r/learndutch • u/HelloAndNah • 1d ago

Learning dutch!

Hoi, Goedemorgen! Hoe gaat het?

okay okay seriously.. so my mother tongue is Bahasa/malay and my second language is english (fluent)

so back during the colonial era in indonesia my maternal great grandma married a dutch soldier (my great grandpa). so i kinda have like… dutch blood runs through me 🫪. the past few days ever since i bought an iphone i lowkey cannot enter 18+ (ifykyk) website without using Vpn. So I decided to install a free Vpn and it constantly gave me netherlands. I think the universe wants me to learn dutch. currently im learning dutch… a bit confused a little bit but google says it will be easier for an english speaker so yea.

I can memorized the basic but im the type to deep dived for even one simple word, which is sucks because it made me more confused most of the time. But what I do was I took all the english basic words, translate it and try to put 2 and 2 together. and then i listen to dutch songs and take some of the cool sentences and try to translate it myself and if I couldnt remember I will refer back to my notes.

Any more tips that can help me to improve dutch to 20-25% by the end of this month?

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u/ordinary-penguin 1d ago edited 1d ago

I know this is a very basic (and sometimes controversial) idea but duolingo is really good for casual language learners, especially if you're learning from scratch! pair that with youtube channels that teach grammar e.g. Learn Dutch with Kim and you'll be able to learn the language easily. There are also paid courses online that you could do instead.

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u/TrippleassII 1d ago

I was learning German for over a year on Duolingo daily and knew less German than I knew Dutch after a week with a course book. It's really bad for learning a language. Nobody remembers anything from DL. Only: "Ik ben een appel."

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u/ordinary-penguin 1d ago

I've been using it too and it's worked pretty well for me, but I've been using youtube to learn grammar. it sounds like this person is more of a casual learner so Duolingo with another source to learn grammar should be good enough

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u/circu2112 1d ago

Learn Dutch with Kim is great. She clearly and slowly pronounces everything so you can hear how it's supposed to sound, and she explains why somethings are said different ways. Duolingo on the other hand will get you nowhere in the Netherlands though. You might catch a word or two, but you won't be speaking with the locals anytime soon.

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u/Opening-Square3006 1d ago

The VPN choosing your next language is a new one haha. English will definitely give you a head start with Dutch because you'll constantly run into familiar vocabulary and sentence patterns. But I'd stop translating huge lists of basic English words. You'll memorize a lot of disconnected vocabulary without necessarily becoming much better at understanding Dutch. Instead, try comprehensible input. Stephen Krashen's i+1 idea is basically that you consume language you can mostly understand while encountering a small amount of new stuff. PlusOneLanguage is useful for this because it generates texts around your level and then recycles words you didn't know in later texts. At the beginning, that's much easier than trying to understand native content. Good luck!

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u/Relevant_Mobile6989 1d ago

A lot of people will tell you that it’s easy to learn it online. I don’t think so. I started learning it online, then ended up taking classes with teachers from my own country. I recently joined classes in the Netherlands after being on a waiting list for 2+ years.

In my personal opinion, it’s one of those languages that may look easy on paper, but the speaking part is just horrible. It’s almost impossible to understand some words when people from the North or the countryside speak. The vocabulary is also difficult because you have to learn every noun with its article. There are some rules, but many times you just mess up the article, and it drives you crazy.

My advice is look for a native to teach you and switch to Dutch during your meetings.

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u/Correct_Addendum_367 1d ago

When you're studying words, try to learn if it's de or het immediately, so you won't have to figure it out later. Also try memorizing some phrases used in basic conversation. It might not give you a huge increase in understanding of the language but it can make you able to do a lot more with the knowledge you do have and it shouldn't be much harder then memorizing words