Learn 2B Dutch Blog

Het moment dat je je kinderen van zes en acht voor het eerst Engels hoort spreken met andere kinderen, voelt een beetje als wanneer je ze voor het eerst de helling af ziet skiën. Dat ze je na een weekje skiles inhalen op de piste, is net zo onwaarschijnlijk als dat ze jou na een maand of twee op school in het buitenland gaan vertellen wat het Engelse woord voor lineaal is (ruler). Trots en verbouwereerd was ik.

‘We doen het'
Nu een jaar geleden gingen we op ‘oriëntatiebezoek' naar Hong Kong. Kijken of we daar naartoe zouden willen/kunnen/durven verhuizen. We (vooral ik) haalden diep adem en zei aan het einde van het bezoek met een klein stemmetje: ‘ok, we doen het'.

Engelse les in Nederland
Direct na terugkomst in Nederland gingen we op zoek naar een Engelse juf die de jongens in de twee maanden die het nog zou duren voor we de grote oversteek zouden gaan maken, zoveel mogelijk Engels zouden kunnen bijbrengen. Uiteindelijk vonden we, dankzij Marktplaats, twee juffen die drie keer in de week bij ons thuis les konden geven. Twee keer twee uur onder schooltijd en twee uur in het weekend. We hadden haast, want we hadden maar zes weken totdat we zouden vertrekken...

Mijn bijdrage
Op internet had ik gekeken naar wat ik er zelf nog aan zou kunnen doen. Moesten we thuis alleen nog maar Engels gaan praten misschien? De meningen zijn, zoals zo vaak op onderwijsgebied, zeer verdeeld maar thuis van de ene op de andere dag Engels gaan spreken tegen je kinderen wordt door de meeste experts niet aanbevolen. Wel liet ik ze, als ik stond te koken, aan de keukentafel oefenen met software van Juffrouw Blom (woorden Engels) en als we in de auto zaten vertaalden we woorden van Nederlands naar Engels. Als we uit eten gingen deden we Galgje met Engelse woorden. ' s Avonds in bed las ik ze, bij wijze van experiment, voor uit Engelse boeken, maar dit laatste viel niet erg in de smaak. ‘We snappen er niks van mam'.

Hmmm
Op een speelse manier leerden ze namen van dieren, lichaamsdelen, getallen en kleuren. Alleen, helaas, het klonk nog niet erg Engels en bovendien waren het vooral afzonderlijke woorden die ze leerden. Na twee maanden waren ze nog niet in staat een enigszins kloppende Engelse zin te produceren. ‘Kinderen leren Engels in no-time', zei de een tegen me. ‘Je hoeft je echt geen zorgen te maken over het Engels', zei de ander. ‘Hmm. Jaja...', antwoordde ik dan om vervolgens te denken: ‘eerst zien, dan geloven'.

Toelatingstesten in Hong Kong
Om in Hong Kong naar een van de goed aangeschreven basisscholen te gaan, worden de kinderen eerst uitvoerig getest. Met name om te kijken of het Engels dat ze spreken goed genoeg is om mee te kunnen draaien in de klas (en om geen blok aan het been van de juf of meester te worden). In juni vertrokken we en, ondanks dat we ons zes weken lang behoorlijk hadden ingespannen, het Engels van de kinderen leek nog niet echt ergens op.

Geen school voor de kinderen
Naast uitvoerig testen, doen ze in Hong Kong ook aan eindeloze wachtlijsten voor scholen. Geen enkele goed aangeschreven internationale school had in juni een plekje voor ze.... Enerzijds betekende dit dat ze drie (!) maanden vakantie zouden hebben, anderzijds was er meer tijd om het Engels op peil te brengen. Opnieuw werden er juffen aangerukt en werden de kinderen aangemeld voor summer courses.

De hele dag Engels om je heen
De summer courses bleken een goede zet. Blijkbaar is het van belang dat kinderen de nieuwe taal de hele dag om zich heen horen. Grappig was het om te zien hoe verschillend de oudste en de jongste met hun nieuwe taal omgingen. De oudste maakte al snel gemixte zinnen. ‘I go to the winkel', terwijl de jongste consequent Nederlands terug bleef praten tegen de kinderen en de juf, waarop de oudste dan weer de hele dag: ‘I don't understand you' tegen de jongste ging zeggen, die daar vervolgens weer heel verdrietig om werd.

Test na test
Inmiddels was het augustus en zou het niet lang meer duren voordat de scholen weer open gingen. Het Engels dat ze intussen spraken klonk echt al heel redelijk. Ik was benieuwd hoe de testers van de prestigieuze internationale basisscholen daarover dachten. Helaas waren zij minder enthousiast. ‘Stuur ze eerst maar een half jaartje naar een b-keuze school en dan testen we ze over een half jaar nog een keer'.

Twijfel
Ik kon wel huilen. Ik begon er sterk aan te twijfelen of we er wel verstandig aan hadden gedaan om ze van hun leuke, goede en gezellige school in Amsterdam af te halen en mee te nemen naar Hong Kong. Hun rapportcijfers waren altijd goed geweest, maar desondanks meldde school na school dat ze onze kinderen helaas geen plekje konden geven.

B-keuze school
Een b-keuze school dan maar. Als we maar dik betaalden, dan had de Amerikaanse Montessori School wel een plekje voor de oudste. Voor de jongste was er een Britse kleuterschool die wat bijbeunde op het gebied van basisonderwijs. Beide scholen waren ver van ons huis, maar ‘iets is beter dan niets' redeneerden we en na drie maanden zomervakantie was moeder ook wel klaar met vakantievieren.

Eind goed al goed
Voor de expats onder u is dit waarschijnlijk geen nieuws, maar alles werd anders toen ze eenmaal naar (de b-keuze) school gingen. Nog geen maand na de eerste schooldag had ik dat trotse en verbouwereerde gevoel dat ik in de inleiding beschreef. En nu, bijna een jaar later, spreken ze beide mooier Engels dan hun moeder en zeg ik tegen iedereen die het horen wil: ‘Maak je maar geen zorgen, kinderen leren Engels in no-time'.

Door: Ellen Blom van Juffrouw Blom

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I've been living in the Netherlands for 14 months now and studying the language for a little over a year. I certainly do not profess to be fluent, although I can communicate pretty easily in Dutch both in speech and in writing. What I have found that is slightly alarming is that the more Dutch I learn, the more of my own language I forget.

The other day for example, I was telling my mom about a meeting I had gone to. I wanted to get more involved in the group and was going to try to join one of the commissies. "One of the what?" Now here's where the problem came: I couldn't for the life of me think of the English word for commissie. I struggled for several minutes and could hear my mom getting frustrated on the other end of the line. So, I used what English words I could to explain what a commissie was. It was a group that got together to make decisions regarding various aspects of an organization. I gave examples of commissies I was in back in the US that I knew she knew about. "A committee?" Ah, yes, that would be the word.

Why was it so hard to come up with that? This was not the first time something like this has happened. Nor was it the last. Another one I remember having a hard time with when my brother was visiting last month was internship. I just couldn't come up with the English word on my own. Sometimes my husband finds himself translating from Dutch to English for me in addition to translating from English to Dutch. It's downright embarrassing.

But even worse is when I forget an English word when I don't even know the Dutch equivalent. In this instance the excuse of the Dutch word coming to mind first because I use it more often doesn't cut it - I don't know the Dutch word either! Dreaming in Dutch? Cool. Choosing Dutch over English regardless of circumstance the moment I've had one too many? Funny. Endearing even. Struggling with my mother tongue because living here has put me on Dutch overload? Frightening.

I recently spoke with a secretary at my husband's work. She's originally from Spain and has been living here for 25 years. She works in Dutch, all her relationships are in Dutch, she even speaks to her daughter in Dutch. She rarely dreams in Spanish anymore and finds it somewhat difficult to communicate in her native language when speaking to her family and friends back in Spain. She reassured me that my English is still there. All of it. It's just been pushed to a different location in my brain since it's not needed quite as often.

But for me, I still feel as though my memory is being erased. Perhaps this is the way the beginning stages of Alzheimer's feels. There are things you knew you knew that you can no longer recall. It's scary and it's frustrating, and you can't help but wonder what will happen to you in the more advanced stages. This correlation has me calling my condition Taalzheimer's - taal being the Dutch word for language.

Are any of you feeling the beginning stages of Taalzheimer's? Are there any readers in the more advanced stages? How does it feel and how do you cope? I look forward to hearing about your experiences.

*Taken from the blog Clogs and Tulips: An American in Holland

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It's Christmas time, pretty baby! And though no snow has fallen to the ground yet here in the Netherlands, at one week and a couple days till Christmas, now is the time to start getting ready! Here's a mini Dutch-English Christmas dictionary to get you in the spirit. To hear the words pronounced in Dutch, go to acapela-group.com. Select either "Femke" or "Max" under "select a voice," copy and paste the word you want to hear in the text box, and press "say it"! Please feel free to suggest more words in a comment - I know I haven't even come close to covering them all!

Christmas tree - kerstboom

Christmas music - kerstmuziek

Christmas decoration - de kersthang or de kerstversiering

to celebrate - vieren

poinsettia - de kerstster

reindeer - het rendier

sleigh - de slee

sled - de slede

snow - sneeuw

to snow - sneeuwen

cold -de koud

chilly - fris

ice skating/to ice skate - schaatsen

Christmas Day - kerstdag

Merry Christmas - Prettige kerstmis or Prettige kerstdagen

Happy New Year - Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar

eggnog - eierpunch

New Year's Eve - Oud en Nieuw

Santa Claus - de kerstman

wish list - de verlanglijst

present - het cadeau or het kado

Read more at http://clogsandtulips.blogspot.com

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Another Halloween has come and gone, for those of us who celebrate it. But, just for fun, here is a mini Dutch/English dictionary of Halloween vocabulary! To hear the pronunciations, go to Acapela Group , select the voice of either "femke" or "Max," type or copy and paste the text into the text box, and press "say it."

 skeleton - (het) skelet

pumpkin - (de) pompoen

ghost - (de) geest

spooky - spookachtig

spider - (de) spin

cobweb - (het) spinnerag

witch - (de) heks

vampire - (de) vampier

werewolf - (de) weerwolf

candy - snoep

October - oktober

monster - (het) monster

bat - (de) vleermuis

scary - enge

full moon - (de) volle maan

mummy - (de) mummy

autumn - herfst

costume - (het) kostuum

owl - (de) uil

night - (de) nacht

dark - donker

broom - (de) bezem

cat - (de) kat or (de) poes

tombstone - (de) grafsteen

graveyard - (de) begraafplaats

scarecrow - (de) vogelverschrikker

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There's no doubt that the Internet is a fabulous source. There seems to be a website for everything nowadays, and search engines like Google bring information right to our fingertips with the simple click of a button.

 So why not use the Internet to help you learn a little Dutch? Since beginning my Dutch Language journey back in January '09, I have acquired quite the collection of websites that specialize in helping it's visitors learn Dutch. Here's a list of the ones I've used and find helpful with a brief description of each. If you have any sites you've used that are not listed here, please feel free to add them in a comment. Also, be sure to read my article How to Write the Dutch Language on ehow.com !

Babel Fish Translator - It's not a Dutch teaching site, but it is still a valuable tool. By translating things you don't understand or don't fully understand, you can get an idea of what is being said or written and possibly learn some new words as well.  Be careful though, as Babel Fish translates literally and in the order the words appear in the original text.

 Dutch Grammar -  This is actually an online course complete with worksheets, downloads, links, books, a forum, and an audio section. Lessons cover word order, pronouns, nouns and articles, spelling and pronunciation, verbs, and adverbs and adjectives.

 Verbix - A verb conjugator. Very handy. The link here goes directly to the Dutch verb conjugator, but other languages are available as well. Just type in the verb in its infinitive form and let Verbix do the rest.

 Inter Glot - Quick and easy (and very efficient) dictionary. Several languages are available and you can chose what language you're staring out with and what language you want to end up with.

 Laura Speaks Dutch- When Brenno de Winter met an American woman named Laura, he wanted an easy way to teach her the language. He did so by using the medium he knows best: podcasts. Through a series of podcasts (he's up to episode 56 at the time of this posting), he teaches her the Dutch language using real life scenarios.

Acapela Group - This website is great for learning how to pronounce those difficult Dutch words. Under "voices" select either Femke or Max. Type the word or phrase you want to know how to pronounce in the "text" box and press "say it". The program will read the text back to you.

2bDutch - Of course, I could never leave this one out! Through it's blogs and vidoes, 2bDutch brings Dutch culture and language to life. All videos include Dutch subtitles as well as subtitles in the language of your choice so you can year it in Dutch, read it in Dutch, and read the translation. The site also includes a wealth of tips and advice on integrating and learning the language.

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Let’s see… where to begin? Well, I am a 26-year-old American who moved to the Netherlands for my Dutch husband. I’ve found that the whole “Dutch partner” thing is pretty typical here.

I met my husband in September 2007 and started learning some silly words from him like voetjevrijen (“footsies”) and schatje (“sweetie”). He eventually taught me how to count and the “biggie” verbs: hebben (“to have”) and zijn (“to be”). As Walt Disney said, it is a “Small world after all.” Just to drive home that fact, there happened to be a Dutch exchange student at the high school where my mother was teaching at the time. It was this student, Naomi, who prepared me for the dreaded “Meeting of the Future In-laws” (which becomes just that much more terrifying when you don’t speak the same language). While all of this was fun and helpful, it certainly was not enough to get by once I was actually living in the Netherlands.

My mother is a stickler for being able to speak enough of the language to get by in whatever country you plan to visit. So it never crossed my mind to live in the Netherlands and not learn the language. I have also had this innate desire to be fluent in a second language and have long been jealous of those who are bilingual. I studied Spanish and then French during high school (four and three years respectively) and did extremely well, but, as the saying goes “if you don’t use it, you lose it.” And I lost 99% of the Spanish and roughly half of the French. So I see this as being my ‘big chance.’ Mainly because I now have one key aspect that I was missing with the other two languages: immersion.

I am a firm believer that there is truly only one way to learn a language, and that’s the instruction/immersion combo. During instruction by a certified teacher, you learn the structure and the ‘why’s’. Basically, you learn to speak, read, and write the language correctly. With the immersion piece, you hear it all the time and you can apply what you learn in class to real life as well as learn the way the people speak the language – not just the way the text book uses the language.

I started using the Dutch I knew right away. Even when my vocabulary only included dankuwel and alstublieft, I forced myself to use English only to fill in the gaps. Now I use it only when I have asked the person to repeat themselves or speak slower and I still don’t understand.

Another great piece of advice is to speak it all the time. During the break in my Dutch class, I sit with the teacher and listen to and speak with her. I also use it with my husband more frequently as my Dutch improves. And my husband’s friends speak more Dutch around me now that they know I understand the majority of what they’re saying. I play a little game with myself to see how little English I can use whenever I go shopping or to the dreaded Gemeentehuis. I also joined a Dutch practice group through the International Women’s Club I joined here in Utrecht. The woman who leads the group has lived in the Netherlands for 12 years and is positively fluent. She has really given me something to aspire to.

Dutch is undoubtedly a complicated language. I have found bits and pieces of French and English within it, but all in all, it is nothing like any other language I have studied. The structure of sentences is very complicated. You’re always in suspense until you get to the end of the sentence, which is where the verb usually is. And no matter how much I practice or how hard I think about it, niet always eludes me. Where on earth do you put it depending on the point you want to get across? There are just so many rules and exceptions! The bijzin, in my opinion, is by far the worst. You just can’t translate them literally. Although I will admit that it is fun! Take “als je Nederlands wil leren” for example… “if you Dutch want to learn”??? You gotta love it!

My husband loves the little oddities I come up with. For instance, I learned rather quickly that you cannot directly translate everything. “Home sweet home” does not become “Thuis lief thuis.” Nor does “Kijk naar je mond” mean the same as “Watch your mouth.” Then there’s the art of communicating in simpler words you do know when you don’t know the appropriate vocabulary. This is an art I have not quite mastered: chopping an onion and saying to my husband, with tears streaming down my face (as happens when one cuts onions) and saying “Mijn ogen heeft water.”

How about you: any Dutch speaking faux pas’ native Dutch speakers have given you an odd look over? I know you have them!

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I've been living in Holland now for about 5 years. In this time I managed to learn Dutch (though I still would like to improve it a lot) and become friends with Erwin (yes, the dude from 2bdutch). Erwin asked me to write about my experience of learning Dutch and give some tips about things I found particularly helpful. I'm very happy to do that as I find 2bdutch a truly wonderful way of learning a foreign language that especially suits my style of learning. Actually as I was starting learning the language I was frantically surfing the internet looking for a site that offered what 2bdutch offers. A collection of videos with subtitles about interesting topics and of variying degrees of language difficulty. Sadly I found none. The only things I could find were sites offering to teach me the Dutch grammar and increase my vocabulary through memorizing longs lists of words. But this is utterly useless. Learning a language should be fun. It should be relevant. It should be effective. And what is a better way to achieve all that than watch Erny tease Bert about counting non-existent watermelons?

When I arrived in Holland I knew no Dutch except for a few words I learned. What I did in the first few months was practice the very little I knew. This included carrying out such simple conversations that started with "Hoe gaat het?" and ended with "Ook goed". This went on for a while and gradually I picked some more words and phrases I could use. Initially, I was planning to follow a course in order to improve my Dutch. I could not register for the course that started just when I arrived and thus had to wait a few months. When the time came the course started. I was very enthousiastic since this was a course given by a very prestigious institute (it was also very expansive, but my university paid for it) so I had high hopes. Sadly the course did not meet any of the expectations I had. The focus of the course was grammar. Thus it was boring and ineffective. Learning a language through grammar is unnatural. It is like learning to ride a bicycle by learning physics. If you just look at kids it becomes obvious. They all learn a language but they do not do it through grammar. They do not know the grammar. They do not need to know it. They learn it through experience. Through play. By having fun. Imagine that somebody offered to teach you how to ride a bike by sitting in a classroom and learning the physics of gravity, rotation, inertia, and balance. What is the point? Just take your bike and go for a ride. Do it carefully at first and practice in a safe parking lot or something. But as soon as possible go for a ride along the river and have some fun!

This is therefor my tip about learning Dutch (and any foreign language). Simply do it. Speak it even though you know you make more mistakes than anything else. Dont worry about it too much. Just use it and enjoy it. And as soon as possible start reading simple books. Kids books at first. This improves the vocabulary at an enormous rate and it's fun. Take a book you have read before in a language you know well and reread it in Dutch. And of course watch some videos on 2bdutch.

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