Lost in Translation?

Duolingo often comes up with some pretty interesting phrases to translate, so I thought I’d start sharing some of those that catch my attention.

 

Well, that is certainly direct!

Free university tuition? Yes please!

Lower Saxony has just become the final state in Germany to revert to free tuition.  This is in stark contrast to what is happening in my home country, Australia, where the current government is trying to deregulate university fees.  Fees which are high enough already in my opinion!

No such thing as a synonym?

“There are no such things as synonyms!!”  I still remember how these words from Tom Robbins, in Jitterbug Perfume, grabbed my attention.  I wondered if it was true.  Learning new languages has taught me that it is.  Every language has it’s unique ‘untranslatable’ words.  The most famous Danish example is ‘hygge’.  I have been provided with many translations for this beloved word.  The simplest is ‘cosy’, but that doesn’t do it justice.  My favourite translation is more of a short story.

 

Hygge?

Duolingo.

I’ve been very slack with this blog! That doesn’t mean that I’ve been slacking off on my German though. I thought I’d talk a bit about Duolingo this week, which is actually where I started learning German.

Duolingo home page

Why learn German?

I guess the first thing I should address is why I’ve picked German to learn, especially given that I’m living in Denmark!  Before even leaving for Copenhagen, I registered for language courses and decided I would make a real effort to learn the language.  I’m really glad I did, it was a lot of fun and I met some great people.  Learning a language as an adult was a completely different experience to learning in high school.   I can’t believe how well I did.  I think the main difference was that I was really enjoying learning.  Having fabulous teachers absolutely helped, but I still think my pure enjoyment of using a part of my brain that had been dormant for years was the real key to my success.

 

The few us of who stayed til the end of Danish class, and our great teacher yielding her pointing stick.

Blogging my attempt to learn the German language!

Welcome to my blog, and to my mission to learn German!

German study book. Purchased in Germany, of course!

 

I have decided to make learning German a big part of my life, and so will need some encouragement along the way to keep me focused.  After reading a few blogs about learning languages, my favourite is definitely  http://www.fluentin3months.com.  This is Benny the Irish Polyglot’s blog, and I highly rate it for advice and tips on how to go about the daunting challenge of learning a new language, and links to a whole world of other great advice.