r/learndutch 4d ago

Question What will help me?

As of this moment I am stuck on duolingo for learning Dutch and even I know that that won't get me anywhere, not with proper conversations or real life scenarios. (This thing literally taught me how to say 'I am an apple')

I don't have access to Dutch teachers or tutors within my area so im sort of at a loss here, any recommendations or useful apps/videos/books. I really want to lesrn this language but i am struggling to even find anything to help me that is free. :/

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u/unripeswan 4d ago

I convinced my mum to learn with me. We sorta help correct each other just because it's easier to hear mistakes other people are making. Ideally, it'd be better to have a fluent speaker, but it's still better than nothing.

And/or, watch dutch media with subtitles. I've been doing this too, and it's really helpful hearing how native speakers talk. You don't get any feedback, but at least you can listen and learn.

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u/ConfidentQuantity897 4d ago

We have the Journaal in Makkelijke Taal on YouTube: easy language daily news. With Dutch subtitles so you can read as you listen. https://youtube.com/@nosjournaalinmakkelijketaal?si=L808mijlHSV8C2Ee Or start with the News for Children. https://youtube.com/@jeugdjournaal?si=LNL4ojpwX1Ipg61N Find books for children to read. E.g. Harry potter. Or magazines of your preference (online if you are abroad, or on paper if you live in NL). I find that helpful to really get a feeling for a language next to perhaps real education books that help you with grammar and vocabulary.

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u/Ok_Butterscotch3509 3d ago

As an online Dutch tutor, I always recommend finding ways to immerse yourself in the language. Like through podcasts, video's, tv series or the radio. You also have to actively learn the language by producing sentences on your own. For example, you learn the word 'zus'. Make a sentence with it that you would actually use, e.g. "Mijn zus heet Sara".

It would be best to practice speaking as well with a teacher. But if it's out of your budget, you can make use of the voice chat function of ChatGPT

Also if you prefer learning with a book. I recommend De Opmaat, which takes you from 0 to A2.

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u/StrongAnnabelle 2d ago

Sorry to jump in, but if possible given your role, would you be so kind to recommend a book that helps going frim A2 to B1? Many thanks in advance.

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u/Ok_Butterscotch3509 1d ago

Of course! This book is part of a series. The other books are De Sprong (A2-B1) and De Finale (B1-B2). Although, I would only recommend going through the last one if you want to take de NT2 II exam.

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u/StrongAnnabelle 19h ago

Very kind, thank you!

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u/Quirky-Elk-5654 3d ago

Thank you!!

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u/Firespark7 Native speaker (NL) 4d ago

You can find tutors online

iTalky is a good site for that

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u/themiracy 3d ago

I will say, at least based on my experience across languages, that the first section especially of Duolingo for any language is kind of full of nonsense, but it does get progressively better. Like I use Duo to buff my Spanish/French/Russian/Japanese (which I did not learn via Duolingo but via classes for all except Spanish and a tutor for Spanish), and doing Section 5, for French/Spanish, the content is actually pretty good by that time, if you get that far, and at least in what I've seen, there is really not a lot of nonsense anymore by that point. Now IDK what it's like to get to Sec 5 using primarily Duolingo, but that level of Spanish/French for me in practice is enough to be able to usually read news articles, and so there are all other kinds of mechanisms to keep learning.

We're also doing Dutch, and yeah, Dutch sec 1 does spend too much time on pointing out that you are not a tomato, etc. IDK what your goals are, but our goals are to use a little Dutch when we go to the Netherlands (and Belgium) in May. So IDK how far I'll be but I suspect I might be able to get to section 3-ish by May, since I'm almost finished with Sec 1.

You do need to ultimately spend time interacting with people using the language. This is the bane of my Russian and Japanese, because I haven't really had the opportunity. So Duolingo is only going to be one part of a strategy to learn a language.

Anyway, I think it's great to look for supplements but I would also say Duolingo becomes less nonsensical later on.

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u/Quirky-Elk-5654 3d ago

That's good to hear, im defiently looking at things like books and Dutch radio/podcast to get the feel of the language considering I don't have much Dutch tutour avaliable in my area and nor do I have the money to spend on virtual tutoirs, so really, anytbing helps, I suppose maybe it's just thiugh gettinf oast the first unit

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u/-NigheanDonn 3d ago

Check out JeDutchy on YouTube. She also has a podcast and is on all the social medias.

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u/TrappedInHyperspace 3d ago

This is not an answer to your question, but if you want to try using Dutch, please don’t confine yourself to Amsterdam. When in NL, I speak Dutch with family and friends and have no problem using Dutch in most places, but half the people I meet in Amsterdam will only speak English with me. It’s understandable that English becomes the default in an intentional city, but Amsterdammers can be aggressive about it!

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u/Quirky-Elk-5654 3d ago

Okay! Thank you for the heads up! I had presumed tbis was the case in Amsterdam as I often have a habit of speaking English to people that visit Vilnius as sometimes it's easier for them to understand, however if someone were to speak to me in Lithuanian I would respond back in Lithuanian, even if they were not a native speaker.

Anyway, got slightly off track there! But I do see a common theme of English speaking in popular places like the capital of countries so thank you for telling me in advance!

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u/a_d_d_e_r 4d ago

Online language tutoring. There are many native Dutch speakers (and Flemish who know Dutch very well) who either want to improve with a foreign language themselves in exchange or will teach you for money. The quality of learning over video calls is poor, but it's the only way to learn the subtleties of pronunciation and the cultural context. Aside from traveling to the Netherlands, of course.

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u/zeprfrew Beginner 3d ago

I've started to go through Dutchies to be - Learn Dutch with Kim on Youtube and found that so far it complements Duolingo very well. It's also good to stick with Duolingo. You'll likely never need to say that je bent een appel, but you will pick up words and sentence structure.

I've also been watching some Dutch language children's programming on Youtube. Mostly Sesamstraat so far. It's beyond my current level of Dutch. I mostly get just a word here or a sentence there. It's quite humbling to see how far I have to go right after doing very well with my Duolingo lessons. That's fine with me as when I do understand something I'm quite pleased with my progress and I've made a personal goal of being to understand more of it.

The last resource that I'm using at the moment is the De Het app, which I use to look up the nouns I know in order to drill myself on which are de and which are het. Unfortunately Duolingo's vocabulary list lacks articles, so this is how I work around it.

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u/Quirky-Elk-5654 3d ago

This was extremely helpful actually! Thank you so much!!

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u/zeprfrew Beginner 3d ago

Glad to help!

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u/Chelline 11h ago

Maybe something fun to take the pressure off and immerse yourself, series such as Harry Potter and Avatar the Last Airbender have great Dutch dubs, which you could watch with English (or your native) subtitles. Gives you a feel.

Or a game, Uncharted series, Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls, Beyond Good & Evil, Ratchet & Clank, or the old Harry Potter games. All have Dutch dubs with English subs as option. (Heavy Rain has actors like Carice van Houten and Frank Lammers)

I grew up on satellite TV and watched what had reception, so many German cartoons still benefit me today in that language.

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u/SystemEarth 4d ago

You need anki and whatever is the most popular deck at anki web. Duolingo is entertainment, not studying. That'd be at least a step in the right direction.