Headphones

Clyde and I have been trying to learn Danish.  For some reason the materials have been slow coming from the MTC and we are on our own with the online materials.  The problem with that is that they are not very clear.  For example in the word af the f is silent but there is no explanation about how to pronounce the a.  Is it long, short or pronounced like an umlaut.  So we started listening to the audio version that was sent us.  We realized - when we both were pronouncing words differently and I was adding a b in front of a word (that didn't belong) and Clyde was adding endings that I wasn't hearing - that we were missing something.  So Saturday we went and got some Bose headphones.  We will eventually get a pair for each of us because unlike the young missionaries, we can have them on our mission.  Also we have been told that some of the work can be very tedious and to have music to listen to listen too helps to move it along.  We will both have to get something to listen to music on before we leave but that just made sense to me.  Also listening to Danish with the headphones on, you hear the nuances and it is so much clearer.  Plus with both of your ears covered you hear what you are saying back and can correct yourself better.  Now my next problem - retain what I am listening too!  Thankfully a lot of it is the same as German.  Gymnasium is High School, Universitat is University and lehrner, etc, are the student teacher nouns.  Danish months are pretty much spot on with German months.  The word day is spelled dag but pronounced day.  So when you say good day you sound like your are from Australia because it becomes G'day.  Good morning is G'morn but you make the o long.  I am enjoying this.  This is how all missionaries are learning the languages now.  You do courses at home with a tutor on Skype and do hours of homework.  This way the time in the MTC is cut shorter because they are more prepared (hopefully) when they get in there.  We, as senior missionaries, can go for a week before we report to the MTC and do an immersion process at the MTC - where we speak nothing but Danish for several days.  Clyde and I are seriously thinking about doing that.  Younger missionaries - if going foreign speaking go in for 6 weeks and sometimes are sent to the MTC in the areas close to where they are reporting.  The young man that was helping us work out our language needs said the Church could very well double our missionary force from last October to this October.  That is pretty phenomenal.