Posts Tagged With: Dutch language

Today I received a letter from ROC Mondriaan (a school) — I was officially accepted into the B1 Dutch language course! It feels like ages since I have been in a Dutch course, but it’s really only been 2 and a half months…

Since I live in The Hague, the lessons are mostly subsidized by the city and I only have to pay €30 and also the cost of the textbooks (and that covers 14-16 weeks or so).

The classes are on Monday and Wednesday nights (!) from 6:45 until 10:00PM. That is double what I had for the A2 course. Should be interesting!

On Monday night I went to an open house at ROC Mondriaan in The Hague to look into a different option for continuing my Dutch language lessons at level B1 (pdf). The nice thing is that this school receives a subsidy from the city’s government, so it doesn’t cost the student nearly as much. €20 if you registered that day, €30 otherwise, plus the cost of textbooks. I decided that I would continue with B1 rather than trying to skip ahead to B2 after doing some crazy amount of studying over the summer. Probably for the best.

The open house went pretty well. There was actually a line of people waiting, but perhaps they were here for a lower level as I ended up getting taken before I even sat down. There was a bit of confusion when I said I was American (for a few minutes I thought I didn’t qualify for a subsidy) but it seems to have just been a case of the person not knowing what the rules were for Americans. My intake person asked another colleague, and he asked me for my education level. When I said Master’s that seemed to satisfy him.

All I know is that the course will likely start in September and that it will last for 20 weeks. I did say my preference was for a night course. The intake person also mentioned that I would probably take a test before the class started, to gauge my learning level so that students who learn faster (or slower) are put together.

Lastly, I’ll still be doing self-study over the summer with the other B1 course textbooks that I bought (Contact 2) so hopefully this class is also a breeze.

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.

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.