How much time do you spend on Dutch per day?

by **Tom** » August 21st, 2005, 12:40 pm

How long do you spend on learning Dutch per day?
What types of things to you do to learn?

I probably spend at least 2 hours per day on one thing or another.

One thing that I do is to put movie soundtracks on mp3 cds and listen to them in my car while driving to and from work.

Care to share any of your ideas and tips?

Tom

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by **Jacu76** » August 23rd, 2005, 8:14 pm

Tough question... With me it goes in waves. Like now, I check this forum every day and spend hours visiting the links mentioned here. But I know myself, it comes and goes. At a certain point, I will probably not bother to even look at it for a month or so :wink:

and then come back, full of energy. Making Dutch puzzles is the only stable factor in my Dutch studies. I don't think I will ever get enough of those !

by **BigBadBill** » August 24th, 2005, 4:11 pm

i am now living in the netherlands and am surrounded by dutch all day, i try to learn any new words that i have heard to increase my vocabulary. i only had basic survival language when i arrived and it didnt really help with the listening. the best thing is just to be in the middle of it all day. but it is very easy to 'tune out'

BBB

by **EetSmakelijk** » October 12th, 2005, 12:45 am

Didn't notice this topic before. :razz:

I spend some time every day reading these forums. I have often just woken up or am just going to bed when I do so sometimes my mind isn't the clearest.

If any of my Dutch friends from the net are around I sometimes practice a bit with them, but I try not to milk them for new words every time we talk since they aren't my teachers but my friends and they write perfectly readable English. :wink:

I have been known to stay up until around midnight some nights reading dutchgrammar.com but I don't do that as much since finding the forums.
I did try some of the exercises on dutchgrammar.com to see if I could make verb stems etc., but I really prefer trying to make sentences.
My biggest problem is vocabulary, I can sort of put together a sentence, but when I want to say something I don't know the word and I am usually in the middle of making a post here and don't feel like going to a dictionary site to look up a word I should know.
What makes the words stick in my head the most is using them to try and write and also memorable occasions where somebody said a word when I was having a lot of fun or something. The happy memory makes the words stick harder.
I do find Dutch words rolling around in my head sometimes now. I think the language is slowly making its way into my brain and I hope one day I will be able to really see the language as a whole and not just a cluster of cute words.

Sorry this post has strayed a bit from Tom's original question, to make a long story a little shorter I really don't know exactly how much time I spend with Dutch each day.
Groeten,

by **Nathalie** » October 13th, 2005, 10:40 pm

Hello,

When I started, I was on holidays so I would spend sometimes as much as 4-5 h a day studying, checking new links, etc. It was a roaring start and I am right now a bit frustrated that I can't do more, or that I am more tired on my free time

I think I spend between 1-2 hours on Dutch on week days, and many more on Sundays. My memory is very average so I figured that getting as close as I could to a total immersion situation was the way to go.

Since I spend a lot of time on a computers at home and work, I already said in another thread that I installed several applications in Dutch.

I have iTunes, and I like listening to BNN: good music plus the news and sometimes a few conversations, the occasional Dutch group, etc.

Today I checked on what IOS stood for and got the lyrics for one of their songs.

Otherwise I have made De Telegraaf my online "home page". When I have a few minutes, I can check one of short items... or the latest celeb gossip I normally really don't care about. LOL I find De Telegraaf easy to get and attractive for a crash session. It's great to learn the news of the day in the language you're studying!

Celeb gossip can be fun, where else would you happen to learn about "breien"? (to knit) Thanks to Catherine Zeta Jones

Plus, it's fun to be able to discuss "binnen" topics with my Dutch friends online.

This and more (like this forum) liven things up but I also bought a language method. I do try to go through 7 small lessons a week regardless, and to listen to the CDs while I commute. Over and over and over!

I try to mix studying vocabulary (repeat, repeat, repeat), grammar (once more unto the breach

) and just wading through plenty of Dutch.

The only thing I'm missing really is phonetic transcriptions of whole sentences or dialogues like I had for English at the uni. If you really can't put your mouth around a sentence, there's no mystery - it's not said the way you think you hear it. Consons are assimilated, transformed, sometimes swallowed but the next one is changed... No dictionary can give you that. So, tonight I'm using the free demo for a program Geree indicated ("Before you know it") and working on a couple difficult sentences.

My humble opinion is that the more you do each day, even if it's small things, the better it will stick... but let's see where I am in 6 months before I start giving lessons

LOL

Break over, methinks - back to studying!

by **apinya** » October 24th, 2005, 9:04 pm

I've been studying dutch (in Belgium) everyday. It's not easy because new words to learn. The bad point is that I do not often pratice to speak in Dutch.. wherever I go I always try to speak English. But pity, not many people here in Belgium they could speak English. When I try to speak Dutch. I was shy to speak because I am afraid that my sentence is not correct in gramma. I attend the class everyday at school. And I also like to learn from this website as much as I can. Well I will keep following learning Dutch. I feel it's interesting language too. Even though it's difficult to pronouce correctly... bcoz of the words. G and Ch... something voice from the thoart.. Thanks for a nice web.

by **julien** » April 15th, 2006, 6:55 pm

Ik probeer zo vaak mogelijk mijn nederlands te oefenen
ik lees de krant of ik kijk naar de televisiejournaal.
ik installeert ook programma's op mijn computer in het nederlands als het mogelijk is.

Maar in België, is er geen interessanten kanalen om te kijken :roll:

Ik heb alleen de "één" en "canvas".
maar het is beter dan niks.

Nu ben ik in Maastricht dus kan ik meer oefenen

(ik wardeer meer dan alles als u mijn fouten kunt verbeteren

)

by **LiefNederland** » October 12th, 2006, 4:53 pm

Ik breng heel veel tijd met het Nederlands door, want ik studeer deze taal aan de universiteit. Ik probeer mijn Nederlands te oefenen met kranten, televisieprogramma's (ik heb de schotel en ik heb de mogelijkheid om veel Nederlandstalige tv kanalen te kijken) en liedjes. ik probeer soms ook kuiswoordpuzzels op te lossen.
groetjes,
liefnederland

by **Bieneke** » October 12th, 2006, 6:01 pm

LiefNederland wrote:Ik breng heel veel tijd met het Nederlands door, want ik studeer deze taal aan de universiteit. Ik probeer mijn Nederlands te oefenen met kranten, televisieprogramma's (ik heb de een schotel en ik heb de mogelijkheid om veel Nederlandstalige tv-kanalen te kijken) en liedjes. ik probeer soms ook kruiswoordpuzzels op te lossen.
groetjes,
liefnederland

Dat verklaart waarom je Nederlands zo goed is! Je studeert het op universitair niveau. :-)

Als je van kruiswoordpuzzels houdt, dan vind je http://www.denksport.nl vast heel leuk.

julien wrote:Ik probeer zo vaak mogelijk mijn Nederlands te oefenen
Ik lees de krant of ik kijk naar de het televisiejournaal.
ik installeert ook programma's op mijn computer in het nederlands als het mogelijk is.

Maar in België, is zijn er geen interessanten kanalen om naar te kijken
Ik heb alleen de "één" en "canvas".
maar het is beter dan niks.

Nu ben ik in Maastricht dus kan ik meer oefenen

(ik waardeer ~~meer dan alles~~ het zeer als u mijn fouten kunt verbeteren )

Graag gedaan (fouten verbeterd), maar een beetje laat...

Ik had je laatste regel niet gelezen.

by **LiefNederland** » October 13th, 2006, 5:54 pm

ja, inderdaad!

Thanks a lot, Bieneke!ik ga er meteen op klikken!
liefnederland

by **Chriswilcox** » October 15th, 2006, 1:10 pm

I am spending about an hour per day on learning.
I find MP3,cd and books are excellent.
Also newspaper and tourist web sites are pretty good too.
Chris

by **aspiringpolyglot** » October 28th, 2006, 12:52 am

I spend about an hour or more each day on Dutch and tend to try and keep things as varied as possible as I get bored easily. Some days I use the self-study books I have, others day I decide to try and read a few articles in a newspaper or on the Dutch Wikipedia site.

I've tried reading children's books a few times but I personally find this a little pointless. I know the language used in these books is about my level but I'd rather be reading something that interests me. I can't wait for the day that I can read Dutch-language books in topics that interest me!

When I don't feel like 'studying', I watch Dutch TV or put on the radio in the background. So far it's helped a little, although I've yet to find any programmes that really interest me. I usually resort to watching English-language programmes and documentaries and just read the subtitles. I've learnt quite a few new words and phrases this way. :-D

by **Akhenaten** » February 28th, 2008, 1:00 pm

I only begun studying Dutch yesterday!!!
And I am already passionate about learning the language!

I went through the pronounciation bit on this website...
And I go through a bit of the verbs..which I need to finish.
I've taken lots of notes in my notebook - and vocabulary to learn.
That is what I must focus on!! This site and other sites become useful. (:

So... yesterday it was from 6PM-11:30PM or so...

I'm having a lot of free time from college -
So I want to make a good use of it and learn Dutch!!!
(Also..I have some Dutch friends..so I want to speak to them in Dutch!)

Mhm...I guess I'll spend whatever time I have available!!!
Which might vary from an hour... to 6 hours!!! He he. (:
I feel that the more time I put into something, the more I'll learn.

My mum speaks Dutch - so, hopefully, she'll help me and I'll improve.

by **kwalijkje** » February 29th, 2008, 4:32 pm

Akhenaten wrote:I've taken lots of notes in my notebook - and vocabulary to learn.
That is what I must focus on!! This site and other sites become useful. (:

Taking notes is a very useful way of getting things in to your head. Before Uni work took over my life I used to go through this site making notes about the grammar, and after a while I found they started to stick in my head. Parrot-fashion.

But I seem to have forgotten a fair bit since I stopped.

Recently I discovered the language options on every electronic thing I own. So my computer, hotmail, phone, etc. are all in Dutch now. It's quite a useful way to learn because I already know how to navigate my way through them. It's just a matter of reading new words.

I now own all the Kuifje, Alfred J Kwak episodes and some of the Asterix movies, and loads of Disney in Dutch and make a point of watching at least one of those a day. I also go to sleep listening to audiobooks and cd's of Dutch comedians. Not sure if sleeping while listening works for learning but I'm getting very used to the musicality of the language.

Also, I have a Dutch housemate whose mother is always sending Dutch food for him, so I usually spend ten or fifteen minutes at breakfast time absorbing the back of packets of flokken and pindakaas.

I figure these days that the best way to learn is to surround myself with all things Dutch and take it in by osmosis. For some reason I find it very difficult to increase my vocabulary with forcefeeding, like Before You Know It and Quizlet.

by **KSerra** » February 29th, 2008, 5:18 pm

I don't have any specific goals set for myself ...

I've started taking lessons (one 3-hour session per week) and read snippets from the 'Metro', 'Spits' and 'Pers' (free daily newspapers) every day - usually on my smoke breaks!
I've recently started in a new job where I'm the only non-Dutch team member. So now I get to attend lots of meetings in Dutch (4-8 hours per week). At the meetings I give short responses in Dutch, but when it's important that I know everybody understands what I'm saying I will revert to English. One sign of my progress with Dutch is that nowadays my Dutch colleagues will keep speaking in Dutch rather than change to English the moment they hear me speak it. My usual experience is that once a Dutch person hears you use an English word they immediately switch to English.

Now for the hard part - trying to put that in Dutch. (You'll notice my Dutch and English versions aren't always the same - usually because I can't say what I want to in Dutch so try to get around things by saying something different (which hopefully has a similar meaning)).

Ik ben met een Nederlands curssus begonnen (3 uren per week op een avond). Ik lees stukjes uit 'Metro', 'Spits' en 'Pers' (gratis, dagelijke kranten) elke dag - gewoonlijk op mijn rookpauzen.
Ik heb een nieuwe baan waarin ik de eigenlijk non-Nederlander ben. Daarvoor heb ik 4-8 uren van vergaderings (in het Nederlands) per week. Soms, praat ik in het Nederlands (als ik korte antwoorden heb) maar als ik iets belangrijk moet zeggen dan praat ik in het Engels.
Ik vind dat Nederlanders wisselen tot de Engelse taal toen ze je in het Engels hebben gehoord.