Welsh through the medium of German

Do you want to learn Welsh through the medium of German?
Dim probs, apparently. :slight_smile:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XjlU6PGjfa0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Lehrbuch+der+walisischen+Sprache,+Volume+1++By+Britta+Schulze-Thulin&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2kd3VLDwIIuBPcnngcAF&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

(“Lehrbuch der walisischen Sprache, Volume 1”
By Britta Schulze-Thulin)

Love it! :slight_smile:

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Eventually, people will be required to create the SageEtwasAufsWalisisches course, Mike - your name is now on the list :smile:

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Jawohl! / Oes / ie / undy …(please insert the other 50 ways of saying “yes” in Welsh hier/yma). :slight_smile:

Well now, that’d be an interesting way to learn German without switching back to English. I do wonder if there’s a difference learning another L2 through the medium of your L2 rather than L1 :slight_smile:

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Very interesting question, that, Amy. I suspect that much depends on one’s command of the ‘first’ L2. One experiment would be to learn a new L2 partly via an L1, and partly via an L2. With SSi, you could do that with Spanish, via English and via Cymraeg. Hmmm, I can see a research topic here…

And going the other way, I know of one person (L2 Dutch) who was using the SaySomethingInDutch course to improve his English.

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I’ll have to try that next year :slight_smile: I just wonder if it’d have an effect on vocab - like maybe L1 to L2 would be translation focused but L2 to L3 would be more concept based or something??

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I think so - in all language learning, translation will fade into the background after a while - so yes, the experience of having learnt a second language, and the knowledge that translation is just a passing phase, that can help you think more directly in the third etc. language rather than thinking of English first and then translate - that is certainly how I approached learning Welsh - although the SSi method itself also forces you in that direction of course, with accelerated listening practices … and Bootcamp…

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I find all of this fascinating stuff. For a while I was trying to learn Danish through the medium of German, via the German-based Assimil Danish course, and also comparing German and Danish versions of the same novels. Quite interesting, and I certainly haven’t given up on the idea, but it got put aside because of other priorities (like Welsh, for example :slight_smile: ). Danish is a Germanic language of course, and also related to English. Bit different to Welsh, obviously, in that respect.

One of the fun things about Danish is that the spelling gives you very little clue about how it’s supposed to be pronounced! (Should lend itself to the SSi approach then … :slight_smile: ).

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I just received this book - I bought it to calibrate my rusty German against my fledging Welsh, chiefly, and also to see how constructs common to Welsh and English ( e.g. “we are going to do”), but unusual in many other languages, are handled.

I fail to see how you could learn Welsh from this book without also buying the companion CDs, however, these are sold separately; but then, just like everybody else here on this forum, I am spoilt when it comes to learning languages.

I learnt a new word “Behauchung” - aspirate mutation!

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Four pounds and ten pence for a pint of lager, half a pint of bitter, a glass of wine, a glass of coke and two packets of crisps?

I want to go to that pub.

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Diolch / Danke!
I speak both and enjoy every minute.