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.

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.

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.

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.

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 !

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”).

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 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”.

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 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”.

At just over 9.5 minutes, this is quite a long YouTube clip but well worth the patience if you’re considering a trip to Holland and not sure what to expect. The travel-brochure style photos are great, especially set to the rather catchy tune with Dutch lyrics.

This presents Holland with pride, omitting to mention some its more modern yet less stylish associations. There are plenty of other YouTube clips about “coffee shops”, questionnable areas of Amsterdam, and so on! Watch this for the clogs, windmills, national costumes, coastline, canals, tulips, and many other features of Dutch life.

Er zijn veel landen in de wereld. Er zijn grote landen en kleine landen, rijke landen en arme landen. De namen van sommige landen zijn hetzelfde in het Nederlands als in het Engels. Voorbeelden van deze zijn: Botswana, Canada, Ghana en Japan.

De onderstaande woordenlijst omvat landen in Europa, Amerika, Afrika en Azië. Deze lijst omvat alle landen in de wereld niet. Wanneer de woorden hetzelfde in het Nederlands en in het Engels zijn deze in de lijst in bruine letters geschreven.

De kaarten toonden boven niet naar de zelfde schaal getekend.
(Canada is veel groter dan Ierland) !

Woordenlijst

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

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.

Wij hebben een kleine tuin voor het huis en een grotere tuin achter het huis.

De kleine voortuin heeft een haag aan de voorkant en een hek aan de zijkant. Er is een kleine poort in het hek. Er is geen gras in de voorttuin. In plaats daarvan zijn er veel planten in potten. Er zijn veel kleurrijke bloemen in de potten. Er zijn narcissen in de lente. Soms zie ik mieren, kevers, rupsen, vlinders of bijen in de voortuin. Er zijn veel ook spinnen in de tuin. Zij spinnen reusachtige webben.

De achtertuin heeft een hoge muur met een poort in de muur. Er zijn veel bloemen en planten in de tuin. Er is een boom en een klein lapje gras. Mijn favoriete deel van de tuin is de vijver. Er zijn planten in de vijver. Er zijn ook vissen in de vijver, en kikkers. Soms zie ik libellen dichtbij de vijver, maar enkel in de zomer. Er is een schuur in de tuin, maar er is geen garage. Ik heb geen slangen of hagedissen nabij de vijver gezien. Er zijn veel vogels. Soms bezoeken egels en eekhoorns de tuin.

Woordenlijst

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

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.

Er zijn vele verschillende banen en beroepen. Sommige mensen hebben meerdere banen. Het is nuttig om te begrijpen wat mensen op het werk doen. Hier zijn sommige lijsten van banen en beroepen.

Dit is de langste woordenlijst op DutchClass.co.uk tot nog toe.
Er zijn veel meer beroepen. Dit zijn slechts enkele voorbeelden.

Woordenlijst

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

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.)

Ik houd heel veel van eekhoorns. Ik kijk graag naar eekhoorns. Het zijn mijn favoriete dieren in het park. Zij lopen langs het gras en door de bomen. Eekhoorns eten noten en eikels. Zij verzamelen noten. Eekhoorns verbergen noten, eikels en andere dingen om te eten.

Mijn vriend neemt foto’s van eekhoorns. Hij heeft een heel goed fototoestel.

Hier is een foto van een eekhoorn in Oxford. Hij woon in Christchurch Tuinen. Hij verzamelt noten in de tuin.

Woordenlijst

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

We are quite partial to Italian restaurants and Italian food in general and I in particular am a fan of Jamie Oliver’s because in some ways he always seems to capture the spirit of Italian cuisine even better than some Italian practitioners themselves. Fresh food, simple tastes, etc. You’ve seen it all on TV and it works. So we were quite excited at finally getting to try Jamie’s Italian on George street.

Despite the fact there wasn’t a queue we still had to wait for 20 minutes at a very crowded bar and when we eventually got a table we also found ourselves at rather intimate range from the people at the tables beside us. They have crammed too many tables into too little space. The waiting staff would probably agree because it those who served us had to perform acts of medium to advanced contortionism to do it. As a consequence of the high density of customers and staff per square foot the restaurant is also very loud to the point where it starts to intrude on conversation. 

The menu looks very ‘Jamie’ like. It contains many Oliverisms, usually delivered in the first person. Most of the dishes are Italianate. Where he has stuck to traditional Italian dishes the name has  been jazzed up here and there, e.g. The Penne al Arrabiata are called ‘Turbo Penne’. Many other dishes are not strictly traditional Italian restaurant fare but on paper they look true to the Jamie ethos as covered in his books and TV programmes.

In actual fact the food was vaguely disappointing. We I started with a Genovese pesto dish that looked very promising on paper and that looked just as promising when delivered to the table, containing some extra vegetables and potatoes to make it more interesting than the usual plate of tagliatelle covered with pesto and some parmesan. Shame then that the pesto itself was not very convincing. With the best will in the world I could hardly taste the basil in it and finding any trace of pecorino cheese was just as difficult. Ultimately this pesto has little or no energy. Somehow not what I would have expected as a Jamie Oliver fan or of a restaurant that advertises ‘lush’ pesto.

Similarly the main course of Salmon on a bed of roasted vegetables couldn’t quite impress. The Salmon was nicely cooked but the roast vegetables were just nowhere near as good as roast vegetables can be. Desert of a banana chocolate brownie again nice enough but not very memorable and not a match for similar deserts at Chez Gerard’s or Carluccio’s.

Just below the deserts the menu also lists Jamie Oliver T-shirts and signed books.

The bill (including a 10% tip but not counting money spent at the bar while waiting for a table) came to about £35 a head which is a bit high for Oxford casual dining standards and a better dinner and general experience can certainly be had elsewhere and not infinitely far away in Oxford. There is something of the emperor’s new Parka about Jamie’s.

I looked up the Independent’s Restaurant review of Jamies Italian in Oxford and it appears somewhat more positive than mine. Have a look. The Independent’s reviewer took along Oxford locals who apparently ‘were down on their knees in gratitude’ for Jamie bringing this miracle of good food to Oxford. Given the quality of the food traditionally served on George Street I can kind of see the point however I really must suggest that they give Chez Gerard’s on the opposite side of the street a go. It is a more pleasant and comfortable place to sit and they serve better food for less money. Or take a short walk down to the Castle complex and try Carluccio’s. Both of those are Pukkah.

They do however from time to time indulge in  orange mania – particularly on or around major football tournaments. The aftermath of Euro 2008 is no different with a plethora of orange products in the sales. Orange radios, shovels, USB hubs, chocolate bars, etc, etc. The one that most caught my eye was orange Crocs sandals though. The model below was for sale in a shop window in Leiden this week.

These sandals have always intrigued me. They are expensive (at least at Millets Farm garden centre), they look like…rubber sandals and as far as I can judge from a quick try they are not particularly comfortable.

At least these orange ones look a little zippier than the mint green and pink models common in Oxfordshire. Perhaps if I got some my friends would think me more trendy. Hmmm…

It was also featured on the main Dutch evening news today.

Just for balance we’ll include a picture of an appropriately named slightly smaller ship moored not far away. In its own way it looks just as nice.

Wanneer wij over sport spreken is het nuttig de woorden voor rangtelwoorden te weten.

Mensen die zich interesseren in paarden draverijen willen weten welk paard het eerste is, welke paard tweede en welk paard derde is. Mensen die het tennis aan Wimbledon kijken willen weten welke tennisspeler gewonnen heeft en welke spelers tweede, derde en vierde waren. Er zijn zelfs meer plaatsen in een voetbalbond.

Woordenlijst

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

The ship in the background is the Eurodam, a ship of the Holland America line. It is actually hard to do justice to the sheer size of it in either words or pictures but have a look at the one below. The two skyscrapers to either side are not exactly small…

De kleuren van de regenboog zijn rood, oranje, geel, groen, blauw, indigo en violet. Andere kleuren zijn beige, bruin, grijs, goud, lila, purper, roos, turkooize, wit, zilver en zwart. Vorige week zag ik vele kleuren van bloemen in het midden van de tuin.

Hier zijn een aantal voorbeelden van zinnen over de kleuren in het plaatje:

1. Kleur nummer een is groen.
   De eerste kleur is groen.
   Het gras in mijn tuin is groen.
2. Kleur nummer twee is geel.
   De tweede kleur is geel.
   De eenden in het park zijn geel.
3. Kleur nummer drie is blauw.
   De derde kleur is blauw.
   De hemel is blauw vandaag.
4. Kleur nummer vier is oranje.
   De vierde kleur is oranje.
   De kleur oranje is populair in Nederland.
5. Kleur nummer vijf is grijs.
   De vijfde kleur is grijs.
   Engelse mannen dragen grijze pakken op kantoor.
6. Kleur nummer zes is paars.
   De zesde kleur is paars.
   Gisteren zag ik een paarse vlinder.
7. Kleurnummer zeven is rood.
   De zevende kleur is rood.
   Het Liverpool Voetbalteam draagt rode hemden en korte broeken.
8. Kleur nummer acht is bruin.
   De achtste kleur is bruin.
   De modder op het fietspad is bruin.
9. Kleur nummer negen is zwart.
   De negende kleur is zwart.
   Sommige zwarte katten hebben groene ogen.
10. Kleur nummer tien is roze.
    De tiende kleur is roze.
    Ik heb roze rozen in mijn tuin.

Mijn favoriete kleur is lila. Van welke kleur houdt u ?

Woordenlijst

In case you would like to print this posting we have made it available to download easily. Just click here: Print the page “Van welke kleur houdt u ?”

The article in NRC is worth reading as it mentions a number of interesting facts and arguments. One of the minor ones being that Technorati counted 70 million blogs in April of 2007. Dutch Class suddenly feels very small! We do however consider ourselves lucky in that we are probably not going to be imprisoned.

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.

The answer is that technically  a tomato is a berry and therefore a fruit. We looked it up just to make sure.

So yes, “een tomaat is een bes”.

We learn all kinds of things in Dutch Class.

There are many cynically bad restaurants in Oxford, presumably trading to the tourist trade – people who are supposed to only dine once and never return.  Carluccio’s Caffe Restaurant is not one of these.

Carluccio’s aims to be traditionally Italian. The blue in the facade suggests it and a peek at the menu soon confirms it.  Many of the traditional Italian favourites are on the menu and most of the ones we have had were more than good enough to be Dutch Class approved.

Fortunately Carluccio’s does not take tradition so far that they’ve gone for the traditional Anglo Italian Restaurant cramped interior with sponge washed walls, checked table cloths and old wine bottles with candles in them. Instead the interior of Carluccio’s is modern, airy, light and pleasant.

Prices are pretty much in line with the Dutch Class Oxford rule of casual dining: a three course meal with a glass of wine or beer and an espresso to close costs just under £20 a head. The quality of the dining experience is better than most in Oxford though so we are happy to call this good value for money and we will eat there again soon.

To be honest we sometimes spend a little more because Carluccio’s also sells various Italian delicatessen to take home, temptingly arrayed to be seen on the way out. We like these too.

The legion of Dutch supporters were as always prominently visible in the stadium with their orange coloured shirts, hats, wigs, drums and the like. They will have to be careful though as there has been an official warning from the Dutch Health Ministry that the wigs could constitute a fire hazard. Apparently about 30% of the orange wigs and boas in circulation could easily catch fire when near a cigarette or lighter.

The Dutch national football team are playing in Euro 2008 and thousands of supporters are expected to follow their team to their games. Although over-land travel to the venues is possible from The Netherlands, news reports say the Dutch Football Association’s official transport company, OAD has chartered 100 flights to fly Dutch fans to the European football championship matches.

There are plans for OAD to transport 15,000 football fans a day for the first three matches. These are: Netherlands vs Italy on 9th June, Netherlands vs France on 13th June, and Netherlands vs Romania on 17th June. All three matches take place in the Swiss city of Berne.

Most flights will leave the Netherlands on the morning of the game and return to Schiphol and Rotterdam Airport after the match. “Orange Parties” will be held for Dutch supporters ahead of the matches.