Learning to speak Dutch.

Flying Deutschman wrote:

I want to teach myself another language, preferably a Germanic one. I am already fluent(or close to it) in German. In the past I have heard Dutch and a lot of it sounds similar to German. For people who are familiar with both languages, how hard would it be to learn the language by myself?

Thanks for the help.

Yea I know it's off topic.

My father teaches Dutch at a major university, I lived in Holland for two years when I was a kid and was supposedly fluent at that time.

IMHO Dutch is easier to learn than German, at least if you are a right-brained person, and it's a **hell** of a lot prettier to listen to. How hard would it be for you to learn "by yourself?" Probably quite hard, if your goal is conversational Dutch. Not that hard, if your goal is to learn to read in Dutch.

warum möchtest du holländisch lernen? es gibt nur 26 millionen menschen, die diese sprache sprechen können. du mußt spanisch oder was lernen.

Let me know when you can speak Greek.

I wouldn't study Dutch. Seriously 97% of Holland's population speaks English (and generally very well). Go for Afrikaans. It is a lot like Dutch and is more useful (especially if you're ever in South Africa).

or possibly try some language that's even in THE top 10:

1.Mandarin

2.Hindi/Urdu

3.English

4.Spanish

5.Arabic

6.Brazilian Portuguese

7.Bengali

8.Russian

9.Japanese

10.German

Throw out English and German, as you already know those...and you're left with a great sampling of widely-spoken, and marketable, languages. The chic factor of Brazilian Portuguese clearly puts it way up on the list, though arguably the top two are expanding markets in their own right...and whoa...let's not rule out being able to actually interact with an island people who are notoriously bad at spoken English. In fact, I'd almost say learn them all...if you had as much time as I clearly do in posting something completely inane and miserably unhelpful.

Webb should shave his eyebrows

the list wrote:

or possibly try some language that's even in THE top 10:

1.Mandarin

2.Hindi/Urdu

3.English

4.Spanish

5.Arabic

6.Brazilian Portuguese

7.Bengali

8.Russian

9.Japanese

10.German

Throw out English and German, as you already know those...and you're left with a great sampling of widely-spoken, and marketable, languages. The chic factor of Brazilian Portuguese clearly puts it way up on the list, though arguably the top two are expanding markets in their own right...and whoa...let's not rule out being able to actually interact with an island people who are notoriously bad at spoken English. In fact, I'd almost say learn them all...if you had as much time as I clearly do in posting something completely inane and miserably unhelpful.

Webb should shave his eyebrows

I have friends in college who know or studied a few of these languages. My roommate and a friend both speak Russian. Not really interested. Another took Arabic and told me he had trouble with it. I grew up in an area that has a large Brazilian Portuguese influence, and do not really want to learn the language.

I figured sticking to a Germanic language would be easier to learn since I have had past experiences and knowledge of similar languages.

Flying Deutschman wrote:

I want to teach myself another language, preferably a Germanic one. I am already fluent(or close to it) in German. In the past I have heard Dutch and a lot of it sounds similar to German. For people who are familiar with both languages, how hard would it be to learn the language by myself?

Thanks for the help.

Yea I know it\'s off topic.

Eddie Van Halen can give you lessons. He will be touring with David Lee Roth and his son this summer and will certainly be at a venue near you.

Flying Deutschman wrote:

I figured sticking to a Germanic language would be easier to learn since I have had past experiences and knowledge of similar languages.

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. "

John F Kennedy, Sep 12, 1962

JFK also incorrectly said "Ich bin ein Berliner". Spoken correctly, he should have said "Ich bin Berliner"

grammatically, "Ich bin ein Berliner" is correct. getting rid of the "ein" is idiomatic, and we shouldn't fault kennedy (or whoever wrote that speech) for that.