As some of you may have seen from my Facebook postings, I have started taking Dutch lessons in an attempt to make my everyday life here just a little easier. Just so we are clear, I have absolutely zero expectations that I will become fluent or remotely fluent by the time I leave here. I want to be able to use my appliances, buy groceries and know what I am buying or be able to follow the directions on a package. I want to be able to read signs and understand how much I am paying rather than just blindly sticking my bank card in to pay for something. I want to start looking at what TV/internet package I am going to order for when I finally get a permanent place, but all of the websites are in Dutch with no English site and Google Translate only works so well! Plus for now, it gets me out of the house once a week for a few hours and gives me something to do. I am taking Beginners Dutch through ABC Dutch (http://www.abcdutch.com/ ) I go for 2 hours once a week for 10 weeks. There are 4 people in my class, 1 other girl who is originally from South Korea but grew up in Canada and the US, did her masters degree over here and has a Dutch boyfriend, an Iranian guy who is a lawyer and a Nigerian guy – can’t remember what he does – so it is a nice small group. What I didn’t bank on was having homework and also having conjugate verbs! I thought that I left that all behind in grade 12 French! So far I can say who I am, where I am from, what I do – those sorts of things that are moderately useful but not really. I am learning my telephone # in Dutch, which is more than I can say for English b/c I don’t know it in English yet! LOL! What I have noticed though after 4 hours of lessons, I can better understand what I read and I do pick up the odd word on TV or when I hear people talk.
A few people have questioned why I am learning Dutch because:
1. No one in the world speaks Dutch other than the Dutch and the odd African who lives in a former colony
2. Most Dutch speak English and as soon as you start to speak to them in Dutch and they realize that you are bastardizing their language, as I do, they automatically switch to English
3. The Dutch don’t expect you to speak Dutch
I am a firm believer that you should learn a few of the basics in whichever country you are visiting or living in, as a sign of respect. As North Americans we have this expectation that when people come to Canada and/or the US that they will be able to speak English and well, yet when we go to a foreign country, we seemed shocked when people don’t understand us, yet we aren’t speaking their native language.
Speaking of TV – the selection IS NOT good here. Or at least the cable package that I have in my temporary apartment is not good. There are a few BBC channels, which are okay some of the time but they seem to have a lot of serials, which I haven’t watched from the beginning so I have no idea what they are about, a bunch of Dutch channels which I have NO idea what they are saying, a news channel but that is generally very depressing and middle east focused and TLC! Yes –TLC which I watch religiously as it is one of the few channels that are in English, that I like and I can follow. One thing that is helpful is that it is subtitled in Dutch, so I can work on matching up Dutch words and English words. I have found one good thing about not being able to speak Dutch is that on the TLC channel, all of the commercials seem to be able some SPCA/Abused animals but I can’t really understand and I just generally turn away because I don’t want to see that.
Not sure what I am going to do this weekend – probably a bit more exploring and shopping. Might go to another movie or two. They are a little behind on movies here which is good for me because I missed a bunch in December/January that I wanted to see, so now I can get caught up. And as I am sure some of you have noticed, my airplane travel has seriously decreased, so I am not able to watch them there. (don’t worry – there is something coming soon!!!!!) I have also learned that here you can buy a monthly Unlimited Pass for the movies for about €26/month and that includes all IMAX films and 25% off at the buffet (concession) Given that movies are about €10 each, you only need to see a couple to make it worth it. Alternatively for about €19/month, you get unlimited movies and 10% off at the buffet and I think you pay extra if you go to an IMAX. I am sure that there will be a trip to the Albert Heijn this weekend as I do need some more groceries as well.
Check back as I am sure I will update you on what I have done.
Check back as I am sure I will update you on what I have done.
Tot de volgende keer. . . hebben een geweldige dag!
Good for you, I too believe you should learn the language of your hosts and though I struggle here at Dogpound South I am getting the jist of "Bless your heart", and it's many meanings and of course that old favourite, "y'all". But on the serious side there are so many Canadians holed up here avoiding winter that even the locals use "eh" with native fluency. All kidding aside I am enjoying following your new adventures.
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