# Too soon for Dutch?



## comeauch

Hi everyone!

I know there have been a lot of thread regarding "how easy" or "how hard" it is to learn Dutch, but I'd still like to ask you something a bit related to that...
I'm from Quebec so I'm fluent in French and I have a good English (if you concur ). Two years ago, I started to learn german by myself and I think I'm getting pretty good at it. I can read through the Harry Potter serie (even though I don't get every single word) for example. But Dutch really interests me, one of my friend speaks it fluently and I looove Wende Snijders  How cute is she!? Hehe sorry.

So yeah, what do you guys think? My dutch friend thinks that it would be too much confusing. I know they are really close languages, but would it really be that bad? Would you rather recommend sticking with german until it's really really well installed? I obviously want to continue on with german, I'd just like to know if any of you experienced learning both nearly at the same time (or any two similar languages for that matter: Spanish and Portuguese for example!) It's so hard to wait. I want my dutch now :'(

Dankuwel


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## Chimel

I suppose my Dutch-speaking colleagues here will all advise you to learn Dutch as soon as possible , which I fully understand, but I think there _are_ some risks of confusion if you learn both languages at the same time.

Take my experience. I have also French as mother tongue, but I learned Dutch at school. At that time, I had a decent level (being able to understand TV-news but not all the dialogues in movies, for instance), no more. Then I learned some German and spent a few months in Austria: in the beginning, it was a real disaster, I spoke a strange language, some sort of "Dutch-German"...

Then I came back, started to work with some Dutch-speaking colleagues and it was just the other way round: I spoke a strange "German-Dutch". Now I can say I'm fairly fluent in Dutch, but I realize my German is very poor. I have a feeling that I will never be fluent in both languages at the same time...

By this, I do not mean it is impossible to learn both languages simultanuously, but personally I would not advise to do. Actually, learning two new languages at the same time is _sowieso_ a challenge_,_ but all the more when they belong to the same family, I'm afraid. I would also recommend anyone to be first fluent in Italian before starting with French (although I find it a beautiful language... ).


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## Peterdg

I agree with Chimel. I myself have Dutch as mother tongue. When we have to learn Spanish and Italian as a foreign language at the same time, it's a complete disaster. French and Spanish at the same time is not that difficult though. The distance between French and Spanish is much bigger than the distance between German and Dutch (or Spanish and Italian for that matter).


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## BlackInk

I'm from Spain and I was living in the Dutch-part of Belgium for half a year. Before that, I had been learning German in Spain and in fact I went to Belgium to finish my degree and pass my final subject, which was German.

When I arrived to Belgium I started a Dutch course and I loved it  And, if it helps, I passed my German exam and the Dutch one as well. But I have to admit that the level I reached with both languages was not very high. I mean, it's possible but it's complicated to get a good level in both of them.

However, as the others here say, I was told not to do so by the teachers there.

To summ up, if you want, you can, but I think you won't be proficient in both languages at the same time.


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## comeauch

Thanks to all of you for your insightful answers!
I think you're all right  One could do it, but it would be twice harder to achieve fluency in both! (Obviously...)  Helped by the fact that they are so similar, I can understand a couple of things in Dutch, even though I never studied it, but I can't express myself at all. Except for neuken in de keuken and things like that ... Oh well. I thought that I would learn dutch faster than any other language, but yeah that would only really apply if german were my mother tongue, so maybe it would be better to first achieve a very high proficiency in german before moving on to _the_ coolest language ever!

Meanwhile, nothing retains me from learning a few basic things, like pronunciation... Written Dutch is _fast _understandable, but the spoken one is something else 

Thanks!
Cya all soon hehe


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## NewtonCircus

comeauch said:


> Except for neuken in de keuken and things like that ... Oh well. I thought that I would learn dutch faster than any other language,


 
As your grandma I must tell you *"Let op je woorden jongeman"* (Mind your language young man). Remember that we have Sue here.   



comeauch said:


> ...moving on to _the_ coolest language ever!


 
*Je bent meer dan welkom bij de tofste taal ooit .*

Groetjes Herman


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## Kayla321

I would not recommend learning two similar languages at the same time. I mixed up beginners-Swedish with basic-German and it took years to "unravel" the mess. It was like I saved all the information in the same file in my head, overwriting my German knowledge with the Swedish stuff I learned.


Off-topic:


NewtonCircus said:


> As your grandma I must tell you
> ......
> Groetjes Herman


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## Lopes

I would disadvice learning Dutch until you are really fluent in German. I myself have had 6 years of French lessons in high school, and so got to a certain level which allowed me to read French books, do presentations in French and basically understanding and being able to produce most of the grammar of the language. But when I started learning Italian at university I completely lost all of my (productive) French, so now I am able to read, and listen to some extent, but speaking is very, very difficult for me.


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## killerbees

I agree with pretty much everything here. After studying German for four years in high school and two at university, my listening and speaking (but not pronunciation) skills all but went down the toilet after a year and a half of learning Dutch. I chalk this up partly to their close relation, but also to the degree of rigor applied to study. A knowledge of German grammar (and English grammar, for that matter) will make simple Dutch a breeze, but I think that to retain a level of fluency in any language you need to use that language consistently. Not so difficult in North America if you're learning, say, Spanish, because (at least in the US) Spanish is almost equally as present as English. But if you want to surround yourself with Dutch, you'll have to inundate yourself via internet (or dig through your basement and hope you find a colony of Dutchmen). Tack on another language to this process and it becomes twice as hard. Multiply difficulty by two again when dealing with two languages that are related enough to be confusing.

I hope this doesn't discourage you (everybody has their own learning curve), but it's likely that your German or your Dutch will fall by the wayside if you choose to study them simultaneously.


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## comeauch

killerbees said:


> But if you want to surround yourself with Dutch, you'll have to inundate yourself via internet (or dig through your basement and hope you find a colony of Dutchmen)


 
Hehehe!
Yes, it seems it would be impossible to put the same amount of time to both languages (university already keeps me busy enough!). As I said, at least I understand it better and better, just by improving german... So, I'll try to keep myself happy with understanding it and wait a while before going any further... It's still a bit sad  Oh well... I certainly don't want to lose what I've learned of german, nor do I want to end up speaking a bad mix of the two . You guys are great, thanks for your answers!


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## NewtonCircus

killerbees said:


> ... I think that to retain a level of fluency in any language you need to use that language consistently. Tack on another language to this process and it becomes twice as hard. Multiply difficulty by two again when dealing with two languages that are related enough to be confusing.


 
I have some first hand or should I say second hand experience from an acquaintance here who's married to a Dutchman and works for a German company. She attends the complementary German classes offered by her employer and is learning Dutch, albeit on a casual basis, for practical reasons. The Berlitz or Assimil method if you know what I mean.
 
During conversations, she indeed mixes up German and Dutch words. She mentioned what Killerbees pointed out, namely that the lack of opportunities to practise the language or both languages for that matter made it difficult for her to separate both. Her native language is Chinese.



killerbees said:


> (or dig through your basement and hope you find a colony of Dutchmen.


 

Just in case it happens  I have to warn you that you’d have to learn an older version of Dutch which complicates the matter further I believe. In fact I literally found a colony of Dutchmen on the hills around the city of Malacca and something like this was engraved on the their gravestones.
 
*"Hier leyt begraven ... geboren 1605 de 10e maand en de 13e dag. In zyn lefen was hy opperkoopman…”*
 
Professional titles still had a meaning in those days . 
 
Groetjes, 
 
Herman


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