Dutch Class

A couple of days ago our Dutchclasser’s Iphone App went live in the iTunes App store. It is now the #1 Paid for App in the News & Current Affairs section of the Dutch App store having overtaken even the BBC App which is at #3.

NLTV2 is Number One

The first update of this App is already in the works and apparently those of us with iPhones and iPods are supposed to help test it… again. Maybe he will make us a Dutch homework App next so we too can impress when classes start again after the holiday.

One of our Dutchclassers has now written an iPhone App to aid in learning Dutch and in the spirit of true Dutchness has also placed this app for sale on the Apple App Store. The App is called NLTV2 and it allows the user to watch the latest podcasts of a number of Dutch news and current affairs programmes by streaming them directly to an iPhone or iPod touch. No need to download or sync podcasts, the App just streams the material directly to your iPhone.

NLTV2 can stream both the NOS Journaal and the NOS Jeugdjournaal. The Dutch main news programme and the version of the news for younger watchers. Unsurprisingly the Jeugdjournaal is easier to watch and understand for Dutch learners but a lot of the normal Journaal can be gathered too even if you do get bizarre moments like watching Nigel Farrage being interviewed (in English) with Dutch subtitles.

We are actually rather impressed. Now if only we could understand all of that Dutch.

I like to stop off at the embedded Starbucks franchise in Borders bookshop on Magdalen street to have coffee and a muffin and to browse a few magazines. It is often a nice little break from whatever else is going on in the day.

Some things I see there have always caused me to waggle my eyebrows. For instance a significant fraction of the people who borrow books or magazines from the bookstore to read in Starbucks seem to treat these with no respect whatsoever. Cracking spines on paperback books and peppering books and magazines with food remains will in most cases render these unsaleable. I am not sure what the direct equivalent in Holland would be but having seen a few embedded cafes in Borders and Barnes & Noble stores in New York I am pretty confident that similar behaviour over there would net a conversation with the store manager if the perpetrator didn’t get pulled up short by fellow visitors first. In Oxford this doesn’t seem to happen. One just looks.

A more recent observation is that some people seem to use Starbucks in Borders as an office or in fact a place of business and hogging an inordinate amount of space for a long time. Now I have to admit that I am not entirely innocent myself here as I do occasionally do some work with laptop or exercise book myself there but it never takes longer than an hour and thirty to forty minutes would be more typical. Given the cost of £5 for coffee and a cake I don’t feel too guilty about it.

Some people take it a little further and they set up with a laptop, lever arch files, piles of books and general amounts of contents appropriate for a small office. I have never actually timed any one’s stay but some of these ‘professionals’ do seem to sit there for large fractions of the day as I sometimes see them in the same spot as I pass at various times during the day. Sometimes they spread out over more than one table and as their ‘offices’ grow bigger they seem to take up more space in general perhaps adding an additional chair to rest their feet on or in fact an extra table to make a larger workstation.

Even this breed is now being superseded by a new generation of super-pros. A good example being people that provide remedial education for various levels of school children and students. They set up school and their students take up several adjacent tables. When one set of students is done, the next set moves in. In this way they will use a significant fraction of the cafe for up to half a day, often for the price of a single bottle of water.

Unlike the book and magazine destruction I am not sure whether this use of the cafe is explicitly in violation of any rules. What I am sure of is that it causes many other customers inconvenience as these little schools tend to take up the nicest places to sit for a long time, thus making them unavailable to others.

In conversation with friends I sometimes reflect that I will write to the UK Manager of Borders bookstores suggesting that they allocate some kind of hybrid open office space in their stores and make it available for limited periods of time for a small fee.  Personally I would happily pay it a handful of times during the month and I think it would be fair if the educational entrepreneurs did the same. They will be making hundreds of pounds per session. It would seem reasonable for them to pay for the resources they are using.

I will write that letter.

After leaving the embedded Starbucks Coffee shop in the Borders Bookstore on Magdalen Street today I was accosted by the author of “I’m Not Drunk, Honest!: A Victim Who Refused to Be a Victim”, Mr Hal Lever, who was sitting there with the intention of selling copies of his book.

The book apparently tells his recovery from a grave accident and the trials he endured along the way. Though  I was not particularly keen to buy his book I was perfectly happy to chat for a few minutes especially as he wanted to tell of his experiences with the Dutch. When I expressed the thought that Mr Lever looked quite well considering the grave experiences he was telling of he apparently inferred that I thought he was making a “mountain out of a mole hill” of his troubles.

While I was taking a few seconds to think of how to reply to that he clearly got impatient and suggested that I might as well go away if I didn’t buy his book and so I did.

Now I expect I will never meet Mr Lever again unless he happens to be selling books somewhere on my path again. I do however expect that Mr Lever is just as persistent and energetic as he would have us know therefore there is a good chance he will find this account on Google and if so he will read what he didn’t give me the time to say which is that I have respect for his achievements under difficult circumstances and I am quite sure that his slurred speech is not caused by inebriation.

He might also want to consider that insulting people who do not appear to agree with him in a matter of seconds is not going to help him sell more books. I never thought he was drunk. I do think he was rude. I know he wasn’t making a good job of selling his book.

A few months ago DutchClass.co.uk mentioned the availability of Dutch news as NOS Journaal Podcasts. Since then I’ve been watching Dutch news podcasts now and then- not every day, but enough to help me learn a bit more useful and up-to-date Dutch.

Imagine my surprise to receive from a Dutch friend a link to the YouTube clip below:

This is a fun and fascinating (!) insight into preparations for Dutch news broadcasts. Enjoy !

There’s good news for students of Dutch language who do not have access to Dutch television. The Dutch evening new programme NOS Journaal is now available as a podcast.

Obviously it’s a great advantage to be able to watch and listen to “real life” (as opposed to purely “teaching materials”) Dutch media. The facility to download and view NOS Journaal as a video podcast makes this Dutch news programme available to all users of iTunes (though a PC or MAC computer). If you are lucky enough to have a video iPod or an iPhone it may be even more convenient to watch NOS Journaal while out and about, travelling, in cafes, or wherever you go.

To subscribe to the NOS Journaal video podcast open iTunes and goto the iTunes store to browse podcasts. NOS Journaal is free to subscribe to and very easy to find. I used the search term “NOS Journaal”. You might also want to browse other Dutch language podcasts (by specifying the language as “Dutch”).

Inspired by the earlier entry on DutchClass.co.uk featuring “YouTube as a Dutch Learning Aid ?”, I’m still checking back to YouTube for more gems about the Dutch Language.

Here’s a slightly more academic look at recognising a page of text as Dutch, as opposed to say German. It is presented by American academic Prof. Alexander Arguelles. After watching the following clip and also visiting Prof. Arguelles’ page on YouTube I’ll certainly be watching more of his material.

The above is extremely simple. It just compares Dutch with English and German, and refers to other Germanic languages only collectively – without actually naming any others. However this clip is part of a series and, being an early “episode”, there must be a good chance that future entries about recognising other languages will include comparisons with Dutch.

If you found this as interesting as I did you might also want to visit Prof. Arguelles’s page on YouTube to read more about his approach thoughts on learning teaching and learning languages.

The verb “hebben” (which means “to have” in English) is an irregular verb that has many uses. It is one of the most important Dutch verbs.

The Simple Present Tense forms of “Hebben”

Examples:

The Simple Past Tense forms of “Hebben”

Examples:

The Perfect Tense forms of “Hebben”

Examples:

The Future Tense forms of “Hebben” (using “zullen”)

The Dutch verb zullen is used to in conjunction with another verb (in this case “hebben”), to refer to actions in the future in much the same way as the words “will”, or “shall” are used in English, e.g. “I will have something tomorrow”, or “I shall have something tomorrow”. However, in English these words are often simplified in everyday speech to: “I’ll have something tomorrow”.

Examples:

The Future Tense forms of “Hebben” (using “gaan”)

The Dutch verb gaan may be used to in conjunction with another verb (in this case “hebben”), to refer to actions in the future the same way as the verb “go” in English, e.g. “I am going to have something tomorrow”.

Examples:

In case you would like to print this posting we have made it available to download easily. Just click here: Print the Page “Hebben”.

Dit artikel is over adjectieven die mensen beschrijven mensen of hoe mensen zich voelen. De meeste van deze woorden kunnen ook op dieren of zelfs op voorwerpen toegepast. (De woordenlijst onder geeft de Nederlandse woorden in alfabetische volgorde.)

Hier zijn twaalf voorbeelden met enige van deze adjectieven in de tegenwoordige tijd:

1. Ik ben in Oxford.
2. De advocaat is erg serieus.
3. De clown is altijd grappig.
4. Onze leraar is inspirerend.
5. De meisjes in de klas zijn beleefd.
6. De jongens in de klas zijn ongehoorzaam.
7. Ze is zenuwachtig voor het examen.
8. Mijn kat is erg lief.
9. Mijn secretaris is onmisbaar.
10. Wij zijn gelukkig tijdens de vakanties.
11. Het kind is omzichtig met vreemden.
12. Heel kleine poesjes zijn onhandig.

Woordenlijst

In case you would like to print this posting we have made it available to download easily. Just click here: Print the page “Adjectieven”.

The verb “zijn” (which means “to be” in English) is an irregular verb that has many uses. It is one of the most important Dutch verbs.

The Simple Present Tense forms of “Zijn”

Examples:

The Simple Past Tense forms of “Zijn”

Examples:

The Perfect Tense forms of “Zijn”

Examples:

The Future Tense forms of “Zijn” (using “zullen”)

The Dutch verb zullen is used to in conjunction with another verb (in this case “zijn”), to refer to actions in the future in much the same way as the words “will”, or “shall” are used in English, e.g. “I will do something tomorrow”, or “I shall do something tomorrow”. However, in English these words are often simplified in everyday speech to: “I’ll do something tomorrow”.

Examples:

In case you would like to print this posting we have made it available to download easily. Just click here: Print the page “Zijn”.