Language II

I'm breaking this into 2 parts because my super long posts look scary.

In addition to classes, there's other ways to work on Dutch. The first one I used was Rosetta Stone. This was very useful in getting basic vocabulary, tourist Dutch, and eventually understanding sentence structure quirks. I completed level 1 and 2 before moving over, and some of level 3. It's not perfect, and lacks the focus needed for inburgering versus vacationing, but it was still the best option for getting started before moving over. Somewhat expensive, but still far cheaper than classes, and I think the instructional method using photos, real dutch speakers, and repetition worked far better than the type of instruction I received in high school and college language classes. I also liked being able to do as much as I wanted, when I wanted. But I found my brain getting tired after spending more than 1 hour at a time using it.

After getting here, hearing people speak Dutch has been useful. But I can't work or take classes yet, so I don't spend a lot of time out and around Dutch people in general. When my future in-laws come over, they often speak Dutch to my fiance, but not enough to really help in learning words. Though it is a good way to see progress in my listening comprehension, when I can tell what they're talking about. I learn some words here and there when we translate them for each other.

More useful is watching television. Something I'm good at! One approach is watching an American or British program and reading the subtitles containing the Dutch translation. There are a lot of shows in English, and quite a few basic channels that only have English shows. I don't know if this would be helpful without the basic Dutch vocabulary I got from Rosetta Stone. You need to know enough Dutch to detect which subtitled word corresponds with which English word, which can be a process of elimination. So if the subtitle "Dertig jaar in de toekomst" comes up on the screen and I hear "Thirty years in the future", I can deduce that "toekomst" means "future" because I know what the other words mean already and they don't mean future.

Another way to learn is by reading Dutch things. I suggest starting out with simple things using simple language. My first attempt was a Dutch version of one of my favorite British novels, but even with a dictionary I can't keep up with the satire-filled and colorful prose, since that type of writing tends to get translated into similarly colorful Dutch prose, which can be just as abstract as it is in English, making literal translations very difficult. On the other hand, reading part of the manual for our dishwasher was easy with a dictionary. Newspapers are also pretty straight forward, not to mention more interesting that dishwasher manuals.

When being interrogated at my inburgering meeting, I realized my ability to listen to Dutch was not as good as I thought it was. I couldn't parse a basic sentence, even though I know I can read fairly complex sentences, especially if I have some time to analyze the words I don't know off-hand. So I've started listening to some Dutch television programs too. I prefer the cooking shows, since I've gotten a good food vocabulary by going to the grocery store and restaurants. That basic food vocabulary makes it easier for me to distinguish one word from another on the cooking shows, and seems to be improving my ability to understand spoken Dutch in general, even if I'm not learning new words.

I suppose I could get out and talk to people in Dutch, but I didn't even like doing that in English. Though I am looking forward to meeting people through classes or work one of these days. WHEN I GET MY STUPID RESIDENT CARD!!! Ahem.

In a few days I'll have an electronic Dutch-English dictionary as well, which should help a lot with reading things and communicating with the in-laws. I think I'll save future info about electronic dictionaries for a future post, however. It's not nearly as straightforward as it should be :-P