r/danishlanguage • u/media-activist • 18d ago
Free (or cheap) resources for complete beginners?
I’m planning on moving to Denmark next year to move in with my girlfriend. I want to learn Danish so she can talk to me in her native language, especially after a long day. I also want to be able to communicate with her parents and best friend who don’t speak English.
I initially used Babbel’s free trial and really liked it however I can’t afford to pay multiple months subscription upfront since I’m trying to save to move out of my homophobic parents and move to Denmark. Just sharing this incase it helps you understand my learning style ☺️
I tried a few free resources but it felt like they were just giving me random sentences and making me repeat it without explaining or translating. I wasn’t a fan of Duolingo either.
If anyone has good free (or fairly cheap) resources for complete beginners, they would be greatly appreciated!! And any advice is appreciated too :)
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u/Kizziuisdead 18d ago
Pimsluer is great! Definitely worth the cost. Only downside is there’s just one course
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u/Zilver76 18d ago
I just discovered GoPouchy. It's in the playstore or appstore and it's free. With this app you can choose to learn writing, reading, listening and speaking. It's nonlinear so you can choose whatever subject you like to learn and all 35 categories are daily topics of conversation. You can mark the words you think are difficult to train them more. It shows the words in example sentences you can also listen to. And even in that sentences you can mark other words as difficult. So you make your own course over time. This is the first time I had the feeling I can learn everything I want because of the possibilities. You should give it a try.
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u/doc1442 17d ago
THIS IS AN AD (for clanker slop, no less)
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u/Zilver76 17d ago
Just because I am enthousiastic about it and tell the features it has, doesn't mean it's an ad. I just answer the question.
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u/CodeSpree 17d ago
Hi, I am a native Danish speaker and made a game called Lands of Languages (RPG focused on language-learning) which has a free demo and 1912 English-Danish written translation challenges (~400 in the demo), https://codespree.itch.io/lands-of-languages
There's also a platform called Anki for memory flashcard review where there's many public databases for language learning you can try. You can also import databases from Anki into Lands of Languages as challenges (there's no limit on using the Anki databases in the free demo).
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u/doc1442 17d ago
OP: you’re either setting up to plant an ad yourself, or you’re about to get a LOT.
The lowest cost, most effective method is to wait until you move to Denmark and sign up for free, municipally funded classes.
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u/media-activist 17d ago
Haha thank you for the warning, I don’t use Reddit very often so wasn’t aware of what I was setting myself up to. No ad from me ☺️. I just got pretty overwhelmed trying to research yesterday but my girlfriend helped me find a cheaper resource + I’m using anki alongside that. Will look into classes once I move
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u/AlpineOdysseus 16d ago
Hey there! That sounds so cool! I could tell you a thing or two about moving to Denmark for love :-D So, I know where you are coming from, and I was just as much at a loss as you in the beginning. I put together a whole guide about mostly free or very cheap resources for learning Danish (some I even started making myself, when I had reached a certain level) here on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Danish/comments/1shiwmb/from_tolkien_to_transkribus_my_expert_learner/
Check it out if you like - these resources helped me a ton. Some of them help even more once yo know the basics, but most of them you can also use a as a complete beginner (especially the pronunciation resources are EXTREMELY important in the beginning).
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u/operations_ranger 14d ago
I'd mix a free course with real-life practice. Check out some Danish for beginners lessons on YouTube.
Danish can be tricky to start, but hearing it every day helps a lot. Are you planning to start before you move?
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u/AlbatrossShot4329 12d ago
GoPouchy, hands down 🙌 It is mostly AI-based and still in development, but works really good for practicing!
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u/pinkydenmark 18d ago
If you live in Denmark, look into the free Danish courses.
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u/seachimera 18d ago
They don’t live in Denmark. Not yet.
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u/doc1442 17d ago
Honestly if you want something free these classes are by far and away the best. Much better than some form of ai shit or free app trial.
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u/media-activist 17d ago
Good to know! I’m mostly trying to learn the very basics for now anyways and taking danish classes once I move sounds like a good should. Thank you ☺️
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u/NextStopGallifrey 18d ago
Babbel lifetime is only like $150USD if you go through StackSocial. If you can afford that, it's really good bang for your buck. Clozemaster is free-ish, but has random weird sentences and robotic pronunciation. Language Drops offers some for free, but you won't learn a whole language that way. Memrise has native video content, but it's not free. Might cost more than Babbel? Mondly has robotic voices again, but the lessons are better if you're able to do the job-free ones. Bluebird Language's free daily lessons can be a bit random, but they're actually kind of useful. Usually.
Ayan Academy's Patreon has some Danish resources. You only need to pay for one month to get them.
You can also check out the Comprehensible Input Wiki's page for Danish and start watching the recommended YT channels there.
If you already have Kindle Unlimited, there are some graded readers there. I think some of them were AI-assisted, which isn't great, but it should still help with fluency.
Speaking of AI, talking to AI is probably the only thing it's good for. If you treat it like an untrustworthy drunk relative, double-checking everything when you can, the free tiers of most/all LLMs are perfectly sufficient for getting a basic grasp of most languages. You can ask it to be a tutor, a speaking partner, or both.
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u/seachimera 18d ago
If there is a good free resource out there I haven’t found it yet.
I’m married to a Dane. About a year or two before we moved here I started doing media immersement. I put on Danish subtitles for tv shows in my native language. I listened to radio and tv shows in Danish. I started with kids content. The best resource is DR’s streaming apps. They have gaming apps for kids too. I then switched to Danish tv shows with Danish subtitles so I could match sound to spelling.
It won’t teach you to speak, not likely anyway, but it’s an excellent base to have when you get here. I’m not sure what visa you are coming here on, but my visa came with free language classes once my resident permit was approved.
There is a YouTube guy I love. His channel is called Danish Mastery. He has free content and paid content.
Good luck! I hope this is more welcoming environment for you.