Advocation's Dutch log

[Advocation]

Hi all,

I've been lurking on both the new and old sites for a little while and have recently started learning Dutch in the last week. I've just started learning so don't have to much to say about it but wanted to get my log underway before the end of the year as I like the way many other posters set big goals for the year come January and I'd like to do the same.

Why Dutch? No reason in particular Due to goings on over the end of the Summer I'm off books this year from university, but am still living nearby so signed up for a weekly Dutch class with my university's modern languages society. I figured it'd be easier than some of the other languages offered (Arabic, Russian, Japanese, Chinese) and just a bit different to the usual (French, Spanish, German). I really enjoy travelling around Europe by train (and hopefully this year I'll do some cycling too) so I'm hoping I'll get to use it as well.

I recently read Gabriel Wyner's Fluent Forever and have been using his model decks in my anki this week, I really like the method so far. I've previously studied a bit of Spanish independently and used to fret a lot whilst studying from textbooks, trying too hard to remember every grammar point before moving on to the next text etc. I also used to find vocabulary lists a real challenge, as I didn't want to progress without learning the vocab but really hated memorising it. So dumping everything into anki seems to really help with not only learning the vocabulary and grammar but putting my mind at ease. I know that it's not the end of the world if I can't remember every rule regarding the use of a specific conjunction after working through my textbook cause I'll probably work through a grammar after it and mine more examples etc.

Speaking of which the text I'm using at the moment is Living Language's Spoken World Dutch course, I've worked through the first 3 of 15 chapters and will probably start the 4th later on today. In addition to this I also have an hour of class weekly, the teacher's friendly as are the students, there's talk of Dutch coffee mornings as we progress etc.

Okay so that's a brief intro anyway, hopefully in the next few weeks I'll make a few brief posts in Dutch as well. Thanks in advance to everyone who reads/follows/posts.

[tommus]

Nice to see another Dutch learner on the forum. I trust you will enjoy learning Dutch as much as I do.

A most important key to learning a language is motivation, of course. And a most important key to developing motivation is to develop an interest in the country (or countries) where the language is native. For Dutch, obviously the Netherlands and Belgium are the big players. In my case, I have really engaged in learning everything I can about the Netherlands and Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium). The history, culture, geography, politics, sports, cities, attractions, events, news, etc. are all very fascinating. And the more you learn about these things, the more you want to know. And the language learning seems to happen in the background. Start by reading the national news every day in Belgium and the Netherlands. You will find that you are working hard to improve your Dutch so you can better understand current events, history, etc. to the point that the motivation is the learning, not just the language. And I'm sure the same applies to learning other languages.