The Hardest Language to Learn?

After a lunchtime chat with a friend about my linguistic escapades, this very question arose. It is an interesting one, so I decided to do some research.

Although the internet is outrageously huge, there seems to be no definitive answer, for it seems there are many factors. Thinking about it, it surely depends to some extent on a person's native language.

For example I, as an English speaker, would most likely find Dutch easier to get to grips with than a Chinese person trying Dutch as his or her first foreign tongue. For a start, Dutch uses the same alphabet as English so that means I don't have to worry about writing systems. Also, many Dutch words are spelled exactly the same as English ones, even if pronunciations can be somewhat different.

I personally believe it is possible to learn ANY language comprehensively. The only variable is time. Some languages may require more time and effort to become conversational than others, but one can still reach that point all the same.

Still, the question itself is still one that holds an interest with me, so here are some common languages that keep cropping up in response to this query from native English speakers:

• Arabic - Although one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, it's vocabulary bears virtually no similarity to most European ones. It's writing system is also very foreign and is read from right to left too. Also, there are wildly different dialects, so someone speaking Arabic in Morocco may have great trouble understanding someone from Saudi Arabia.

• Mandarin Chinese – Another that always pops up. Again, it’s writing system would flummox any newbie, plus it has four tones to compound matters. However, a billion Chinese people can speak it perfectly well!

• Basque – Although the Basque region comprises part of France and Spain, it’s tongue resembles neither French nor Spanish. It has 24 cases and makes wide use of prefixes and suffixes to drastically alter the meaning of words and sentences.

• Icelandic – Often described as one of the hardest European languages to learn, Iceland’s official tongue has rather complex grammar and again bears little resemblance to English. However, this amazing man was able to learn enough of it to be interviewed on Icelandic TV in just one week!

There are many others that often get mentioned too, such as Japanese, Hungarian, Finnish and Navajo, but again I believe that all of these languages can be learned to fluency if one can dedicate enough time into doing it.

This great diagram I stumbled across gives a very rough estimate as to how long it would generally take someone to become proficient in a number of different languages (The image is a lot smaller when attached, so click the link if you can't see it properly):

An Accent Waiting to Happen

It's fair to say that accents are very distinct cultural and geographical identifiers. In the UK, it is easy to tell whether a person is from England or Scotland just from their accent. Similarly, it is also easy for a native English speaker to distinguish between other native speakers and those who have learned it as a foreign language, just on accent alone.

If I was taken into the centre of Amsterdam tomorrow and attempted to talk to the locals in Dutch (assuming I was fluent, which I am certainly not yet!), they would instantly know they were talking to a foreigner without knowing anything about me.

This is the main reason I'm writing this post. Since I started studying Nederlands in February, I have struggled most of all with pronunciation. Even though a lot of Dutch words are similar or even identical to English, the pronunciations, especially of the vowels, is extremely different.

This has been my biggest frustration up to now, as I can hear myself and know I sound so alien to the native speakers I'm trying to imitate in my audio files. Even though I can hear how they are pronouncing words, when I try to do the same my tongue feels like it has a mind of its own and I end up in a horrible muddle.

Forunately, I'm told this is only natural as my brain has only ever known English speech patterns until now. Because my English knowledge is so deeply set in my memory, when I try to speak Dutch my subconscious is telling me, "No, Josh, you are English and that is not how we pronounce vowels."

I realise I will never sound like a native Dutch speaker completely. If I get chance to live in the Netherlands and immerse myself in their language and culture, I will undoubtedly pick up a twang and at least sound less alien to them, but they will always know I have a different mother tongue.

A good example of this is Wigan football manager Roberto Martinez. Despite being Spanish (which you can tell just by listening to him speak) he has an undoubted hint of northernness which highlights his time in that part of the world.

Maybe in time, I'll record myself trying to speak Dutch and post it on here, but unless I improve I may be too embarrassed to even attempt it. Wish me luck, folks!

Tot de volgende keer!

Video - Introducing Yourself in Dutch

If you've ever wanted to surprise your family / friends / pets, then why not watch this video and suddenyl greet them in flawless Dutch?!

 Dutchforn00bs is a Youtube channel looked after by Lidewij, a Dutch linguistics student. Her videos are all designed to teach basic Dutch terms to English-speakers who are interested in foreign languages.

I shall post more of these over the next few weeks, but this seems like the perfect starting point.

The Language of Intelligence

According to scientists, learning a second language can actually make you smarter.

A study conducted by experts at Northwestern University in the US found that learning another language acts as a kind of "brain workout," changing the way our nervous system responds to sound.

The study used a group of English-speaking students and a group of bilingual ones, and found that those who were able to speak two tongues were able to process much more sound from a background of noisy chatter. They must be able to concentrate fairly well too, considering they had scalp electrodes attached to their heads!

This article from The Independent tells a similar tale, recommending a new language (or, better still, languages) to help keep our control centers fighting the effects of age.

I must say, this is not the reason I want to learn Dutch. My reasons are far more practical than that:

That was a joke (obviously!), but it is nice to know that this could make me a sharper tool in the shed! It is also far better at "training one's mind" than those silly brain training video games that seemed to swamp the market a few years ago.

Maybe once I'm fluent in Dutch, I can then waltz my way to a Mensa membership as well!

Return of the (Dutch) Jedi

So. It's fair to say I'm guilty of not maintaining this blog over the last couple of months. Alas, procrastination has had my number. I've promised myself to start writing new posts for a while now but I haven't been able to deliver on those promises...until now!

I think "relaunch" is too big a word for this post, but nonetheless, that's what it is really! So here are some spectacular fireworks to celebrate the second greatest comeback after Lazarus:

A lot has happened since my last post. I've recent secured a new job (which is almost double the pay I get now). I spent a lot of time and effort applying and preparing for interviews, assessments, so I'm absolutely thrilled, as is my bank account.

One of the perks of having more money is that I can invest in my hobbies more. This means - amongst oter things - learning Dutch!

I'm still working my way through levels two and three of the Rosetta Stone software and now have quite an array of books to help me. However, I figure that if I'm going to become fluent rather than just conversational then I'm going to need some personal tuition.

Thankfully, whilst idly searching the oceans of Google's knowledge, I stumbled upon this. This is a place in Oxford that offers courses in Dutch as a foreign language. Not only that, but they offer the chance to take professional qualifications, which for me means GCSE and A Level. To supplement this, they also offer personalised tuition. Perfect for me.

This isn't cheap by any means, but I'm serious about this and if I'm going to do it, I might as well do it properly! It might even open some doors to meeting likeminded people to me.

As well as this, I have plans for the blog itself. I've been busy in my absence, trawling through tons of videos related to Dutch and linguistics in general, so keep an eye out for some of these in the near future.

Tot de volgende keer! (Until next time)

Veel Geld!

That title means "lots of money" in Dutch. The reason I use it  is that I'm hoping to have a lot of extra cash very soon. No, I've not won the lottery but I have managed to find a buyer for my car!

I do tell a small lie....I'm only getting £100 (120 Euros approx.) for the vehicle itself but I've worked out that by cancelling my  insurance I'll save £2700 this year, plus my insurance company will owe me roughly £350 of my current  premium back as well. Add that to all the money I'll save on petrol and things are looking good for my bank account.

This is especially good news as I'll be getting the train to work from now on, which means listening to lots of Dutch audio files whilst travelling, on my nice new MP3 player:

It's also good news as sadly, it looks like Rosetta Stone aren't selling the different levels individually anymore on their website, only 1-3 as a complete set. Not great when I've already got level 1 and don't want to buy it again just to get levels 2 and 3. Luckily, Amazon still sell the individual levels so I should be fine, although I don't get the money-back guarantee unless I buy from RS directly. Oh well, c'est la vie (still don't know the Dutch equivalent so the French wil have to do here!).

As for the language learning, it's still coming along. I now know how to talk about times of the day and how to speak to Dutch shopkeepers, which will be very useful when I get around to visiting the Netherlands and Belgium soon (another advantage of no longer having a car!).

Now, that reminds me....time to do some travel browsing and get myself a holiday booked! Until next time, faithful readers.

Tot ziens!

Still Alive and Breathing!

Now then, where was I?

As you have probably noticed, I havent't done much blogging in the last 3-4 weeks. I've been busy with a multitude of things, mainly my Easter break away in Robin Hood's Bay (amazing place, but that's another story).

The whole learning Dutch thing  is still an active goal of mine though. Even while I was away, I took my Dutch books and a notepad and did plenty of swotting like the good student I am!

Even better, the cottage we were staying at had not one but TWO balconies, one of which overlooked the sea. This means that while I was casually learning key verbs, this was the view I had:

What's more, the weather was mostly wonderful and warm, so sitting outside was the best thing to be doing. I'd say that it's impossible not to be motivated to do something with that as your backdrop!

Aside from my little jaunt, I've been working hard and trying to finally get rid of the damn car, which I will finally be able to do on Monday. This means more £$£$ in my pocket as I'll be able to cancel my outrageously obscene insurance. It also means I'll be able to get the next lot of Rosetta Stone CDs as I've completed the level one course now.

Now that I'm back in the groove, I can hopefully return to focussing on the Dutch and less on other annoying and distracting things. Watch this space!

Too Poor to Learn!

As the title suggests, my finances are taking a bit of a battering at present. Having a car in this day and age really doesn't allow for much spare cash when you're only on £6.50 an hour.

As I type this, I have almost completed level one Rosetta Stone. I will undoubtedly run through the lessons again to make absolutely sure I've retained everything learnt so far but pretty soon I'm going to require level 2. This means I need money. £189 to be precise - which I don't have.

At the moment, I'm desparately trying to get rid of the car so I can cancel the outrageously expensive insurance. That alone will save me £270 per month on insurance and around another £100 on fuel.

That means I can get both levels 2 and 3 at a discounted rate, which will set me up with lessons for about the next six months. Long-term motivation is my friend in this exercise. Every penny saved from ditching the motor is a penny closer to me being a fluent Dutch speaker.

Status Update #1

It's been two months now. That is, two months since I actually started LEARNING, not just telling myself I would do at some point.

At first, I wasn't sure if I would need to motivate myself to do any studying but luckily for me, that hasn't really been a problem so far. <Insert smiley face here!>

I've mainly been going through the Rosetta Stone lessons and I'm almost finished with the level one software. I've also been working through this fantastic book, too:

So am I anywhere near fluent yet? Well, no, sadly not.

Although I can now put basic sentences together and have equally basic conversations about where I live and what I do, my vocabulary is still very small - maybe 150 - 200 words at a guess. Even with such a small knowledge at this stage, I can describe a number of different things....places, colours, objects, people, etc.

The level one stuff is basic, since it has to be as a starting point. There is an old saying that goes "don't run before you can walk." I've mentioned before that this is a long-term ambition of mine. Two months is no time at all to learn a new language, especially with a full-time job which limits how much time I can spend on it.

One thing I really do need to work on is my accent. Speaking Dutch with an English accent just sounds odd - imagine Steve McClaren in reverse! Dutch vowel sounds are very different to ours, and words that look identical to English ones often have very different pronunciations.

The audio files with the Rosetta Stone pack have definitely helped up to now, but I need to hear real Dutch conversations to pick up the best accent I can. Luckily, a friend told me about Radio 538, a Dutch station aimed a younger listeners. My Belgian friend Marie hasn't heard of it so I'm going to start listening to it and found out what it's like. Even if I can't understand half of what's being said, I will at least be able to immerse myself in Dutch for long periods of time and embed the accent into my mind.

So, in summary: I'm still very much a work in progress. It's still early days but I've learned looooaaads since I started and with my books and other resources to help with the Rosetta Stone lessons, hopefully my next update will see me much more accomplished:)

Tot ziens!

Nick Clogg?!

One more thing I stumbled across today was this video of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg speaking Dutch fluently for a TV interview.

Perhaps I should contact him and tell him i'll only vote for the Lib Dems if he passes on some tips and plugs my blog at Prime Minister's Questions!

Een Werkboek

When I studied French at school, we always worked mainly from a workbook that had loads of stuff to do. Most textbooks and phrasebooks you find in most bookshops are just very basic and only allow to emorise stock phrases.

If I want to become a fluent Dutch speaker, I can't just memorise things. I actually need to UNDERSTAND how the language works. I realise that I will have to invest a lot of time and effort into this, but that was the idea from the very beginning!

Whilst looking around the web, I stumbled upon this Dutch workbook on the Book Depository website. As soon as I had a look at the details, I was instantly reminded of that same French workbook we had at school. Without even reading any reviews, I clicked on "add to basket" and ordered it.

£35 is a lot to spend on a book that I know so little about, but if it's as good as the kind you get at school, it should really spead my learning up a lot and help me not just memorise things, but actually allow me to understand how it all fits together. That's what will make the difference between being conversational and being fluent.

Rosetta Stoned

One of the key words I used in my last post was INTERACTIVITY. Reading books endlessly is all good and well but concentration inevitably drops after a while and you stop taking things in properly.

I didn't learn my first language just by reading. I learned it through interactions with my surroundings and the people in it. That's where Rosetta Stone comes in. I first heard of it on a TV advertisement a while back. At the time I wasn't bothered at all about learning a new language but the advert did stick in my mind..

Unlike other similar TV ads (how much more crap can JML produce?!), this one actually did a god job of showcasing the product and it genuinely looked impressive.

Rosetta Stone is fairly well-known and although it is not cheap, I was so determined to succeeed at this that I bought it anyway (cheque in the post please, Rosetta Stone people). Although my purchase was based mainly on that ad and internet reviews, I didn't really know how good it would be until it arrived but I'm pleased to say it's worth EVERY penny!

Although they cover loads of different languages, I only looked at the Dutch package. It's split into three different levels. The first covers the most basic parts of Dutch and aims to build up a decent vocabulary. Levels two and three (when I get around to them) will expand on that and cover more complex phrases and sentences.

Each level is split into four units and each unit has four lessons to go though plus an end of unit test. Each lesson is a maximum of 30 minutes so it easily fits in with the most busy lifestyles. This video I found on Youtube sums up how it works pretty well:

The thing I love most about this is that right from lesson one, everything is in Dutch. There is no English text or audio at all. It makes you learn what each word and phrase means by getting you to associate them with pictures, just like we all do when we learn our first language as a baby.

Each lesson has sections on grammar and vocabulary and there are reading, writing, listening and speaking tasks to complete. I wasn't lying when I said it wasn't cheap (level one cost me £149, which is around 180 Euros) but it really does beat other products on the market.

At the minute, I'm on the final unit of level one so level two will be on my shopping list very soon. Even though I'll spend nearly £500 on all three, I still think it's worth it. The look of shock on my mother's face when I started talking to her in Dutch for the first time justifies the cost on its own!

The Tools of Learning

I've neglected this blog for the past week or so (stating the obvious!). With NVQ stuff at work, I haven't had much time to write new posts or do what I'm writing about in the first place - learning Dutch!

So far, I've given a brief background about why I wanted to do this and a few facts about the language itself. However, now I get to the most important challenge in front of me: HOW to learn the language (and remember what I've learnt).

Even before I started this blog I have actually been attempting to learn since early February. I have a few tools at my disposal to help. Some obvious, some I've paid for (in an attempt to show outstanding commitment to the cause!).

With languages like French, even non-speakers know what things like bonjour mean. With Dutch, I knew absolutely nothing. Not even yes and no or please and thank you. And considering most adlt colleges and universities don't offer pure Dutch courses, I had to find other means to help me, which I will detail.

1. The Internet - Pretty obvious really. It's already there to use, it has all the facts and information I could possibly want. Free translation software, Dutch Youtube videos, etc. Plenty of useful stuff for me to use. But what the web doesn't offer is the key to success in such a task: structure. It's fine looking things up online but to effectively learn a new language you have to have a proper learning plan or else you will never succeed.
2. Software - Proper courses are well out of my price range with tuition fees mocking my empty wallet like a gloating bully. For me, my best hope was something I can use at home but has plenty of content and structure. Safe to say I have found such a thing, which my next post will look at in more detail as I think it's bloody marvellous!
3. Books - The keystone of all learning. No linguist would be complete without a decent dictionary and some theory books. Fortunately, Amazon is a godsend when it comes to this. I have a comprehensive English to Dutch dictionary and a fantastic book written by a Dutch language professor covering all basic Dutch spelling and grammar rules. It also reads as a week-to-week study course which will complement point number 2 wonderfully.
4. Voices - Not the ones I hear inside my head, but actual real, Dutch-speaking ones. I've managed to find some audio files to accompany my software which I have put onto my MP3 player. This means I can go for walks (which I do often) whilst native Dutch speakers really help me remember what 'm learning at home.
5. Dutch-speaking Friends - Or friend, I should say. She's @MarieS95 and she's a Dutch-speaking Belgian (and a wonderful person too). Who better to help me than someone who already knows Dutch?!

If I think of more, I'll post them, but for now I'll leave it at that. A workman have never have too many tools but sometimes you only need a few to get the job done!

Going Dutch

Having chosen to learn Dutch, I soon realised that I knew absolutely nothing about it. Not even any basic words. This meant I had to get into research mode and find out everything I could about this new and mysterious tongue.

Dutch isn't traditionally a language studied at school or college in the UK so I had to do some digging to find infomration. Luckily, a quick online search provided plenty of information and tools and resources (more about those in my next post) that gave me lots of facts. Here are some of them:

• Dutch is spoken by an estimated 25 million people as their native language. Most of them live in the Netherlands and Belgium, although there are other Dutch-speaking communities in Surinam and the Dutch Antilles.
• Dutch is the official language of Flanders in Belgium, which is best known as being the site of some well-known battles from WW1.
• Although not an official language in Germany, Dutch is a popular second language among many Germans.
• Afrikaans, widely spoken in South Africa and Namibia, is derived from Dutch as many Dutch people settled there in the 18th Century.
• English and Dutch are both derived from similar Germanic roots and have many similarities. For instance the English word "apple" is spelt "appel" in Dutch.
• Dutch has TWO definitite articles ("de" and "het") whereas English only has one ("the").
• Dutch nouns are categorised as masculine or feminine. "De" is used with masculine verbs and "het" with feminine ones e.g. de jongen (the boy), het meisje (the girl).
• Dutch is a member of the West Germanic family tree, and as such, is a cousin of English and German and a sibling to Afrikaans. Another cousin is Frisian, a regional minority language spoken in the North of the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. Dutch is also related to North Germanic language family members, such as Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.

Speaking my Language

Before deciding to do this, the only language learning I've done specifically was doing French at school. At the time, I really didn't care much about it, although I'm lucky I have a decent memory, so I always passed my exams without any problem and I eventually left school with a B in my GCSE.

I've always been fascinated by other languages and for a long time I've wanted to learn one, but in a classroom it isn't the same. Then, I did French because I HAD to. This time, I'm doing it because I WANT to, which makes all the difference.

I have only used French outside of school once in my life. It was on a skiing holiday in the Alps (a school trip over the Easter holidays). We were staying a lovely village called Claviere, which was right on the French-Italian border. Half the village was in France, the other half in Italy. The border literally went right through the middle of the main street! There was even an arch to mark exactly where it was.

Most people there spoke English so I never had to use any French (although if I did, I would have made a fool of myself as my knowledge of it then was very small). However, our coach took us into the French mountain roads one day and we came to a McDonalds. All the staff there were French-speaking and to test us, my French teacher (who by coincidence had organised the trip) told us we had to order in French.

Although I mumbled to the woman behind the counter, I did manage to order what I wanted, although she probably hasn't heard someone speak such poor French since! So, having spent five years learning French at school, all I've used it for was to order a Big Mac!

My desire to learn Dutch is very different though. I really want to be fluent this time, not just "conversational." It's easy to learn a few everyday sentences and phrases. With just a few hours of practice, anybody could order a coffee or tell the time in another language. I want to go beyond that and really understand the language and how it fits together.

Eventually, once I am reasonably fluent, I want to go to the Netherlands or Belgium (or both, preferably!) and talk to people in their own language. 99% of English people abroad would expect the Dutch people to speak back in English. If it was the other way around and a Dutch speaker was here, I bet they wouldn't even ask us if we spoke Dutch.

I want to see the smile on their faces when I go to Amsterdam and start chatting to them in their own tongue. That would be the icing on the cake for me. Who knows how long it will take, but I sure hope you are still reading by the time it does!

#1: The Challenge

English people are appalling at learning foreign languages. There, I've said it. Out of all the nations in the world, we are the laziest linguists around.

It's true that English is THE global language. The UN, The EU, pretty much every major organisation has English as its offical language or one of several. And being an English-speaking country ourself, most people just think, "Why bother? Everyone speaks English anyway."

Not being one to shy away from a challenge, I decided in January that even though I live here and don't need to learn a new tongue, I damn well WANT to!

I studied French at school and did reasonably well (I got a B) but the fact it was school, coupled with the fact that I don't live in France meant that I never cared much about it and hardly ever did any proper studying. I'm just lucky that I have a great memory so I managed to recall enough to get a decent grade.

That was eight years ago though (yes, I'm THAT old). and I can hardly remember any of it and in fairness I didn't really want to learn French again anyway.  So I had a dilemma: which language to choose?

There are an estimated 6,000 languages in the world currently spoken (please don't ask me to quote a source on that). I only needed ONE. French was discarded straight away. Most of the other 5,999 would be too obscure to thoroughly study so I needed one with plenty of books and tools to help me.

Eventually I narrowed it down to three: Russian, Dutch and Polish. After checking out some text in all three I quickly discarded Polish as no language should EVER have so many Zs in it! With Russian, I didn't want to have to learn a new alphabet so I eventually ruled that out too, which left Dutch as my winner!

I'm fortunate enough to have a very good friend who speaks Dutch so that made me subconsciously lean towards it as well. I've always been a big fan of Dutch accents too (except Steve McLaren's) so this made me feel upbeat before I'd even started.

My aim is not to just learn enough to have a basic conversation with a Dutch person. I want to be FLUENT. I type that in block capitals because it is my long-term goal. This blog is something to help me chart my progress and enjoy the lighter side of starting something completely new and unknown.

I have no idea how well I'll do or how I'll retain what I learn but the journey should be fun! So for now, all I want to say is: HALLO!