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Dutch as a Stepping Stone to German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| varkstun Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4629 days ago 3 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 15 08 April 2012 at 10:56am | IP Logged | |||||
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In recent weeks, I've been collecting materials for learning a specific set of languages, namely Spanish, German, French, Dutch, and Italian, with the plan of learning these languages in that order and in groups of two. I have, however, been having doubts about this. What I would like to know is whether or not anyone here has found that learning Dutch well before tackling German has had any significant effect on the difficulty of the latter, and what method took full advantage of having learned Dutch beforehand. Just so you know, I prefer to use methods that explain the grammar in detail, and, knowing the complexity of German grammar when compared to that of English or Spanish, this is what gave me pause when it came time to decide which one to study first.
I thank you for your time, and hope that this will help other prospective learners of these two languages, and not just myself. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4698 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 2 of 15 08 April 2012 at 11:21am | IP Logged | |||||
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Being a native Dutchie, German grammar is the one thing you don't get for free, precisely because Dutch grammar is way simpler and doesn't have a lot of case declensions (except in archaics and personal pronouns). The only thing you'll be able to do is recognise a lot of words, and the basic syntax (but not more complex) functions in a more or less similar way.
I estimate that you can guess about 70-80% of words roundabout from their Dutch counterpart (even though you have to adapt spelling and pronunciation and count out false friends, which are numerous) but if you know one very well a lot of the simple phrases and expressions will be easy to understand. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Pisces Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4613 days ago 143 posts - 284 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish*, French, SwedishC1, Esperanto Studies: German, Spanish, Russian | Message 3 of 15 08 April 2012 at 1:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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You should start learning the language you care more about/will use more, or the one you have better resources for (good books, available courses, or the opportunity to visit the country and so forth).
Just as much as Dutch will help you with German, German will help you with Dutch. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| varkstun Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4629 days ago 3 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 15 09 April 2012 at 5:36am | IP Logged | |||||
Can you clarify what you mean by this? It seems to me to be in direct contradiction with the post above yours. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Tamise Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom jllrr.wordpress.com/ Joined 5234 days ago 115 posts - 161 votes Speaks: English*, German, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese, Spanish | Message 5 of 15 09 April 2012 at 8:22am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think knowing German and then starting Dutch is much more of a benefit as you go from the more complicated grammar to the easier one. As a native English speaker it's even better as Dutch is really somewhere in the middle of the two.
I did that and found that my understanding of Dutch was pretty high even from the beginning. Production less so, as I'm always worried I'm using a German word and not a Dutch one, but that just needs more work. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4698 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 6 of 15 09 April 2012 at 10:03am | IP Logged | |||||
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With regards to grammar, you'll see that verb conjugations and syntax work similarly, but all the adjective and article declensions are German only. Grammar is the stumbling block for Dutchies. You'll still get a lot for free though.
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| varkstun Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4629 days ago 3 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 15 09 April 2012 at 10:27am | IP Logged | |||||
In this case, what would you recommend? I am not currently in possession of any Dutch grammars or anything else for learning Dutch, while I have two German grammars and one German Berlitz book on their way. Would it be worth it to wait and learn Dutch first as a sort of introduction to the conjugation and syntax, or would it be preferable to learn German anyway and breeze through Dutch afterwards? This may also be slightly irrelevant, but what would anyone recommend for, firstly, learning Dutch grammar and then building up on the vocabulary of the language? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Pisces Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4613 days ago 143 posts - 284 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish*, French, SwedishC1, Esperanto Studies: German, Spanish, Russian | Message 8 of 15 09 April 2012 at 1:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
I don't think it's really in contradiction with the other post. What I mean is that the main help you'll get is with the vocabulary. If you learn German first, you will recognize a lot of Dutch vocabulary and vice versa. By the way, my background to this subject is that I have learnt Swedish, living in Sweden, and later have studied German (mainly to read). The Swedish certainly helps. I have never studied Dutch but I can read simple Dutch texts. Dutch is closer to German than Swedish is, I gather. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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