Comments on: First Steps with Dutch

By: Holly

Holly — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:40:54 +0000

Hey, I am really glad to read that you are so interested in learning all of these wonderful world languages. I have a great site for learning up to 5 languages, (some of which you may still even be interested in) and I would like for you to just check it out, and let me know what you think. I hope to hear from you soon, and have a GREAT week!

By: lizz

lizz — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:14:30 +0000

The trick to pronouncing the ‘g’ is blowing out air while pressing the sides of the posterior part of you tongue against the inside of your teeth, and keeping the tip of your tongue lower. At least this is the more southern way of pronouncing it. More to the north they keep the anterior part of their tongue even higher and more anterior of their teeth. Which makes a harder ‘g’, if you overdo it, it’s like grrrr.

I’m more from the south of the netherlands, and I’ve always been bullied about my soft ‘g’, even for me it took several years to get the harder ‘g’.

But it’s rather similar to the german ‘ ch’.

Most television and radio stations have live and old feeds on their sites. It’s not clear to me if these are available from outside the netherlands. But you can try http://www.uitzendinggemist.nl it contains most of the feeds from the public channels for television and radio.

http://www.radiocast.nl is more specific for the dutch public radio channels.

I don’t ever specifically listen to dutch podcasts, but why not google podcast for pages in dutch? That’s what I do if I want to weed out all english sites. But you probably already did that?

By: Ramses

Ramses — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:33:14 +0000

@Kelly
Maybe that’s because you’re used to Andalusian Spanish, because the jota is pretty close to the Dutch g.

People from the Antilles pronounce the g as an h by the way, just like Andalusians do. Must be the influence from the Spanish speaking islands around.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:54:30 +0000

If you already know German and English, then Dutch will be a breeze. The only things you need to watch out for are false friends and spelling.

As for the “g” sound, if it’s any consolation, I still have problems pronouncing it properly even after 3 years of living in the Netherlands. I can usually manage it but not if the word has both a “h” and “g” in it (e.g. geheugen) or has multiple “g”s (e.g. gegeven). My self-confidence was given a bit of a blow today when I asked for some postzegels (stamps) at our local supermarket. I have a bit of a sore throat so the “g” didn’t really come out as well as it should have, which prompted the lady behind the desk to stare blankly at me and ask me to repeat my request *4* times. Maybe she was just deaf…

By: Ramses

Ramses — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:16:05 +0000

Hehe, “h�!” is like “hey!”, where “h�?” is “isn’t it?” or “what?”. That’s by the way the official way they’re spelt. � indicates a long sound where � is a short.

Personally I like the news broadcasts from Radio 1 or the in-depth things like “Casa Luna”. You can download the podcasts from http://www.radio1.nl -> Terugluisteren.

By: lyzazel

lyzazel — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:14:50 +0000

Hi. Well, I have found this list with podcasts in Dutch:
http://anneisaman.blogspot.com/2007/08/dutch-podcasts-podcasts-in-het.html

Albeit a bit old, maybe you can find something for you.

Talking about Dutch, I like some of the little words they have. Like, wel or hee (I’m not sure what the latter is spelled but it means “isn’t it?”).

Alle andere woorden zijn niet cool, maar deze wel, hee?

By: carlson

carlson — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:59:48 +0000

Hi guy! I would like to know how did you learn Russian? You’ve had audio lessons? Did you read any book? I finished russian with michel tomas about 2 weeks ago but I am still feeling very “newbie” in Russian and I don’t want to lose the time I spent on learning russian basics, I really want to improve my russian skills… Any tips?
Thank you very much!