Reading

As mentioned in a previous post, on my last trip to the Netherlands I picked up a few kinderboeken (children’s books) from a secondhand shop.

“Het geheim van de verliefde hulpkok” – some words that I don’t know are underlined. If I found the definition, I wrote it in. It was painful to write in the book (I think it’s heresy) but hopefully it is worth it!

I decided to try an additional tactic towards learning Dutch – we’ll see if this one sticks. While I have been studying verb forms over at dutchgrammar.com, I thought it might be helpful to do a bit of reading as well. One of my flaws is running all over the place and trying new things, so hopefully this is in addition to not instead of.

I checked on bol.com for information about the book. (Bol.com is like Amazon, but the Dutch version. If you have any questions about that website, feel free to ask Roger. He’s the expert on that site!) I was expecting to see a groep designation (like grades in the United States), but it just went with the direct age. The book is for children 7-9 years old. I guess I am a kid at heart, huh?

At the elementary level, there are 8 groepen, with groep 2 roughly translating to kindergarten (the first compulsary grade). After elementary school, the children move on to high school (there are three different types based on the education level of the child).

But here I am, jokingly still stuck in groep 4 or so (grade 4). For now!