How much time do you spend on Dutch per day?

[Joke]

Ik ben met een Nederlands curssus begonnen (3 uur per week op een avond). Ik lees stukjes uit 'Metro', 'Spits' en 'Pers' (gratis, dagelijke kranten) elke dag - gewoonlijk op tijdens mijn rookpauzes.
Ik heb een nieuwe baan waarin ik de eigenlijk enige niet-Nederlander ben. Daardoor heb ik 4-8 uur van vergaderingen (in het Nederlands) per week. Soms, praat ik in het Nederlands (als ik korte antwoorden heb), maar als ik iets belangrijks moet zeggen dan praat ik in het Engels.
Ik vind heb gemerkt dat Nederlanders wisselen tot naar de Engelse taal wisselen zodra toen ze je in het Engels hebben horen praten.

Heel goed!

Some comments:
For the 'time words' that end in -r, we use the singular form after a quantity:
2 uur
4 jaar
3 kwartier
but
10 minuten
2 weken
5 seconden

In het Nederlands wordt geen komma gebruikt na een inleidende woordgroep, zoals 'In het Nederlands' in deze zin en 'soms' in jouw tekst.
In Dutch, no comma is used after introductory words, like 'In Dutch' in this sentence and 'soms' in your text.

After words like iets and niets, the adjective gets an extra -s.
Iets belangrijks Something important
Niets bijzonders Nothing special

Groetjes Joke

Zie hier voor een uitleg van de gebruikte kleurcodes.

[Quetzal]

Ik ben met een Nederlandse curssus begonnen (3 uren per week op een avond). Ik lees stukjes uit 'Metro', 'Spits' en 'Pers' (gratis, dagelijke kranten) elke dag - gewoonlijk op tijdens mijn rookpauzens.
Ik heb een nieuwe baan waarin ik de eigenlijk enige nonniet-Nederlander ben. Daarvoor heb ik 4-8 uren van vergaderingsen (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 Ik merk vaak dat Nederlanders wisselen tot de Engelse taal naar Engels switchen toen ze je in het Engels hebben gehoord. zodra ze je Engels horen spreken.

I corrected the mistakes, mostly small ones. A major one was using "eigenlijk" when you meant to say "enige", though. "Eigenlijk" means "actually" (mind the false friend here... "actueel" in Dutch is something very different still). Also, no comma after "soms".

Other stuff:

- een cursus Nederlands (een cursus koken voor beginners, een cursus Spaans, een cursus websites maken,...), rather than "een Nederlandse cursus"
- we use "ik vind" for opinions, not for experiences; another false friend I suppose, as "I find that" is a wrong translation of "ik vind dat", and in reverse "ik vind dat" is not a correct translation of "I find that", either
- "switchen", a word borrowed from English but adapted to the Dutch verb conjugation, is the most common term used when talking about switching between languages, I'd say, more so than "wisselen"
- "toen" is always used with the past tense, and hence not applicable for a general statement of the "when(ever) x, then y" variety

[Quetzal]

Oh. I kinda missed that reply... oh well. I see that I've found errors Joke missed, and vice versa, so so much the better, right?

[yeknom]

i am really new learning dutch. right now i am studying around 1 hour per day. but i know that in the future i will spend less time..until i bore =)

[Grytolle]

2 uur
4 jaar
3 kwartier
but
10 minuten
2 weken
5 seconden

This donkeybridge ( ) is awesome <3

[markmcopc]

My interest in Dutch began with reading books and articles that were translated into English from Dutch and Afrikaans - philosophy, history, theology and that sort of thing. Over and over my Dutch friends would say "this translation takes away some of the meaning", or " ...beauty", or "...rawness", or "...adds something that doesn't quite fit". Naturally, I don't expect at my age to attain a native-speaker's proficiency so that these missing bits of sense are available to me; but it raises my curiosity.

So, a short while ago (I don't know why I waited to do this for so long) I started finding some of these books and articles in their original language and used these to compare to the translation - reading each Dutch sentence over and over until it finally was simply plain to me what was being said. I'm especially interested if there is an audio version of the same material, with which I follow along mimicking the sound as exactly as I can - over and over, obsessively, until I can parrot it with very nearly the same pace and inflection as the reader (my "g/ch" still sounds too much like a spittley "k" much of the time).

I can read texts for which I don't have a translation in much the same way, using a dictionary; although it's far more laborious. But I need a dictionary less and less, I'm gratified to learn, as I practice this way more and more. I listen to Dutch internet radio (much of which is in English unfortunately for me - how the Dutch do love to speak in many tongues), Dutch videos on youtube (an inordinate number of which concern how to talk dirty in Dutch ), or Dutch sermons on http://audioserver.nl. It is a ridiculous amount of work, I suppose, if you count that as "spending time on Dutch". I mean, really ridiculous - on the order of 10 hours a day. At this early stage of passive immersion, I dream in bits of Dutch that resound in my memory.

But I've only very lately begun to "see" the grammar rules in operation, and the reasonableness of Dutch word-order and other rules has suddenly started to show itself to me. That's because of what I've learned on this site in a single day: that actively creating my own Dutch sentences is an entirely different matter than reading or listening. I'd not yet really been tuned into the grammar, although I tried to be, until I started to make my own sentences and to understand why they aren't correct. Because it's active work that takes time away from other things (and I do have a job and a family and other things that need attention), I can't do that for more than an hour or two.

So, for the time being, the answer is: a LOT of time; so much that, I wonder how so little has really sunk in. I blame it on age.

Mark
--
+ spit

[Grytolle]

I spend most of my days chatting in Dutch or studying it, surfing the internet reading in Dutch, etc. At this time, it's simply what I enjoy the most, except at the times when I feel the need to see a friend

[Sullivan]

So, for the time being, the answer is: a LOT of time; so much that, I wonder how so little has really sunk in. I blame it on age.

Mark
--
+ spit

Age is one thing. But 10 hours a day sounds like information overload to me. When I was getting started, I found 30 to 45 minutes every day much more beneficial than say 2-3 hours at a time a couple of times a week. I would maybe do some exercises from the book I was using and the next day listen to the recorded conversations belonging to those exercises during my train ride to work.

Gradually it built up to reading literary works and spending time on Dutch internet fora or chatten on MSN. Once you get to the stage where you can understand what you're reading pretty well, it doesn't feel so much like learning.

Unfortunately I no longer take the train to work and it is not so easy to listen to stuff (audio books or whatever - Louis Couperus' novel Van Oude Menschen De Dingen Die Voorbij Gaan can be downloaded free as MP3s for example) while driving. Some people can do it, I just can't focus on listening to the narrator and venting my rage at other drivers simultaneously.

[Sullivan]

http://librivox.org/van-oude-menschen/

Here's the link to the audio files of Couperus' novel for those who are interested.

[markmcopc]

Age is one thing. But 10 hours a day sounds like information overload to me.

It isn't a lot different from the way I spent my time listening to or reading English. I've just switched the default language, for a while anyway. The difference is that for the first week, I had no comprehension at all of what I was reading and neither could I even discern syllables in spoken Dutch except for loan- and friend-words. Now I can pronounce the words and I can discern what's spoken, so that I get an impression of the meaning although not yet a solid understanding.

+ There are plenty of folk who spend every waking hour surrounded by their mother language or some other, and can't spell or speak correctly. Although I'm surrounded by language all day and night, it's only information about the language itself when I'm paying attention to it in a certain frame of mind.

Mark
--

[AppelstroopIsLekker]

but it is very easy to 'tune out'
BBB

I totally know what you mean. Some days I will be revved and ready to go and don't want to stop speaking dutch, and then sometimes, because of some stupid person at Albert Heijn that told you off, or you are tired, sick, or just don't feel like it, you kinda of close up, and can easily tune the Dutch out. Some days you need it though. Learning a language, especially when beginning and in a place where they speak it, is _physically_ exhausting.

[firefly315]

Hoi allemaal,

The amount of time that I spend on Dutch, on a daily basis, depends on the amount of time that I have have. Lately, I have have been on The Dutch Grammar Forum ever day, and I have read a lot of stuff in Dutch online and have listened to radio nederland, whenever I can. Naturally, my Dutch level has gone up in the last month and a half.

I've been learning Dutch for four years, through self-study, and some months, I just listened to the radio and glanced at my grammar book a few times. After I realize that I am doing that, then I get right back into studying a lot!

However, I do not foresee that I will slack off at all now because I have gained too much in a very short time, and I'm really happy about that. I also saw that I learned a few things that I had previously thought were more difficult to learn, such as the passive voice or er, although I have known, for a long time, that er is means there is and er zijn means there are. My sentences seem to have a more "Dutch" feel to them now --- yea word order!

In addition, I have made a bunch of new friends on this website, and that is a really great thing about learning Dutch!

Groetjes,

Cathleen

[Jae]

Agreed, Cathleen! I keep thinking that I've gotten as far as I can on my own and have reached the point where I really need to go to a Dutch-speaking country for a while to shave the rough edges off, but then I work a little bit harder and go just a little bit further. And seeing results helps me keep up the pace.

Of course, even if I weren't able to get much further on my own, it would be good timing, since I'm leaving now in thirty-five days. Whee!

[firefly315]

Hoi Jae,

Agreed, Cathleen! I keep thinking that I've gotten as far as I can on my own and have reached the point where I really need to go to a Dutch-speaking country for a while to shave the rough edges off, but then I work a little bit harder and go just a little bit further. And seeing results helps me keep up the pace

Before about six weeks ago, I was beginning to wonder if I had gotten as far as I could on my own --- or almost. Then, I started to come to this website more frequently and started posting and chatting. I cannot believe how much I feel that my Dutch has improved! However, I definately feel that I would really benefit from living in The Netherlands for awhile.

Are you going to live in the Netherlands? For about how long will you be there?

Groetjes,

Cathleen

[Jae]

Are you going to live in the Netherlands? For about how long will you be there?

Well, I'm going to be alive and I'm going to be in the Netherlands, but since it's going to be for a little less than two months, I don't feel confident calling it "living in the Netherlands." Mostly I just want to get my Dutch really down so that I can take advantage of professional opportunities there in the future. That's the goal this summer.