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Fluent Dutch in 2 months! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| irishpolyglot Nonaglot Senior Member Ireland fluentin3months Joined 5624 days ago 285 posts - 892 votes  Speaks: Irish, English*, French, Esperanto, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Sign Language Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 28 30 March 2011 at 4:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey everyone, it's the crazy Irish guy again :D
I'm moving to Amsterdam in 6 days and will be aiming for fluency in Dutch by June 1st. I've defined precisely what I see as fluency on my blog here, but I'd more generally state it as C1 level from a European CEFRL grading viewpoint. (i.e. very good, with confident flowing use of a language in natural situations but not quite "mastery" yet). I will be focusing entirely on spoken Dutch with natives, but my writing abilities tend to improve in these spoken missions too. I've no background at all in Dutch, but I can speak German. If you've any tips for living in Amsterdam or encouragement etc. let me know :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5372 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 2 of 28 30 March 2011 at 5:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Benny, have you ever thought of documenting every step of your study of a language? Over the course of 2 months, it seems fairly manageable. You could record yourself everyday, and then we could have a final video of you with progressively better ability! That would be fascinating to watch.
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| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5547 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 3 of 28 30 March 2011 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ádh mór ort, Benny! Go get 'em... :)
And seconding Arekkusu, it'd be cool to have some kind of daily record of the steps you took to get there for other learners (perhaps even with a weekly video diary, if you can fit it all in). Edited by Teango on 30 March 2011 at 5:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| RogerK Triglot Groupie Austria Joined 5066 days ago 92 posts - 181 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian Studies: Portuguese | Message 4 of 28 30 March 2011 at 5:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think you might just do it. German and Dutch are very similar, so depending on your level of German your Dutch will be close to your German in a very short time. If you could live in Germany today speaking solely German then your Dutch goal is easily achievable.
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| irishpolyglot Nonaglot Senior Member Ireland fluentin3months Joined 5624 days ago 285 posts - 892 votes Speaks: Irish, English*, French, Esperanto, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Sign Language Studies: Mandarin | Message 5 of 28 30 March 2011 at 6:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Arekkusu Recording EVERY step of my progress would be a logistical nightmare, especially since I do all my learning socially - being social while shoving a camera in people's faces would force them to act unnaturally. Recording me speaking at the camera by myself is something I would personally find dreadfully dull and it proves nothing (I could just be reading text off a screen that I prepared in advance etc.)
HOWEVER, I will attempt to record my first *ever* actual attempts at conversing, likely already on my 2nd or 3rd day if I find a place to live quickly enough (since all uses of Dutch up to then will be superficial, asking for directions etc.). I'll see if someone would be willing to help me with that video and we would agree on where to meet online (likely writing to oneanother in English in advance to clarify what's going to happen) and then just speak in Dutch from the get go, while recording it. I'd do that to demonstrate visually a lot of what I do in my communicative learning process, like use of extrapolation, social cues, reading body language etc. in initial stages of learning a language. I really think such things (independent of amount of vocabulary) are hugely ignored in nearly all language learning approaches and I'd like people to think about them more. You'll see on my blog recently how I had an incredible experience on a train ride in India with locals despite not knowing a single word of Hindi or other Indian languages. Of course, people request more regular updates so I will try to do that and record some natural conversation etc. I prefer to make a video with a point - something worth sharing online. I'd hate to pollute my Youtube channel (which I personally think has mostly quality videos) with random conversations, but I may upload a bunch of otherwise dull conversations to flickr (it allows 90 second videos on my account) and share them publicly if people really want to see such things! But I wouldn't do it *every* day ;) @RogerK Exactly a year ago I was indeed living in Germany - I spoke next to no English for 4 months there, so yes "speaking solely" in German is something I can do ;) (Although I did that from the start even when my level was miserable). Edited by irishpolyglot on 30 March 2011 at 6:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5372 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 6 of 28 30 March 2011 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | ||
It's not about proving something, it's about showing the evolution of language ability over a course of study. A short recording everyday, be it a few seconds or a few minutes, could yield a very interesting edited video at the end. I hope you consider that option. It would be a hit, I tell ya! Edited by Arekkusu on 30 March 2011 at 6:14pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| irishpolyglot Nonaglot Senior Member Ireland fluentin3months Joined 5624 days ago 285 posts - 892 votes Speaks: Irish, English*, French, Esperanto, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Sign Language Studies: Mandarin | Message 8 of 28 30 March 2011 at 6:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Arekkusu An edited video of progress over several months sounds much more interesting! I might do that, but in a later mission where I have no advantages from the start like with Dutch. But you'll see a couple of videos anyway to see how I'm progressing :)
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