Author Archives: Niki

NOTE: If you’re noticing the falling snow on my blog, it’s a WordPress feature that comes around every December for the holidays. 

On Tuesday I had my first lesson with the other B1 class. (I switched to this B1 class because they were almost ready to take the final test, and that gets me into B2 two months sooner. I hope.)

Some impressions that I had: the class size was a bit smaller, with about 8 or 9 people. Half of those people liked to come 15-20 minutes late, though there was also the same problem in the other B1 class. In preparation for the switch I had pretty much finished the textbook, but this class didn’t get to the last two chapters . Although I did skip a handful of exercises each chapter that were predominantly speaking or writing. I don’t have much trouble with writing, so that is no big deal for me.

(Tip for learning a foreign language: force yourself to write whenever you can. For me, writing daily work emails to Marco has helped me writing skills tremendously. Though being fascinated with grammar is also a good motivation.)

The class is the same as the other one in other ways as well: most of the students are just as unmotivated. They do not do their homework, for instance. They don’t really try when answering a question. Everything is funny to them. A few times the teacher made mention of the fact that I had already done this listening exercise or that writing exercise but 1) I didn’t know how far they had gotten. 2) I wasn’t exactly sure what the test would be about, so I wanted to study everything.

So, I’m stuck hoping B2 is more challenging. Though my teacher did warn me that most people don’t do their homework in B2 either. But it should be more challenging in general — there’s a gap between B1 (normal job level of Dutch) and B2 (required for university level jobs). B2 isn’t for everyone – and here I am doing it for fun. I am weird!

The last few days have been pretty intense in terms of studying. I have hinted on this blog that the B1 course is too easy, although I am the weird nut that likes grammar. A few weeks ago my teacher asked if I would like to do the final exam for the class a few months early – so I would finish B1 just before Christmas, about two months earlier than expected. This just requires switching into a class that is almost done.

Of course I agreed, since 1) the class is too easy 2) if I can get into the B2 class a bit earlier, I might finish before the summer break. One can hope… Regardless, after B2 comes the NT2-II exam (for fun – the horror) so there is still a lot more work to do.

Officially I switch into the other class tomorrow, so I now go to class on Tuesdays and Thursdays (only). Thursday is a free day due to the Sinterklaas holiday, so tomorrow and the following Tuesday are the two class days before the tests begin. The tests are given on the 12th and 17th, with an individual speaking test given at some other time. We receive the results on the 19th.

Tonight’s class was a bit shorter – we had a test for chapters 4 through 6, though due to the craziness mentioned above I have finished the book (through chapter 12). Doing 5 chapters in under a week is a bit insane… but I did the same thing to able to skip the A1 class, way back when.

And the test over chapters 4 through 6? Just might be another 100%! But I have a feeling the final exam will be harder… But I’m ready for it.

The main grammar that we had this week was de vergrotende trap (comparative) and de overtreffende trap (superlative).

English: good, better, best
Dutch: goed, beter, het best(e)

trap in Dutch means stairs. Officially this chapter only comparatives, although we’ve had both a few times in the last week. For me it’s one of those things where I just “use it”, but don’t exactly know the rules behind it in either language.

Comparative –

bijvoeglijk naamwoord + er:
groot -> groter (big, bigger)
klein -> kleiner (small, smaller)

As you can see, English has the same basic rule – add -er. Sometimes you have to add -der, though – when the noun ends in r.

bijvoeglijk naamwoord + der:
donker -> donkerder (dark, darker)
lekker -> lekkerder (tasty, tastier)

And then the words that don’t fit the pattern at all, just make kids and students crazy:

veel -> meer              (much -> more)
weinig -> minder        (little -> less)
graag -> liever           (like -> prefer)
goed -> beter            (good -> better)

Patat is lekkerder dan spaghetti. Fries are tastier than spaghetti.

Een auto is kleiner dan een vliegtuig. A car is smaller than an airplane.

If you want to say the two objects are the same, you have a few choices:

even … als (or: evenveel … als)
net zo … als
English (just as … as)

De blauwe sjaal is even mooi als de rode sjaal. The blue scarf is just as pretty as the red scarf.

And there you have it – comparatives or de vergrotende trap. Perhaps I can cover superlatives and de overtreffende trap.

In every language it seems you have a word that must be pronounced perfectly, lest the native speakers laugh at you mercilessly for saying a much, much different word.

Somehow we randomly got on this example last night – a student said she had trouble pronouncing huur, or rent in English. (This is understandable as the double uu sound is not a natural sound in English, though it is similar to pronouncing tu in Spanish or French.) She mentioned that her coworkers laugh good naturedly when she tries. And why is that?

huur = rent

hoer = a woman who earns her money in bed. ;p ‘Whore’ in English. The w is silent. But oe in Dutch is much easier to pronounce and what usually comes out when you are trying to pronounce uu.

Ik moet de hoer betalan. I must pay the… whore? Hmm.

The same issues exist with the words buur (neighbor) and boer (farmer). Usually when trying to pronounce buur it comes out as boer partially due to not knowing the pronunciation and partially due to your mouth not being able to do the uu sound well.

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During the class we mainly finished off chapter 7 and looked again at the time words mentioned in my last blog post (toen, als, wanneer, sinds, and similar).

One thing I did (randomly) learn was that you can mix some verb tenses. The rule for complicated sentences (with a main clause and additional sub clauses) is that the tense always stays the same in past or present.

Toen ik naar de dokter ging, zag ik haar. When I went to the doctor, I saw her. Both in the past tense (required).

Wanneer ik naar de dokter ga, zie ik haar. When I go to the doctor, I see her. Both in the present tense (required).

But you can use the present perfect (Ik heb gezien  / I have seen) and mix it with past or present tenses.

Soms wanneer ik naar de dokter ga, heb ik haar gezien. Sometimes when I go to the doctor, I have seen her. Though it does sound a bit better to add the ‘soms’, or some other element, to the sentence when using the present perfect.

Last night I had another class by ROC Mondriaan. As I was on vacation for the last two classes I did not know exactly what the homework was. We were almost done with chapter 5 when I left, so I did all of chapter 6. Unfortunately the class did not get that far so I was a bit bored during the class! But it happens. I did make one mistaken with the dictee, which is a spelling exercise. The teacher tells you a sentence and you need to write it down perfectly. I misspelled concurrentie, or competition. I spelled it as ‘concurrencie’, which makes sense since -tie in Dutch sounds more like a soft -cie (or ‘see’). Another example is politie (police) which is pronunced like po-leet-see.

The main substance of the class was additional time/conditional words which influence the placement of the verb.

als = if (though it can be interchanged with wanneer sometimes)

wanneer = when (present tense)

toen = when (past tense). It also translates to ‘then’ in the past tense.

sinds = (ever) since

The hardest thing to remember is what tense you are in. If you are talking about things happening at this moment, you cannot use toen, only als or wanneer. If you are talking about things that have already happened, you can only use toen. 

The other main thing to remember is that when you use one of these words within a sub clause (or bijzin in Dutch), you need to put the verb at the end of the clause. One good way to figure out if it is a sub clause or not is to check and see if the sentence can stand on its own. If it cannot, it is a sub clause. Als ik naar de dokter ga… (if I go to the doctor…) is not a complete sentence. You have not said what would happen. Thus the verb will be placed at the end of the clause.

Toen hij zijn familie zag, was hij blij. When he saw his family, he was happy. The sentence is past tense, so you use ‘toen’ not ‘als’ or ‘wanneer’. Notice how the verb ‘zag’ goes to the end of the clause.

Als hij zijn familie ziet, is hij blij.

Wanneer hij zijn familie ziet, is hij blij.

If/when he sees his family, he is happy.

Sinds ik nieuwe buren heb, heb ik hoofdpijn. Ever since I have new neighbors, I have a headache. (Though the tense choice in English is probably not the best.)

And then finally, the other use of toen is ‘then’ in the past tense. The verb doesn’t go at the end of the clause/sentence for this – it merely comes before the subject. Simple inversion.

Eerst ging ik naar het strand. Toen ging ik naar mijn huis. First I went to the beach. Then I went to my house.

I am not quite sure why they needed the split in word choices based on the tense… but you do eventually get used to it. Maybe…