A language learners’ forum

23/03/2021:

MT Advanced Dutch CD3T10-11 (1st run through)

Moving very slowly at the moment due to work, but still moving

All up to 26/03/2021:

Finished CD 3 of MT Dutch Advanced (first run through)
Colloquial Dutch 1 up to page 205

I've studied both online and in Amsterdam with a school I really like; the online course is not too expensive, I guess around 60/80 euros a year (not sure of it I should need yo check), and I found really effective. The Amsterdam course 2 years ago was wonderful, now due to Covid they're doing it all online in very intensive sessions, which are expensive. As I'm new in this forum, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the link here, I'll wait to find out if it's allowed

For me, my really rusty Dutch took a quantum leap before I started with that school through the following strategy:

- Combining audiobooks with ebooks, first through free audiobooks from Librivox.org, then through a very cheap subscription service called Bookchoice

- Watching lots of tv shows with subtitles in the Dutch tv website, npo

Hope that helps.

Sorry for the typos in my message, I'm trying to get used to a new phone, without much success

All up till 08/04/2021:

Finished first run through of MT Advanced Course
Finished Colloquial Dutch 1 up to page 230 (only 8 pages left)

CNaVT exam scheduled for 03/05/2021.

Gonna finished ColDutch1 and complete a second run through of MTA. Not sure what else to do besides more reading input and practising writing in a Dutch journal maybe?

12/04/2021:

Been a bit behind as I've not been very well for the last week. Finished Colloquial Dutch 1 - instead of moving on to anything new, am going to spend time reviewing vocabulary sections from each chapter and memorising irregular verbs in preparation for the CNaVT exam in three weeks. Will also attempt to complete a second run through of Michel Thomas Advanced course in this time, and as much reading as possible.

Reevaluated my goals in the long term. I'm considering moving things around such that I study languages I have a good chance to practise earlier than ones I likely wouldn't. In my case this would put French and Russian high on my list and probably bump Spanish and Swedish down. (I have one good friend who is a native speaker of Russian and another who speaks very good French that I might practise with - I suspect I'll see both of them quite frequently when UK lockdown rules are relaxed.)

The end goals still remain the same

I've not kept my log up to date for the last month as most of my time has been spent with unorganised cramming.

I sat my exam on Monday, I felt happy leaving the exam centre, but won't likely know results until July. The intense study over the last few months has taken a bit of a toll on me, so I'm taking a step back from intense active study (but will continue passive work such as reading and listening.)

Assuming I pass, my goal is to keep moving forward and sit the Maatschappelijk Formeel (B1) exam in May 2022. I'll likely start with grammar intensive work, as my exam was a bit all over the place in terms of grammar for me. Hugo, Colloquial 2 and Linguaphone should be enough for me combined with native materials.

I also might lay ground work* for some other languages I'm interested in (French, Spanish, Italian, maybe some Russian) but I'm not sure. It all depends on time constraints of teaching part-time and completing a master's degree**.

*complete MT Foundation 2x through, maybe an Assimil first stage course for each and a simple grammar based course (likely Hugo, but apparently the Italian edition isn't that great :/ )

**currently waiting on a second referee to get back to me before I can be given a place, deadline is the end of this month, so gonna be tight to get this all sorted

Edited: neatening up.

Been pondering next steps after taking a short break from active study, come up with some plans for next steps:

Complete an Assimil passive wave up to lesson 42, then redo 43-84 properly
Skim back through Colloquial Dutch 1 - not worrying about the audio or exercises, just taking notes and checking vocab
Complete Hugo Dutch in 3 months (probably more likely six weeks with my background)

After that:
Linguaphone Dutch
Colloquial Dutch 2
Hugo Advanced Dutch (need to work out how to digitise cassettes to do this though)

Will be supplemented by completing basic readers (I have about 4-5 at the A1-A2 level) to improve passive skills, and after that a selection of both fiction and non-fiction children's books. I also watch a fair bit of Dutch content on Youtube (Dutch with Kim is fantastic and really helped me develop my active listening skills prior to my exams.)

Eventually want to add some more languages, both French and Spanish will be definites when I've finished course-based Dutch study, Italian may well sneak in too (although it's not quite as useful to me.) Luckily I've already stockpiled my resources for both

Congrats on sitting the A2 Dutch exam! I might take it eventually, and I appreciate the details of your planning and experience. I hope you get the desired results soon!