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January Dutch Challenge (EVERYONE!) | ||
Tags: 6 Weeks Challenge (6WC) | Dutch | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Hobbema Senior Member United States Joined 5741 days ago 541 posts - 575 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese, French, Dutch | Message 105 of 172 12 January 2011 at 8:29am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well heck, I guess I'll be the one to speak up and say that Dutch is kicking my butt, especially the grammar.
I've been through Pimsleur and Michel Thomas Foundation and Advanced as well as my other independent study stuff and I still can't understand half of what I read on rnw.nl. (Hopefully Assimil will help). Aaargh. Here's my impression. Dutch is hard. The word order and grammar is completely different from English and is harder and more non-intuitive than other romance languages. I cannot for the life of me make the VERBS sound natural in their correct Dutch configuration. Thanks for letting me rant. Hobbema 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| thistledown Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5164 days ago 14 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English* | Message 106 of 172 12 January 2011 at 11:44am | IP Logged | |||||
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The word order is the hardest thing for me Hobbema. I make up little stories and stuff to email to my son-in-law and he says he stares at them and scratches his head and says he can see *something* wrong with the word order but can't quite put his finger on it! And he's a native Dutch speaker ....
I'm on lesson 79 of Assimil and they now introduce the concept that the word order is flexible, and that the order which has been drilled into me for 78 lessons via rote learning and repetition, is not in fact the only acceptable order - it's flexible depending on context and emphasis! NOW they tell me!!! Michel Thomas was good for introducing me to Dutch because they use little tricks (such as the supposedly 'slow' learner) to make you feel clever. I felt as if I was cracking along nicely with MT, but realised when I started Assimil that it (Assimil) would actually take me further. I've got the Linguaphone course which I'll be starting next week and that looks like a big beast! For what it's worth I think Dutch is easy for a native English speaker to get to a level where basic communication is possible, given a sympathetic listener. If you want to go further than that it gets harder - because things like modal adverbs are a minefield. Easy to do badly, but difficult to do well. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| doviende Diglot Senior Member Canada languagefixatio Joined 5986 days ago 533 posts - 1245 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Hindi, Swedish, Portuguese | Message 107 of 172 12 January 2011 at 12:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I found that with German, extensive reading gave me an excellent sense for word order...so much so, that when I write in Esperanto, I tend to use German word order. Dutch is only slightly different, so I find it mostly intuitive, but I anticipate that after more reading it'll become second-nature as well.
My experience with textbooks is that they tend to baby you on word order...they choose the simplest forms with the least variety (and wow, was this ever true for chinese). Once you jump into some real books more, you'll just get used to it over time and you won't have to think about it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| polyglossia Senior Member FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5404 days ago 205 posts - 255 votes Speaks: French* | Message 108 of 172 12 January 2011 at 12:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
God!! i've been searching for this kind of thing since such a long time !! The most useful link I've heard of so far regarding "learning dutch" material !! thanks so much! (too bad I cant vote twice !!:D) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5866 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 109 of 172 12 January 2011 at 2:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
I learned most of my initial Dutch by studying and reading rnw.nl. So I now find it easier than the things that Pimsleur and Michel Thomas teach. I have both. It would be interesting to know the total number of unique words that appear in the courses you have been using. It is probably a small number. In your blog, I don't see a lot of activities that support vocabulary building. That may be your difficulty in reading rnw.nl. Try reading rnw.nl with the "Globefish Language Support" tool in your browser, and make sure you understand every word. Edited by tommus on 12 January 2011 at 3:32pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| senor_smile Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6386 days ago 110 posts - 115 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Russian | Message 110 of 172 12 January 2011 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
Glad it's of use to someone besides just me. wwitv.com also has a bunch of other channels from the netherlands, and practically every other country in the world as well! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| noriyuki_nomura Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5340 days ago 304 posts - 465 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, FrenchC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, SpanishB2, DutchB1 Studies: TurkishA1, Korean | Message 111 of 172 12 January 2011 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Does anyone know whether there are any Dutch grammar exercise books out there in the market, where one can buy to practise their grammar? Thanks in advance for your recommendation! :) Edited by noriyuki_nomura on 12 January 2011 at 3:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| thistledown Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5164 days ago 14 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English* | Message 112 of 172 12 January 2011 at 4:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
I am reading The Hobbit in Dutch and have Lord of the Rings on order. I'm anticipating that my Dutch will include useful phrases such as "My people have been waiting since the dawn of the world" and "with my elven-sword I come to seek revenge" which may be of limited use in the real world - unless we get bad service in a restaurant of course ..... 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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