Cellar Door - Afrikaans in 1 year

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Cellar Door
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Languages: English (N), Afrikaans (B1), Spanish (B1), Italian (A1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=8801
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Re: Cellar Door - Afrikaans in 1 year

Postby Cellar Door » Tue Sep 04, 2018 1:53 pm

PeterMollenburg wrote:Hi Cellar Door. Having studied a fair amount of Dutch in the past, it’s interesting reading your log. I used some of Donaldson’s texts including Colloquial Dutch, and found him to be a quality author. Interestingly, he was a teacher/lecturer/head of a languages dep’t at a university in my city (Melbourne), which kind of makes me like him a little more. Anyway, even the past participle rule of adding ge- to the front of the verb except for those beginning with be-, ge-, her-, ont-, ver-, is the same as Dutch.

I’d imagine, once you’re comfortable with Afrikaans, should you ever want to learn Dutch, you’d have a great headstart. Good luck!


Interesting! I'm going to ask my tutor about this today. I'm curious if she can understand Dutch. :D
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Cellar Door
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Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=8801
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Re: Cellar Door - Afrikaans in 1 year

Postby Cellar Door » Tue Sep 04, 2018 2:00 pm

Jaleel10 wrote:Die Byl
Vallei van Sluiers


Dankie vir die aanbevelings. Ek sal vandag Die Byl kyk. Ek hou rêrig van True Detective.
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Jaleel10
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Re: Cellar Door - Afrikaans in 1 year

Postby Jaleel10 » Tue Sep 04, 2018 2:28 pm

Cellar Door wrote:Dankie vir die aanbevelings. Ek sal vandag Die Byl kyk. Ek hou rêrig van True Detective.


Geen probleem. Ek's seker jy sal daarvan hou :)

Cellar Door wrote:Interesting! I'm going to ask my tutor about this today. I'm curious if she can understand Dutch.


The thing is we can but it's not equally comprehensible. Dutch people can understand neutral spoken Afrikaans much better than we can understand Dutch. But if you do spend enough time listening to Dutch you will eventually pick up the differences between the two languages. It is something I've often spent an embarrassing amount of time doing :oops:

In written form it's different because I even used to read Dutch short stories in school and it was totally comprehensible. In written form both languages are highly mutually intelligible. Fun fact: Afrikaans and Dutch are closer linguistically then Frisian and Dutch.
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Cellar Door
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Posts: 62
Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2018 4:57 pm
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Languages: English (N), Afrikaans (B1), Spanish (B1), Italian (A1)
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Re: Cellar Door - Afrikaans in 1 year

Postby Cellar Door » Fri Sep 07, 2018 2:30 pm

So I would now say I have officially opened Pandora's box. I am essentially at the Tarzan level :D

Achievements
- 650 vocab words
- Write basic sentences in Past / Present / Future
- Numbers, tell the time, basic greetings
- Describe nouns
- Word order of basic sentences

Next Steps
- Joining thoughts with conjunctions (this is hard)
- Take my vocabulary from 650 to 1,000
- Complete the second half of CA
- Continue watching shows and listening to music

Strategically speaking, anki for vocabulary is fantastic. The trouble I am having is how to memorize conjunctions, adjectives, and other words that are difficult to picture. I am building a master list of sentences as well - that should help me further advance my conversational skills.
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Cellar Door
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Posts: 62
Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2018 4:57 pm
Location: North Carolina
Languages: English (N), Afrikaans (B1), Spanish (B1), Italian (A1)
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Re: Cellar Door - Afrikaans in 1 year

Postby Cellar Door » Fri Sep 07, 2018 3:23 pm

Why are conjunctions hard? Well, let me explain.

If you use en, maar, of, want, óf...óf, nóg...nóg - the word order doesn't change.

If you use dan, toe, al, dus, daarom, daarna, derhalwe, nogtans, tog, gevolglik, anders, the verb or auxiliary comes after the verb. (not to mention these words don't translate exactly)

If you use dat, omdat, totdat, voordat, nadat, sodat, wanneer, hoeveel, waar, waarom, wie, sodra, terwyl, mits, sedert, as, toe, asof, soos, hoewel, tensy plus many others, the verb goes at the end of the sentence.

I guess this will just take a lot of practice :lol:
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Cellar Door
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Re: Cellar Door - Afrikaans in 1 year

Postby Cellar Door » Sat Sep 08, 2018 12:45 am

@Jaleel10

The boy runs to school. He will be late. | Die seun skool toe hardloop omdat hy sal laat.
There is no more milk. I will go to the shop. | Daar is nie meer melk nie dus sal ek die winkel toe gaan.
I want to go to the Kruger Park. I want to see the animals. | Ek wil die Kruger Park toe gaan omdat ek die diere wil sien.
We are going to the beach. It is a lovely day. | Ons gaan die strand toe sedert dit 'n lekker dag is.
The plants look dry. I give them water before I go to work. | Die plante lyk droog dus gee ek vir hulle water voordat ek werk toe gaan.
I said sorry. You are mad at me. | Ek het jammer gesê sedert jy kwaai by my is.
I buy a new dress. We have a party tomorrow. | Ek koop 'n nuwe rok want ons het môre 'n partytjie.
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Jaleel10
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Re: Cellar Door - Afrikaans in 1 year

Postby Jaleel10 » Sat Sep 08, 2018 6:38 am

Cellar Door wrote:@Jaleel10


* The boy runs to school. He will be late. | Die seun hardloop skool toe omdat hy laat is (You can also say ...hy laat gaan wees)
* There is no more milk. I will go to the shop. | Daar is nie meer melk nie dus sal ek winkel toe gaan.
* I want to go to the Kruger Park. I want to see the animals. | Ek wil Krugerwildtuin toe gaan omdat ek die diere wil sien. (Well done. We just call a park a 'wildtuin'. :P )
* We are going to the beach. It is a lovely day. | Ons gaan strand toe want dit is 'n lekker dag.
* The plants look dry. I give them water before I go to work. | Die plante lyk droog dus gee ek vir hulle water voordat ek werk toe gaan. (perfect :D )
* I said sorry. You are mad at me. | Ek het jammer gesê omdat jy kwaai vir my is.
* I buy a new dress. We have a party tomorrow. | Ek koop 'n nuwe rok want ons het môre 'n partytjie. (perfect!)

Wel gedaan ;)

* Where did you see the definition of 'sedert'? I am curious because I am having doubts myself lol. In Afrikaans sedert is only used with time if I recall correctly. But I am having doubts myself :oops:
* When you use 'omdat' the entire verb (auxiliary+verb) comes at the end like in sentence 1
* Yeah, our word order is a mess :lol: You have my sympathies

Ek hoop jy het 'n lekker naweek!
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Cellar Door
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Posts: 62
Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2018 4:57 pm
Location: North Carolina
Languages: English (N), Afrikaans (B1), Spanish (B1), Italian (A1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=8801
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Re: Cellar Door - Afrikaans in 1 year

Postby Cellar Door » Sat Sep 08, 2018 2:19 pm

From the pharos dictionary:

sedert - 1. since; 2. for
Ali werk sedert 2002 hier
Dis die eerste keer sedert Sara se operasie dat sy iets mag eet

I see what you mean and the subtle difference. :)
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Books in process: Harry Potter en die Orde van die Feniks

Cellar Door
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Posts: 62
Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2018 4:57 pm
Location: North Carolina
Languages: English (N), Afrikaans (B1), Spanish (B1), Italian (A1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=8801
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Re: Cellar Door - Afrikaans in 1 year

Postby Cellar Door » Wed Sep 12, 2018 2:32 pm

This week I am finishing with conjunctions practice and preparing to move on to negating sentences. Hard to believe how far I've come in 1.5 months. Listening and speaking is still a challenge, but my reading and writing are improving quickly.
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Books in process: Harry Potter en die Orde van die Feniks

Cellar Door
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Posts: 62
Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2018 4:57 pm
Location: North Carolina
Languages: English (N), Afrikaans (B1), Spanish (B1), Italian (A1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=8801
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Re: Cellar Door - Afrikaans in 1 year

Postby Cellar Door » Thu Sep 13, 2018 8:20 pm

One highlight of learning another language as a native English speaker is that I never truly appreciated how difficult English really is. Yes, it is easy to learn enough to communicate the basics, but English is full of nuance, idioms, slang, difficult spelling and punctuation that can be very challenging. Not to mention we constantly butcher our own grammar :D

Think about this. Yesterday I lead my friends to the lead box to search for lead pencils. We picked out two pencils to take back because the others were too light.

Crazy stuff.
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