# Dutch: Tips for learning



## Lizziewoo

I want to learn Dutch. I love how it sounds and I have been given the VERY basics and I can't wait to be fluent. I am very lucky to be hopefully moving there in about 9 months to study for one year. 

Do you think it's possible to get enough of the basics by then to get by in conversation, etc? I hate not being able to speak the native language of where I live. I am so exciting about moving to the Netherlands!


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## Canela_am

Well, i think the biggest problem will be to make people actualy talk dutch to you. Since you´re English, lots of dutch will no doubt perceive this and start talking english to you.  Perhaps using a sentence like "ik spreek geen engels" could help you in avoiding this. 
I hated it when i was learning portuguese, people wanted to talk english to me. 

About the learning period; 9 months isn´t a lot of time to learn a language. Anyway, these things depend on your learning speed and will to succeed.
Good luck! or

"Veel succes!"


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## elroy

_Ik denk wel dat Lizzie heel veel Nederlands in negen maanden kan leren.  Ik vind het vooral erg goed dat ze naar Nederland ga reizen, maar je hebt ook gelijk als je zegt dat veel Nederlanders goed Engels spreken en het daarom vast wel met haar zullen willen spreken._

What I tried to say (I'm a learner too so take my Dutch with a grain of salt ) is the following:

I do think that Lizzie can learn quite a lot of Dutch in nine months.  Above all, I think it's really good that she's going to travel to the Netherlands, but you are also right when you say that many Dutch people speak English well and will therefore probably want to speak it with her.


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## Nedra

An American girl I know moved here and learned the Dutch language in three months, so I'd say that it's certainly possible. Dutch is not _very_ complicated and on many aspects comparable to English and German and I bet people are willing to help you once you get here. Good luck!


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## Lizziewoo

Thank you everyone for your help and support! I understand a fair bit of German and I found the grammar quite understandable. I love the accent, which I am working on!

Thanks again everyone!


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## Mandyajel

hi there,
i been wating to learn dutch for a couple of years now, suddenly this lad walks onto the seen. I thought he was english but it turns out he is dutch and its making me want to learn this beautiful language even more, so i can speak him and make it easier on him so he doesnt have to speak english all the time is there ne way of locating a place to learn dutch in my area or maybe an online course would be good as well, any ideas?

Thank you for any replys or suggestions you may give to me.


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## Jana337

Hello,

I am merging your thread with an old one. Please use the search engine and try to find our Dutch threads (all of them will have Dutch in the title).

A rule you should pay attention to: 


> Except as a topic of discussion, chatspeak and SMS style are not acceptable. Members must do their best to write using standard language forms. Rules


Proper capitalization is a part of the standard language forms.

Jana


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## Mandyajel

thats fine, sorry about that ^^


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## Rayines

*Hallo *Mandyajel*, I send you two resources here: the first one, is absolutely in Dutch, and the second, Dutch-English. Hope it helps  :*

*De Elektronische ANS*

*Learn Dutch online*


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## lotjed_13

I want to tell you one thing: 7 months is enough to learn a language.
at least, when you hear and speak it every day
good luck lizziewoo!


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## Mandyajel

hi all again.
yes the reason i wanted to lear dutch was because my boyfriend is dutch and he knows english but its very hard to understand him so i wanted to make things less complicated and learn his language and if succeed (excuse my poor spelling error) i will hopefully move up to holland with him and rent a place with him do you suppose thats a good idea?


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## gorbatzjov

elroy said:
			
		

> _Ik denk wel dat Lizzie heel veel Nederlands in negen maanden kan leren.  Ik vind het vooral erg goed dat ze naar Nederland _ga_ zal reizen, maar je hebt ook gelijk als (beter: wanneer) je zegt dat veel Nederlanders goed Engels spreken en het daarom vast wel (Dutch-Holland expression) met haar zullen willen spreken._



Bijna perfect! Maar toch goed gedaan!


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## maarjan

Hey!

I am going to learn Dutch in a few weeks and I want to know whether anyone of you could tell me about it. Is it difficult? How long will it last to speak it perfectly and so on...

Maarjan


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## Outsider

Try doing a search in this forum for threads with the word "Dutch" in their title. You should find plenty.


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## Chazzwozzer

Any contribution to resources by our Dutch fellows onboard would be greatly appreciated.


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## SimoneW

I just added a link in the contribution to resources for the dutch language that might be of use.

And Lizzie, I think it is great you like to learn Dutch and it will be very appreciated in the Netherlands. But I agree with others before me that it won't be easy to get people not to talk in English. You will have to tell them that you like to talk in Dutch not in English! Don't be affraid you might sound a bit blunt; my experience is that in general we dutch are more blunt than the English.  

Try to talk as much as possible and I'm sure you will learn Dutch within the year you're in the Netherlands.

VEEL SUCCES!


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## COF

I'm interested in learning Dutch, any advice on any courses and how available is learning material? Also, my main area of interest is Belgium, flanders, if I learn Standard Dutch, how understood will I be in Belgium and how long would it take me to pick up the dialect difference?


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## cherine

In what concerns material, did you try checking the resources sticky ?
There's a post dedicated to Dutch which seems quite wealthy.
Good luck 

P.S. As for difference between Standard Dutch and Beligian Dutch, you can open a separate thread for that, with a clear title.
Thanks.


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## vikramkr

Hello:

I was wondering if anyone had book recommendations for self-studying Dutch. I've had my eye on _Teach Yourself Dutch _but am not sure if that's the best choice.

Thanks,

Vikram


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## gvergara

Hi:
I'm really interested in learning Dutch, but unfortunately I haven't yet found a good monolingual Dutch dictionary on the Internet. Do you have any tips or know any site that could be of interest?. Thanks, bye

Hallo:
Ich hab viel Interesse daran, Holländisch zu lernen, doch hab bisher kein gutes einsprachiges Holländischwörterbuch auf dem Internet finden können. Wisst ihr über eine solche Site Bescheid?. Danke

Salut:
Je voudrais bien apprendre la langue hollandaise, mais jusqu'au présent je n'ai pas pu trouver un dictionnaire monolingue en ligne approprié à cet effet. Vous connaissez l'adresse d'un tel site?. Merci

Ciao:
Vorrei imparare l'olandese, ma finora non sono potuto riuscire a trovare un buon dizionario monolingue sull'Internet. Conoscete alcune pagine che possano essermi utili?. Grazie


Hola:
Me gustaría aprender holandés, pero hasta el momento no he podido encontrar un diccionario monoligüe apropiado. ¿Tienen algún dato o alguna dirección que me brinden?. Gracias


Gonzalo
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## Freston

The best reputed resource on the Dutch language would be de Van Dale (or De Dikke, as the Dutch call it).
I'm not allowed to post url's yet, but on the worldwide web see vandale dot nl


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## argentina84

I am also interested in learning Dutch...but I cannot find teachers in the place where I live. Is it true that we can learn a language in a few months? That would be great! 
I find the spelling not very different from English but I think I will find the pronunciation hard. I listened to a Dutch woman and I couldn't understand anything! It is also very difficult to find material in Buenos Aires..everybody studies English, Portuguese and German here...
 
Hope you can give me some good advice,
 
bedankt!
 
Just to add as a comment: Dutch people is very friendly. I shoud have started learning Dutch, not English!


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## gvergara

argentina84 said:


> I am also interested in learning Dutch


Already take a look at www.dutchgrammar.com?. It's a very thorough website which includes many links as well.



argentina84 said:


> ...but I cannot find teachers in the place where I live.


Same situation here in Chile



argentina84 said:


> Is it true that we can learn a language in a few months? That would be great!


In my opinion, I think you never finish learning a foreign language....... It's true that there are some languages which we as Spanish users may find easier, but I don't really think Dutch falls under the category "easy-to-learn-language".



argentina84 said:


> I find the spelling not very different from English but I think I will find the pronunciation hard. I listened to a Dutch woman and I couldn't understand anything!


To my ears, the Dutch pronunciation sounds very hard too



argentina84 said:


> It is also very difficult to find material in Buenos Aires..everybody studies English, Portuguese and German here...


Don't complain... It may be worse in other places like.....Chile. Here everybody seems to desperately want to interested in learning English, English, and English. As if there were no other foreign languages to learn..... 


Greetings, Gonzalo


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## Jeedade

argentina84 said:


> Is it true that we can learn a language in a few months? That would be great!


I find such blanket statements rather useless. The speed in which one can learn a language depends heavily on a number of things, such as: do you already know a similar language, is this the 2nd language you are going to learn, or do you already speak more languages, are you going to spend these few months completely submerged in the country where they speak that language etc. What does “learning” a language mean exactly? Holding a conversation, being able to do simultaneous translations?




argentina84 said:


> I find the spelling not very different from English but I think I will find the pronunciation hard


I think you will find the relationship between spelling and pronunciation in Dutch much closer than that in English!




argentina84 said:


> I shoud have started learning Dutch, not English!


No, you made the right choice … Dutch doesn’t really get you far in the world


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## argentina84

Thank you very much for your replies..and I agree with you : one never finishes learning a language..not even one's first language..there are always new words and expressions to acquire. 
As regards my wanting to learn Dutch, I have been advised to study other languages now that I am fluent in English...and I have decided to learn Dutch since I have two friends who live in the Netherlands...I am also studying French and Italian...but they are not that difficult for me because both of them are Latin languages like Spanish...I learn fast...so I wanna try with a difficult language...let's see what happens...It won't be easy since I cannot practise speaking...there are no teachers in Buenos Aires...I only find teachers of German...

Thank you again for your advice and help...I will ask you if I have more doubts....
This forum is great, isn't it?


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## jonquiliser

This might be interesting for anyone studying languages; "My language exchange". You get the contact of natives of some language and just start practicing - should you and your exchange friend feel like it, I see no reason why you couldn't talk with each other. There are plenty of ways now with the internet (yahoo, msn, skype...) .


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## Salmantina

lotjed_13 said:


> I want to tell you one thing: 7 months is enough to learn a language.
> at least, when you hear and speak it every day
> good luck lizziewoo!


 
Hello, 

it certainly should be enough. However, it may not be a bad idea to start a bit earlier. Learn some basic things, so that people will be more willing to answer you in Dutch. I went to Spain for 5 months (which explains the nickname  ) and I learned a lot there having to speak Spanish all the time (allthough I had been studying it before in school). So that really is important. I would like to give some advice:

1. Try to go and live amongst Dutch people. Try to avoid living with other foreigners.
2. There´s no harm in asking people not to speak English to you if you explain to them WHY you don´t want them to do so. No offense will be taken. We do appreciate it if someone makes an effort to learn our language and we are in general very direct. And should someone be offended, remember this: Boeien, dat is jouw probleem (who cares, it´s your problem)
3. Try to find a club. It´s easier to learn a language doing something you like. For example, if you like singing, join a choir.

Hope it helps. Make the most of it and enjoy! Veel plezier!

Groetjes


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## Jeedade

Salmantina said:


> Boeien, dat is jouw probleem


I've never heard this expression. Is "boeien" here short for "het kan me niet boeien"?


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## Suehil

I became fluent in Dutch in a few months (3 before I got there and 2 once I was there)  I started with Teach Yourself Dutch - which was very good - and then went on to read easy things like strip cartoons and badly translated pulp fiction (this because the constructions they used were very English and I could concentrate first on getting the vocabulary).  After that I went there and made a pact with everyone I met that no English was allowed.  Everyone was very pleased to help and very patient and in very little time I was fluent.   
Thirty years on I am still learning!


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## Salmantina

Jeedade said:


> I've never heard this expression. Is "boeien" here short for "het kan me niet boeien"?


 
Indeed it is, Jeedade. It is usually pronounced with a bit of a "forcefull" tone in your voice (if you can say it like that in English  ) _bóeien!!_ with emphasis on the first syllable. It's said like this by younger people, up to about 25 years or so.

Greetings


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