A language learners’ forum

Now this is real Dutch immersion.

Papa komen zwemmen moeten

A five and a half year old girl from Hungary has now been living in the Netherlands for three months. She no longer has the opportunity to speak Hungarian. She is 100% immersed in Dutch. And she seems to be doing OK.

Papa komen zwemmen moeten

Ten (10) Dutch podcasts.

Well, actually only 9 because one is TED Talks which is in English. But here is an excellent collection of Dutch podcasts to help us learn Dutch.

10 boeiende podcasts voor leraren Nederlands

I am in Paramaribo, Suriname and have fallen in love with this place, so I am studying Dutch.

Right now, my main methods are taking like five to seven lessons on Preply and Verbling a week and some days using Duolingo and Pimsleur. One of my Verbling teachers and I are using a book and I have homework. One of my Preply teachers and I are trying to use my high level of Portuguese to study Dutch, but it's challenging as there are basically no texts etc. for that mission.

I have been listening to Dutch sleep meditations pretty much every night, though they're hard to understand.

A lot of people in Parbo (as we call it) speak English and/or Portuguese, so I admit I don't use it often so "immersion" isn't going to work. However, all documents etc. are in Dutch.

Anyway, I wanted to introduce myself. Bedankt!

Stephanie

Has anyone done the DLI Dutch course? I started it this week. It’s a bit dull, but the cost of Dutch lessons is adding up FAST and I’m trying to do more self study.

Reading native material is always a productive thing to do. And the high quality native material online in Dutch keeps getting better and better. And I keep finding things that I wonder how I have missed up until now. Here is a new one to me, and I think it is great.

Geschiedenis: Hoe zag onze wereld er vroeger uit en wat gebeurde er toen?
History: How did our world look in the past and what happened then?

Absolute Facts - Geschiedenis in woord en beeld

It indeed offers history in words and pictures. It is very clearly written and nicely organized into time periods and events. It is free and you can also subscribe to a free history newsletter via email.

tommus wrote:Now this is real Dutch immersion.

Papa komen zwemmen moeten

A five and a half year old girl from Hungary has now been living in the Netherlands for three months. She no longer has the opportunity to speak Hungarian. She is 100% immersed in Dutch. And she seems to be doing OK.

Papa komen zwemmen moeten

My Dutch is not good enough to understand the whole article without Google translate. Was she adopted by parents who do not speak Hungarian? Is that why she no longer has the opportunity to speak Hungarian? I did not see mention of adoption in the article. I am left wondering why she has to lose her ability to speak Hungarian in order to improve her Dutch.

poeticsteph wrote:Has anyone done the DLI Dutch course? I started it this week. It’s a bit dull, but the cost of Dutch lessons is adding up FAST and I’m trying to do more self study.

I have tried the DLI Dutch course. I didn't mind the dull factor, but the high level of the static made me give up on it. I don't know if there is a way to clean up the audio (Audacity?).

I have not been actively studying Dutch this summer, but have just now revived my efforts to learn Dutch. Starting next week, it will be my highest priority language.

Welcome to the study group, poeticsteph!

Elsa Maria wrote:Was she adopted by parents who do not speak Hungarian? Is that why she no longer has the opportunity to speak Hungarian? I did not see mention of adoption in the article. I am left wondering why she has to lose her ability to speak Hungarian in order to improve her Dutch.

The article does not address the details but the only reasonable explanation is that she was adopted. It mentions that there is a Hungarian school but it is a bit too far away. It would be a shame if she couldn't maintain her Hungarian. I know parents who speak native English and French, yet brought up their children monolingual English in Ottawa (a very bilingual city). They now greatly regret doing that. This case is even worse where the child already speaks Hungarian.

Skud Bliksem wrote:Hello,
...And few months ago before going into Netherland for hollidays I used "Conversational Dutch quick and easy" by Yatir Nitzany. But I don't really recommend it, it's a good book but there are some mistakes, like for instance two pages which are totally in German!

A Dutch language book with two pages totally in German! this is crazy.
Did the editors give your money back?

If not, I think it will be a good idea to let Yatir Nitzany or the editors know about this, so Dutch language students don't get confused and learn the wrong words. This is a huge error.

I am curious, did you get the audiobook or the printed or eBook?

I was checking the audiobook for German and French in the Amazon Audible platform for this Yatir Nitzany series and I like the concept of combining 350 words to get you started in the language. Also, the mirror technique, it is interesting. I like the fact that you can find the audiobook in amazon that comes with the accompanying PDF. However, I am very concerned about this big mistake you mentioned.

Thanks for your comments.

tommus wrote:Now this is real Dutch immersion.

Papa komen zwemmen moeten

A five and a half year old girl from Hungary has now been living in the Netherlands for three months. She no longer has the opportunity to speak Hungarian. She is 100% immersed in Dutch. And she seems to be doing OK.

Papa komen zwemmen moeten

Here is a follow-up article by her new father about her progress in learning Dutch. Apparently she was four and a half years old when she came to the Netherlands although her father said five and a half in the first article. According to the new article, Nene is now five (or almost six?) and has been totally immersed in Dutch for six months.

Yes! Bijna zes en van Hongaars naar Nederlands