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My journal for the Give it 100 challenge. |
 LEARNING DUTCH This is my journal for the "Give It 100!"  challenge. I aim to study the Dutch language for 100 days by earning at least 20 experience points on Duolingo per day. I will use this journal to write updates on my progress and to keep track of what I am learning. I aim to start on January 19th and am permitted to take 14 days off. Depending on how many of my permitted days off I use, my end date will be somewhere between April 28th and May 12th. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Please see "Give It 100!" for more information.Progress chart:
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| Today I learned some new words and phrases. Here are a few: Hier = here Daar = there Erin = in it Eronder = underneath it Eruit = out/out of it Erop = on it Ermee = with it Ernaartoe = there/to…it Ernaast = beside it Ertussen = in between And I also learned a very bizarre way to say "you are wrong", which is: "Jij zit ernaast". A literal translation is "you sit beside it", I think. Strange! |
| I went back over greetings and farewells etc earlier. It's scary how quickly words can be forgotten if I don't keep using them! I am thinking of getting a book to support my learning of this language. Duolingo is great but as I am progressing, I think I need more. And Duolingo is rather crap at explaining grammar. Thing is, I don't know what to buy! Alternatively I could invest in the Rosetta Stone programme. The CD-ROM is almost £300, so that's a no, but the download version is £99. Hmmmmm...! Ideally I'd like lessons with a teacher now. Ducth isn't a commonly taught language though, so I probably couldn't do it at the local college or through Adults Continuing Education. And I bet private lessons are expensive! Oh well... |
Today has been another strengthening skills day! I need to practise a bit more before tackling the next subject and I want to go back over some of the old topics to ensure I haven't forgotten anything. As I have tomorrow off work I should have plenty to alternate studying Dutch and Psychology. Psychology has to take priority as always, but I will of course find time to get my 20 experience points!  |
| I have gone back over place related words and phrases today as these are still so new to me and I am struggling to remember some. And when I do remember them, I struggle to remember whether they are "het" or "de" words. With the "places" lessons, sentences have started to become a little more complicated than before. Here are a few: Het restaurant heeft een grote en een kleine keuken  the restaurant has a big and small kitchen.De vrouw houdt van hotels met restaurants the woman loves hotels with restaurants.Welke straat leidt naar het strand? which street leads to the beach?De straat leidt naar het vliegveld en niet naar het kasteel the street leads to the airport and not to the castle.Okay, so not that complicated! But still, getting harder all the time. The next time I am in the Jordaan district of Amsterdam, maybe I should ask someone, "Pardon, waar is de kerk. alstublieft?" (Excuse me, where is the church, please?") Just for practise because I know where the church is! It's the Westerkerk and it's right near Anne Frank Huis. Mark and I wanted to climb the tower (de toren) but we didn't have time on our last day. Maybe next time! I'd probably get some funny looks if I asked that question though because the church is huge and very visible! |
| Today I have achieved my goal by going back over conjunctions YET again! I went through the four lessons and then strengthened my skills. I WILL fully understand them! I think the best way to grasp them though is probably to just read lots of Dutch. Later, if I get time, I will go through them again and I also want to redo prepositions, which I also found hard, though not in comparison to conjunctions! So I have now completed five weeks straight of Dutch study with no day off!  |
| I went back over some of the conjunctions earlier today as I am still quite shaky on them. I feel like I'm never going to get the hang of how the word order can change! But I will persist. Some of the new words to do with places are proving a little difficult to remember (and it's particularly hard remembering whether they are "het" or "de" words) but I'll get there, I'm sure! |
| I think I making progress! And I have achieved my goal today. Still going strong! Anyway, here's some Dutch: Hallo, mijn naam is Jess en ik spreek Nederlands, want ik grebruik Duolingo. Ik woon in Engeland en spreek Engels. Ik woon in een stad met mijn hond, Jade. Zij is een oude hond en haar kleur is zwart. Ik hou van mijn hond! Ik schrijf, en ik lees boeken, en ik werk, en ik studeer (een beetje!) Ik ben vegetariër, want ik hou van dieren. Ik ben klein, creatief en gek! Yay! I wrote a paragraph! I had to use google translate a teensy bit so I don't know how fluent or accurate the above is but hopefully there are no catastrophic errors and hopefully Dutch speakers can understand it! I really should let my Dutch friend know I am learning her native language because she might be willing to help me out with stuff like this and make corrections! Anyway, the above says: Hello, my name is Jess and I speak Dutch because I use Duolingo. I live in England and speak English. I live in a city with my dog, Jade, She is an old dog and her colour is black. I love my dog! I write, and I read books, and I work, and I study (a bit!) I am vegetarian because I love animals. I am small, creative and crazy! Hahaha! It is such a fascinating language and the more I learn it the more I can see it is a mixture of English and German. I get so much satisfaction from reading it but translating English to Dutch still proves to be very frustrating at times because I make little, irritating mistakes. I'm so glad I'm doing this though! |
I just went crazy and completed NINE lessons on places!  And what makes that even more crazy is I did it after a hard shift at work! I just felt like doing it though and I enjoyed it. Places seem to be quite straight forward but I don't know if I will remember all of the new words straight away. I will write some out tomorrow if I am not as tired as I am now! I've noticed that sentences suddenly seem to be getting longer and more complex. That's good! I want to be able to speak and write in proper sentences, and not just short, snappy phrases. I love reading Dutch. It's very easy! And I love some of the literal translations, such as: "ik heb een boek nodig" is literally translated as "I have a book need" (I think), though of course we would say: "I need a book". But some are hard to grasp, for example, I don't think it is possible to "be" hot or cold in Dutch, so you could not say "I am cold". Instead you would say, "ik heb het koud", which I think translates literally as "I have the cold". Interesting but hard to remember! But don't quote me on that! Perhaps you could say, "ik ben koud" but I haven't come across it. I am wondering if it would be worth me buying some books in Dutch... perhaps children's books to start with! But I feel like my reading skills are fairly strong and I want to develop them further. Of course my ultimate goal is to read Anne Frank's diary in Dutch but I don't think I am quite ready to do that yet!  |
| Today I have gone back over the lessons for days of the week and months of the year. These are pretty simple: Days of the week: Maandag Dinsdag Woensdag Donderdag Vrijdag Zaterdag Zondag Months of the year: Januari Februari Maart April mei Juni Juli Augustus September Oktober November December I am avoiding the lessons on time for now! |
Today I have completed the lessons on Dates and Time. I have only been through each once so will need to go back over them. The months are easy! As are many of the words related to this area. But I can tell already I am going to struggle with time.  Anyway, I will go back over these lessons tomorrow and hopefully write more in depth about what I am learning if I get time.  |
ARGH! Feeling disheartened today because I have been making loads of mistakes.  Grrrrrrrrrrrr!  But I'm tired and stressed so I think it is understandable. And at least I achieved my goal. Although I have done 28 days straight for Give it 100, I have a 40 day streak going on Duolingo. I think that's pretty impressive! I wish I had started the Give it 100 earlier as I would be almost half way with it. Oh well! |
| Another strengthening skills day! But I'm just happy to be keeping up with this at all when the new job is leaving me completely exhausted. So strengthening skills is better than nothing. But for now: ik werk veel! I work a lot! (Haha, not really, at least compared to some people, but returning to work has been a big shock to the system). |
| Just another short one today as I am hugely stressed! I achieved my goal through strengthening my skills and will probably spend the next few days doing that, plus completing the lessons on Date and Time. But with today's entry I can celebrate being a quarter of the way through the Give it 100 challenge! Go me!  |
| Just a short entry today as I am so, so tired thanks to work! This evening I decided to move on from conjunctions and have started the lessons on Date and Time. I have done two so far. I will need to return to conjunctions though and I also need to go back over everything else to ensure the conjunctions lessons haven't push my previous knowledge out of my brain! |
| More conjunctions today! Here is a list of words I need to remember. I am finding it hard to learn these for some reason: Zodra = once/as soon as Totdat = until Doordat = due to the fact Voordat = before Hoewel = even though Dus = so/therefore Tenzij = unless Aangezien = Since/because And here are some examples of conjunctions that change the word order: De eend ziet dat je brood hebt = the duck sees that you have bread  Hoewel hij oud is, is de man sterk = even though he is old, the man is strong Hoewel het niet koud is, draagt zij een jas = even though it is not cold, she wears a coat Aangezien de man oud is, rent hij niet = since the man is old, he does not run Zodra het regent gaan wij = as soon as it rains we are going Hij rent, totdat hij sterk is = he runs until he is strong Ik drag een hoed, zodat ik het niet koud heb = I wear a hat so that I am not cold Het boek is duur, omdat het oud is = the book is expensive because it is old Ik neem het boek, tenzij jij het nodig heb = I take the book unless you need it So hard! But hopefully I will be able to move on tomorrow. I'm still shaky with conjunctions but I get the basic idea. |
| I've achieved my goal today by practising conjunctions again and I'm still on the verge of a breakthrough with them, just not quite there yet! It's a bit frustrating! When I have more time I really need to write out the common ones and fix them in my mind, and also sort them into the ones that change the word order and the ones that do not. But perhaps I'll do that tomorrow! I think I will have a real sense of achievement when I finally crack this! |
| Something is almost clicking in my mind when it comes to conjunctions! I feel like I am so, so close to having a breakthrough but I'm not quite there yet. I have (mostly) figured out how a conjunction can affect the word order, but I'm having a bit of trouble remembering which conjunctions change the word order and which do not. It's so, so hard! And I'm also having a hard time remembering the Dutch words for the different conjunctions so I really need to work hard at getting those straight in my head. It is disheartening to be finally getting the word order correct in a lot of my translations, but getting the translation incorrect because I use the wrong conjunction! Oh wow I can't believe how hard this has been but I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I haven't reached it just yet but I'm so close. I knew learning a new language would be hard but I don't think I realised just how hard it would be. But... I have now completed three weeks of Give it 100! And I've yet to have a day off! This week has definitely been my hardest so far. I'm not a quitter but I did feel I would be confused over conjunctions forever. While I'm still have a little trouble with them, I am definitely doing much better and starting to understand how they work. I can't wait until it well and truly clicks for me and I can now see that will happen. At different points during this week I thought it never would! Yay for dogged determination! I consider my stubbornness to be a positive trait because it means I stick at things even when I am tearing my hair out over them! |
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You are awesome! 
~
). Very quirky and surreal. You'll have to read it to me in the Dutch original sometime