The CD disappeared into the slot in the dashboard and some unknown yet familiar sounding music emanated from the speakers. A woman’s voice with just the faintest hint of an accent welcomed me to ‘Learn Dutch in 3 months’. Her name was Leif.
This is it, the start of my latest learning venture. The task is quite simple. I will be reading a novel in Dutch before Christmas with the aid of a dictionary of course. Why? Why Dutch? In the words if George Mallory, because it’s there.
Her recommendation was that I read the introductory notes and the relevant lessons before I started to listen to the CD. What? That’s not good enough. I was already driving along the road and couldn’t stop to have a look at the book. Benny the Irish Polyglot had told me to immerse myself in the new language and to think only in Dutch. How would it help me if I was to go back and read the English?
So I persevered. We started with some pronunciation and some key words which I dutifully but poorly repeated in my Anglophones. We covered personal possessive pronouns and two key verbs hebben – to have and zijn – to be, followed by a small number of sentences which put this altogether. I have a house, the bus is new, the kind of things which are unlikely to come up in conversation. By exercise 8 I really needed to have a look at the book and so I started at the beginning. Over and over I listened and repeated until my mouth was dry and the back of my throat was raw.
A good start and I just need to keep going. I only missed two turns on the road while trying to concentrate and I guess that’s why it is printed on the CD ‘not to be used while driving’. Tomorrow will be another day but this time I’m going to have a look at the book to make sure I’m not guessing at the words.
Only 60 or so days to go.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 