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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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| I'm still feeling a bit frustrated with my Dutch study! I've achieved my goal today but I haven't really had time to look into syntax when using conjunctions, so I am still finding this difficult. Reading is not a problem for me at all. I can almost always translate something from Dutch to English. But translating from English to Dutch is much harder, especially when conjunctions are involved! Anyway, once I am more settled into my job and not feeling so tired, I should be able to work at this more and get my thoughts around it. I think being so tired and preoccupied with other things (work, university) is making it harder for me to take in all the new rules I suddenly have to learn. But I'm sure I'll get there! |
| Urgh, I am frustrated today! I had another go at the conjunctions lessons but I just don't get the word order rules. I think I am going to have to look elsewhere for an explanation. Duolingo is not especially good at explanations! I will have to do that tomorrow though as I am going to work soon and won't finish until 10pm. I think conjunctions are definitely the hardest thing I have come across so far while studying Dutch and part of me wishes I had a real teacher to help me. I will keep working at it though and hopefully it will start making sense to me soon. I'm just worried that while I am grappling with conjunctions, my memory for everything else is fading! I will need to start going back over old lessons. Strengthening skills is good, but the words and phrases used are totally random. If I actually go back through the lessons, I should get to practise everything. I can't do it all in one go though! |
| ARGH! It just got so much harder with the "conjunctions" lessons. Suddenly the word order is changing and making absolutely no sense to me! There are so many new words which I just can't seem to remember. What a nightmare! Anyway, here are a few things I learned today: De man spreekt zowel Engels als Nederlands = the man speaks both English and Dutch. Zowel de hond als de kat houden van vlees = both the dog and the cat love meat Het is vis noch vlees = it is neither fish nor meat But these next ones... what has happened to the word order?! I don't get this at all! Hoewel het niet koud is, draagt zij een jas = Even though it is not cold, she wears a coat Hoewel hij oud is, is de man sterk = even though he is old, the man is strong zij eet geen vlees, aangezien zij vegetariër is = she does not eat meat since she is a vegetarian Crazy stuff! Hopefully I'll get used to it though.  |
Just a short one today as I'm exhausted! Despite starting my new job today I have still managed to study some Dutch and achieve my goal. I spent time strengthening my skills on Duolingo and will move on to the next lesson, "conjunctions" when I'm not so tired.  |
| Today has been another "strengthening skills" day as I am not confident enough on the numbers lessons yet to move beyond them. I think tomorrow I will end up redoing those lessons completely! Several new words and phrases have been introduced, including: Hoeveelheid = amount Laatste = last Te veel = too much Komt na = comes after So I'm trying to remember those, plus a few more I can't think of right now, PLUS all the numbers! Duolingo continues to make me laugh with its funny translations, including this gem: Een koe is geen nummer. This means "a cow is not a number".  When I was practising earlier Mark commented on one of the Dutch sentences, "de mannen hebben de jassen" and I told him it means, "the men have the coats". He joked, "the men have the coats and the women are cold!" And I then translated that into Dutch! I felt so proud of myself because it isn't a sentence I have learned directly. It shows I can now apply what I have learned to make my own sentences in Dutch, rather than just using the ones I have learned directly. Anyway, the Dutch for that sentence is: "De mannen hebben de jassen en de vrouwen zijn koud". Yay! Go me! |
| Today I have achieved my goal by completing the lessons on numbers. In theory I should now be able to count up to a thousand in Dutch but the reality is I am going to have to go over these lessons a lot more before I feel confident enough to do that! I have also learned some new words which are related to numbers, such as the words for "average" and "total" etc, as well as "first", "second", "third" etc. But again, I will definitely need to go back over all of these because I can't remember them! I will probably do that later today. I have now studied Dutch every day for two weeks! I am very pleased with my progress and am still enjoying the learning process.  It is such a fascinating language. The lady who used to run the conservation group I was a member of is from the Netherlands and I may contact her soon to let her know I am learning Dutch. She may want to help me and it would be good if I could practise speaking Dutch with her, even if we only do that via email (as she has moved away from here now). But I'm not sure if I am ready to speak the language with an actual Native speaker yet! We'll see! |
| I decided not to tackle anything new in my Dutch lessons today because I have been seriously overwhelmed with other things! Due to being ill and having a bad reaction to some new medication, I have fallen behind with my psychology study and am in a bit of a panic about that. I still managed to study some Dutch, and have achieved my goal today, but I just went back over what I have already covered. My brain couldn't cope with learning anything new! That's fine though and, as I said yesterday, it is necessary to keep going over and over it so I don't forget anything. I really want it to become almost second nature to me! I am quite surprised at how good my reading is already. I don't think I would be able to speak much Dutch if I went back to Amsterdam though! I'm sure my pronunciation is shocking. I think if I want to become fluent with speaking I will have to get a real teacher. But for now I am just aiming to get fluent with reading. I'm sure I will get some real lessons with a real teacher in the future though... just maybe when I am not so busy with my university course and starting a new job! Anyway, I said before that my favourite Dutch word so far is "schildpad" (which means "turtle") and it still is, but I also really like "kleurrijke", which means "colourful". So it's really fun to say (and imagine): een kleurrijke schildpad! |
| Today I have achieved my goal again by going back over what I have already learned. I'm getting a bit bored of saying that but at least I'm not getting bored doing it! I just really want to cement it all in my mind and I think repeatedly going over it is the only way to do that. I also did a second lesson on numbers and can now count to ten in Dutch! So here are the numbers 6-10 (as I did 1-5 yesterday): 6. Zes 7. Zeven 8. Acht 9. Negen 10. Tien |
| I have gained a lot of experience points today through going over words and phrases I have already learned. I also felt able to move on from prepositions and questions and began tackling numbers. So far I have learned the Dutch numbers from 1-5, which are as follows, if I can remember: één  twee drie vier vijf Definitely reminds me of German! I actually remember some of the German numbers, despite not speaking this language since I was about sixteen: eins zwei drei vier fünf Anyway, I look forward to progressing on from number vijf in Dutch!  |
| Today I started a new module which had two lessons on questions. Here are a few that I learned: Welke boterhammen zijn van mij? = Which sandwiches are mine? (I think that will definitely come in handy the next time I go to the Netherlands!  )Hoeveel schoenen? = How many shoes? Hoe heet dat in het Nederlands? = What is that in Dutch? Waarom heb jij een eend? = Why does he have a duck?  (Again, a very important and useful question that I am sure will come in handy!)Waarom gaan jullie niet? = Why are you not going? Waneer ben ik een man? = When am I a man? (Yes, seriously! That is a question I was asked to translate on Duolingo!) So, I am a tenth of the way there with Give it 100! Just 90 days to go! |
| I must say, my motivation is flagging today because I am feeling ill and tired! Still, I have managed to earn 50 experience points, so that's good, and I may do some more later. There are a lot of words in Dutch that sound like English words and some of them have the same meaning (eg. "man" means "man") but some have different meanings and those can throw me! For example: "Beer" means "bear" but I often get it muddled with "bier", which means "beer"! Still following?! And "rok" is pronounced "rock" but actually means "skirt", so it sometimes takes me a shade longer to translate that word than others. Still, context helps! If I am having to translate "ik draag een rok" I don't get confused because "draag" means wear and nobody would say, "I wear a rock!" There are two that still catch me out a lot though: "eet" is pronounced "ate" but actually means "eat". If I'm tired I sometimes find myself translating something like "ik eet een aardbei" as "I ate a strawberry" when it should be "I eat a strawberry". But the worst one is "hoed"! This sounds like "hood" to me but means "hat". As hoods and hats are pretty similar I can get confused translating "hoed" and need to be careful. It's all going well though and I think tomorrow I might move on to a new lesson rather than going back over what I have already done. Exciting! |
| This is just going to be a short entry today as I am not feeling well! Despite being ill and extremely busy all day I have managed to exceed my goal once again. I'm starting to think 20 experience points a day is too easy but I want to keep it low. Once I start my job and begin working on assignments or revising for exams for my course then I might not actually have the time to earn more than twenty points a day. We shall see! Today I have just been going over and over the prepositions lessons and I am becoming more confident with them. Two phrases are really confusing me though: 1. Het staat tussen de boeken and: 2. Ik zit tussen de jongens in I think 1. means "it is between the books" and 2. is "I am sitting between the boys" but why doesn't the first one have "in" at the end of the sentence like the second one? I haven't figured this out yet and there is no explanation on the website. Very frustrating! |
| So... last night, after I had already updated this journal, I had a go at the prepositions lessons and oh my god are they hard?! It was so disheartening. I am very frustrated with the online programme because no Tips & Notes section has been provided for prepositions, which seems absurd when it is so complicated and we are suddenly being introduced to new ways of using words we have already come across. For example, "ik sta", which means "I stand" can suddenly be used in this way, "ik sta in de krant", which means "I am in the newspaper". So why can "I stand" suddenly be used for "I am"????? What happened to "ik ben"?????? There is no explanation for when "ik sta" would be used instead of "ik ben" and I think that is a big oversight on those who have designed the programme. I hope they fix it soon! But later on I will probably try to find the information I need elsewhere. I've been using another website too, to fill in the gaps where the programme is lacking: dutchgrammar.com Hopefully I will be able to solve this mystery soon! Anyway, because of how frustrated I was feeling last night I didn't especially want to go on Duolingo today but I made myself and I even made myself tackle prepositions again and guess what? I think I am getting the hang of them. Sort of! For instance, I can remember how to say "I eat everything except meat and cheese"  ik eet alles behalve vlees en kaas. One that I find very confusing goes like this: "ik zit tussen hen in." Well, I think it goes like that and I believe it means, "I sit in between them". The word ordering confuses me and I don't know why "in" comes at the end!But with perseverance I'm sure I'll get there! I wasn't expecting this to be easy and I know it's going to get a hell of a lot harder. I am happy to have completed 7 days of Give it 100! Only 93 more days to go! |
| Today I have achieved (and exceeded) my goal by re-doing the lessons on present tense verbs. This doesn't cover all verbs of course, but gives an idea how to conjugate them. I thought I might struggle to remember the verbs as I haven't done these lessons for a while but I pretty much remembered them all, so yay! I think I have the hang of conjugating the simple present tense, but here is a quick guide in case I need it. Verb: koken (to cook) ik [stem] Ik kookjij [stem]+t jij kookthij/zij [stem}+t hij/zij kooktwij infinitive wij kokenjullie infinitive jullie kokenzij infinitive zij kokenVerb: houden (to hold) ik [stem] ik houdjij [stem]+t jij houdthij/zij/het [stem]+t hij/zij/het houdtwij infinitive wij houdenjullie infinitive jullie houdenzij infinitive zij houdenNot too hard, right? Well, so far anyway! This is just the simple present tense. I'm sure I have some new, complicated rules to learn down the line! |
| Today I have gained 90 experience points, so have achieved and exceeded my goal again. I have been going back over what I have already learned because I do not feel ready to take it to the next level yet. Nederlands is moeilijk... but I love it anyway!!  I really need to work on the basic adjectives and I think it might be helpful for me to redo the lessons on present tense verbs because I think they are on the verge of slipping out of my head! I might do that later this evening (in which case I might edit this entry to update it), otherwise I will leave it until tomorrow. I am happy I managed to achieve my goal because it has been a stressful day. I think I can feel satisfied that I have done enough even if I don't end up doing any more. |
| Hmmm... I am feeling a little disillusioned today because I keep making mistakes and have become a little confused about pronouns. Still, I have managed to earn over 20 experience points again. But to help me get things straight in my mind I'm going to write out the pronouns I have covered so far and then I can refer back to them here if I get confused during a lesson. I think it will be helpful to have them in one place! Personal pronouns ik = I je/jij = you jullie = (plural) you u (formal) = you he = hij ze/zij = she we/wij = we ze/zij = they Object pronouns me/mij = me je/jou = you hem = him haar = her ons = us ze/hun = them Possessive pronouns mijn = my je/jouw = your uw (formal) = your his = zijn her = haar its = zijn our = ons jullie = (plural} your hun = their van mij = mine (literally "of me") van jou = yours van u (formal) = yours van jullie = (plural) yours Indefinite Pronouns alle = all alles = everything/anything iedereen = everyone/anyone elk = each ieder = every iets = something/anything niets - nothing iemand = someone/anyone niemand = nobody Confused?! I am! And these are just the ones I have gone through so far. |
| Today I earned 20 experience points from learning colours. Here are some of the words and phrases I had to translate: Ik draag een groene jas = I wear a green coat Jij ziet de oranje kleren  = You see the orange clothes.Is de appel groen? = Is the apple green? (Nee, de appel is niet groen! De appel is rood!  )Iedereen draagt een witte hoed = everyone is wearing a white hat. The use of "het" and "de" has suddenly gotten a lot more complicated because in some circumstances, a word needs to have the letter "e" added to the end, but in other circumstances the "e" needs to be dropped. I think if the indefinite article "een" is used with a "het" word, then the "e" is dropped, liked this: Een zwart pak = a black suit ("pak" is a "het" word, as in "het pak" - "the suit", therefore the word "zwart" has no "e" on the end). But... a black spider = een zwarte spin  because the spider is "de spin" and therefore is must be "zwarte"However... I think if the adjective comes at the end, then it doesn't have an "e", so "the spider is black" would be "de spin is zwart", despite "spider" being a "de" word. I think that's right! But any Dutch speakers who come across this, please let me know if I am mistaken! I hope I'm right because it has taken me ages to get this straight in my head. It is a fascinating language and I love learning it, even though I just attempted a lesson on prepositions only to find the difficulty level has gone up a notch (or two, or five!) So, I think I will spend the next few days just going over and over everything else, particularly my most recent lessons (and especially adjectives as I seem to have forgotten most of those!) and then I will move on to prepositions when I am feeling confident about everything else. |
| So far today I have earned 120 experience points, far exceeding my goal again. I spent some time strengthening my skills and then decided to go back over all the lessons for food, animals and clothing. Duolingo does make me laugh, often providing very strange sentences/phrases to translate. Here are a few of my favourites: Hallo schoenen!   Hello shoes!Wij hebben een belangrijke eend We have an important duckDieren dragen geen klompen Animals do not wear clogsDe schildpad eet rijst The turtle eats rice.The word "Schildpad" for turtle is definitely my favourite Dutch word so far! I just think it sounds wonderful. I think "schild" must mean "shield". It certainly sounds like that and would make sense seeing as a turtle's shell acts as a shield. Anyway, here are some phrases about food that apply to me: Ik eet geen vlees. I do not eat meat. Ik ben vegetariër. I am vegetarian.Kaas is niet lekker! Cheese is not tasty!So... I am glad to have achieved my goal for day 2! |
Well, I have been learning Dutch, using the programme on Duolingo , since early January and have completed the following 12 modules: Basics 1 Basics 2 Phrases Food Animals Plurals Possessives Basic adjectives Clothing Formal Present Indefinite pronouns Object pronounsI have been doing okay, I think, and can string basic sentences together, such as Hallo, hoe gaat het? Mijn naam is Jess. I feel very confident with reading and can often translate Dutch to English even if the sentence contains words I haven't come across before. To me the Dutch language feels like a blend of German and English. I learned German when I was in secondary school and achieved a grade C at GCSE level, but because I didn't keep practising I lost a lot of what I learned. Still, words and phrases like "goedemorgen" (good morning) and "Ik ben" (I am) sound very German-like to me. Anyway, for the first day of Give it 100, I earned my 20 experience points this morning by "strengthening my skills" on Duolingo. This means going back over words and phrases I have already learned. I plan on doing this every day because I want to keep everything fresh in my mind. Then, this evening, I just completed a new module on Object Pronouns. This contained two lessons and I have gone over words used for people, such as "hem", "haar", "jou", "ons", "hun", "hen" etc. I have come across some of them before in other modules, but it is always good to back over stuff! I am looking forward to learning how to speak the past tense but I won't be doing that lesson for quite a while yet! There is still a lot to cover before I get there and I suppose it makes sense to get proficient in the present tense first, before making things much more complicated! So... I have achieved (and exceeded) my goal for day 1 of Give it 100. |
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You are awesome! 
{/hug2}
). Very quirky and surreal. You'll have to read it to me in the Dutch original sometime 
I just can't seem to grasp conjunctions and so I feel I can't move on.