….Translated, this means that I speak English, and a little bit of Dutch. In all honesty, my “little bit of Dutch,” is equated to that phrase, and counting up to 10. Needless to say, it has been quite the struggle.
The one thing I didn’t realize before I came to Leuven was that everyone was going to speak Dutch allday errydayy. I admit, it was quite a foolish thought for me to think Belgians would speak English over their native language, but than again I am just a naïve American… I assumed I would have been warned that everything in the grocery store, in restaurants, in train stations,... (you get the picture) would be in Dutch, rather than in English. Since KU Leuven is a University with about 35,000 students, with a large portion of them being international, I did realize that English is the common language among almost everyone. Lucky for me, most people do speak English, but they just have to be prompted so they know you don't understand what they are saying if they speak in any other tongue.
As part of our program here in Leuven, we are required to take an intensive Dutch course, and when they say “intensive,” they mean it. For one week, we had 5 hours straight of Dutch. BRUTAL. Ines, our very nice, yet barely intelligible instructor, was not much help. She barely spoke in English, and when she did, it was hard to tell what language she actually was speaking. Ines is a very frail women, but it seems like most Belgians are simply skin and bone. I'm not sure if it is all the cardio, since everyone bikes, EVERYWHERE, but whatever it is, it seems to work! There is so much beer and waffle consumption, yet I have not met a Belgian whose body has showed it. Ines's raggedy brown bob is one of the first things that come to mind when I think of her, as well as her tardiness, running into class carrying countless books and stray papers. Her crimson skirt and azure poncho are her go-to fashion pieces. I've learned since being in Belgium, frequent outfit repeats are a part of life. I have seen that outfit being worn through many Dutch lessons, and only the Americans seem to question it.
To top off a fabulous week, we were forced into studying the entire weekend in order to do well on the midterm for the class, taking place the following Monday. #strugglecity.
To top off a fabulous week, we were forced into studying the entire weekend in order to do well on the midterm for the class, taking place the following Monday. #strugglecity.
 |
| Shayne, Cait, and I, "faking it 'til we make it," with smiles in Dutch class! |
Luckily, most of us made it through the midterm with only some casual bumps and bruises along, but no major problems. Now we just have an entire semester of this language to look forward to...
Now, don’t get me wrong, I clearly am just bitter because learning a foreign language is not my strength. Dutch is an interesting language and deserves the utmost amount of respect. But from my point of view, it seems too similar to English. There just appears to be a few spelling or pronunciation errors. That being said, it makes it so much more difficult than learning a language totally different than my own. I don’t have a different alphabet to memorize; rather, I just have to remember the same alphabet, but with different letter names and sounds pronunciations. Keeping what I “know is right,” in English, from what is correct in Dutch is the most difficult part. Hopefully the language will grow on me, as I will be hearing it spoken everyday until I leave Belgium in July.
We just found out that we will be having Dutch every Maandag from 19h-21h (Monday 7-9pm) and Donderdag from 17h-19h (Thursday 5-7pm), for the rest of the semester. WISH ME LUCK!
I just wanted to share with you a taste of Dutch class! Believe it or not, this catchy tune was the
highlight of the week! We listened to it each and everyday,by the end of the week, all 17 of us were singing it on the bike ride home from class! Enjoy! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment