Learning a new language

 
First of all, as I am talking about learning a new language, I have decided to write in English as well... Most of the people who will be reading this blog are searching for some hints,  for a help to the cultural exchange "au pair" or even to know more about living in The Netherlands. Or whatever it is to bring you all in here :) 

My journey on learning a new language started in 2018 to be more precise, and one thing you all should know is: it demands a lot more from you outside of the school than you think! 

At least with Dutch it's exactly like that! You have to be committed to the new language you want and you are learning, otherwise you won't have the power or motivation to keep up on it!  

And the subject of today is how I have been learning Dutch since the beginning and I hope with that information you guys can get hints and apply some of them to your life's, taking notes of what is more suitable for you! 

So, this adventure of learning Dutch started when I was still in Brazil, but already in the process to become an au pair in The Netherlands (which was around April 2018)! 

I found a website called learndutch.org which is an amazing platform that gave me the possibility of doing a totally free course, called "1000 most common words in Dutch"! I strongly recommend for you to do that if you want to learn this language that can be tricky sometimes!
That for sure helped me to build some vocabulary! 

Afterwards I started a course in a school called Taalthuis, at this time I was already in NL for about 5 months! The first course was from level A0-A1. Finishing that I did another one at Kickstart school (which is my favorite so far). This second course was an intensive summer course, where in one week I did the level A1-A2! 

But it demanded from me a lot of self studies too! I was always preparing my lessons before the class to understand what it was going to be like! And when I was back from the school, I was always studying again because there was just a lot of homework to be done! 

So at this point I could already talk some phrases and understand a bit what was going on around me on the streets and so. 

Here I had all the motivation I needed to keep going! I wanted to be really integrated, and really start to feel part of something! Part of this new culture I found myself in! And that also helped me don't be afraid of making mistakes! So even though sometimes I may be making mistakes in the grammar that's not something that will put me down to do not try anymore, the same is with English! 

In the meantime I have been also studying with a friend mine at least once a week to do a review of the book I have studied before, and it was for sure very helpful to have someone to help you and being a company in this journey! 

And here I'm now... this year of 2020 I did one more course in August where I could jump up one level and start at A2-B1!  

At this level I can say I don't speak properly Dutch yet, but people understand what I mean and we can communicate! But as I want to speak much better Dutch, my adventure won't stop around here... I still have more steps to take and I think what's the most important to keep in mind is: 

Don't be afraid of making mistakes! 

People will really appreciate that you are trying! 

You have your own time, respect that but don't use as an excuse to avoid talking! 

Take some risks, as I did trying to talk only Dutch in the supermarkets, in cafés and restaurants, asking some question, or even working with kids that could not speak English at all (it was what helped me the most!)

And challenge yourself as I did subscribing myself to do at least some of my inburgering exames still in this year!

Start with small steps, there are kind people in the world that will have patience with you trying to learn their language! Don't worry too much! And we will all get there! 

Don't give up! :)