The Netherlands is famous for tourists worldwide thanks to its diverse culture, rich life and unique experiences. The fun of Dutch life is also reflected in the language. An exciting country with 2 languages spoken in parallel, It’s Dutch and English. While some might think this makes life complicated, I think it spiced things up. Life is fun in two languages - bilingualism becomes richer. The article below will convince you!
Dutch pronunciation is not easy.
Dutch is not the easiest language to learn in the world. However, some sounds are not natural to native English speakers. Especially In English and Dutch, the written text does not correspond to how you pronounce it. These pronunciations are far from each other.
As you probably know, an essential difficulty with Dutch pronunciation is adding or omitting sounds and letters. English is known for completely changing the sound of letters or combinations of letters.
An example is a vampire. What is Ghoti? Ghoti is a recall of the word fish, and you may see irregularities in English spelling and pronunciation.
gh is pronounced [f] as enough or dai.
o pronounced [ɪ] as in women
ti is pronounced [ʃ] as in-country or motion.
What are the grammar rules for two languages, English and Dutch?
On top of that, one problem for Dutch students is that many grammatical structures exist “just because they do”. They do not adhere to any particular language or logical rules.
You can directly translate a lot of nouns from English to Dutch. But when it comes to verb tenses, it’s more complicated.
For example, talk about past activities. In various situations, English requires the simple past, where Dutch uses the present perfect.
Dutch people often make mistakes like ‘I played hockey yesterday’.
Bilingual Dutch and English is not easy!
English is everywhere, Dutch is not
One difference between Dutch and English is that you can find English almost anywhere, but for Dutch you have to pay a little more attention to find it.
English is one of the most popular languages in the world. Besides, it is the most widely learned second language. You can often see English in the Netherlands.
English plays a significant role in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, you will also find English in movies, advertising, music, and universities.
Language learning takes time.
Give yourself time to adjust to a bilingual life. Time will make your language better. Don’t worry if you still can’t understand Dutch. You need a long way to understand and use it like a native!
Bilingual mothers lead to bilingual children.
Children are very flexible in accepting different languages. So if your family is bilingual, the kids can easily use Dutch and English. However, since they are still children, many funny situations exist. So enjoy the exciting bilingual life the Netherlands has to offer!
