Ik ben nan

My name is Nan. I'm Thai and learning Dutch language. This is where I share my learning experience with you in the hope to inspire others to learn new skills. Alsjeblieft, spreekt Nederlands met mij :) Thank you for all your follows and messages!

[ikbennan]

4 jaar: My unexpected journey with Dutch language

It is often said that great things will come at the time when you least expect it. My journey with Dutch language sounds a bit similar to that. Four years ago, I was looking for a scholarship to study abroad. With unclear destination but determined, I was reminded about the Netherlands because the country offer master programmes in English. Curiosity brought me to search for Dutch tutorials video on Youtube. I found Lidewij and her Dutch lessons on her channel and others on the site. I made a small note on my research journal which I'm still grateful for today. From there, I started practising with Dutch people I met before starting to do volunteering work that allow me to practice my Dutch.

It seemed unclear at that time of exactly why I would learn Dutch for. A country with only 16 million people made it so much more reasonable to learn French or German in many ways. However, at that time, I was curious and could only think about learning it. I started looking for Dutch people everywhere I go. I picked up the love for urban cycling, and joined as many activities as possible where I can practice the language; going to European film festival, search for stroopwafels, having a little Dutch notebook with me all the time etc. Even now, I'm still amazed at my own energy back then.

Looking back, I think one of the many factors that helped me kept going was the changes I saw in myself and the events and experiences that were coming in my path. I was reminded of how different life can be by start exploring the things around me, for example, I learned a lot more about cycling, urban planing, and geography after I started going to places by bicycle. I got to learn about the patterns of people's daily lives in my neighbourhood.  And more importantly, I got to connect with people and that's my most favourite thing about learning a language -Connecting.  We can be different in the way we look and the clothes we wear, but language allow us to communicate and learn how much similar we are on the inside. It's a tool that came with opportunity to share your experience and dreams.

Thank you for everything that came to my life during the past 4 years of learning Dutch. It's still surprised me up to now that I got to work in a job that allow me to use Dutch and help people almost everyday. Thank you for everyone that I met and allow me to practice Dutch with them. Thank you for all my followers for your support and thank you for myself that I didn’t give up. And if there’s anything my readers can take away from this post is to keep exploring, no matter how strange or unpopular it may seems, if it gives you energy and joy, then go forward. Only you know what’s right for you and you will be surprise that everyone is there to help you get to where you would like to go. 

Dank je wel :)

Nan x

[ikbennan]

Hoe heet je? or Hoe heet jij?

I think I have heard (and even used it myself) both:

Hoe heet je? and Hoe heet jij? 

I understand that jij is more stressed form of je but je is more common. How does the rule really work and does the difference affects the meaning when you say it?

Any suggestions will be most grateful! Dank je wel!

[batchedarchive-deactivated20150]

From 0 to 100 Years in 150 seconds

Dutch filmmaker Jeroen Wolf went out on the streets of Amsterdam in October 2011 and asked people one simple question: “How old are you?”. Then he pasted the answers in chronological order in a video.

The video is in Dutch, but just keep counting in your head in English, and you’ll know their age.

[littlewhitely]

It’s really nice to see every aspect of the face change over time, see human development. Also, good to see that the pride we take in our age, which seems to fade over time, reoccurs when that age becomes extraordinary. 

[learningdutch]

also handy if you want to hear people count to 100.

[ikbennan]

       This is a lovely video and I tried to count along. However, it's quite hard  with all the different pronunciation and I lost the count after 30 before I could catch again at around 50. ^^" 

[ikbennan]

Going though my old photos and found this one with a sign in Amsterdam, may I ask what does it mean?

[ikbennan]

Hallo 2016 + Mijn updates en kunst

Hallo en welkom! It’s been a while since I wrote here, a lot have happened in life and time flies indeed. My Dutch learning actually still going, in case you’re wondering. I can speak faster I think, but I do forgot many of the vocabularies that I didn’t use. However, I still enjoy learning and I like how the experience brings new ideas and perspective to my life. 

I enjoy my work very much and I get to help a lot of people and customer at my office. Having close contact with people I learn even more that we are so unique and different. Perhaps those whose work concern meeting new customers every day like me can relate to? I didn’t know that we are that different until I engage with new people everyday. We tend to think that others have similar ideas with us but in fact, it can be very different. 

During the past several months, I started to find communication very fascinating. I often find myself thinking what shapes our thoughts and ideas, how does our childhood influences our perceptions and behaviour, how can one communicate with people who very preserve their privacy etc. The challenge is endless and so does the new knowledge I have gained. I feel like the experience is being collected and some how, am preparing myself for a new journey ahead that I don’t know yet what’s it going to be. However, I guess it’s the same feeling when you learn something new and that’s a good feeling :) 

Also, I need to update with you that I have been doing a lot of art during the past several months. I love drawing letters, architecture and nature. You can follow me on my instagram to view more photos.

There is a magical thing about drawing that I discovered but I can’t yet put into words properly. It’s pure meditation, cure and joy. I have never had a proper training in drawings before, only a basic graphic design and interior design short courses. But now that I started doing properly, i can actually draw stuff! 

I’m going to blog again about the magic of drawing and will try to make sense of things as best as I can

Finally, happy new year 2016 my followers! 

Gelukkig nieuwjaar! 

Vocabs

Drawing -   Tekening

Art -  kunst

[ikbennan]

Why did I learn Dutch?

Hallo, alles goed? I haven’t post for a while and I hope you are doing well. The rainy season has arrived and so does the summer in Europe which I hope you are having a good time and holidays. 

I got asked a lot why did l started to learn Dutch. Blogging here for almost three years now and I already forgot if I have explained this before, so forgive me if my memory isn’t good. I learn Dutch because I got interested in the Netherlands since I was a student and then I went to Amsterdam when I was in university for a short trip. Every time when I got asked, this is the main explanation I would reply. 

However, today it got me thinking that, generally, how much motivation do we need to be sufficient to make decision before learn something. Because many time I answered my reason of learning Dutch, people still wonder what are other reasons behind this unusual decision, you know, what’s more behind that? And to be honest, there’s nothing more than that. I was basically curious what will this language be like and sound like!

Thinking about this and I feel like, many times, we feel too much the need to have reasons to support our learning decision and that can restrain us from learning something new. 

We feel too much need for justification to explain why we decide to change and do something differently, maybe because that ‘something new’ is not our confidence or the culture we live in has trained us to have a ‘good enough’ support before it makes sense (to an unknown standard) before we feel like we are ‘allowed’ to learn something unique. 

Not matter what the case could be, having learned Dutch now I feel less need to find enough support to make my learning decision legit. I feel like being curious is more than enough to begin a new learning about something. If you find the knowledge exciting and interesting, you will become exciting and interesting person. And the rest difficulty will not even seem like a problem, it will just be part of the package. 

Should you learn a new language too? If you are curious, why not? :) 

[bybbr]

View from the Kaiseregg towards Schwarzsee. #kaiseregg #schwarzsee #hiking #swiss #switzerland #nature

[ikbennan]

yellow flowers!

[inspiredselfhelp]

[ikbennan]

It starts with you :)

[secretdreamlife]

[ikbennan]

zonnestralen :) 

[ikbennan]

Ik ben nan turned 2 today! Twee jaar vandaag :)

Hi everyone, I can’t believe my blog have turned two years old today! It seems like just yesterday when everything started and I launched this site to share my Dutch learning experience with you. I know that I haven’t been posting much lately but my learning still continues as usual. 

I’m still surprised until now how curiosity and experiment can turn my hobby here into something very practical and exciting in my real life and allow me to explore so much more about the world around me. 

I also wanted to thank you to everyone who supported me here. Your messages and encouragements have always been very special and I’m very grateful to have another space here to share my new experiences with you. 

Dank je wel

nan :)

[ikbennan]

Het regents zonnestralen

Dutch song on a Dutch bike through a street of Dutch city :)

[ikbennan]

Het is heel warm in Thailand (37c) zo ik hep en smoothie vandaag! #summer

[mopmonkey]

Dutch canal skaters

[ikbennan]

Hey! Super cool dat je nederlands wilt leren! Begrijp je dit al? :D

Ja, ik begrijp het :) Dank je wel voor jouw bericht ^^

[ikbennan]

Do you skate?

One of my followers on Tumblr asked me once which word in Thai is my favourite and the answer was: Nam (น้ำ) which means water. My other favourite thing is winter. Not sure have I told you before, but i'm a big fan of cold days and warm clothes. Therefore, when the season is approaching (i.e. now), I always feel like a good visit of a friend I haven't met for a while is about to arrive. Ice is therefore a combination of my two favourite things which I have always wanted to skate on. 

My closest experience with frozen water was to have my foot touch on it several years back in Europe and nothing else after that. However, I do remember how excited I was to see a real-life result of water and low temperature for the first time, being close to a nature phenomenon is always my version of going to an amusement park :)   

Do you skate? Is it very slippery? I'm quite curious of what it actually like to slide on those skating shoes without falling over. I do know that it can be a dangerous sport but, I think it's definitely a very different and exciting experience.

The Netherlands is famous for their speed skating in the Olympics and also has a traditional skating race called "Elfstedentocht" which is held in the Friesland and the route goes to eleven different cities there. I learnt from a Dutch traveller I met that the race can only be held when the natural ice is thick and safe enough which doesn't happen every year.

In Thailand, we also like to have a proper winter which only comes once in a very long time. I personally have only experience a good cold that you can wear a European jumper less than ten times,I think. However, it's much colder in the north and north eastern part of the country.

Let's look at the vocabulary about skating:

Schaatsen - skate 

Ijs - ice

Natuur -nature 

Schoenen - shoes

[ikbennan]

How to actually spell 'Dank je wel' ?

Hi everyone, alles goed? I miss you all sooo much:) This may seem like a trivial question but I really do want to get it right.

I have seen both ways of writing: Dank je wel and Dankjewel.

I thought the first one is correct but a lot of times people write the second one to me, so I started to wonder which one is grammatically correct? 

thank you in advance ^^

[ikbennan]

Language Discovery 1 : You can say it more in English, but not your language?

Hi everyone, alles goed vandaag? I miss you all SO much, believe me, I do! ^^ I know i have been away but I still am learning Dutch :) Today i wanted to begin writing a new series called Language Discovery, as the name has already explained itself, I will be telling you about interesting discoveries i found in learning foreign languages. This week, it will be about my use of English language.

I like to practise English as much as I can. From taking personal notes to reading and analysing information to myself, it's usually all in English. Apart from wanting to keep improving my skills, it is also because most of the data I consume daily is in English. In addition to that, I discover that being able to use a foreign language has allowed me to become the person I wanted to be. 

So I'm a different person when I speak Thai? I would say no. I'm still me. It's just that English has allowed me to be more expressive by both the language and its way of communicating. 

I started to developed my speaking skill when I was about 13 years old. I can speak some earlier but not in a complete sentence. About a year later, I started to join almost every English speaking competition in school. Soon, I got to represent the institution in different stages.From province to regional level, I fell in love with public speaking and join these opportunities continuously until universities. It may have been the sound and pronunciation of the language that I enjoy, but now I do know that it's more about the meaning of the communication.

One of the most distinctive quality I see is how speaking in English has given so much more ability to express my opinion. It's not that there is more word in English than Thai (or maybe it actually does!?) but the way meaningful words are commonly used in daily language has made things more beautiful.

A sentence like 'It was such a memorable moment when I walked along the sand dune with my bike' would sound very stiff and TV-like if i say it in Thai whereas it sounds a little literary yet conversational in English. Therefore, I have always felt that it is more possible to be expressive, a characteristic which should be encouraged, in English. Perhaps, it is also about the differences of culture between the Thai and European. A lot of times, we are not as expressive as we should be in our everyday lives and tend to be more reserved when it comes to feelings. Therefore, whenever sentimental words are said, they often sounded unnatural which resulted in not saying it directly. 

I hope this is not confusing because I'm actually quite excited that I can finally put these feelings into words after having them for so long! At the same time, I do aware that this is quite a personal perspective and I certainly understand and respect if you may have different ideas or views about English or Thai language. 

As regards to Dutch language, I cannot compare or have this feeling in Dutch yet because my range of vocabularies isn't that big ^^' so perhaps when i get better and know more words, I will write an extension of this blog post!!

What about you? Do you sometimes find it's easier to say things in English than in your native language?