Apps

I was pleased to receive an update from Duolingo – this update now includes the ability to learn Dutch. I have written about Duolingo before, but I personally think the experience is vastly improved by being on a mobile device. Duolingo is more on the minimalist side – there isn’t a lot to stare at on each screen. The iPhone version simply reduces the white space, without losing any of the look and feel of the PC version. And in this case, using your finger is much faster than using the mouse.

Duolingo for iOS

Duolingo for Android

Note that if your Dutch is already at a higher level you do have an option to test out of the various levels. Duolingo is great for reading, writing and listening, but the Dutch version does not have speaking exercises available yet (perhaps because this language course is still in beta).

Duolingo uses the concept of gamification – using gaming concepts (achievements, earning experience points, etc) in learning settings to make users keep wanting to come back for more.

Muiswerk is a Dutch dictionary app (Apple | Android). I remember downloading this in the beginning of the year but not finding much use for it. The reason – I wasn’t ready yet. This app is completely in Dutch with no English to be found. In the beginning I found that pretty discouraging, but now it is exactly what I need.

The app contains about 40,000 common Dutch words. Each word has a definition and at least one example sentence. Afterwards, some words include uitdrukkings, or phrases, which are used within the Dutch language. For example, you can see below “geen slapende honden wakkermaken” — don’t wake a sleeping dog — with the definition [geen aandacht vestigen op wat beter geheim kan blijven]. This saying is similar to the English saying ‘let sleeping dogs lie’.

In addition, verbs include the conjugations (ik schrijf, hij schrijft) and each page includes links to words used on that page (meer informatie bij…). For example, if you did not know what aandacht was you could click the link and be taken to the aandancht page.

If you are somewhat comfortable with reading Dutch you should definitely give this app a try!

This weekend a family member introduced me to another Dutch app. It is a spelling app which for the moment seems to only be available for iOS6+ (iPhone, iPad, and iTouch). it is called Get it Spelled NL.

So far I have only played with the free version, which lets you oefenen (practice) without any timer. You can also play online against random other players. That is most definitely not my thing! Not even with an English app. If you upgrade to the Pro version it looks like you can also play with a timer at easy, medium or hard levels. I’m perfectly happy with the practice level, of course. It takes long enough as is…

For those of you who already live in the Netherlands it is pretty similar to a basic version of Lingo. You need to guess what the 6 letter word is, and are always given the first letter (annoyingly, you always need to start your guesses with that letter). Green means that you have found the correct letter for that space. Red means that you have found a correct letter but it should go somewhere else. (Be warned – if you have two identical red letters, it sometimes means the letter appears in one other space in the word and sometimes it means the letter appears in two other spaces.)

All in all it seems like a pretty decent game. It is harder than it looks, especially for buitenlanders (non Dutchies), but without a timer it allows you to play at a more leisurely pace and thus look up any answers that you didn’t know existed before!

This app has been added to the Dutch Apps page.

Word Tap is a word finding game available in multiple languages, including Dutch, English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, and Portuguese. The default is English so you will have to switch the language in the settings if desired.

The game has a two minute timer in classic mode. Level mode has you progress through 10 levels. Your goal is to find as many words as possible before the time runs out. Longer words with rarely used letters give you a higher score. Words can be formed in pretty much any direction – left to right, right to left, up to down, down to up, and diagonally. (So you can click a letter, click the letter to the right of it, and then go diagonal for the next letter).

In addition, you can hold a letter and drag to move it in a new direction. You can also shake the iPhone to give yourself new letters.