Tips for learning Danish language after 30. Part 2

Part 2

In part 1 I was describing why I decided to new learn foreign and how important it was

About process and learning strategies

In this part I am going to describe learning strategy which I used for 3 years.

During first year I was quite passive thinking of do I really need to learn Danish. Looking back, I can surely say that it was just a waist of time, I needed to start learning quite intensively since I decided to do it. As I understood this, my progress became much faster. During second year I leaned necessary language minimum: words, rules and so on. Third year was devoted to speaking practice mostly. I used following approaches:

• First year: online-courses and google translate. I just tried to use everything, that is available for free (not so much for learning Danish language, to be honest). If I had a teacher those times, that gave me much more efficient start. I was needed to get main grammar and phonetic rules to be explained.
• Purchasing of learning books, I started myself to pick up structured information and did all the tasks from books. That gave me minimal base.
• Then suddenly danish lessons started in our company. That filled my significant gaps in phonetics and pronunciation and base grammar rules.
• Watching films and TV-programs with subtitles
• Lessons with native speakers. Mostly speaking practice with discussing grammar rules on real life situations.

Inner motivation

• My vision of overall situation and processes (in communication, non-formal organisation, self-learning approaches) was quite different with other colleagues. Including, more experienced colleagues.
• I knew, that my level of Danish will be lower compare to people, who learned Danish in colleges, so I just did not try to compete with them.
• I knew, that less than 10% of people, who started learning Danish will be able to use these knowledges in real life. And I wanted to be among those 10%
• I understood my weak areas during long-term learning, so I tried to learn each are more than the others at certain periods of time. That is the order: learning reading and phonetics; grammar rules; reading and understanding of texts; speaking communication. I was always learned new words and phrases, because this is one of main part in learning.
• I knew S-curved systems development laws, that helped me to use my recourses properly and not to give up on start.
• I approximately assumed how my time daily and weekly should I spend to reach more or less significant result

Resume

• If you really want to do or try something — do it! Don't listen to people that tell you that it's impossible or does not make sense! You are the only, who makes the decision.
• If you don't need to do something of you can not do it — better do not even start

Good luck in your initiatives!