Goeiedag! The second month of classes has passed and I am happy to say my enthusiasm is still strong. Since the study load is picking up, I will also share some tricks I use to learn Dutch; new words, and pronunciations as quickly as possible.
I Don't get the Hype
We opened the first week with talking about our daily and weekly routines. We talked about going shopping, cleaning, going to university and similar things. I found it amusing that the literal translation of the Dutch word for cleaning to English would be “making it beautiful “so poetic! This was also the first time we encountered reflexive verbs and pronouns which was a tiny bit scary.
That’s why our teacher Debbie made sure to practice them with us until we got the hang of it. Then, we had to re-learn reading the time, since the Dutch read it in such a specific way (because of course they do). They don’t really express it as an exact number but more as a period that has passed from the nearest full (or half) hour. So for example, 10:15 would actually be quarter over ten, or “kwart over tien“ in Dutch. Similarly, 16:25 would be “vijf voor half vijf“. I was kinda lucky in this department since in many parts of Croatia, we express time almost the same. In some parts, like my home town, it’s actually expressed as a negative so 14:40 would be „drie min twintig“ or three minus twenty. It’s really fun to find similarities like this between Croatia and the Netherlands! Plus, it makes my life three times easier when practicing it.
We talked about Dutch eating habits and what they like to eat for breakfast so naturally, the famous hagelslag came up. I hate to be a “Debbie Downer“ but I never understood that combo. It doesn’t taste bad but it’s just not for me (official apologies to all the Dutch readers).
Speak Dutch Out Loud
We started the next lesson with an improv exercise. We had a small sample text with a few instructions about two friends that wanted to meet but couldn’t find the right date, so we had to try and make plans in Dutch. Even though I had time to prepare and had practiced some responses beforehand (like verbs and times), this was still surprisingly scary. I knew everything I needed to say but I didn’t talk as smoothly as I wanted (it felt like stage fright). That’s why it’s important to talk with people around you and get used to correcting yourself. It doesn’t matter if you don’t say everything perfectly on the first try!
Then, talked more closely about shopping and asking for help while doing the groceries. Again, for me, this was super helpful because doing groceries is something I do so often, and knowing how to get around a store makes it ten times easier. Oh, and I work in a grocery store so it will be much less stressful to talk with customers. Or so I thought. Since I learned how to explain the location of something in the store and how to name different produce sections, I wanted to test my new knowledge at work. One customer approached me, and I asked: “Kan Ik helpen?“, instead of immediately going to English. He spoke a little bit too fast for me, so I got confused and said that my Dutch is still not the best and asked if he spoke English, but, due to pure panic, I asked “Spreekt u Nederlands?“ instead of “Spreekt u Engls?“. We both just started laughing, because what else can you do?
