Road to B1 in Dutch

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Ug_Caveman
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Re: Road to B1 in Dutch

Postby Ug_Caveman » Mon Jan 09, 2023 3:50 pm

Le Baron wrote:I get the feeling - are you an academic btw? - that you tend toward difficult constructions.


Not an academic (at the moment...) but I do have a master's degree and I'm currently completing a second one with a hope to eventually becoming an professional academic. A huge part of my wanting to study Dutch** stems from a desire to do research work at a Dutch or Flemish university in the future.

(**This also applies to the Scandi-Three.)
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Re: Road to B1 in Dutch

Postby Le Baron » Mon Jan 09, 2023 4:39 pm

Yes, even though English is widely-employed in higher education, being conversant with Dutch would make you even more employable. Consider though that I was researching monetary systems and operations and about 75-80% of the work was in English! Yet in dealing with admin and students and everyday business it was 95% in Dutch. So the other extreme.

Some of the colleagues I've worked with had 2-3 year positions and worked entirely in English, even if it wasn't their native language. I thought this wasn't ideal; not only from a general language point-of-view, but also the output. When reading things I found they contained lots of errors and glaring stylistic faults. If they publish all the latter gets cleaned up by professional proofreaders, but not always the errors..
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Ug_Caveman
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Re: Road to B1 in Dutch

Postby Ug_Caveman » Mon Jan 09, 2023 5:02 pm

Le Baron wrote:Yes, even though English is widely-employed in higher education, being conversant with Dutch would make you even more employable. Consider though that I was researching monetary systems and operations and about 75-80% of the work was in English! Yet in dealing with admin and students and everyday business it was 95% in Dutch. So the other extreme.

Some of the colleagues I've worked with had 2-3 year positions and worked entirely in English, even if it wasn't their native language. I thought this wasn't ideal; not only from a general language point-of-view, but also the output. When reading things I found they contained lots of errors and glaring stylistic faults. If they publish all the latter gets cleaned up by professional proofreaders, but not always the errors..


My short-mid term goal is to pass B1 this year and in two years sit both the B2 Professional and Educational tests (if all goes to plan this would likely coincide with me starting a PhD.) Long-term goal would be to pass C1, but I'd need to secure some time working in a Dutch-speaking nation for that to happen (hence hoping to get some form of placement.)
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Re: Road to B1 in Dutch

Postby Xenops » Mon Jan 09, 2023 10:02 pm

Ug_Caveman wrote:
Not an academic (at the moment...) but I do have a master's degree and I'm currently completing a second one with a hope to eventually becoming an professional academic. A huge part of my wanting to study Dutch** stems from a desire to do research work at a Dutch or Flemish university in the future.

(**This also applies to the Scandi-Three.)


Just curious--why the Netherlands or the Scandi-Three? I have more own reasons, I was wondering what yours are. :D
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Ug_Caveman
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Re: Road to B1 in Dutch

Postby Ug_Caveman » Tue Jan 10, 2023 1:48 am

Xenops wrote:Just curious--why the Netherlands or the Scandi-Three? I have more own reasons, I was wondering what yours are. :D


1. Dutch was the first language I studied that I didn't totally suck at (the scrapheap** includes French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Mandarin and Japanese - as well as Latin from school.)
2. I've only been to the Netherlands and Belgium sparingly, but I genuinely love the places I've been to and really would like to go back when I have time/money to do so.
3. There's some very good university programs for the fields I'm interested in, so lots of potential for some placement abroad (including at universities where my friends study and even KUL itself where the CNaVT is administered.)

Re the Scandinavian languages - again, the relative ease of the language comes into play here, I studied some Swedish at a beginners class and found I made better progress there than I ever did in French or Spanish. I have a number friends who live in the Nordic nations (four or five in Sweden, one in Denmark and one in Finland.) I also found that there's far less interference between these three and Dutch compared to what I was getting with German. I guess if I can't learn German due to so much interference, learning all the languages that surround it might at least give me decent passive skills *shrug*.

I also really love Nordic crime dramas - season one of The Bridge is probably my favourite series of TV ever. I remember watching it for the first time and picking up the odd word that was a cognate with Dutch (pratar<->praten was the one my brain zoned in on the most.)

I've never actually visited any of the Nordic nations, but am hoping to finally journey to Sweden this summer (and might spend a little time picking up the basics before I go.) A little sad to see there's nowhere one can currently sit the Swedex exam in the UK though (while Dansk prove and Norskprove require journeys to their respective nations in order to sit - but would be a hell of a niche on a CV if I ever got them.)

[**When I'm a more accomplished learner I have every intention of going back to French and Spanish (and probably Russian owing to one of my very best friends being a native speaker.) But right now I'm studying the languages that actually appeal to me instead of the ones that society tells me are useful.]
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Ug_Caveman
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Re: Road to B1 in Dutch

Postby Ug_Caveman » Tue Jan 10, 2023 1:59 am

Vannacht probeer ik Supplementary Les 15 - De Nieuwe Produktiehal maar ik ben heel te moe om het te afgewerkt. Mijn examen was heel moeilijk en ik heb een beetje breinrust nodig.

Zo doe ik vandaag half van de les en 's morgens zal ik het completeren.
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Re: Road to B1 in Dutch

Postby Le Baron » Tue Jan 10, 2023 2:39 pm

There's a lot to be said for your approach as outlined above. Apart from French, which I only know really by pure chance, I feel much more at ease with Germanic languages and when I got round to trying Norwegian I was overjoyed with it. :) As you say, by studying the languages that actually appeal to you instead of the ones that society tells you are useful, you end up actually making progress where progress can be made (and later transferred).

Just this (want ik voel me nu een mierenneuker met al deze correcties!):

Ug_Caveman wrote:Zo doe ik vandaag half de helft (half of) van de les en 's morgens* morgen zal ik het completeren afmaken (or: en morgen maak ik het af).

* 's morgens means 'in the mornings in general'.
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Ug_Caveman
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Re: Road to B1 in Dutch

Postby Ug_Caveman » Tue Jan 10, 2023 4:24 pm

Le Baron wrote:There's a lot to be said for your approach as outlined above. Apart from French, which I only know really by pure chance, I feel much more at ease with Germanic languages and when I got round to trying Norwegian I was overjoyed with it. :) As you say, by studying the languages that actually appeal to you instead of the ones that society tells you are useful, you end up actually making progress where progress can be made (and later transferred).


For absolutely no reason at all I had a flick through the DELF-B1 paper this morning and listened to the audio clips. I understood far more than I'd ever believed I could have. I'd imagine somewhere in psychology world there is a study showing that even learning an unrelated language can strengthen ability in others.

I don't dislike French or Spanish, but for some reason the layout of Romance languages never seems to 'click' for me. I suspect had I studied German at school I'd have done much better in it (but my family told me to study the languages they had familiarity with.)

It annoys me because I have quite a lot of utility for both of them in my life. Speaking French is obviously a useful asset if one wanted to spend some time living in Belgium, my best friend speaks it at home and I really want to watch a particular French film that has never been released with English subtitles. Canada is also a massive thumbs up on my "want to visit" list - the only countries ahead of it are the Scandinavian three (and to be honest they're only ahead because they're closer.) Spain is my European family's go-to choice for holidays (not mine personally, but given some recent expansions of our family with young nieces, nephews and cousins I suspect a big family holiday to Spain won't be too far off) and I have relatives in several US states with large Hispanic populations.
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Ug_Caveman
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Re: Road to B1 in Dutch

Postby Ug_Caveman » Wed Jan 11, 2023 12:03 am

Vannacht maakte ik de tweede helft van les 'De Nieuwe Produktiehal' af. Ik had er geen problemen (inderdaad, dit helft was wat makkelijker dan de eerste, naar mijn mening.)

Nog 10 lessen in the hoofdcursus en 5 in the aanvullend cursus. Ik wil ze voor februari afwerken daarna zal ik Hugo Advanced Dutch en Colloquial Dutch 2 beginnen.

Ik ga nu naar een beetje lezen doen voor ik ga slapen.
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Ug_Caveman
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Re: Road to B1 in Dutch

Postby Ug_Caveman » Thu Jan 12, 2023 2:42 am

Ik kon geen compleet les vandaag leren (als mijn mama uit haar gezondheid was) zo, in plaats van een compleet les, leerde ik een woordenlijst.

Ik leerde ook een beginners svenskles (maar ik vond de klinken een beetje hard te spreken/maken[?].) Ik ben van plan de svenskcurs te afwerken voor ik in de zomer op vakantie naar Zweden gaan. (Dit is voor de lol en ik zal het stoppen als het een probleem veroorzaken.)
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