Learning Dutch is hard. I have been dating my Dutch girlfriend for almost two years now. Her native language is Dutch, but she speaks perfect English. This is a result of the amazing school system in the Netherlands. From a young age, Dutchies are taught classes in English, forcing them to be fluent in at least two languages. Typically, they use Dutch while hanging out with friends, but need English for learning in school and interacting with people from other countries. There are people from over 180 different countries that live in Amsterdam. This explains why 95% of people speak English.
It’s very easy for me to communicate with my girlfriend using only English. She is very smart and has a more extensive English vocabulary than most people who grew up in the United States. However, once I moved to the Netherlands, I found out that not everyone’s English is as good as hers. It’s a struggle when I go to her family events and I can’t communicate with her relatives in the way that I would like to. It is also hard for me to fully understand the emails or letters that I receive in Dutch. I don’t want to have to rely on my girlfriend or her parents to translate everything for me. I believe that I owe it to my girlfriend to learn her Native language and become fluent in it. For this reason, I have sought out Dutch courses and other resources to help me learn the language. I hope my experiences can help guide you in your quest for learning Dutch as an American.
Duolingo
I began learning Dutch on Duolingo. This is an online learning course, where you can start with the very basics of Dutch or take a test that places you in the correct starting level. It has a well-developed app that makes it very convenient to use wherever you are. You can choose to learn about a specific topic such as health, family, verbs, sports, colors, etc. You can set a goal regarding how seriously and quickly you would like to learn the language. Depending on your goal, the app will remind you to do your Dutch lessons each day. I set my goal to 30xp per day. Each lesson on Duolingo is 10xp. So my goal was 3 lessons per day (each lesson is between 5-10min). With this goal, I was averaging about 20min of Dutch lessons each day.
I was very committed to this course at first, religiously doing my 20min of lessons each day for about 3 months. I think it helped me learn basic vocabulary and introduced me to the grammar basics of Dutch. Once the content turned into sentence structure, word order, and conjugating verbs, I felt the app was less effective and I needed a real teacher to help me learn these things. Another thing that I didn’t like about Duolingo was the way they taught speaking and listening. My girlfriend said they were pronouncing some of the Dutch words wrong and that it wasn’t authentic.
Overall, I would recommend using Duolingo for improving your vocabulary and learning basic Dutch. I like that you can focus on different topics and progress at your own pace.
Biggest bonus: it’s free
https://www.duolingo.com/course/nl-NL/en/Learn-Dutch-Online
Koentact (Dutch Language School)
Koentact teaches Dutch to expats in a school-type setting. Their philosophy is to make learning Dutch fun and personable. They do this by having smaller class sizes, so everyone gets enough personalized attention. The group size is small enough that you are able to practice your speaking and receive a lot of valuable feedback.
One thing that stands out about this class is that they took us on field trips. It made me feel like a kid again! During the field trips, we did scavenger hunts, using our newly learned Dutch skills to ask people on the street questions to complete the scavenger hunt. It was a really fun and interactive approach.
I first attended a FREE open trial session for this course, where they tested my Dutch and recommended the correct level course for me. The course I enrolled in is Dutch Level 2: a day course, 3 hours of learning Dutch, twice a week, for 4 weeks.
Price: €430 + €40 book
Total Time: 31 hours
After completing this course, I noticed a HUGE difference in my Dutch level. Being around other people who were the at the same level as me helped me feel more confident in my speaking ability. I was also able to meet other expats and make some new friends. After this course, I could have basic conversations with my girlfriend and her family. It improved my reading and writing as well. I highly recommend this course to anyone who has the money.
Reach out to me about your experience learning Dutch as an American!