een twen trie vier
2 weeks ago
ik speek nederlands, maar niet vloeiend.
How to become fluent in dutch
It made me
Satisfied and smug! 
"As a recent immigrant to a Dutch-speaking country, feeling competent in the language was so important for me and gives me a tremendous sense of independence."
How I did it: Immigrants to the Netherlands are required to prove language & cultural competence. Although you can do self-study and simply test out, most enroll in courses. The study guide for those courses is Nederlands voor Buitenlanders, which uses the Delft method of language instruction. As far as I know, that method hasn't found it's way to other languages, which is a shame. It uses text & CDs to teach vocabulary & fluidity in speech. There is little emphasis on grammar which, for a native English speaker, is the most difficult aspect of the Dutch language. Still, it's a great method & in four months, I reached a level high enough to qualify for university. Fluency came much much later because I was very shy & hesitant to practice. Your mileage may vary. I also benefited from living with a Dutch-speaking husband and two step-sons (though their English became very quickly much better than my Dutch!) and I'm "required" to speak Dutch at home.
Lessons & tips:
* Enlist the help of someone who speaks ABN (Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands) or "proper" Dutch to practice speaking the language. For such a small country, the Netherlands has quite a few strong regional variations (think, akin to the Cajun dialect), though there is one official language.
* Don't be a shy ninny like I was! The more you speak, the better you get. Dutch people are famous for their tolerance of people who just try to speak their language. In fact, they're so tolerant, if they hear an American or English accent, they often will seamlessly slip into English and before you know it, your Dutch skills fly out the window! Don't let them!Continue speaking Dutch even if they answer in English. They'll respect you for it. And if worse comes to worse, do what better-educated Dutch do, sprinkle your Dutch with English phrases. The higher-educated, the more they do this. Go with the flow!
* If in the Netherlands, watch lots of commercial TV senders (RTL, Veronica, for example). Most films are left in English with Dutch subtitles. You'll learn to read Dutch in no time (though you'll also learn a lot of salty language as Dutch TV is much more liberal than American)
Resources:
- In-Flight Dutch (audio CD & guide)
- Nederlands voor Buitenlanders (text & CD)
- Rosetta Stone - Dutch (though I don't recommend it to assess your accent; my Dutch husband never gets a perfect rating)
People doing this are also doing these things:
Entries
Untitled
11 months ago
i got rosetta stone nederlands levels 1, 2, and 3!! i will say- it is already improving my dutch a LOT compared to teaching myself with a book.
het gaat prima!
19 months ago
ik heb pas de laatste vier maanden bestudeerd, maar ik begrijp veel meer nu.
de ding dat is voor me moeilijk is de duitse grammatica die ik kent- hij verwart me vaak wanneer ik nederlands spreken probeer.
see, right now i’m just making up the grammar based on what “feels right” from the little i know about dutch and my now distant memories of the 4 years of german i studied. it’s going to be a little sloppy to sort through, for me.
oh well, the cool thing is that my vocab is building, i think my accent is going to be pretty good eventually, and i understand sooo much! so tomorrow i go to amsterdam for 2 weeks again and i can’t wait to have my ears infiltrated with the sounds of dutch being spoken, so i can try to get better and better.
i want to be able to say one or two things to b’s parents when i meet them… the are pretty old, so i’ll have to be LOUD and CLEAR. i hope i have it in me not to be shy and quiet in my attempts!!
De Delftse Methode
2 years ago
I’m studying with the Delftse Methode text and workbook. This is the same material used in the Netherlands to teach all immigrants Dutch. In mid-February, I begin an intensive course which, by the end of June, will have me at a high school graduate level of fluency.
