Hallo. I'm traveling to Belgium and Netherlands in the spring for 4-5 weeks, and would like to learn some basic traveler's Dutch in the beginning. I'm interested in a 1-2 week basic course, a few hours a day, or maybe daily private lessons. My interest in grammar is minimal; I'm more interested in simple conversational Dutch. I'll begin my trip in Bruges/Brugge, currently just one week, but I can expand that to two weeks if necessary. Thereafter, I'll be in Amsterdam for two weeks.
Any advice and experience others have will be most appreciated.
Dank u wel.
Posted by
12 posts
Duolingo has a Dutch program. It is basic language skills, and also works on pronunciation. I started it a few weeks ago for our upcoming trip. It is just an ok app. It is possible to do it for free, although you have to suffer through nauseating ads constantly.
Posted by
47 posts
I don’t have any recommendations about language courses in’t Nederlands, but wanted to point out that there is a rather substantial difference in pronunciation between Belgium and the Netherlands. Same language with different accents.
Back in the day I was an exchange student in Belgium and as I was trying to learn the language, my host family would always ask me where someone was from when they were speaking on tv. At first everyone sounded the same, but after a while it became very obvious.
Most Dutch speakers are also fluent in English, and likely to reply to you in English, but they appreciate attempts to speak Dutch. Alstublieft (ah-stu-bleeft, you’ll see it written as a.u.b.) and “Dank u wel” will get you pretty far. Asking for a “pintje” in a cafe will get you whatever the house beer is. If you’re on a train, you’ll often see and hear “Wij komen aan in…” to announce the next stop. Autocorrect really hates Dutch spelling! Double vowels are common and have soft pronunciation (ah, Ay, E, O, ooh) and IJ (sometimes seen as a Y with an umlaut) is like “ehye”.
As I was writing this, and reminiscing about my time there, I thought of a course you might look into. Prisma’s Dutch for Self Study: Prisma was known for the quality of their translation dictionaries and grammar books, so their language course will likely give you everything you want to know. Beste wensen en veel success!
Posted by
IJzendijke, The Netherlands
2153 posts
This is an institute offering Dutch language courses for non Dutch speakers. For contact you can find the email address underneath the website. https://www.snt.be/centrum/over-ons
With private teachers:
https://nl.superprof.be/s/nederlands-schoolvak,Vlaanderen,,,,.html
https://www.apprentus.com/nl-be/hulp/prive-les-nemen Click: Contacteer ons
No idea how qualified they are, hopefully the TI in Bruges can tell you more.
https://www.visitbruges.be/en Email address underneath the TI's website.
Succes ermee!