Introduction. Objectives

Transcription

1 1 af :53 Introduction In this task we shall work with a few tv-commercials that were running in Denmark in the early 1980s. Commercials such as these are interesting to work with because they offer a lot of images and sounds as hints toward what the spoken and written language might mean. Apart from offering a fun way of learning some new Danish words, the commercials also offer windows into the dreams and "Bounty-Land" desires of Danes in the 1980s. For this exercise students should have headphones, a microphone and a software for digital recording installed on their computers such as Audacity. First, students will be asked to identify commercials from an entire block, and later on, students will work with individual commercials. Objectives The immediate objectives in this exercise are to get a sense of the sounds of the Danish language and to assist students, by the aid of images and music, in aquiring some new Danish words. There will be an emphasis on pronounciation and the recognition of spoken Danish. Students will also begin building a vocabulary and learn a few things about how to form nouns and adjectives.

2 earn Danish with TV-commercials af :53 Activity 1: Danish commercials - identify the products You are going to watch a block of commercials that was shown in Danish cinemas in the early 1980s. This was a time before commercial television in Denmark, so Danes would only see these in the cinemas. The limited market for commercials might also account for the poor quality and slow pace of the individual ads compared to today's advertisments. Click on the play button on the YouTube video below, and see the entire block of commercials. In the following activity, you are going to identify the Danish names for the products they are trying to sell, and to identify some of the slogans. Identify the products advertised in the commercials. Tick the correct boxes in the list of products below. You should tick the boxes in the left column only for the products that are actually advertised. Telefon knallert Tobak Chocolade Ski Sodavand Timex ur Whisky Computer Cola

3 3 af :53 Activity 2: Identify the slogans Right, now we are going to make it a little more challenging. As you know, advertisements such as these always have fairly short and catchy slogans. The slogans in these ads are sometimes written on the screen at the end. In some of them, the speaker reads them out aloud with or without the written text shown. In the following activity, you are asked to match some of the products with their slogans. Listen to and watch the commercials again from the YouTube video above. Remember, you can use the sliding bar beneath the video to go back and forth in the block of commercials. Below you will find some of the slogans, choose from the drop-down lists the matching products. "... fører an" (... leads the way) "Sig... til din..." Drik... kun tre kalorier" "... Gør Din Drøm til Virkelighed."

4 4 af :53 Activity 3: Ballantine's Commercial In this activity you are going to work with a commercial selling Ballantine's Whisky. Before we begin with the activity, take a moment to consider what you might expect to see and hear in a TV-commercial selling this product. Watch the first part of the YouTube movie below that features the Ballantine's commercial with the sound turned off. Notice the images shown and consider what the commercial tells you about the product. What do you think the commercial wants to say about the people who drink Ballantine's? And how do the images fit in? Write a short text below with your immediate impressions. Have another look at the ad, now with the sound turned on. You can go back and listen to the speak a few times until you are able to recognize the individual words. Below you find a list of Danish words that might or might not appear in the commercial. By checking the green "tick" column, you agree to have heard that word in the commercial. Remember that Danish words are not written exactly as they are pronounced, so this is a challenging task.

5 5 af :53 Activity 4: Ballantine's Speaker Wanted! In this activity you are going to try out doing the speak yourself. This is quite challenging since you might not know the meaning of all the words and the speaker talks quite fast, but the exercise is designed to give you a better sense of how Danish sounds. So, get ready for some tung-twisting exercises and for a possible career in advertisement! Below you find the speak written out - with spaces and puntuation marks this time. Listen to the commercial again while you read along with the speaker - try to get as close as you can to the rhythm and emphasis of the words. When you feel you have the flow of the speak, notice where the speak begins in the video, and do your own speak with the sound turned down. Now, it is time to record your speak using your microphone and the audacity software or any other sound recording device you may have. Play back your recording and judge how close you came to make a good sell! "Folk, der kan li' at se sig om i verden, kender som regel noget til whisky; og jo mere man kender til whisky, jo gladere bliver man for Ballantine's." How close do you think you got to the original speak? Select the most fitting statement from the drop down list below.

6 6 af :53 Activity 5: Bounty Commercial You are going to watch the Bounty commercial, which is the third commercial in the block. Before you see the commercial, take a minute to consider the adjectives you would imagine such a commercial to use in describing this exotic piece of chocolate. You can have a look at the image on top of this page for inspiration. Watch the Bounty commercial, the third in this block of commercials. You find it in the YouTube video by scrolling the time-bar to begin at 0:56. The ad will end at 1:17. You can also just move the bar until you see some palm-trees! Listen to the speak a few times. When you have a good idea about the sound of the individual words, then follow the text underneath. There is however some problems with the text that it takes a Danish student to correct - I don't know what happened, maybe the writer had a few too many shots of Ballantine's! "Bounty Land. Paradiset hvor kokospalmernes sure, saftige frugter bliver til dejlig Bounty. Smag frisk og hård kokos dækket af tynd flødechocolade. Frisk, hård kokos i tynd flødechocolade. Det' Bounty." The phrases with the wrong words are highlighted in the text above. Can you hear what the speaker really says? In the two columns below, tick the left column for the correct substitutions and the right for the wrong. sure, saftige frugter -> søde, saftige frugter sure, saftige frugter -> salte, saftige frugter frisk og hård kokos -> frisk og god kokos å

7 7 af :53 Would you like to review the main points? SHOW REVIEW Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen / University College London / Department of Scandinavian Studies / 2009