Mistakes I did while learning dutch

For the past few years I have been trying to learn dutch. In My opinion, it is important that I at least speak dutch to talk to general public when I am living in a country. Also it would be helpful for my career.

While learning, I have made a few mistakes that I might have avoided if I knew them earlier. or might not have because that is just part of the process.

However, Here I would like to document the mistakes for anyone to read and help.

Keep trying to find the perfect way

Instead of just starting with all the resources I had, I kept on thinking If i get the perfect way then I would learn it easily. An example of this would be how many books and magazines I have collected just for the excuse of finding a way. I kept thinking one more book should fix it. Or that new magazine would be the way to learn it. If I can say honestly, I was just procrastinating.

Buying the new book would solve the issue for me:

I had initially bought a book from NT2 (Nederlands in gang), then one of my friend gifted me another book that was also for beginners. Then I got printed pages from Gemmente (municipality). Then I got a subscription of a learning portal. Then I bought another subscription of a portal which was heavily focused doing the inburgening exam.

What I am trying to say is, similar to the first mistake, I kept collecting new resources thinking that is the issue. However, the issue was my habit of procrastinating. Once I stopped buying new things and decided to continue what I had at hand. I started to get better at the language.

Building without the foundation

The one mistake that I could have better done better was to do a basic course in person. I kept trying learning on my own but after a few weeks, I will stop the program and then returned to zero in few weeks. What I should have done is to at least do a basic course from a proper school.

When your foundation is strong, It is really easy to build on top of it. In fact, when I did do the course, the following up myself became easier and then I could take on the more difficult topics.

Use translation apps while reading e-books

A very important mistake that I would do while reading a e-book in the new language is to have the google translate app open in my phone. Previously I used to think that it will help me be better at vocabulary.

In fact, I have realised that It is the opposite. When I have the app open, I would simply find the meaning of the word by selecting the word in the e-book an opening that in translate. That way I would get the meaning of it without actually learning or in fact even reading the word.

That I had to stop. With that I also stopped using e-books for dutch.

Learning without having a goat in mind

If you are learning the language, it is always better to have a goal. Initially I was learning just for the sake of learning, that way it becomes easy to just delay and say I would do it tomorrow.

What I did was, I scheduled the exams for the basic level and gave myself one month to prepare. Then I had the fear of losing the money. That motivated me to really learn for one month and by the end of it, I was really better. Also I passed all the exams in one go.

You can choose other goals like giving a complete speech in different language. Or Talking to your neighbour everyday in dutch. That way you have something to look for and you are not just running without a goal.

Not have a language buddy

If you can, I would highly suggest to get one language buddy. The more frequent the better. I saw tremendous progress in my speaking when I had joined the intensive course for one week where we were only supposed to speak in dutch. My listening and comprehending also improved a lot. However, After the course, I did not continue the speaking and then lost the momentum.

I am still trying to find the environment where I can speak freely. Probably Hello Talk app would be helpful.

Probably next time I am learning a new language, This article would help me, or any of you to get your goals faster.