Tag Archives: English
4 Ways to Get Dutch People to Actually Speak Dutch with You Posted by Jakob Gibbons on May 31, 2016
Every Dutch learner learns this real fast: the hardest thing about learning Dutch is getting Dutch speakers to speak Dutch with you. Welcome to the linguistic conundrum that is Northern Europe, those wealthy countries along the North Sea where English fluency is upward of 90% and people tend to automatically speak English to foreigners. I…
Shopping and Not Understanding Posted by Karoly Molina on Jun 23, 2014
Speaking in your target language is the best way to practice. One of the suggestions from the integration material I’ve received from the Dutch government has been to go out and interact with people at stores. I agree that it is a great way to practice, but one of the challenges of the Dutch language…
Think Learning Dutch is Hard? It Could Be Worse. You Could Be Learning English! Posted by tiffany on Jul 25, 2013
Have you seen the graphic making the rounds on Facebook? The one about all the reasons why English is hard to learn? It includes things like “the soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert” and “after a number of injections my jaw got number.” Pretty mind blowing, huh? Lots of Dutch language learners…
Why English speakers have a one-up when learning Dutch… and it’s not what you think Posted by tiffany on Jun 17, 2013
English speakers have an easier time learning Dutch because they’re both Germanic languages, blah, blah, blah. But that’s not the only reason native English speakers have an advantage when it comes to learning Dutch. So what’s the other thing that gives English speakers the upper hand? A surprising amount of modern Dutch comes directly from…
14 English words you probably didn’t know have Dutch origins Posted by tiffany on May 17, 2013
When you take on the challenge of learning Dutch, native speakers will commend you for trying your hand at their “really difficult” language. Their eyes will widen in admiration as they tell you “Dutch is such a hard language to learn.” They’ve got a point… it sure ain’t easy. But the good news for us…
Een Avond Naar de Bioscoop: A Night at the Cinema Posted by heather on Aug 20, 2011
On Wednesday (Woensdag), I went to the cinema (bioscoop) with a friend to see the film, Bridesmaids. We bought our tickets (kaartjes) before grabbing a bite to eat. Since it was also “Ladies Night” for one of the other films, the area around the ticket desks was already quite busy (druk). When we got back…
The Netherlands Comes 2nd in English Proficiency Index Posted by heather on Mar 31, 2011
The Netherlands has been a popular country for the media when it comes to happiness research. Several research studies have found that Dutch children are the happiest in Europe, another recent article highlighted that women in the Netherlands are happy despite working less and having a bigger gender pay gap and the World Database of…