My Dutch learning journey (might be helpful for any new language learning)
2024-05

This is a post about how I learned Dutch, my 3rd language, which I consider myself 93.1415926% fluent.

The history

My native language is Mandarin Chinese. When I first moved to the Netherlands I could speak somewhat English. Oh, and the reason I moved to the Netherlands was that I was a football fan and wanted to experience the culture here which by then all I know was the orange color in the pitch, all of that obviously deserves another post. So at first, I had to improve my English. I still remember a couple of embarrassing moments, in every detail, those situations that happened at work, because of my English level. In a way that some people seem to be wanting to help me, yet all done in a hurting way. Those moments still “haunt” me, but not necessarily in a negative way. I guess although tacky, you could say that, what didn’t kill me, has made me stronger.

Later, I learned an interesting fact, that one tends to have problems with mistakes in others’ language when the language is not either of them’s native language. Think about it, why would someone feel superior simply because they speak better the language which is what they’ve been speaking ever since they gained the ability to speak.

So that was my experience of improving my English in the Netherlands, a country where 95%+ population speaks English fluently as their second or third language. It was a very refreshing moment when I cleared my mind about the above interesting fact. From then on, instead of feeling hurt, I started to grab every chance when I was “corrected”, “pointed out”, or even “laughed at”. I became a fearless sponge, taking every moment as a learning moment, this attitude, greatly helped me with my Dutch learning later.

All these moments have definitely created scars in me but also created an enormous impact in shaping me as an immigrant in a foreign country.

The motivation

After 5 years in the Netherlands, I decided to get serious about learning Dutch. The motivation first started that I wanted to be a cool Chinese who can do what lots of Chinese in the Netherlands can’t do after living here for more than a decade.

If you’ve been to the Netherlands, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The motivation of learning the Dutch language could be almost non-exist for an expat who can speak English well enough and who can navigate in an English dominating job market such as Tech.

For me, because of this, there was indeed no need, and therefore also no particular motivation besides that I want to be a cool Chinese, but this kind of total self-sustained motivation actually tends to stick, it sticks better than “have to learn because of XYZ”.

I had at that time already some basic knowledge, I had studied one of the Delftse methode books for beginners. I focused mainly on the basic pronunciation rules and very basic sentences. I then did an intensive course at the University of Amsterdam, an evening course, 2 times a week. Before the course they would let all applicants go through a test first to place them in the most fitting class level, I was placed in the intermediate class. During the 3 months course, my Dutch level peaked, I broadened my vocabulary and started to grasp well several key concepts in Dutch grammar.

I was in a good shape, but I was nowhere feeling that this is a language that I’m able to make sense of or to use.

The breakthrough

It was around that time, I discovered a book, called A Practical Dutch Grammar. I found the Chinese copy of it and started reading it. To my surprise, it was immediately a hit. I say surprise because I’ve never thought that it would be a good idea to use Chinese to learn Dutch, it would not make any sense, given the huge difference between the 2 languages, and given the fact that I already know English, which is million times closer to Dutch.

I heard a lot of people telling me that it’s so damn hard to learn Dutch because despite being here, you have no environment, every Dutch person speaks perfect English, the moment they had a bit of doubt in your Dutch level they immediately switch to speak to you in English, some of them also like to “show off” their English skills.

I know that for a lot of people like me, whose native language is far from a Romance or Germanic language, it can be quite a challenge to shift the brain to process things differently. But funny enough, I also heard a lot of people whose native language is a Romance or Germanic language, complaining that it’s so damn hard to pick up Dutch, because of the pronunciations, the awkward spelling, and so on.

My experience tells me that you need to separate language learning into different building blocks. You need pronunciation, you need vocabulary, you need grammar, and eventually, you need to mix them all and use all of the things you’ve learned. But the most important point here is that you can take different approaches for different building blocks, and in fact, you must take different approaches to master these building blocks, then put them together.

While you are on a specific building block, remember not to drag yourself too deeply, try to capture the most important part. If you are reading this, for a high chance you can speak English, so if you’re learning Dutch grammar, try to stick to the basic sentences that you are using in English, and learn how to say them in Dutch, try to embrace those words and concepts that play a key role in grammar, such as for English, the “be” verb, the modal verbs, then you’re almost there being able to put together basic conversations. Take pronunciation building block as another example, learn the basic rules, scan the exceptions and never pay too much attention to exceptions in the early stage, no one will care if you somehow mispronounced a word that in itself is an exception of the basic rules. Even native speakers are sometimes not totally sure, why should you bother.

To use Chinese to learn Dutch grammar was a hit, there were a lot of difficult concepts in grammar that it’d be difficult for me if I had to go through them in English or in Dutch. However, since I’ve learned English grammar through Chinese, I already have some foundation of how to approach this building block. It also helped me to compare English and Dutch grammar, once you have a comparison, grammar becomes more practical, instead of staying in its abstract sense. After finishing reading this book, I became much more confident in trying to put words together into sentences, as if there’s a blueprint of Dutch grammar presenting right in my head.

The real thing

A couple months later into my Dutch learning, I received a phone call, a phone call that changed my life in the Netherlands. The call introduced me to a job at tweakers.net, Netherlands’ Tom’s Hardware. The phone call was in English, the recruiter asked me to send in my resume, I did, my resume was in English, I passed the screening process and went in for my on-site interview.

The interview started in English, me introducing myself, future boss introducing the company, the team, the role. Midway into the interview, the boss suddenly asked me in English, how’s my Dutch, because, the working environment there is 100% in Dutch. I was at first a bit in shock as what he did could practically mean that he just wasted all of us quite some time. However, right at that moment, my narcissism and the motivation of being a “cool Chinese” took over, so I said in Dutch, yes I speak it somewhat. We finished the interview in Dutch, I got the job, and joined the company.

My then future boss had told me during my first performance review, that hiring me was him taking a huge risk and it was worth it. For me, I’m forever grateful for him, for the people I met at tweakers.net, I didn’t stay very long, but it forever changed my life in the Netherlands. Without changing who I am, and without agreeing to every bit of the culture here, I easily blended in everywhere.

While working at tweakers.net, I did different tricks to improve my Dutch, but what I remembered the most special trick I did was, whenever I receive a short email from a colleague, I would read it, understand it, then I would put it aside, write it down myself in Dutch, I then compare how I wrote it, and how native speakers had written it. I also had enormous friendly help from the people there. Once during a casual chat, a colleague pointed out a very basic mistake, he then asked me, after pointing that out, if I was ok with it, so apparently, there are still a lot of sensitive people in the Netherlands. ;) I told him please, keep all the corrections coming and I really appreciate that. I then told a few more people to point out my mistakes when they talk to me, and they did, so I could continue realizing mistakes that I’ve been making, and creating a little mark in my memory, which works the best in learning, as you have a scene to help you memorize the story and the learning.

The help

When I realized that, being corrected can help a lot in knowing how not to say things and then know how to say things, I decided that I need even more practice than what I have got at work. At work, a lot of times I don’t need to actually speak, and therefore I could hide behind the computer to get things done. And obviously, if I was in a meeting, or I was giving a presentation, nobody will correct me unless they really don’t understand anything or can’t even guess what I was talking about. I realized that the correction people gave to me, only happened during the social chat.

I found a language buddy through a non-profit organization. Nowadays different cities have different rules, and last time I heard, in some cities it might not be free. But I was extremely lucky to have met a wonderful lovely lady, whom I then started meeting up almost every week for a lunch together, where we’d just make conversations, and we remained friends.

After a while, I decided to take some exams to check my level, I went for the NT2 exam, did both programs I and II, which qualified me as B2 in the European language levels. When preparing for the exam, I got some materials from past years’ exams from the library and my language buddy helped me with a lot of speaking exercises there.

In the whole process, at some point, I started only using Dutch if I was interacting with a person who speaks Dutch. At first, I still struggle, and whenever people heard me struggle and saw my Asian face, they would offer English, I would reject, explaining that I need to practice, everyone was extremely friendly after hearing that and always supportive. Even in serious situations, such as visiting doctors, I still didn’t shy away, I would try Dutch. If I don’t understand what I heard, I would simply ask what they mean, with this question, the person who speaks to you would usually try another way to tell you what they mean. If the new way is something you can understand, then voila, not only did you understand what they just said, you also now have 2 ways to say it yourself. Only when things really hit to a point that I don’t get it at all, I would request the speaker to try in English. Over the years, such requests have become less and less necessary.

Summary

So that’s it, that’s how I learned Dutch.

The materials I’ve used

My tips

Good luck!