October heralded the start of autumn in a frenzy of falling leaves and rain. Much to my surprise I even experienced my first electric storm in the Netherlands. The South African Highveld where I come from is famous for its electric storms, so experiencing something I associate with home over here made the world seem smaller and more familiar.
October leaves during Autumn's arrival
October was also interesting for another reason. I finally joined a language class after ten months of procrastination. And it was the best decision I’ve made since being here. The problem is that I get by with my version of Afri-Dutch (my home language is Afrikaans). So there was no great or pressing need to join a class, because most people understand me well enough.
But “well enough” is no longer good enough. The fact that I am still unable to find work has really brought the reality of my situation home to me. In the town where I live there are no jobs for English-speakers. And with my less-than-perfect Dutch I was unceremoniously told that all I qualify for is produktiewerk, or factory work. I was shocked. It was exactly the kick in the pants I needed to enrol in a Dutch language class.
I decided to follow a course at the local University of Wageningen, mainly because I wanted to interact with real people. I gathered info on the course from the local library, that also offers study books and other learning tools. Funnily enough, I have found that even in this technological age, most of my quests for really local stuff start at the library. Maybe I’m just lucky, but our library is simply awesome.
But of course there are loads of other options that can be found online. This page from the Faculty of Humanities details the courses on offer at the University of Amsterdam. There is also a free online course which can be found at the e Language School, and a great list of resources at Dutch! Dutch! Dutch!. Also check out Dutch for Beginners for a very simple introduction that is easy to follow, or Dutch Grammar for a more thorough introduction.
Elsewhere on this NL Planet site there is a list of paid courses or local learning institutions and some more helpful general links on the NL Links page (see category Dutch Language).
There are also long distance learning aids or self-study books. In my class there is a group of people from Armenia who speak wonderful Dutch – completely self-taught.
I left learning Dutch way too long and have missed out on a lot of great conversations. Hopefully that will change soon as I practice my developing vocab on my poor, unsuspecting neighbours. Just in time for the festive season!
Tags: dutch language, expat life
Very interesting and amusing subject. I read with great pleasure.