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Why and how you should learn Dutch as an international student

If you’re moving abroad, it only makes sense for you to want to integrate yourself into the country you’re moving to. To do this, the most important step is to learn the language – not necessarily master it, but just learn enough to get by. Learning Dutch allows you to communicate with the locals, learn about their culture, and make friends. Not learning Dutch only puts you at a disadvantage – besides, having an extra language in your portfolio is always a good idea.

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Wisang
Three students sitting in a cafe on campus talking.

The Dutch language barrier is real

It’s a good idea to learn a couple of basic phrases before you move: stuff like ‘thank you’, or ‘please’, or simple directions and instructions can go a long way. However, once you’ve settled and been here for a couple of weeks, you’ll quickly realise that the Dutch language barrier is real, and you’ll never get past that surface-level interaction unless you breach further into learning the language.

I found it quite frustrating when I wanted to express something in Dutch but couldn’t, either because I forgot the words or because I simply didn’t know how to. Luckily, Dutch people are quite adept at English (and that’s an understatement), so it was no problem to switch back to our shared tongue and finish the conversation. However, I also felt a bit embarrassed: the inability to communicate something so simple humbled me. That’s why I wanted to get past this initial barrier – to feel more connected to the community and understand Dutch culture better, I needed to improve my Dutch.

It makes you less reliant on others

I’ve seen people and been around friends who take out their phones and open the Google Translate app, thinking they’re subtle. It really isn’t – I would know, because I’ve been one of those people. Not that there’s a problem with that, as you’re making an active effort to communicate in the local language. However, I’ve never liked the idea of being reliant on others for simple day-to-day communication, so I wanted to get rid of the use of that ‘middleman’ and cut straight to the interaction. Learning the language to an extent where I didn’t need Google Translate or anything else to look up the word for ‘nail clippers’ was a pretty big achievement for me.

You can read your documents better

As an international student, I know what it’s like to receive a letter from the Belastingdienst or the Gemeente, or even something like the GBLT sometimes. Heck, sometimes my email gets some important-looking messages. If your Dutch is not up to speed, you can never know for sure if you’re in trouble or not (or if you’re being scammed). I’ll admit, I’ve used Google Translate to read documents for me to speed things up a bit, even now when my Dutch is conversational. But to make things easier for yourself in the long term, I urge you to learn Dutch. Reading official, important documents, filling in forms for taxes or benefits, and communicating with people in the government are all made easier when you can conduct yourself in Dutch.

It helps you make friends

It will be much, much easier to make friends once you’ve shown that you can communicate in their language. I’ve made several friends by just knowing a couple of sentences in Dutch with a decent accent. People are more likely to get to know you if they see you are putting an effort into learning their language – they might even willingly become speaking partners!

You’re in the country for a while… why not?

If you’ve read all of the above reasons and you still think, ‘Hmm. This doesn’t really apply to me’, and decided not to learn Dutch for whatever reason, then why not do it just for the sake of learning a new language? You’re in the Netherlands for a while, long enough for it to make sense to at least order your food in Dutch, so you might as well pick up a couple of phrases. It’s a sign of respect towards the country you’re staying in. Moreover, it can never hurt to learn a new language – I, for one, cannot think of any disadvantages that learning a new language will give you. So why not?

Now, knowing why you should learn Dutch is all fine and grand. However, if you don’t know how to learn Dutch, then all those reasons become irrelevant. So, here are some tips on how to quickly learn Dutch.

1. Take up the language courses from the University of Twente

If you’re a student at UT, you’re lucky: their language courses are incredibly cheap. Make the most out of this and schedule yourself some lessons throughout the year. Learning something usually requires the guidance of a master, and who else can teach you the language if not for a Dutch person? I’ve found that the courses are intensive, quite interactive, and relevant to modern-day situations – all green flags for language courses. I’d hurry up to sign up, though: a lot of courses, especially the beginner’s Dutch courses, are incredibly popular, so many people are put on waiting lists.

2. Force yourself to speak Dutch

This is much easier than it sounds. It’s incredibly uncomfortable to put yourself in situations where you’ll know you won’t be comfortable, and being forced to use a language you’re not familiar with is basically that. Force yourself to order in Dutch, to speak to other people in Dutch, to make light conversations in Dutch – any interaction can be useful in your day-to-day. Plus, what better way to learn a language than to convince yourself that you need it to survive? You’ll find that your mind is capable of great things, and you’ll progress quickly.

3. Learn the sentence structure first, then memorise words

This is a more personal tip. Dutch, like German, has a peculiar sentence structure that looks weird if you come from an English-speaking background. Dutch uses (mainly) a subject-object-verb sentence structure, while English uses subject-verb-object. That’s why, in order to learn Dutch quicker, you need to understand how Dutch is structured. Learn to look for the verbs in the sentence the Dutch way, not the English way, and you’ll quickly understand.

I think learning how to speak and then memorising what to say is a better method than the other way around, but that’s just me. I can always memorise words and what they mean by just reading (Duolingo is great for vocabulary), but to use those words correctly, I need to speak correctly. Learning the sentence structure is one of the first steps to speaking Dutch.

4. Expose yourself to the language every day

To make progress, what’s important is that you do it every day. Exposing yourself to the Dutch language every day ensures that the information is fresh in your mind. This can come from daily interactions, listening to the radio or podcasts, or just taking five minutes to read a news article or short story. The most extreme method would be taking a job in customer service for a Dutch company, but that is quite unnecessary. You need around 100-150 hours to progress between levels of language mastery, and while those numbers seem to be daunting, they fill up quite quickly if you expose yourself to the language every day.

Learning a new language is a journey. Like any other journey, you have to commit yourself, or else your progress will fall flat. If you’re convinced and want to learn Dutch straight away, then sign up for the language course at the UT, go do your daily Duolingo, or read an article in Dutch. Regardless, good luck on your language journey!

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