Author Archives: Niki

Yesterday was the last lesson for the A2 Dutch course. We also got our test results back. I scored a 171/193 points. That’s pretty good.

Total points: 171 (goed/good). Good range: 145-193. Advice: Go further with level B1.

I did of course make a few stupid mistakes. 😉 Two mistakes with the perfectum (example: I have gone) and two with the imperfectum (example: I went). And my Achilles heel is prepositions … I think I missed 5 out of 22 or something similar! But otherwise, it was good.

The rest of the class went pretty well. We didn’t look at the textbook or the workbook to do the last chapter, but rather did some more fun things. First she mentioned some good books to look at:

Nederlandse Grammatica voor Anderstalingen; ISBN 90 5517 014 3. She said this grammar book was rather comprehensive.

Nederlands in actie: Methode NT2 voor hoogopgeleide anderstaligen: ISBN: 978 90 469 0298 1. Apparently this is a good replacement for Contact 2, which is the textbook that we would be using in the next class.

Then we took turns doing voorlezen (reading aloud) from a 1973 children’s book called Floddertje. We read two of the short stories — “Opgesloten” and “Allemaal kaal” (which are ‘locked’ and ‘totally bald’). In the first story, she gets locked in her room so she won’t get dirty before guests come over. Doesn’t work. In the second story, she goes to the hair salon but due to a misunderstanding between her and her mom, ends up totally bald.

After that, we finished up by playing a vocabulary game: Pim Pam Pet. You have a stack of cards with vocabulary questions and one player spins to see what letter the answer must start with.

For example, I won these two cards:

een transport middel -> R -> Randstad Rail

Wat zie je op een boederij? -> K -> Koe

*

Method of transport -> R -> Randstad Rail (name of a Dutch train service)

What do you see on a farm? -> K-> Cow

And that was the end!

So last night was our toets (test). It went pretty well. There were definitely some things that I got wrong, but not that many I think (or hope). We received 70 minutes, though she gave us an extra 10 minutes. And let me tell you, those 70 minutes went fast…

The test was 11 pages I believe. Though of course some pages were quicker than others. It was more writing sentences than filling in the blank. I and a few others agree that sometimes it is hard to have enough imagination for these tests. For example, you are told you are asking your friend something, and are given the first few words of a possible question. You must complete the question. Sometimes you spend more time thinking about what question to ask then how to actually write the question in Dutch.

The last page was a bit of a doozy – you get a chart in Dutch which you must describe in 6 to 12 sentences. (This year the total was this, and then the following year the total decreased to this, etc.) While I had studied all of the vocabulary, I’m not sure that I used them completely correctly. But again, not so many points off there.

And of course, the other annoying factor was just how much I was using my pencil eraser, getting little bits everywhere! At least we had more room to move around, because we didn’t sit right next to each other this week.

After the test we had a break of about 15 minutes and then went back in. Some of the students left at that point, but most stayed. We talked about what we wanted to do next week, the final week of the class, in addition to going over the tests themselves. Things like games, or just conversing, or cultural things. She did say she would also bring in some stroopwafels…

We did have a little bit of grammar after the test, die and dat. In English, it is similar to using “who” in sentences where you give more information about someone or something.

die = words with “de” and all plural words

dat = singular words with “het”

De man die daar staat… (the man who stands there)

Zij is het meisje dat ik heb gevonden. (She is the girl that I have found)

Marco told me about this one some months ago. Mainly because every time I make a mistake he corrects me! (that’s a good thing)

me: Mensen dat …

Marco: die

me: Oh. Mensen die …

Oh, and of case you’re wondering, die is pronounced like the the letter “d” in the English alphabet, not like… well… die.