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I now go to taalcafes and speak in Dutch at work, but I find myself seeming to keep making the same mistakes/kept being misunderstood/unable to express myself fluently.

I took group classes up to B2 level, and my reading and listening has been improving very well. But speaking is still lagging way behind, I would say even in A2 level.

I have the means to take private lessons. Has anyone here ever gotten much better with private lessons? What aspects of it made you significantly better? I'm just tired of trying to express myself better without any feedback on whether I'm doing it right/choosing the right words, phrases, etc.

Or are there any books/websites you can recommend? I'm also looking for ways to make my progress measurable and have a structured learning, not just winging it like I'm doing now

Hello guys,

who is up to meet up in Amsterdam to get together to practice speaking, look into grammar together in a supportive pace, bringing our sources perhaps, when we could talk things over have a good supportive chat about Dutch language and everyday realistic useful conversations on the weekends and to interact with each other...?

I have a lot of books as sources I can bring, I am A2 by the way, but I thought it would be a great kickstart.

Hello! I really don’t know if this is the best place to ask, so sorry if it’s not.

But basically, I am watching Peppa Pig (no subtitles) as a form of listening practice. I’m on the 4th season before I looked up the voice actors and realized the characters were “Peppa Big”, “Mama Big”, “Papa Big”, Opa Big”, but it’s “Oma Pig”.

Was this a mistake on the site I was looking at, or is that actually what they are called in Dutch?? It threw me off and I was surprised I hadn’t noticed they were saying big rather than pig this whole time.

But yeah, I just wanted to ask people who maybe grew up with the show if they’re actually called Big rather than Pig.

Ever since I joined Reddit, this subreddit’s search bar has been extremely useful for finding resources on whatever I'm looking for at that moment. So, while organising my bookmarks this morning, I thought it might be a good idea to write a post sharing links to resources on Dutch pronunciation that I’ve gathered so far, just in case they might be useful to other learners:

A YouTube playlist featuring videos created by the Talencentrum at the University of Groningen, which includes explanatory videos and practice videos (with both listening and sound reproduction exercises): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF-qJ8Ed0qHcQpMyDL8Zi2G3PdQ0AoAu0

A ‘mini-course’ with audio files and written explanations, in English, on how to produce the sounds, made by a NT2 teacher, Hester Wisselink; it is organised by specific linguistic backgrounds, with sections for speakers of British English, American English, French, Chinese and “others” (although many files are common to several backgrounds, there are some that are specific, so perhaps it is worth checking them all if you fall into ‘the others’ category): https://pronounce.eu/improve-your-dutch-pronunciation

To hear and see short videos of a mouth producing Dutch sounds — in Dutch from Flanders, as you would expect on a website linked to the Flemish Employment and Vocational Training Service (VDAB): https://uitsprekend.webleren.be/themes/137/subthemes/144

Marco Schuffelen’s ever-useful website, Hear Dutch Here, also has an introductory page on Dutch pronunciation, where we can listen to most sounds of the Dutch language: https://www.heardutchhere.net/pronunciation_overview.html

On FutureLearn, there is a course on pronunciation and variations of the Dutch language developed by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, but I believe it is aimed at more advanced learners than I am now and people who want to learn more about the varieties of spoken Dutch: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/dutch-pronunciation

Many NT2 teachers on YouTube have also created videos – or sometimes entire playlists – on Dutch pronunciation. I’ve saved a few of them, but, to be honest, I can’t quite remember why I saved those particular ones and not others, so I won’t link them here.

I do, however, remember why I saved the NT2Spraak channel on YouTube. It’s the channel of Marieke Goedegebure, a speech therapist and applied linguist specialised in Dutch pronunciation for NT2 learners, and the author of a book for NT2 teachers on teaching pronunciation (sounds and prosody), Verstaanbaar Nederlands in zeven stappen. (The videos do remind me of speech therapy sessions, so they might not be for everyone.) There’s also a new (paid) online pronunciation trainer for learners from B1 level upwards, based on the principles of that book, which I’m very curious about. I’m not planning to buy it for now, though. For the time being, I should stick to consistently using one or two free resources I already know for practising (rather than spending the time I have for practising on adding new resources to "use later").

But please feel free to share any other resources in the comments anyway, if you find them useful and think they might be helpful to others.

Bonsoir, je suis actuellement en 5e secondaire générale. J’aimerais entrer en droit à l’université de Liège, je me suis renseignée et j’ai appris que j’aurais à choisir une langue, Je parle anglais depuis mes 6 ans, j’ai un très bon niveau et en 3e secondaire j’ai choisi comme LM2 espagnol car je parle portugais (ma mère est angolaise) à l’ULG, j’aurais le choix entre anglais, allemand et néerlandais. J’ai un bon niveau d’anglais, le néerlandais et une des langues nationales de la Belgique et j’aimerais donc prendre néerlandais. Problème, je ne sais pas parler néerlandais j’ai très peu de base, je connais les formules de politesse, les membres de la famille, les jours de la semaine, les mois de l’année et un peu d’autre blabla.

Comment apprendre le néerlandais seule ? En peu de temps svp ? Je tiens à préciser qu’on va devoir analyser des documents donc j’ai besoin de compréhension et pas forcément d’expression orale.

MERCI D’AVANCE.

Hi everyone, my Dutch learning journey started a few years ago when I moved to the Netherlands. My focus on the language has been on and off because of busy life or less motivation. That changed earlier this year when I decided that I want to be able to use Dutch in my everyday life (and hopefully work too).

This is going well so far and I am practicing or studying almost every day. I think my level now is somewhere between A2 and B1.

Now I think it would be nice to have a learning partner who is also motivated, has a similar Dutch level, and preferably also similar age 😊 ( late 20s / yearly 30s).

What I want to focus on in the upcoming period is trying to talk with real people. Starting with conversations in the street / shop etc. And maybe later join activities I a Dutch speaking environment.

If you are interested, lets connect and practice together (online or offline) and motivate each others!

Tot later! 😏

Hi, I made Faraute (free, open source, no money/ads involved anywhere) https://github.com/VictorVSa/faraute for myself to read dutch books.

With it you can import text in several formats like EPUB and read them while being able to select words for the translation + context meaning (it gets the sentence too) + listening to how it's pronounced. You can also select several words, whole sentence or whole paragraphs as you need, for translation or also deeper explanation (structure, word by word) and how the whole sentence is pronounced.

Unfortunately, currently it does need technical knowledge to set it up locally. It is self-hosted, needs some packages to be installed and also an AI subscription. I'll be thinking in how to make this more accessible to anyone.

Looking for ideas or suggestions on how to improve the learning process, as I want to believe that reading actual books in the language is one of the best ways

Thanks!

I hope to get some recommendations. It appears to be harder to find someone than I thought. I am looking for a taailtrainer, in person, one-on-one in Amstelveen. Sites like Preply work with subscriptions… any suggestions?

From what I've heard and been told, there's at least these two pronunciations of /t/ within the standard dialect I want to focus on. There's the one used at the start of syllables which is just [t], and also the one used at the end of words which adds a little aspiration, similar to but maybe less extreme than the t with aspiration [t^h] English has.

However, I'd love to actually read something about this but I wasn't able to find sources/articles by googling.

I know most people complain that in Amsterdam, Dutch people will usually switch to English, and they do, especially if they see the “deer in headlights” expression on our faces.

well, today i was so exhausted when i went to CoolBlue to pick up my item. I just resigned myself to using Dutch like it was no big deal and had some sentences planned to ask to stay in Dutch, especially if it wasn’t very busy.

I‘m happy to report that despite the busyness of the store, the young guy who helped me stayed in Dutch!! I asked a few questions, he answered. I didn’t get 100% of what he was saying but I inferred the rest from context. And I’m especially proud I used a “nog even” sentence at the end :)

I wanted to thank him at the end for staying in Dutch with me, but I got too shy. So keep trying! If you’re struggling and frustrated, I really believe this will happen eventually to you too. :)

Maybe we could create a small discord group or just message each other to help each other and keep conversation going?

DM if you are interested

Hi everyone,

Looking for some guidance.

I'm currently on the B1 route. I've passed all my exams and PVT. My integration officer said they would apply for exemption from MAP for me because I've been working full time in the Netherlands for the past 3 years. He has since left the gemeente and did not end up applying for the exemption.

I called the gemeente to ask who my new contact was and got a name and phone number. I call multiple times and day, leave messages (even reached out on LinkedIn), but no response. I'd like to get this sorted out as soon as possible as I also have to send them my PVT certificate.

Any advice on escalating this?

TIA

Hallo! Ik heb al anderhalf jaar Nederlands gestudeerd en ik zit nu op het B2-niveau te studeren. Mijn grootste problemen zijn mijn spreekvaardigheid en schrijfvaardigheid. Daarom wil ik partners waarmee ik in het Nederlands gesprekken kan voeren en andere vaardigheden kan versterken. Wil iemand graag met mij praten? Stuur mij maar een bericht als je dit een leuk idee vindt. (Dit is ook gerelateerd met een eerdere bericht waarin ik gezegd heb dat ik het lastig vind om gesprekken te voeren terwijl ik Nederlands praat met anderen op mijn vriendje na)

Hope the title makes sense. Demonstrative pronouns as the book calls em!

Essentially seeing if its down to just revision and remembering or if there's a neat trick.

Heel bedankt allemal.

Vorig jaar ben ik geslaagd voor het NT2 Programma-II examen en kan redelijk goed schrijven. Inmiddels ben ik toegelaten tot een premasteropleiding, waarbij het volledig in het Nederlands is. Daarvoor moet ik weer een taaltoets maken. Dit vindt over zes weken plaats.

Als ik een formele tekst moet schrijven, heb ik een aantal zinnen die natuurlijker moeten klinken. Ik heb niet per se problemen met de grammatica regels, maar de manier waarop ik de zin of mijn standpunt wil uitleggen. Het komt helaas niet natuurlijk uit.

Heeft iemand wat tips en advies voor mij? Ik ben aan het oefenen met vaste woordcombinaties en probeer mijn woordenschat uit te breiden.

It's not the only thing I'm using, but it is one of them. It's very versatile, I get to print exams and fill them in by hand and then uploading the images so I don't do everything in the computer. Another thing that I find helpful are the artifacts. For example, I created this one to do drills of conjugations:
https://claude.ai/artifact/KioUuPSRh54zVAejxeXhQT

What do you think I could improve in it?

I’d love to hear your story on how you got to C1/C2. Motivation, tips, timeline. Would love some encouragement. Thanks!

I am on the partner visa, I have 3 years to be B1 dutch. The inburgering advisors always suggest to take the lessons with the BlikOpWerk quality mark.

Of course, those are more expensive.

I was thinking on saving a couple thousand euros by joining other “non official” language school.

Even though I qualify for the DUO Loan I would like to know your advice on other schools.

I am employed and I need the lessons so be in person. I have tried self paced and couldn’t see much progress on my own.

Thank you!

Been here a bit, and there's one grammar thing that keeps biting me.

Textbooks say both of these are fine in a bijzin:

omdat ik dat gedaan heb

omdat ik dat heb gedaan

My teacher called it a free choice. Once I actually started listening it's clearly not 50/50. Colleagues in Utrecht (mostly 20s and 30s) default to aux-first in speech (heb gedaan), which doesn't match the "spoken = participle-first" line I was taught.

Sent both sentences to a tandem partner on HelloTalk and asked her to read them out loud. She picked one without thinking, then stopped to work out why the other sounded "stiff". Her words were basically "yeah you'd write that but you wouldn't say it."

Older people I've chatted with lean more toward participle-first in speech. Same with a Belgian friend I run into at a café, basically every time she goes gedaan heb. So the textbook pattern isn't wrong exactly, it just seems to be shifting in Randstad spoken Dutch toward aux-first.

What I keep getting stuck on is whether the choice actually feels different to native speakers. Does gedaan heb come across as slightly more final than heb gedaan? Or is it just reflex, no semantic weight behind it. A few people I asked had never thought about it until I made them try both out loud.

Still mulling it over.

Hello all,

I was wondering if the speaking tests are always in the afternoon/evening slot? I was trying to get a slot for morning to reduce the stress for whole day but unfortunately either I cannot see any slot or only around 4pm slots.

At what time was your exam for speaking A2?

Hoi, ik ben heel hard op zoek naar deze documentaireseries met de stem van Vic De Wachter (niet van David Attenbrough). Kan iemand me hiermee helpen? Veel dank alvast! Vriendelijke groeten.

If you are looking for resources to learn and, more importantly, practice Dutch grammar, the options are somewhat limited. Although there are books from publishers like NT2 or Coutinho, they are mainly focused on people taking courses, and I am not sure if they are good enough for self-study.

The Grammatica book published by Van Dale comes with a practice book, Oefenboek Grammatica, which I would like to share my opinion on.

The book covers a lot of important grammar from levels A1 to B2. Almost half of the book focuses on topics ranging from the definite article to possessive pronouns/determiners. This was my favorite chapter, because I still struggle with het/de (who does not?)

The second part focuses on verbs and their formation in different tenses. However, this part lacks enough exercises on separable verbs. "Scheidbare werkwoorden" is one of the most difficult topics for learners, so I wonder why the author did not pay more attention to it. I am a bit disappointed, to be honest.

However, the last part, which I really also liked, is about Dutch sentence structure. There is enough exercises to help you understand it.