FLOWENTLY LANGUAGE TIPS

JE MAINTIENDRAI! ‘Heb je je bagage? Ik neem de paraplu wel. Even mijn portemonnee pakken. De chauffeur wacht op ons!’ This is just an ordinary conversation in Dutch between two people travelling. Or isn’t it ? Taking a closer look, it is filled with ‘Dutchified’ French words: bagage (luggage), paraplu (umbrella), chauffeur (driver), portemonnee (wallet). [...]

LEARNING THROUGH THE CORONA RETREAT Dear language learners. This post is about fun in learning, for all of you out there studying a foreign language. Think about the long-term and stay strong in these difficult times of the Covid-19. Our national hero football player Johan Cruijf always said ‘Elk nadeel heb z’n voordeel / each [...]

DUTCH SLANG FOR TEENS Every linguistic community has its own slang. Funnily enough the Dutch mainly use slang from other languages. In Highschool they flourish like nowhere else. Here are a couple of teenage slang words for your youngster to shoot the breeze with his or her Dutch peers, coming straight from the source; from [...]

BITING THE BULLET My student Gabor, from Hungary, is just starting to get familiarized with Dutch expressions. He’s been living in Amsterdam for ten years and has taken several Dutch courses. He is at an Intermediate level but has forgotten quite a few grammar rules and speaking Dutch is a huge challenge. Obstacles that keep [...]

MAGIC AND THE FLOWENTLY METHOD I wish Flowently was around when I was learning Dutch. Their method focuses precisely on the aspects of the language that caused me trauma when I came to this country. Take the nightmare called Dutch sentence structure. Normally, you go subject-verb-object, as in English. But once your sentence is longer [...]

MY VOCABULARY WAS LIKE THE HULK’S Niala Maharaj discovers foreign language anxiety ‘What’s wrong with you?’ a friend asked as we came out of a bakery. ‘What?’ ‘You became another person in there, a shy, timid woman talking very softly so no-one could hear.’ ‘What?’ ‘I’ve noticed it before. You always do that when you [...]