Dutch Class

The concept of learning new words by making mental associations with familiar words, sounds, or even pictures, is not new. This approach can be used in many creative ways.

One teaching aid that relies on the idea of learning by word association is Linkword Languages. This fun and easy approach involves making mental associations based on sometimes hilarious connections between words! The idea is that to help you remember a new word in the language you are learning (e.g. Dutch) you are shown an interesting “connection” between that new word and its meaning in the language you already know (e.g. English). This helps the learner to visualise the new word in a way that makes it easier to recall its meaning. The software presents a series of words displayed on the screen together with their translations and a suggested “connection” through which to remember the new word. These words are also clearly pronounced and repeated as often as required (in response to the user pressing the “play” button again). After presenting a set of words one at a time, the system tests the student via a screen into which one must type simple answers. The correct answers are then displayed. Then one can then proceed to the next section that introduces more words and/or complexity.

Linkword Languages’ website offers software and audio courses that claim to help students to learn a new language quickly. Free demonstrations are available online. Click on the banner link on the left of this text to try the online demos, including the demo for learning Dutch.

This looks promising but relies on one ordering online as we haven’t seen this material for sale anywhere on the high street, at least not yet!

It’s great to see so many Dutch language teaching aids available. We’ll feature some more vocabulary-building products soon.

Although there is no substitute for a really good language teacher (preferably a native speaker), sometimes that isn’t possible or one would like additional practice between lessons.

Many years ago the Berlitz Travel Pack (which consisted of a phrase book and audio cassette in the 1980s) was my introduction to another European language not taught at school, or even at many universities. After learning the cassette almost “parrot fashion” I was immediately understood at my first attempts to use the material in remote travel situations including train stations, bus stations, and small towns. Bravo Berlitz ! I was delighted and greatly encouraged.

Not surprisingly therefore, I searched out the Dutch Berlitz Travel Pack to use together with the Dutch course I joined recently. It didn’t disappoint. The cover illustrated above is from the 1991 version. This is rather dated now, with mention of Dutch Guilders and Belgian Francs - both of which have since been replaced with the Euro. I don’t just love this teaching material for its considerable nostalgic value, but also because it is stuffed full of really practical expressions. Learn these and you won’t have to work out what to say in travel situations - the phrases will just spring to mind. Fantastic !

The downside is that this format is rather limited. Once you’ve learned all the phrases and want to move on to something more advanced, or to understand the grammar, it’s back to the bookshop to search all over again! (I’ve had fun with that step too and will include more suggestions next time.)

The up-to-date version of this Berlitz Phrase Book and CD set is available from Amazon.co.uk (priced £9.02 at the time of adding this post). You can go straight to the Dutch Berlitz Travel Pack on Amazon by clicking here: Dutch Berlitz Travel Pack.

Inspired by the earlier entry on DutchClass.co.uk featuring “YouTube as a Dutch Learning Aid ?”, I’ve been back to YouTube in search of more (slightly more advanced!) entries to follow that introduction.

After trying the obvious search terms, such as “learn Dutch”, “Dutch language”, “teach Dutch” etc. without finding anything outstanding, it was time to get a bit frivolous! I was surprised to find that “Dutch cartoons” generated a list of Danish cartoons. Eventually persistence paid off. If you’re willing to dig them out YouTube will reward you with a fair few fun kids’ cartoons in Dutch.

This one seems especially cheerful:

As a beginner learning Dutch I’ll have to watch it a few more times to catch all the words. They are pronounced clearly so that shouldn’t be too difficult.

There are many more similar cartoons linked to this one. (If you play this cartoon and watch it to the end, a menu including more cartoons in Dutch follows.)

All you Dutch practicers may want to have a peek at the website for a Dutch secondary school. The school we picked is the one that one of our friends went to: the “Aloysius College” in Den Haag (The Hague). Have a look at the fairly comprehensive website.

For some hard core Dutch practice have a go at reading the school rules. Our friend says that there is a fair chance that the pupils do actually follow these especially as these rules apparently don’t exclude nipping out to the chip shop opposite the school for lunch!

Note golden rule #5 in the list of rules:

“Op school spreken we alleen Nederlands. We vinden het belangrijk dat iedereen elkaar begrijpt, maar dan moeten we elkaar wel kunnen verstaan! Als je het leuk vindt, mag je wel de talen spreken die in de lessen worden geleerd.”

The second sentence is a relatively rare example of a Dutch pun based on the fact that in Dutch the verb for to understand (as in to comprehend facts, ideas and concepts) is begrijpen while the verb verstaan means means to understand in the sense of being able to hear and interpret what the speaker was saying.

I just tried typing “learn Dutch” and “learning Dutch” as search terms in YouTube. Some of the results are a bit mischievous and they occasionally tend to misrepresent the words they are teaching you to say…

The two girls in this video seem pretty straightforward though. Also the video ends by showing a pair of painted clogs. What more (other than a windmill) could you ask for?

One Dutch learning site I like a lot is the ‘Dutch word of the day‘ blog. This blog contains some good descriptions of Dutch words and colloquialisms.

Many of these descriptions go well beyond what you would find in the average dictionary and they clearly explain how and in which context these words and expressions are used in every day Dutch.