Learning Dutch

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.

Slaapkop = a person who is sleepy. Or as we say in English, “sleepy head”. (My teacher called one of my classmates a slaapkop.)

Today’s class had about the same number of students. There were more people there at the start of the class (6 students and the teacher) and we ended up with 11. This chapter was more interesting than the last ones have been. The theme was het nieuws (the news) and included a poll about whether or not foreigners should be required to speak Dutch when outside on the street. It turns out that this section of the book is from an actual poll conducted in 2006 (Dutch).

The reactions that they used in the textbook were made up, however.

12 = José: I totally agree [that foreigners should speak Dutch outside on the street]. I find it disrespectful for our language and culture if people speak another language on our street. I find it terrible if I walk on the street in my own country and the people can’t understand [Dutch].

I will say that I would find it pretty difficult to speak Dutch outside on the street, because it still requires a level of concentration. Noisy places tend to make concentrating a bit more difficult! There have been a few times on the street when I have been glad someone switched to English (like the time Marco and I stumbled across some friends on Koninginnenacht a few weeks ago).

I can see where they are coming from though. If I heard 25% Spanish everywhere I went in America I’d probably get pretty tired of it too. And then sign up for Spanish lessons (again)…

You of course have the other side of the argument – most Dutch people seem okay with talking to you in English. I don’t really have the problem of random strangers switching to English with me, thankfully. However, I am not saying the conversations that I do have are long and detailed. Usually they are not.

Possible reactions you can say (positive, neutral, or negative) to give your opinions

Above is one of the many charts included in the book. They write in most of the words for you, and you just have to fill in the blanks. Pretty interesting.

Three classes to go! And then I must find another class.

“Ghost town” betekent ‘Er is niemand hier. Iedereen weg is.’ Soms is de plaats een dorpje, maar niet alttijd.

I knew it was going to be a weird night when the other student who usually rides the bus (from Centraal Station) wasn’t there. There was a lot of traffic (verkeer) and it seemed to take forever for the bus to arrive at the school. We were really only 3 or 4 minutes late, though.

At the start of class (7PM) there was only three students including me, and the teacher. I think traffic played a part in it though, because by 7:05 there were 9 students. We even had one student who arrived after 9PM for some reason. That was strange.

We have officially moved into the first part of chapter 11 (11A) which means that I am only caught up on my homework through this week. I haven’t started 11B yet. I had a few good moments. We split up into groups of 2 and made up our own fairy tale using the imperfectum (simple past tense). While the fairy tale didn’t make much sense – you can ask Marco, he’ll confirm that after I told him it later – I could tell that my grasp on that tense was improving quickly.

The last two or three weeks have shown an improvement in speaking. While I still only know the main tenses (present, present perfect, simple past, and some future using ‘to go’/gaan) the main thing that is holding me back is the vocabulary. I must learn more of it! Time to break out the themed dictionary that Roger got me a few years ago.

Oh, and apparently I am 1.58 meters tall. I had no clue how to convert feet & inches into meters, but that was one of the random questions the teacher asked during the class. Thankfully she didn’t ask me so I could look it up later.

A few more weeks to go before we have our test (week 13). I am not worried. The only thing I want is to be the best in the class, or maybe 2nd best. Maybe I will settle for that. Maybe… 😉

The class seems to be shrinking again. Last night we only had 11, and one of those left at the break due to a headache. The weather is getting good – light jacket weather, but you didn’t even have to close it at night while waiting for the bus. It is definitely “spring fever” – no one seems to be able to concentrate on much. I heard a lot of English thrown in by the other students – Hoe is het met de transport? (How is it with the transport?, complete with “Hoe” pronounced as the English “how”) You could say instead: Hoe is het openbaar vervoer? or How is the public transportation?)

One of the students brought in the A1 test (she had the same teacher for that class as well) and the format didn’t seem that no annoying. No speaking, which is in theory good for me but not in reality. Ik moet meer Nederlands praten! (I must speak more Dutch).

We covered almost two sections yesterday (10B and 10C), so I am now only a week ahead (11A). That’s fine with me.  A few things that we learned today included materials (leer = leather, plastic = plastic, hout = wood, and etc).

muur van steen = a wall (made) of stone
een stenen muur = a stone wall

So when you put the material before the object (acting as an adjective), than you add -en to the word. (The number of e’s change to keep the pronunciation the same.) Leer = leren (leather), hout = houten (wood, wooden), wol = wollen (wool, woolen. The l doubles to keep the pronunciation of the ‘o’ the same.)

Another thing we learned was afmeting, or dimensions. Admittedly I complained to Marco that I don’t even care about this in English, much less a different language. The most important thing to keep in mind is meter (meter) usually stays singular, and is pronounced differently than English (may-ter) due to the first e not being enclosed by a consonant (me-ter, as there’s no doubling of the t… met-ter). But that’s boring for most folks!

Afmeting =

3m bij 5m = 15 vierkante meter (3 meters by 5 meters equals 15 square meters)

Also, where we usually use a period, they use a comma, and vice versa.

2,5m bij 4m = 12 vierkante meter

6.200 = zesduizend tweehonderd (six thousand and two hundred)

6,47%

I am not sure if I will ever get used to writing commas and periods properly!

Next week there is no class due to Koninginnedag. The next class is May 7th.

Tot dan!

(until then)

Last night I had my 8th Dutch lesson at the Volkuniversiteit (A2 level). This lesson seemed a bit “off” — as in, it wasn’t that good. Neither the person to my right nor the person to my left did their homework and it seemed to be the same for most of the people in the class. Technically I am a few lessons ahead already, as we did 9C and 10A today, and I’ve already finished the homework through 10B.

Perhaps it is the warmer weather – it is harder to concentrate on the homework and during the class itself. I can definitely tell that it stays lighter outside longer. We didn’t turn the classroom lights on until almost 9PM due to ample light from outside.

The main grammatical thing that we learned was Er, in its simplest form. (There are many uses of Er that are a lot harder to explain. I don’t know all of them.) This version simply translates to “there”. So:

Er is een… There is a...

Er zijn… There are…

Er is geen zolder. There is no attic.

Er zijn geen winkels in de buurt. There are no shops in the neighborhood.

So it follows English pretty closely. The most surprising thing is that it didn’t appear in the textbook until now — I’ve been using it in Dutch speech for some months already, and I suspect most of my classmates have as well.

One random thing I heard the professor mutter quietly under her breath was Waarom zijn bananen krom? (Why are bananas curved?) Unfortunately I forget why she said it. I asked Marco and he said this is a rhetorical question you ask when there really isn’t an answer that can be given. She definitely seemed a bit more exasperated with the class in general this week.

One thing that was mentioned a lot in today’s chapter was the song A beetje verliefd (A little love) by Andre Hazes, a Dutch singer who passed away in 2004. It’s one of those songs that almost everyone in the country knows, even if they don’t care for it. It’s classified as a Smartlap (tearjerker). YouTube with Dutch Lyrics. Marco hates the music but wanted to tell you that that singer has an Amsterdam accent, as does 90% of the Smartlappen singers.

Another thing that was mentioned randomly was Koetjes en kalfjes (literal translation = cows and calfs, actual translation = small talk). Perhaps back in the day when there was even more farmland than there is now,  small talk did refer to how the animals were doing. Maybe!

The blog title refers to the tradition (at least in America) of a person being in front of a group of friends or family during an event (like receiving a surprise award). The audience then requests the person say something about the event/award by shouting “Speech! Speech!” (toespraak in het Nederlands?)

Last night was my 7th Dutch lesson. Halfway there! It was a pretty good lesson – this time I learned a lot of little things, rather than anyone one big thing.

In the previous class the teacher asked that we write about something (anything we wanted) and speak for not more than two minutes. I had no idea what to write about (in English or in Dutch!) so I asked Marco for help. You can see what it looked like below. I still had some errors of my own, like where I said “a” when I should have said “een” in the first line.

Before I came to the Netherlands, I lived in a little town called “Pearl River” in New York. Nothing happened in the town. The craziest day was St. Patrick’s Day because most of the people were Irish. Pearl River had a big parade for that day  – the second biggest in all of New York. The parade draws about 70,000 visitors or more. There are also many bars where people could drink – the main street had four bars in a hundred meters. My fiance said that Queen’s Day is the same – there are many drunk people.

And that’s what you write about when you do not know what to write about!

Some other things I learned in the class included “little” words that changed based on whether the situation was formal or informal. (Are you close to the person you are talking to? Then you can be more informal.)

niets (formal) / niks (informal) = nothing

nou (informal) = well (also used as a “stall for more time” word.) Nou, ja…

****

If the question contains al, you’ll probably answer with nog niet. If the question contains the word nog, you’ll probably answer with meer and a denial word (niet, geen).

Ben je al vrij? Nee, ik ben nog niet vrij.
Heb je nog vakantie? Nee, ik heb geen vakantie meer.

Are you free already? No, I am not yet free.
Do you have vacation still? No, I have no more vacation.