So, it's been three months to the day since the launch of the Dutch course! I myself started Dutch on here only a couple of days after the launch and have been feverously at it ever since. Today I've finally done it: I've conquered the Dutch Tree!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the entire Dutch Team for their hard work and effort! Jullie zijn geweldig en verdienen veel meer lof! At the same time I hope it's okay if I write up a small review of the experience I had while completing this course.
When I first joined Duolingo my main purpose was to freshen up my French and maybe work on my Spanish, while waiting for the Swedish course to eventually come out. Well, you can see how well that worked out by the little flags next to my name on here. :D
After having finished all the trees of the other languages, I could barely wait for the Dutch course to come out. Finally a non-romance language for me to try out, yay!
Being already fluent in German and English, Dutch was (and still is) a breath of fresh air! Learning it sometimes reminds me of when I first started learning English. The similarities to my native language are so close, and yet the differences so odd and "alien" sometimes, that learning about the Dutch language and culture has become almost an obsession for me.
There are some things in Dutch that remind me a lot of my native language of Swiss-German, where they both seemed to have retained things that High German has dropped. Just the fact that a lot of Dutch words are of French origin, like in Swiss-German, is hitting my happy gland every time! :)
For a brief review of the Dutch course: First of all, you guys are amazing! I had a lot of fun working my way through the tree and getting to know it in and out through practice, practice, practice. I especially loved the last two skills. As I'm sure other people have already pointed out, giving us a way to learn about Dutch geography and food like that is fantastic!
There are still a lot of sentences that need more correct translations and that cause some frustration here and there. There's also some issues with typos not being recognized as such, but I'm not sure if that's a problem that can be fixed all that well. All in all, this is still a Beta course, and problems like those are only natural and will be taken care of with time, I'm sure.
I can't wait for Dutch immersion to launch eventually and to be able to translate some articles through that! In the meantime, I will continue making visits to the reverse course and the immersion section there.
I have been listening to Dutch radio for a while now (lang leve Radio 4!), and have just ordered my first Dutch book, which I shall read with pleasure!
For you see, my Dutch journey isn't over yet! Mijn reis van het leren van Nederlands is nog lang niet voorbij! :)
