the dr.dk website. Synstolkning is a great thing, not just for people who can't see, but also for language-learning geeks like me who can. I think of the synstolkning lady as a teacher who uses the pauses in dialogue and narration to demonstrate the proper way to describe things in Danish.

"Matador" is one of the most successful Danish TV series of all time, and Princess Mary of Denmark (a native native English speaker from Australia) says watching the show helped her to learn Danish. The dialogue is spoken slowly and clearly, which gives the budding learner a fighting chance to hear the pronunciation of entire words, and the vocabulary goes beyond what one is likely to encounter in a self-learn course. Not that this qualifies as adequate preparation for understanding the firehose-velocity speech streams exchanged by locals on the streets of Copenhagen, but it's certainly a starting point.

As of this writing, DR has added syntolkning to the first 12 episodes, and I'd be surprised if they didn't eventually do the same with all 24, but I can't find anything on the site to confirm that they will. The first episode is here.
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Re: AlOlaf's Log (Danish/German/Norwegian)

Postby DaveBee » Mon Oct 02, 2017 7:39 am

AlOlaf wrote: I think of the synstolkning lady as a teacher who uses the pauses in dialogue and narration to demonstrate the proper way to describe things in Danish.
Is synstolkning "audio-description"?
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AlOlaf
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Re: AlOlaf's Log (Danish/German/Norwegian)

Postby AlOlaf » Mon Oct 02, 2017 9:30 am

DaveBee wrote:
AlOlaf wrote: I think of the synstolkning lady as a teacher who uses the pauses in dialogue and narration to demonstrate the proper way to describe things in Danish.
Is synstolkning "audio-description"?

I think it's more like "visual interpreting", meaning the interpreting of visual images.
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Elsa Maria
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Re: AlOlaf's Log (Danish/German/Norwegian)

Postby Elsa Maria » Mon Oct 02, 2017 1:18 pm

You probably know this already, but the companion website for Matador has a wealth of information. The first twelve episodes even have the screenplays (manuskripter) available. All 24 episodes have summaries (referater)


I watched most of Matador, and then never finished the series. That is kind of embarrassing to admit - I think it is really good! :oops:
Last edited by Elsa Maria on Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:31 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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AlOlaf
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Re: AlOlaf's Log (Danish/German/Norwegian)

Postby AlOlaf » Mon Oct 02, 2017 4:15 pm

Elsa Maria wrote:You probably know this already, but the companion website for Matador has a wealth of information. The first twelve episodes even have the screenplays (manuskripter) available. All 24 episodes have summaries (referater).

I had no idea this website existed, or that transcripts were available anywhere. Thanks so much!
Last edited by AlOlaf on Wed Oct 04, 2017 2:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Elsa Maria
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Re: AlOlaf's Log (Danish/German/Norwegian)

Postby Elsa Maria » Mon Oct 02, 2017 6:47 pm

I am motivated to watch more Matador again.
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AlOlaf
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Re: AlOlaf's Log (Danish/German/Norwegian)

Postby AlOlaf » Wed Oct 04, 2017 2:29 am

All this talk about "Matador" has made me think about my goals for Danish. I've spent the last five months or so playing around with Norwegian without achieving much of anything. My lack of focus is reaching alarming proportions.

I miss the days when the only language I wanted to learn was German. For years I threw myself 100% into my studies and never doubted that it was exactly what I wanted to do. Never having learned a foreign language before, I didn't know if I'd be able to reach fluency in German, but I didn't care. I was determined to put everything I had into it no matter what, and if I didn't succeed, so what? I loved it. It was pure, stupid passion.

Then the unexpected happened. I passed a test, and some Germans told me I was fluent. First I exulted. Then I thought "What do I do now?" My mindset changed. I convinced myself I needed a purpose to justify the time and effort required to continue progressing in the language, a purpose I couldn't find. Curious. I had never at any time had any real reason to learn German. Why should it suddenly become a factor?

I became restless. The next thing I knew, I was fooling around with Danish. Gradually, I realized I was developing the same kind of obsession for Danish that I'd once had for German. Danish just seemed so elusive and weird, and it seemed like hardly anybody was seriously trying to learn it. In fact, I couldn't find where anybody had really mastered it, at least anybody who wasn't a native speaker of another Scandinavian language. I thought I could be the one to go where no one had gone before.

Danish pronunciation proved to be every bit as difficult as advertised, but I located some resources explaining exactly how to produce the sounds. With this knowledge, I reasoned, along with relentless practice and lots of Italki lessons, my eventual success was all but assured.

But I gave up. I did what I said I wasn't going to do back when I first started my Danish log on the old HTLAL over four and a half years ago. Despite my best efforts, my progress in pronunciation became imperceptible to me over time, and I guess it just wore me down until I finally caved in. What's worse, I tried to justify my capitulation by saying I was taking a break to see if it would be beneficial.

I've spent the last several months trying to learn to speak Norwegian, accompanied by a voice in the back of my head screaming "Are you insane?"

The voice has been getting louder. I tell myself it makes sense for me to learn Norwegian because some of my ancestors came from Norway. The voice says "Following that line of reasoning, you should be studying Swiss German, too. Never mind you're already on course to achieve half-assed proficiency in two languages instead of having decent skills in one. Throw another one in there. You'll probably quit before you get anywhere with it, anyway."

As if that wasn't enough, the Norwegian movies I ordered are full of wild regional variations in the spoken language. "Which one are you going to copy?" asks the voice. "What are you trying to speak Norwegian for, anyway? They understood your crappy Danish in Norway last year, didn't they? Don't you think they'd understand even better if you could speak it to C-level? Come to think of it, that might come in handy in Denmark, too! Naah, never mind. You'll never do it. You're a quitter."

Unmerciful voice. What I need now is that "I don't care if it's impossible, I'm gonna give it my best shot anyway" mentality, the one I used to have when I was learning German. I had it with Danish for a minute, but I let it get away from me. I hope it's not too late to get it back.
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AlOlaf
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Re: AlOlaf's Log (Danish/German/Norwegian)

Postby AlOlaf » Thu Nov 09, 2017 3:25 am

Erst vor einigen Monaten machte ich die erfreuliche Entdeckung, dass mehrere meiner dänischen DVDs, die ich schon seit Jahren besitze, eigentlich auch Hörfilme sind. Das Besondere an einem Hörfilm ist, dass er eine zusätzliche Tonspur enthält, auf der sich eine Audiodeskription (Abkürzung: AD) befindet. Bei einer AD handelt es sich um eine Sprecherin, die das beschreibt, was auf dem Schirm zu sehen ist. Hörfilme sind zwar für sehbehinderte Muttersprachler gedacht, aber ich glaube, sie eignen sich auch als ein hervorragendes Mittel zum Fremdspracherwerb für meinesgleichen.

Bildbeschreibungen sind Bestandteil mancher Sprachexamen und aus gutem Grund. Es ist nämlich überraschend schwierig, ein detailliertes Bild richtig und genau zu beschreiben, weil man dazu gezwungen wird, eine Menge Adjektive, Verben und Nomen spontan zu verwenden. Deswegen finde ich die zahlreiche Beispiele von natürlich ausgedrückten Beschreibungen, die Hörfilme bieten, sehr nützlich. Ich versuche, mir die Formulierungen zu merken, damit sie hoffentlich Teil meines sprachlichen Arsenals werden. Dass die Beschreibungen in einem häufig spannenden Zusammenhang präsentiert und immer von einer jungen Frau mit einer schönen Stimme gesprochen werden, betrachte ich als ein zusätzlicher Bonus.

Ich genieße also seit Monaten meine dänischen Hörfilme. Die zweite und dritte Staffel von "Forbrydelsen" gehören dazu, sowie alle drei Staffeln von "Borgen". Meiner Meinung nach zählen diese Kunstwerke zu den allerbesten Fernsehserien, unabhängig vom Produktionsland.

Und obendrauf habe ich gerade festgestellt, dass es auch deutsche Hörfilme gibt. Zuerst hatte ich angenommen, dass AD wohl eine rein dänische Besonderheit wäre, aber nach und nach begann ich mich zu fragen, ob auch Hörfilme in Deutsch existierten. Nach einer langen Suche im Internet bin ich endlich auf eine Liste deutscher Filme mit AD gestoßen. Wie es sich herausstellte, stehen fünf dieser Hörfilme schon in meinem Regal:

Das Leben der Anderen
Good Bye, Lenin!
Keinohrhasen
Das Parfum
Sophie Scholl-Die letzten Tage

Früher habe ich mir alle dieser Filme mehrmals angesehen, aber ohne AD, weil ich damals nichts davon wusste. Ich kann es kaum erwarten, die Filme erleben zu dürfen, während dieser Funktion angeschaltet ist. Eine Gefahr sehe ich jedoch für ein bereits laufendes Projekt zur Verbesserung meiner dänischen Aussprache.
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Iversen
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Re: AlOlaf's Log (Danish/German/Norwegian)

Postby Iversen » Fri Nov 10, 2017 10:04 am

Hvis min hukommelse ikke bedrager mig, har jeg tidligere hørt nogle lydklip med dig hvor du læste noget op på dansk, og den udtale du havde der ville enhver dansker forstå. Problemet er nok snarere at forstå hvad vi danskere siger - især når vi taler til hinanden eller mumler.
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AlOlaf
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Re: AlOlaf's Log (Danish/German/Norwegian)

Postby AlOlaf » Sat Nov 11, 2017 4:40 am

Det giver god mening. Mange tak.
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