helaas, pindakaas

Ik ben een tevreden Amerikaanse. Ik slaap, ik eet, ik hou van mijn verloofde. Maar ik woon nu met mijn liefje in Nederland, en ik spreek geen Nederlands. Dus hier ben ik aan het leren! Mijn Nederlands is heel slecht. Ik ben helemaal sorry.

[join-the-dutch-clan]

Could you make a post about Dutch filler words such as well, though, anyway, also, etc? Just words that you would add to make conversation sound more natural? Thank you ☺️

Of course! Thank you for sending me an ask :) The translations aren’t always the literal translations, but they give you an idea how it’s used (hopefully).

Stopwoordjes (filler words):

Weet je (wel) - you know?

Maar goed - anyway, but yeah..

Maarja - but yeah..

Tja - well

Eigenlijk - actually. Used when you don’t actually :P need it. You often hear people say this at random in a sentence. 

Echt - really. Examples: niet echt, echt leuk, ik weet het echt niet, etc. 

Gewoon - just

Zeg maar - like

Hoor - It doesn’t add any meaning, but people often say things like “ja hoor”, “doei hoor”, “is goed hoor”, etc. 

um - something people say when they need to think for a moment. I think this is used in most languages.

En zo - used at the end of a sentence when you don’t really feel like saying any more about the subject. It’s short for enzovoort (and so forth).

Of zo - used at the end of a sentence when you don’t really know if what your saying is correct.

Ik bedoel - I mean

Een soort van - Kind of

Snap je? - you know?

Dus - It means so/thus, but it’s often used in between sentences that aren’t even cause and effect. 

In ieder geval - at least, anyway

Maybe it’s interesting if @hotairballoon221 makes a Flemish version since the Flemish use filler words that we (the Dutch) don’t use. 

[join-the-dutch-clan]

Linking Words (Dutch-English)

     Enumeration

en - and

ook - also, too

verder - furthermore

bovendien - furthermore, in addition, besides, moreover, what’s more

daarnaast - besides, moreover

voorts - furthermore, moreover, and also

niet alleen…..maar ook - not only…..but also

zowel…..als - both…..and

noch….noch - neither….nor

daar komt nog bij dat - on top of that

ten eerste, op de eerste plaats - firstly, first of all

ten tweede, ten derde, etc. - secondly, thirdly, etc.

ten slotte - finally

vervolgens - then, subsequently

     Opposition

maar - but

echter - however

doch - but

natuurlijk - of course

toch - still, yet, even so

daarentegen - conversely

integendeel - on the contrary

evenwel - as well as

enerzijds….anderzijds - on the one hand….on the other hand

aan de ene kant….aan de andere kant - on the one hand….on the other hand

in tegenstelling tot - unlike, as opposed to

desondanks - even so, despite

daar staat tegenover - on the other hand

niettemin, desalniettemin - nevertheless

of(wel)….of - either….or

behalve - besides

eigenlijk - in fact

terwijl - whereas

dan - than

     Reason/argument

want - because, for

omdat - because, as

aangezien - since

immers - after all

namelijk - namely

derhalve - therefore, thus, consequently 

daarom - as a result, therefore, hence

vanwege - due to, because of

op grond van - based on, on account of

    Cause- effect

doordat - because (of)

daardoor - therefore, because of that

waardoor - whereby

hierdoor - because of this

met als gevolg - with the result

ten gevolge van - as a result

dit is te danken/wijten aan - this is due to

de oorzaak hiervan is - the cause of this is

zodat - so that, in order to

bijgevolg - consequently, subsequently

dan ook - therefore

dientengevolge - consequently

want - because

zodoende - hence

    Objective - means

opdat - so that

om - in order to

daartoe - for that purpose, to that end

met de bedoeling (om) - through, with a view to

waarmee - whereby

door middel van - by means of, through

met behulp van - by means of, with help from

is erop gericht - is aimed to 

om te - in order to

daarmee - with that

    Explanation/clarification

dat houdt in - that means

dat wil zeggen - that is, that means, in other words

met andere woorden - in other words

bijvoorbeeld - for example

ter illustratie - to illustrate

zoals - like, such as

onder andere - among other things

    Example

bijvoorbeeld - for example, for instance

ter illustratie - to illustrate

zo - like, such as

zoals - such as, like

stel – for example

    Condition

als - if

indien - if, provided that

wanneer - when 

mits - provided that

op voorwaarde dat – provided that, on condition that

tenzij - unless

aangenomen dat – supposing that

gesteld dat – supposing that

    Relativization

hoewel - although, though

ofschoon - although, though

ondanks dat - in spite of

weliswaar - admittedly, certainly

tenzij - unless

    Comparison

alsof - like, as though, as if

evenals - as well as

eveneens - also, too, as well

evenzeer - equally

in vergelijking met – in comparison to

net als - just like

overeenkomstig – consistent with, in accordance with 

    Summary

samenvattend - thus

kortom - in short

al met al - all in all

terugblikkend - in retrospect

oftewel – in other words

samengevat – in summary

    Conclusion

dus - so

concluderend – in conclusion

dat betekent – that means

hieruit volgt dat – it follows that

    Period in time

eerst - at first

dan - then  

daarna - after that, afterwards, next

toen - once, back then, when

zodra - once

vroeger - earlier, in the past

voordat - before 

tot nu toe - up till now, so far

plots, plotseling - suddenly

reeds - already

al - already

wanneer - when

terwijl - while, whilst 

nadat - after

aanvankelijk - initially

intussen/ondertussen - meanwhile

[timidkoala]

Okay, this is handy, but there’s at least one term in every category that’s hopelessly old-fashioned and would make you sound really odd if you actually used them in casual speech so BE WARNED LEARNERS. 

Using “voorts”, “doch” (unless it’s in a stock phrase like ‘streng doch rechtvaardig’ or something similar), “reeds”, “evenzeer” and  “ofschoon” in conversation WILL sound archaic, I’m sure there’s some more in the list that are questionable but those are the few that popped out at me the most. They’re handy to recognise, especially if you want to read older written material, because a lot of these stuck around in formal writing while being phased out of casual speech, but like, there’s a caveat attached to not just copy phrases from a list on the internet lest you end up sounding like an academic from the 1950s.

Also, a lot of these, but not all of them, come with specific prepositions- anything that has van at the end is an example of this, but I noticed that “erop gericht” didn’t have that listed. Something is never just “erop gericht”, it’s “erop gericht om [iets te doen]”, like with “Met de bedoeling (om)”. For example, “deze lijst met handige woorden is erop gericht om mensen die Nederlands willen leren te helpen”. 

So, some caution is advised, even if it’s a handy and exhaustive list. :0c

[join-the-dutch-clan]

Thank you very much for the expansion :) I do have to say that although those old-fashioned words aren’t used very often in speech, they are used quite a lot in written language. You often find them in Dutch literature or scientific texts and I use them quite a lot myself for either papers or poems, so that’s why I added them. I agree with you that the other words might be more useful though, but I felt like I couldn’t leave them out.

[nederlandsedingen]

Dutch Tongue Twisters

1. De kat krabt de krullen van de trap.

2. Als vliegen achter vliegen vliegen vliegen vliegen vliegensvlug.

3. Als een potvis in een pispot pist heb je een pispot vol met potvispis.

4.  De knappe kapper kapt knap, maar de knecht van de knappe kapper kapt knapper dan de knappe kapper kapt.

5. De slome slak slaapt in de slappe sla.

6. “Frans”, zei Frans tegen Frans in het Frans, “is Frans in het Frans gewoon Frans?” “Nee,” zei Frans tegen Frans in het Frans. “Frans in het Frans is François.”

7. Liesje leerde Lotje lopen langs de lange Lindelaan.

[join-the-dutch-clan]

Hi guys,

I want to recommend a book to you, which my mother bought a few days ago. It’s called Vlekkeloos Nederlands and it’s written by Dick (Dutch name, don’t laugh) Pak. This book explains almost all Dutch grammar and spelling. A disadvantage is that it’s written in Dutch, but I think it’s pretty understandable when you use a dictionary.

[hotairballoon221]

Your house in Dutch

Go around your house to practice this vocabulary!

Other Useful Dutch posts: Dutch Garden Vocabulary Dutch Mail Vocabulary Dutch City Vocabulary

Nouns

The house - Het huis

The mailbox - De brievenbus

The room - De kamer

The floor - De vloer (as in: I’m walking on the floor)

The floor - De verdieping (as in: My bedroom is on the 1st floor)

The wall - De muur

The furniture - De meubels, het meubilair

The basement - De kelder

Old stuff - Oude spullen

The hallway - De gang

The front door - De voordeur

The door - De deur

The doormat - De deurmat

The stairs - De trap (Stair - Trede)

The dresser - Het dressoir, het kastje (Kastje is the diminutive of kast, which is a closet)

The living room - De woonkamer

The couch - De bank (Dutch), de zetel (Flemish)

The pillow - Het kussen

The blanket - Het deken

The lamp - De lamp

The TV (Television) - De TV (Televisie)

The remote - De afstandsbediening

The coffeetable - De salontafel, koffietafel

The fireplace - De (open) haard

The radiatior - De radiator

The rug - De mat

The kitchen - De keuken

The sink - De wasbak

The tap - De kraan

The stove - Het fornuis

The oven - De oven

The microwave - De magnetron (Dutch), microgolf (Flemish)

The (re)fridge(rator) - De koelkast (Dutch), frigo (Flemish)

The cabinets - De (keuken)kasten (Cabinet - keukenkast)

The drawers - De laden, lades (Drawer - Lade)

The dining room

The table - De tafel

The dinner table - De eettafel

The chairs - De stoelen (Chair - Stoel)

The plates - De borden (Plate - Bord)

The cutlery - Het bestek

The glasses - De glazen (The glass - Het glas. Not to confuse with ‘de bril’, which are the glasses to put on your nose so you can see better.)

The bedroom - De slaapkamer

The bed - Het bed

The sheets - De lakens (sheet - laken. Not to confuse with ‘het vel / blad papier’, which is ‘the sheet of paper’)

The closet - De kast

The wardrobe - De kleerkast, garderobe

The desk - Het bureau

The bookcase - De boekenkast

The bathroom - De badkamer

The bath - Het bad

The shower - De douche

The shower head - De douchekop

The sink - De wasbak

The mirror - De spiegel

The toilet - Het toilet, de wc

The washing machine - De wasmachine

The dryer - De droger (Dutch), droogkast (Flemish)

The laundry basket - De wasmand

The attic - De zolder

The garage - De garage

The car - De auto

The bike - De fiets

The scooter - De scooter, brommer

The motorcycle - De motor (Dutch), moto (Flemish)

The garden - De tuin

(I made a separate post with garden vocabulary. You can find the link above!)

Study tip: write the names of these things on post-it notes and stick them to the right object. This way you’ll see the name on everything and this will make it easier to associate the word with the object! x Tamara

[join-the-dutch-clan]

It’s fascinating to see how Flemish and Dutch can differ sometimes. I’m a native Dutch speaker, but I think I’m going to lend the word “zetel”. It sounds like it’s some kind of couch for a king/queen or something. Also, your blog is great! :)

[join-the-dutch-clan]

Dutch abbreviations

🔹a.h.w. - als het ware - in a way, as it were 🔹a.s. - aanstaande - next, forthcoming 🔹a.u.b. - alstublieft - please 🔹bijv. - bijvoorbeeld - for example 🔹ca. - circa - about, approximately 🔹dhr. - de heer - sir, mister 🔹d.w.z. - dat wil zeggen - that means 🔹e.a. - en andere(n) - and other(s) 🔹e.d. - en dergelijke - (and) such 🔹enz. - enzovoort / et cetera - and so forth, et cetera 🔹i.e. - dat wil zeggen - that means 🔹i.p.v. - in plaats van - instead of 🔹i.v.m. - in verband met - in connection with 🔹jl. - jongstleden - last (year, month, week, etc.) 🔹m.a.w. - met andere woorden - in other words 🔹m.b.t. - met betrekking tot - concerning, with respect to, with reference to 🔹mevr. - mevrouw - madam, miss 🔹m.i.v. - met ingang van - as of [date], from, since 🔹m.n. - met name - mainly, especially 🔹mw. - mevrouw - madam, miss 🔹n.a.v. - naar aanleiding van - as a result of, on account of 🔹o.a. - onder andere - among other things 🔹p.m. - per maand - per month 🔹p.u. - per uur - per hour 🔹p.w. - per week - per week 🔹t.a.v. - ten aanzien van / ter attentie van - with regard to 🔹t/m - tot en met - up to and including 🔹t.o.v. - ten opzichte van - toward(s), 🔹z.s.m. - zo spoedig mogelijk - as soon as possible

Abbreviations used in text messages:

🔹ff - even - for a moment 🔹gwn - gewoon - just 🔹w8ff - wacht even - wait a minute 🔹suc6- succes - good luck 🔹sws - sowieso - anyway, anyhow 🔹das - dat is - that is 🔹tis - het is - it is 🔹drm - daarom - therefore, that’s why

Dutch people also use things like wtf, lol, lmfao, brb, etc.

Thank you very much for your feedback a while ago @borkingwhale

[wordsnquotes]

uitwaaien

(verb) An untranslatable Dutch word, uitwaaien is defined as the act of clearing one’s head. Overall, uitwaaien has connotations of putting one’s mind to rest with the act of walking outside and taking in fresh air.

literally: to walk with the wind

(via oiseauperdu)

[malteseboy]

Hi! I recently saw your post about Peppa Pig in many different languages and was wondering if you have any similar posts like that with any different shows? Thanks so much in advance!

Well, another cartoon I love watching in Swedish is Mumin! I’m sure you heard about it - I went ahead and made this list of The Moomins in different languages for you guys to watch 

Afrikaans - Moemin

Chinese - 姆明

English - Moomins

Finnish - Muumi

German - Die Mumins

Hebrew - המומינים

Japanese - ムーミン

Korean - 무민

Norwegian - Mummintrollet

Polish - Muminki

Russian - Муми-Тролли

Spanish - Los Moomins

Swedish - Mumin

Then there are the ones that only have1-3 episodes on YouTube but probably can be found somewhere else(like torrents)

Arabic - مومين

French - Les Moumines

Danish - Mumitroldene

Dutch - Moemin

Hungarian - Múminok

Others like Italian (Mumin), Icelandic (Múmínálfarnir), are unfortunately not on YouTube but if you have links as to where one can watch them, please add it to the list!

[teachmelatvian-blog]

@mariacharlet

[yackalope]

Dutch gothic

It is raining so you take an umbrella with you. When you step outside the sun breaks through, it is now a beautiful day. You walk two more steps and it starts snowing. You are not surprised. You are never surprised anymore.

A tourist asks you if you are German. You were talking Dutch. You and the tourist are in Amsterdam. 

There are trees in your street. You do not know who planted them. You do not know who cares for them. The trees are, and it is accepted.

When you leave the supermarket there are children waiting for you . They stare with hungry eyes. You try to walk past them but they follow. They are too fast. They want your football cards and they will stop at nothing to get them.

You go to France for your holiday. Your friends are not excited for you when you tell them. You always go to France. Everyone does. 

A tv show about a clown and an acrobat was your childhood. You do not understand why you watched the show. You don’t remember what it was about. The clown and the acrobat were old. 

The lady on the speaker says you have to wait five more minutes for your train. You wait five more minutes. And five more. And five more. The lady on the speaker is back. She says the train won’t come because of the snow. You look around. You hadn’t noticed the snow. The snow is less than a centimeter thick.

Your international friends are discussing their cultures. You want to join the conversation but you can’t. You can only think of cheese.

Coffeeshop au’s confuse you. You thought those were illegal outside of the Netherlands.

You attend your English classes. You know you never learned a single thing from them. You speak English. 

You and everyone you know will drown if the sea level rises. People laugh about this. People laugh about the scared tourists. You laugh too. Silly tourists. You’re not scared. You don’t think about it. You haven’t thought about it in years. The sea as a threat is a forbidden subject. You sleep uneasy.

[teamrocketing]

dutch gothic concepts

the NS train is late again. the station is empty as you wait. ghosts appear, warning you of delays.

a lonely bicycle stands forgotten against a bridge, with nobody to steal it

the murky water of the canal holds the secret of your first love. but you can’t peer through the brown surface

on Koningsdag, a kid on the flea market is selling the same dropjes your father once bought you. you cry

a harsh wind blows against your body and pushes you into the past. you still had your bicycle then. you see people iceskating. 

the taste of cheese is always in your mouth. even in her passionate kisses, you can still taste it. gouda. jongbelegen 

a garden full of plastic folding chairs. theyre all empty. “sit down, i’ll bring some snacks,” says the host. she’s not really there. you think about her late husband. “gefeliciteerd met uw dochter,” you say, and give her three kisses on the cheek. her skin is cold and has blue veins, like a piece of delfts porcelain.

[nnapulitanerd]

What I Did After Duolingo

I think this is one of the biggest struggles of the langblr community because once you’re done with duolingo it’s kind of like you’ve just been thrown out on your own with no direction. In all honesty it took me a LOOONG time to figure out what to do with myself and how to keep progressing once I finished the tree, but now I’m at a point in my language journey where I speak my L2 every single day with my native friends. I wouldn’t consider myself fluent, but I’m definitely conversational.

Do the reverse tree I seriously cannot stress this enough. Go through and do the reverse tree of your language (if it’s available, of course). What I mean by this is when I finished the Italian tree for English speakers, I went through and did the English tree for Italian speakers. It may seem redundent, but at least for those two trees, the vocabulary the two trees offered was actually quite different and I ended up learning loads of new vocabulary. Not just new vocabulary, but you’ll have access to the duolingo forums in your target language. You can ask questions to an unrestricted amount of natives, and you could possibly offer help to a bunch of natives who have questions. Also for all of the brave ones out there learning more than 1 language at a time, try to see if there’s a duolingo tree for your L2 to your L3 (for a while I was learning French for Italian speakers)

Flashcards & Vocab Remember to be SMART about the vocab you learn. Learn words that you’ll actually use in day-today conversation. IF you never speak in your native language about a topic, don’t waste your time learning the words in your target language. Vocab isn’t just about acquisition of words, it’s about acquisition of words you will actually need and use. Memrise is my go-to for new and GOOD vocabulary. All of the vocab lists are user-submitted, so you’re guaranteed to get good, commonly used, and NATURAL vocab words that have been put into lists created by native speakers! There are so many thousands of lists for hundreds of languages and it’s honestly a gold mine. They have a mobile app for which you can download lessons so that you have access to them when you’re offline (aka perfect when you don’t want to use cell data or you have crappy service) AND THE BEST PART IS THAT WHATEVER YOU DO OFFLINE GETS SAVED AND YOU CAN JUST PICK BACK UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF. Not only that, but they have an “ignore” option so that you don’t have to repeat any words that you already know. I love memrise. I’ve even made a few of my own lists just because I’m a hoe for a good deck of flashcards and I love the repetition method of memrise. Also, Memrise is a lot like duo in the aspect that you can add a bunch of friends and it keeps track of your experience points so that you can compete with people if that’s something that helps keep you motivated. They even have different rankings once you accumulate a certain amount of experience (personally, this is a HUGE motivator for me). All in all I love memrise. ALSO it has lots of other things completely unrelated to languages, so even if you dont study languages I would still check it out! ALTERNATIVELY: Anki! Just find somewhere to MAKE FLASHCARDS AND STUDY THE DAMN THINGS. I’ve never used Anki before so I can’t really give a good review on it (however if someone who has used anki wants to shoot me a message, I can add their review to the post or smth). I, personally, used an app called StudyBlue (there’s a desktop version as well) when I was making flashcards because it would let me make decks of like 1,000 words and then I could take quizes (you have the option of doing multiple choice, true/false, and fill in the blanks) and it’ll keep track of your progress and stuff. Also, you have access to other user-submitted flashcard decks so it’s pretty cool in that sense!

LEARN THE DANG GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES (Honestly you’d think this one would go without saying) I think people get too caught up in the accumulation of new words to stop and realize that knowing 8,000 fancy words is completely pointless if you don’t know how to put them in a sentence. To me, this is 900000000% more important than vocabulary, because if you don’t know a word you can quick do a simple search for a single word and slap it into a sentence, but if you don’t know an entire sentence structure you’re dead meat, kid. Please make notes and try to form simple sentences for all of the grammatical conventions, different verb tenses, etc. Also, don’t just learn HOW to use them, but WHEN to use them. — A really good website for explaining grammatical conventions in super simple terms is about.com. They have AMAZING resources! Lots of vocab lists, information on grammatical structures, verb conjugations, verb charts, etc. Plus, you can even sign up for newsletters, “word of the day” emails, and things of that nature. Here are the language subsections of the website that I’m aware of: Italian About, Spanish About, French About, German About. There might be more, but I’ve never checked. It should be easy to find out if they have a subsection for the website that you’re looking for, just type in “LANGUAGEHERE.about.com” into the browser and try your luck! — If there isn’t an about page for your language, google is your BEST FRIEND I PROMISE.

Switch to your target language This one is pretty simple: change your phone and all of your social media over to your target language. If you’re feeling really brave; change your entire computer over to your target language. This one didn’t particularly do a whole lot for me as far as learning new vocabulary and sentence structure, but I’ve always been really bad at trying to remember days of the week, names of the month, telling time, etc. and changing my phone over to my target language helped solidify that information in my brain and now I can throw out dates and times like I was born to do it. – ALSO: Since I know you’re on tumblr if you’re reading this post, FOLLOW BLOGS THAT POST CRAP IN YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE. I follow so many Italian blogs, and honestly it’s just super great exposure for my dash to be half Italian, half English.

YOUTUBE God I frickin love youtube. There are LOTS of super great language-learning youtubes out there, and lots of channels that have subtitles. BASICALLY YOUTUBE IS AN UNLIMITED BOX OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE LISTENING SKILLS. You like watching monthly favorites videos? Plug the line “my monthly favorites” (in your target language ofc) into the search bar and BOOM. You like watching pokemon letsplays? FIND U A DAMN POKEMON LETSPLAY SERIES IN YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE. You wont understand everything at first, but trust me just hearing the language makes life easier. One thing I like to do is listen to asmr videos in my target language because people tend to speak more slowly in ASMR vidoes and it’s far easier for me to understand them.

NETFLIX On the note of listening skills, WATCH NETFLIX IN YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE. There’s this really great google chrome extension called “Hola!” (the picture is a little flame with a face on it) that is basically a proxy extension so you can change what country you’re browsing the internet from, and–in turn–access netflix in different countries. This lets you have access to web-series’ and movies that might not be on the netflix in your country (fun fact, the first two Kung Fu Panda movies aren’t on America’s netflix list, but they’re on Italy’s netflix list in case you want to watch), and also access to films and series that were CREATED IN YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE!!! Not to mention access to subtitles, which is always a wonderful thing. (p.s. you can use Hola! for any website you want to, and it doesn’t slow your internet down ;) )

MUSIC PLEASE LISTEN TO MUSIC IN YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE. Not only will you feel super cool and empowered once you can start singing along to songs in a foreign language, but you’ll feel even MORE super cool and empowered when you start understanding the lyrics of the songs you’ve learned. Also: please, please, please look up the lyrics to the songs you’re listening to. It’ll prevent you from singing along and mis-singing (is that a word lmao) lyrics and making silly errors, you feel me. A big bonus of listening to music is that you inadvertently pick up pronunciation skills! It’s great fun, I love music. – One way you can find foreign music is through spotify. You can go to the top 50 charts of different countries, and that’s a great way to get exposure to boppin’ tunes in your target language. Just go to the main menu then to charts, and then click “top 50 by country” and find the country you’re looking for and TADA. // CONVERSELY: If you don’t like spotify, use pandora, or find some songs you like in your target language and plug them into the youtube search bar and then weed through the recommended videos on the sidebar and find new music that way!

Children’s books This might not be for everyone, but sincerely googling and reading children’s books in your target language is a great way to get used to sentence structure. You might not know all the words, but sometimes it’s just such a wonderful thing to read such simple sentences and to just practice that sort of stuff. – If reading children’s books isn’t your style, then read books that you ARE interested in. Read translations of your favorite books, read books that were written originally in your target language, just read books man.

ASK QUESTIONS PLS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD This one can get to be a little tricky because it might be hard to find someone to ask questions to, but please keep in mind that there are lots of different native languages in the langblr community and we’re all here for the sole purpose of helping each other out so please don’t be afraid of asking a native (or even someone who’s fluent) to explain something or to correct your sentences, etc.

Find speaking partners Personally, I think this should be the LAST thing on your list of priorities. I KNOW LOTS OF PEOPLE WILL DISAGREE WITH ME BUT HEAR ME OUT: I think it’s rather discouraging to try and pressure yourself to speak your target language and realize “wow I’m not as good as I thought I was”, or to feel like you’re bad because you know so many words and you study your verb tenses but you still can’t make good conversation, etc. I THINK YOU SHOULD WAIT A WHILE BEFORE FINDING A SPEAKING PARTNER, but you definitely need to do it. I would wait until you’re comfortable reading and understanding your target language as well as forming basic sentences and stuff like that. JUST A WARNING, FINDING A LANGUAGE PARTNER IS HARD AS HELL. IT’S LITERALLY A NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK ORDEAL. I used Hellotalk to find all of my language partners, however you could probably just as easily find language partners on other social media outlets like tumblr, facebook, twitter, etc. (Actually, using those types of social medias might be more comfortable for most people). A good way to find people on facebook is to join a bunch of language groups on facebook, and even if you don’t find language partners you can still see posts in your target language. REMEMBER IT’S ALL ABOUT EXPOSURE FOLKS. The more exposure the better. Like I mentioned: I do think you need to hold off a bit on finding a speaking partner, but I will say that for absolute certain speaking partners are astronomically more helpful than anything I’ve mentioned on this list. You can listen and read and make flashcards and write sentences to yourself, but at the end of the day is netflix REALLY going to fix that grammatical error you made?

Last but not least: please don’t be so hard on yourself. Making mistakes is ONLY NATURAL. Just think of learning a language like any other kind of skill; you make lots of mistakes when learning how to do anything but you learn from your mistakes and soon enough you stop making those mistakes and keep refining your skills. a quick vote of confidence for you all before you leave: I once confused the italian word for panties(mutande) with the word for snacks(merende) and basically told my friend “I BOUGHT SO MANY PANTIES IM GOING TO EAT THEM UNTIL I DIE”. And like two days ago I mixed up the word for the color lavender(lavanda) and the word for laundry(lavanderia) and told my friend she should wear a laundry-colored dress to her sister’s wedding. OKAY– in all seriousness, it’s really important to remember that mistakes are natural and they’re nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, once you learn that making mistakes is totally normal to do, you’ll enjoy yourself much more and learn way better. HAVE FUN AND STUDY HARD I BELIEVE IN YOU ALL.

[drhairball]

In Dutch, we don’t say amount, we say hoeveelheid, which would literally translate into howmuchness, which I think sounds absolutely moronic.

[linguisticsyall]

But I fully support it

[positivedoodles]

[drawing of a lion saying “You can learn any language you want.” in a pink speech bubble.]

[uilhuis-deactivated20160820]

Learning Dutch Resources

- Youtube

Kids Shows:

Peppa Big (Peppa Pig) 

Nijntje en vriendjes

Prinsessia

Maya de Bij

Vloggers:

EnzoKnol

MeisjeDjamila

Croco Jill

Furtjuh also known as Rutger

OnneDi

Language Channels:

Learn Dutch with DutchPod101.com

Learndutch.org

Learn Dutch Online with Rozemarijn

Music:

Marco Borsato

K3 (although they’re a Belgian group)

TopNotchNL

Guus Meeuwis

Nielson

Gers Pardoel

Claudia de Breij

Random:

Big & Betsy

Flin & Flo

Mega Mindy NL

- Websites

Learn Dutch.org

Livemocha

Dutchgrammar.com

Dutchtoday

Duolingo

Memrise

oefenen.nl

- Radio

100%NL

- Books

A Practical Dutch Grammar by Yolande Spaans

Teach Yourself (collection)

Beter Lezen (also has workbooks)

Beginner’s Dutch by Antionette Van Horn

Children’s Books

Harry Potter series (depending on your language level)

De Poep fabriek by Marianne Busser & Ron Schröder

De Gorgels by Jochem Myjer

- TV and Movies

Nooit Meer Alleen

Top 20 Movies to watch for an introduction into Dutch cinema

Spoorloos

Salamander (Flemish)

Zwartboek

Blogs to follow

@useless-netherlandsfacts

@useless-dutchfacts

@dutchpod101

@illteachyoudutch

@dailydutchword

@the-dutch-language

@stuffindutch 

[mijngootsteen]

I’d like to add that you can also listen to Dutch public radio from anywhere in the world here: NPO Radio. Radio 1 is talking, Radio 2 is sort of classic rock, Radio 3 is current pop, Radio 4 is classical music.

What’s cool about the website is that you can listen or watch live, so you can see their mouths, if that’s how you learn. They also have an app for your phone (search for "npo radio 1"). Each station has its own app, but can play any of the other stations.

[languageoclock]

thanks @ace-of-linguistics for suggestions <3

[itisnotthejediway]

The Dutch language has a new word: ochtendgrijs (literally translation: morninggrey) to describe the low hanging grey clouds that can be seen very early in the morning. It was invented by a Flemish meteorologist who does weather forecasts on national television. He started using it in 1997 and the word is now used in The Netherlands and Belgium and has now finally made it to the most important dictionary ‘Den Dikke van Dale’. I think it’s beautiful.

[mijngootsteen]

Welcome to the Netherlands, where gingerbread season starts in August to make up for being dark and miserable eight months out of the year