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Grammar books and dictionary for Dutch

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14 messages over 2 pages: 1
tristano
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 4037 days ago

905 posts - 1262 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English
Studies: Dutch

 
 Message 9 of 14
14 August 2014 at 12:47pm | IP Logged 
Hi @Speakeasy, thank you for your comments and advices. I have a much clear overview.
The goal of this thread is planning my studies, so I can measure the costs (time,
money) to arrive.
About my level, I would say it is quite strange. I started two years ago to study the
language. Or at least, those were my activities:
- for the first year, complaining that it was too much difficult instead of studying
- for the second year, studying on and off without ever having put the right effort

In this precise moment, I receive quite a few job offers in Dutch and I reply to them
in Dutch (refusing them all). I have to lookup some word but it is quite smooth now.
For what is about my spoken Dutch, in two years I said those 4 sentences:
- mag ik een Mango Pudding?
- mag ik de rekening?
- ik moet betalen
- ik spreek geen Nederlands
all of these sentences, only once.

So I consider myself A1. Ultrabeginner.

About the book: I bought it intentionally without the CD. I don't care about the spoken
language for the moment, for that I will indeed use Assimil (but in passive only,
spaced repetition mode). I might know most of the grammar points of that book, but I
need to reinforce my knowledge about the foundations of the grammar, therefore I bought
the book because of the exercises (maybe I can complete them all in on month or less
instead of 3, still proceeding with Duolingo). I don't want to learn Dutch such
incompletely as my English. For this reason I want to avoid having holes in my
knowledge yet avoiding to waste time on unhelpful resources.
I want to start Assimil when I have a B1 level of grammar, to focus myself to the
spoken expressions and not the sentence structures. In the same time I will proceed to
intermediate/advanced grammar books.
I'm already using native resources. I read De Alchemist understanding more or less the
30%. I will read it again in French and then a third time in Dutch. I read nu.nl
sometimes and I started reading Harry Potter.
When I'll have the writing level to write essays and the comprehension to read the
finest publications and watch movies at the cinema, I will start to study the
pronunciation and when the pronunciation is native-like, I will start speaking starting
from "Ik spreek alleen een beetje Nederlands", "Hoe gaat het met u" and "wij kunnen om
twee huur afspreken" :)

(my first real conversation in English was my job interview to come in The Netherlands,
so it doesn't sound odd to me ;) My motto is "write from day 1" :D)

I need to measure the time needed to achieve this. I would like to start speaking for
January 2016. Do you see any issues about my plan?

Thank you very much again

Edited by tristano on 14 August 2014 at 10:05pm

1 person has voted this message useful



albysky
Triglot
Senior Member
Italy
lang-8.com/1108796Registered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4378 days ago

287 posts - 393 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, English, German

 
 Message 10 of 14
14 August 2014 at 9:42pm | IP Logged 
In my opinion , you can make it for sure . If I were you , I would choose just one grammar book out of the
ones they have been mentioned . I wouldn't focus too much on drills , I would just try to get an overview of
the dutch grammar (which all in all is not so tremendously complex ) and I would try to hit the language
(listening and reading ) as soon as possible using elotronic dictionaries and/or a reading software.
Assimil , podcasts with a script (on lingq.com they have free content you can get your hands on for this
purpose) books and audiobooks etc etc , that is what you should concentrate on, in my humble opinion .
at the beginning it might be a bit frustrating given the huge amount of unknown words , but in the long run
I
am sure it will pay off . Besides you have the great bonus to be living in the netherlands .

Edited by albysky on 15 August 2014 at 10:08am

3 persons have voted this message useful



Speakeasy
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 4042 days ago

507 posts - 1098 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 11 of 14
15 August 2014 at 1:57am | IP Logged 
Hi tristano,
I support all of albysky’s comments. C’est quoi le vieux dicton toujours : “Tous les chemins mènent à Rome »?
Bonne chance!

2 persons have voted this message useful



tristano
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 4037 days ago

905 posts - 1262 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English
Studies: Dutch

 
 Message 12 of 14
15 August 2014 at 5:46pm | IP Logged 
Hi @albysky, @Speakeasy,
thank you very much. I have a long way (first really Germanic language) but with the
valuable advices and encouragements I constantly receive in this forum, I'm sure that I
will do it as long as I put the necessary effort to it.
1 person has voted this message useful



MRoss
Newbie
Australia
Joined 6168 days ago

15 posts - 21 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Dutch, German, Spanish

 
 Message 13 of 14
23 August 2014 at 8:41am | IP Logged 
Tristano,

Welcome to Nederlands.

If you tackle grammar first you will make it unnecessarily hard on yourself. Because you will
be trying to master word order before you have a sufficient enough number of words.

My opinion is, you need an audio version of some text. This would be a luisterboek. This way,
you have the option of listening as you read along, or just listening maybe in the way to
work. It also gives you text to translate. If you have an English version of the Dutch text
then you have something to check your translation against, otherwise you will need someone to
double check it for accuracy.

The words you translate become your vocabulary list.

This will give you an understanding of the text, an ability to understand the spoken word, a
feel for the language and its grammar and a vocabulary list.

As you translate more, your understanding will increase and you will be able to understand
audio you had not yet heard and text not previously translated.

After, say a month, then tackle grammar. Start with dutchgrammar.com for info about word
order, how "pocket fish" can help with verb endings and tenses and a heap of stuff
specifically about Dutch grammar. At the moment it will seem tough, but if you delay doing
grammar for a month or so, then it will make sense. And by then you will also have a list of
words up your sleeve to apply the grammar.

Throw a Pimsleur or Michel Thomas into the mix for spoken learning and pronounciation and
your 2016 goal will be very achievable.
1 person has voted this message useful



tristano
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 4037 days ago

905 posts - 1262 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English
Studies: Dutch

 
 Message 14 of 14
26 August 2014 at 11:02pm | IP Logged 
Hoi MrRoss, dank je wel voor jouw inzichten.
Het belangrijk ding hier is: ik ben niet een compleet beginner. Ik gebruikt Pimsleur en Michael Thomas het vorig
jaar. Ik weet tussen 1000 worden en ik mogelijk begrijp 2000 (passief). Ik voel dat ik heb nodig om te grammatica
studeren omdat ik goede tekst produceren wil, en als kan ik goede tekst produceren, denk ik dat ik kan ook goed
spreken.

But you're right, the most difficult part for me is understanding what people say, and this is why I want to rely
heavily on Assimil before to study advanced grammar and rely on massive input. I almost finished the Pimsleur and
arrived to the 6th cd of Michel Thomas, but they both bored me quite a lot and I fell like they were slowing my
learning of Dutch. My listening comprehension is improving much quickly by studying grammar than when I studied
with Pimsleur and Michel Thomas.

I have the impression that my journey between the A2 to B1 will be much quickier than the one I had from A0 to A2
(when I will be there).


1 person has voted this message useful



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