tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4051 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch
| Message 1 of 17 20 February 2014 at 2:20pm | IP Logged |
Hi all.
It's a while I don't study Dutch actively.
I can point the finger about a ton of things:
- resources
- different accents
- difficult pronunciation
- It's not useful outside of Netherlands and Belgium
and so on, but it's better to be honest. I don't like the process of learning Dutch.
I'm not particularly attracted by Dutch culture, I don't like the sound of this
language. This make the entire process much more painful, because my only motivation is
"I live in The Netherlands, I should learn Dutch". I'm not saying I will never learn
Dutch or I will never study Dutch again in my life. But for now I have a block that
makes studying this language painful for me.
I will fill the free slot with a different one. For completely different reasons, I'm
indecise between
- German
- Japanese (spoken only)
Amazing culture for both, both great for work, clear pronunciation for both.
German will make studying Germanic languages easier in the future and is good for my
career, japanese can be good for my career in a more remote future but it gives access
to one of the most amazing cultures in the world, one that I always admired since I was
child. Or maybe I will do both.
No, seriously...
(Sorry Team Oranje :( )
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6601 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 2 of 17 20 February 2014 at 3:14pm | IP Logged |
Read kujichagulia's posts. He lives in Japan, needs only English for work and doesn't particularly like Japanese.
You can stay on Team Oranje as an observer.
As for yet another new language, are you really sure you have a free slot?
2 persons have voted this message useful
|
Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4086 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German
| Message 3 of 17 20 February 2014 at 3:48pm | IP Logged |
Let me campaign for German:
-Enormous amount of learning material
-You can visit Germany periodically as you are close to it, to practice and keep
yourself motivated.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
albysky Triglot Senior Member Italy lang-8.com/1108796Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4392 days ago 287 posts - 393 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German
| Message 4 of 17 20 February 2014 at 4:32pm | IP Logged |
As for German , i can myself confirm that free learning resources are almost endless . But it won t make it
necessarily easier to learn other Germanic languages . I think you will only get a huge boost in dutch . I
have tried some swedish and i have noticed that German all in all was not so useful .
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4707 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian
| Message 5 of 17 20 February 2014 at 9:12pm | IP Logged |
I'm sorry to hear this Tristano! I hope that one day you will come back to Dutch. Sometimes a break is just what we
need to recharge and get back in the saddle.
You are, of course, always welcome in our TAC team. Once a member of the royal house of Oranje, always a
member. ;-)
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4257 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian
| Message 6 of 17 20 February 2014 at 9:32pm | IP Logged |
albysky wrote:
As for German , i can myself confirm that free learning resources are almost endless . But it won t make it
necessarily easier to learn other Germanic languages . I think you will only get a huge boost in dutch . I
have tried some swedish and i have noticed that German all in all was not so useful . |
|
|
From learning Swedish for years I have found it to be useful for German haha.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4525 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic
| Message 7 of 17 20 February 2014 at 9:55pm | IP Logged |
albysky wrote:
I have tried some swedish and i have noticed that German all in all was
not so useful . |
|
|
Seems like you haven't learned Swedish long enough - you get a lot of vocabulary almost
for free, but not so much of the high frequency part which you have to deal with as a
beginner. But knowing German helps tremendously for closing the gap between beginner
course and native materials.
As far as basic grammar is concerned, English is probably more useful though.
Edited by daegga on 20 February 2014 at 10:03pm
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Stolan Senior Member United States Joined 4036 days ago 274 posts - 368 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Thai, Lowland Scots Studies: Arabic (classical), Cantonese
| Message 8 of 17 20 February 2014 at 11:45pm | IP Logged |
German is a good option, I don't really feel Japanese is the useful anymore unless you plan on going to Japan.
German may have some potential in the future, EU and all.
Look into Cantonese, it's the Romanian like Mandarin is the Spanish of the East. A huge amount of Expats are
Cantonese, I hear it more in the USA.
Edited by Stolan on 20 February 2014 at 11:46pm
1 person has voted this message useful
|