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Learning Dutch

MrsMuir

By MrsMuir,
in Holland America Line

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taxmantoo

taxmantoo

Posted
Posted
Talk about bursting my bubble though. :o

 

The exact same thing happened to me when I tried to learn Spanish for trips to Mexico. When I tried to talk to kids on the street, they all started laughing :D I was learning traditional Spanish as spoken in Spain and when I addressed the kids, I was using grammar and phrases intended as respectful and polite for addressing much older people :D They had no idea what I was saying!

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Randyk47

Randyk47

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The exact same thing happened to me when I tried to learn Spanish for trips to Mexico. When I tried to talk to kids on the street, they all started laughing :D I was learning traditional Spanish as spoken in Spain and when I addressed the kids, I was using grammar and phrases intended as respectful and polite for addressing much older people :D They had no idea what I was saying!

 

For years I used a German dry cleaner near our apartment and not once in the four years did they say anything to me in English. The first time I went in they asked me my name and since it's German it was German from there on out. Toward the end of our tour my ex went in with me to get her uniform cleaned for a promotion photograph and she was very concerned it be done perfectly. She kind of stood beside and behind me speaking in English telling me what to tell the dry cleaner to do and I was translating. Finally the dry cleaner said, in perfect English, "Tell her it's OK, we've done this before." The first and only time she'd ever spoken English to me! :)

 

The point is that it's really fun to learn another language, particularly if you're going to have a lot of contact with native speakers like living in their country. Unfortunately we don't cruise enough to make learning Dutch worth it. Which reminds me I really ought to take Spanish lessons instead of relying on my wife as my translator.

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MrsMuir

MrsMuir

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Thank you all for your good wishes. I'm touched by the many responses, and will try to answer the questions my announcement caused.

 

There aren't as many Dutch as Norwegians and Swedes in the Seattle area, as far as I know. We're fortunate to have a good community college (Bellevue College) with a treasure trove of both undergraduate and continuing education opportunities. Their description of the Dutch courses noted that it is one of the few in the NW. That's why I decided to go for it and not wait until I was retired and living where such a course wouldn't be available.

 

The class last night was fun, and my little grey cells were run through their paces in two hours. There are 13 in the class; two are repeaters. The ages range from one 14-yr-old to young adult to mid-60s. Most have a spouse or family from the Netherlands. Our teacher is from the Netherlands originally. She's an older lady with a sharp sense of humor and a sharper ear for correct pronunciation of the vowels and consonants. No one escapes the chance to repeat the words we've just learned. She clapped her hands in approval at the way I pronounced "huis," which made my day.

 

I'm not a stranger to foreign languages. In the mid-70s I became so conversant in Norwegian that I would sometimes dream in it. It helped, of course, that I socialized with a group of Norwegians back then. Some of them even assumed I was Danish from my accent. But you have to USE a second language, and after marrying DH we moved away and that phase of my life ended. Three years of high-school French are similarly stuck in the recesses of my mind somewhere, waiting to be retrieved and dusted off. Not surprisingly, the Spanish that I learned from my 5th-grade teacher is still there when I need it. We will draw a veil over my college course in German.

 

This was a long-winded reply, but wanted to thank you all for the encouragement. I will close by saying that the teacher characterized her difficult language as "the Chinese of European languages."

 

Mrs M

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luv2camp04

luv2camp04

Posted
Posted
Thank you all for your good wishes. I'm touched by the many responses, and will try to answer the questions my announcement caused.

 

There aren't as many Dutch as Norwegians and Swedes in the Seattle area, as far as I know. We're fortunate to have a good community college (Bellevue College) with a treasure trove of both undergraduate and continuing education opportunities. Their description of the Dutch courses noted that it is one of the few in the NW. That's why I decided to go for it and not wait until I was retired and living where such a course wouldn't be available.

 

The class last night was fun, and my little grey cells were run through their paces in two hours. There are 13 in the class; two are repeaters. The ages range from one 14-yr-old to young adult to mid-60s. Most have a spouse or family from the Netherlands. Our teacher is from the Netherlands originally. She's an older lady with a sharp sense of humor and a sharper ear for correct pronunciation of the vowels and consonants. No one escapes the chance to repeat the words we've just learned. She clapped her hands in approval at the way I pronounced "huis," which made my day.

 

I'm not a stranger to foreign languages. In the mid-70s I became so conversant in Norwegian that I would sometimes dream in it. It helped, of course, that I socialized with a group of Norwegians back then. Some of them even assumed I was Danish from my accent. But you have to USE a second language, and after marrying DH we moved away and that phase of my life ended. Three years of high-school French are similarly stuck in the recesses of my mind somewhere, waiting to be retrieved and dusted off. Not surprisingly, the Spanish that I learned from my 5th-grade teacher is still there when I need it. We will draw a veil over my college course in German.

 

This was a long-winded reply, but wanted to thank you all for the encouragement. I will close by saying that the teacher characterized her difficult language as "the Chinese of European languages."

 

Mrs M

 

That is so cool that Bellevue College offers Dutch. I had never noticed that. I will have to check into that someday. My grandmother tried for many years to teach my mother some Dutch, but she couldn't roll her "R's" so she finally gave up!! Therefore, I never learned anything.

 

I just did a little research because my Grandfather came through Ellis Island. I had looked a few years ago, but it was before I had ever been on a cruise so I didn't think about it. Now I see that he was on the original Neiuw Amsterdam!! I thought that was the neatest thing!! Now I really want to go on a cruise on that ship. A tribute to him. He was on it in 1912!!

 

Thanks for sharing about the Dutch classes!

 

Kelly

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COLLEYBERRY

COLLEYBERRY

Posted
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Mrs.Muir. I wish you great success in your studies:)

Here in Canada we have two official languages, French and English..we placed our children in a French Immersion school ..we didn't have a second language to give them and wanted them to have the advantage of bilingualism.

Both told us they knew they were truly bilingual when they dreamt in French.:)

Once the wall of a second language has been breached other languages are apparently easier to learn..I hope this is so for you.

My very best friend was Dutch ,I lost her a few years ago to breast cancer,...whenever I hear a Dutch accent I think of her:)

Best Regards Colleen

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Liquid Shiva

Liquid Shiva

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Nice to see there so many people learning and preserving Dutch!

This country is to tiny, I doubt if I would learn it when living somewhere else.

Living in an English spoken country, gives you the comfort of getting yourself understood around the world, on the other hand, that could make you lazy as well ;-)

 

*says hello from Grunn (Groningen)*

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Mary Ellen

Mary Ellen

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Posted
There aren't as many Dutch as Norwegians and Swedes in the Seattle area, as far as I know.

 

Mrs M

While I agree that there aren't as many Dutch in the Seattle area as there are Scandinavians, they are there. We has some in the suburb (not Bellevue) where I grew up. Heck, I'm even part Dutch, and my brothers and cousins still live in the Seattle metro area so we're definitely there. :D

 

Good luck with the lessons!

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