Since coming back to the US many years ago, people would ask me, do you speak Dutch? Say something in Dutch? And then look ever so put out that I seemed to be speaking English with a funny accent. It's an easy language that is very hard to learn! The trick seems to be to find people who are just too dang tired to bother with English. My mother had a friend who would say laten ons in Nederlands praten--ik ben taal moe.
Anyhow, this is how my mom became fluent: She did Tafeltje Dekje op de fiets. Good exercise, and you meet your older neighbors who will happily tell you stories and they will be too darned over it to bother with English.
Hartelijk dank voor de mooie woorden! Since you know Dutch, you know that as a learner you can sometimes just guess with an English word, and if you're lucky, it will also be a verb in Dutch. It hasn't been easy for me to learn, but I am loving the language itself as I slowly become comprehensible. Tafeltje Dekje is an excellent idea for someone like me. I am committed to doing this language cafe for the rest of the year, but perhaps that should be my next adventure. I need old people to talk to in Dutch!
Since coming back to the US many years ago, people would ask me, do you speak Dutch? Say something in Dutch? And then look ever so put out that I seemed to be speaking English with a funny accent. It's an easy language that is very hard to learn! The trick seems to be to find people who are just too dang tired to bother with English. My mother had a friend who would say laten ons in Nederlands praten--ik ben taal moe.
Anyhow, this is how my mom became fluent: She did Tafeltje Dekje op de fiets. Good exercise, and you meet your older neighbors who will happily tell you stories and they will be too darned over it to bother with English.
Love the newsletter!
Hartelijk dank voor de mooie woorden! Since you know Dutch, you know that as a learner you can sometimes just guess with an English word, and if you're lucky, it will also be a verb in Dutch. It hasn't been easy for me to learn, but I am loving the language itself as I slowly become comprehensible. Tafeltje Dekje is an excellent idea for someone like me. I am committed to doing this language cafe for the rest of the year, but perhaps that should be my next adventure. I need old people to talk to in Dutch!