Trellum

Right now I am still struggling to stay motivated, I've some bad days in which I just wish to go to bed and forget about studying dutch, but I know I'm just a few weeks away from my exam and i need to do everything I can in order to pass it. Right now my main problem with Dutch is I can't yet express myself so well,but I now understand what I read and at some extent what I hear. I'm not nervous at all (neurological malfunction?) but I am not 100% sure I'll do so well. So right now my motivation is not to let down those who trust I will pass this test, by not passing it I'd be letting a l people down...

The cow stomach is what makes that recipe special I personally adore the Mexican version, it's what a lot people would call acquired taste. Because if it wasn't because i grew up eating that there is no way I'd try it! I'd think it's so gross! The only bad thing about this dish is the strong smell while it's being cooked, but once it's done it's so nice. I always make sure to throw in two whole heads of garlic.

Thank you, I think I have the mental agility of an 80 year old on a very bad day, but there are good days in which my mind is almost as fast and sharp as usual. It might be my neurological issue; I no longer process many emotions the way most people do, but I am not afraid of that test, hehehe. Thanks again, and best of luck to you too, I hope you pick your french up very soon as well We all need some mental exercise, and what better way than learning a new language?

Thank you, I hope you can go back to studying french soon Learning English has been the best decision I have ever made, learning a new language can really pen a lot doors, i'm sure for you too. Just give it a try. It seems this world we are living in is becoming more and more globalized, so that is good for us people who are into language learning More opportunities for us!

Awesome, I think it's awesome you can understand when they are talking about job experience and education, that is a big deal! Not many people can do that, I've heard polish it's such a tough language to learn, so I really admire the fact you can already do that. Because isn't easy to learn a language you don't quite like, just like me with Dutch, but I guess in a way money is also my motivator to learn it, because well in order to get an ok job there I need to speak dutch. By the way, what's your polish level right now? A2? B2?

I'm not the dutch one My fiance is Dutch, but I am not. His mother swears they have curly hair because their Indonesian roots, but maybe next time I see her I'll tell her what you told me. You know more since you are Indonesian yourself. You know your country and your people, she doesn't, lol. But she always wants to pretend she knows more than everyone else (even if she knows she is wrong), just some months ago she wanted to direct me while I was cooking a dish from my own country! So to be honest I always take what she says with a grain of salt

Oh the same thing happened to me, when I was 16 I really wanted to learn as many languages as possible, but sadly life got in the way. I still managed to keep improving my English though, but I forgot about all those languages. And to this day I don't know if I'll ever do what I planned But I'm glad to read you will give this another try, good for you! And yes, I didn't know much about it either until I was in the Netherlands, Indonesia was a dutch colony but gained their independence while ago. It's quite interesting, apparently a lot dutch people have Indonesian ancestry and visce versa.

Hehehe, I think my mother in law's grandma was Indonesian, my mother in law is so proud of that. But it's kinda funny the only trait that according to her has survived is the curly hair, because her kids are pink/white and have blonde hair and blue eyes. We are always joking about that My fiance also jokes about that, about how Indonesian he looks, lol. How is your dutch by the way? Maybe we can exchange a few dutch words here and there

Well financially speaking they are not doing so well, just like is the case for most EU countries. Health care is horrible, and you have to pay around 100 euros a month for it. Plus big part of the country is below sea level, so there is always a risk of flooding. It's scary, because I don't know how to swim and I've always been afraid of dark deep waters Most of the people I've met are incredibly rude, unstable, and plain nasty. People over there seem to be really bitter, unhappy and extremely antisocial towards foreigners. They also like to gossip a lot and talk behind your back. They like to meddle a lot. I had heard about Dutch people being plain nasty (generally speaking) but I thought it was an exaggeration. It isn't. Norwegians are much nicer. The only thing I like about that place is that a lot things (food) are very cheap, even salmon. In my country salmon costs an arm and a leg D:

Yes Paella is a Spaniard dish. Mexican menudo is very similar to the Spaniard ''callos de cadiz'', but we have improved the recipe, because we like to garnish it with chopped onions, dry oregano, lemon juice and a nice piece of bread. The sauce is made with chili, bit garlic, bit onion, etc. But it's not so spicy. Do you eat your menudo only on special occasions too? Your menudo sounds delicious By the way, the corn we use looks like this: It's all dried out, you are supposed to cook it in a pot separately, but since I am not so patient I always buy the one that is already done (canned or in a bag). You could also try adding chickpeas They are delicious too!

I agree It would be much better to actually see the levels next to each language listed. By the way, awesome list of languages! I think it's really impressing you have taken on Japanese, Russian and Mandarin! I forgot to add that instead of A1 people could use 0, because if you just started learning a language and you can't understand simple texts or know basic everyday phrases, then your level is 0. My bad! And yes, I've heard about the special history between the dutch and the Indonesian people. Did you know a lot people in the Netherlands claim Indonesian ancestry? My fiance's mom claims her grandmother was half Indonesian, hence the super curly hair they all have, hehehe. That's very interesting, but why haven't you continued learning further? You lost interest? Wow..!!! You already speak Portuguese fluently? That is so interesting and hello fellow Spanish speaking buddy Portuguese looks and sounds a lot like Spanish, that is one of the several reasons why I haven't felt like studying it (I've a neurological problem and I might get confused easily), but we will be close to Portugal, so I probably should. It's a beautiful sounding language Where are you from by the way? I'm curious because we are both native Spanish speakers I love to hear the stories of fellow Spanish speakers who took a leap of faith and decided to move to a different country! Just like I am doing

That is so interesting! So your parents are Hungarians living in Romania then? I met someone once who was originally from Hungary, what a beautiful language that is, but so hard to learn! The husband of my sister in law is trying to learn it, no idea how he is actually going Kudos to you for getting all those languages to level C2! That is truly admirable! Not many people can say they have mastered 3 different languages

French, C2 is more than just understanding. C2 is more like when you have already dominated said language, then you can say your level is C2. When you understand absolutely everything you hear and read, ''differentiating finer shades or meaning'' as well as a good knowledge of slang in said language. At this level you can say you have mastered the language, and can express yourself with ease, as if you were using your own mother tongue A1 is more about understanding basic things, use and understand basic phrases used in everyday life, etc.

Cool, I had no idea you were Romanian I have heard they also make a soup with the stomach of the cow in Italy, someone told me, but I'm not so sure Because that person says so many things that are often highly inaccurate, lol. But seriously, that soup sounds delicious! What kind of vegetables are used? I might give it a try one day

Loooool, omg... yes, that sounds totally like Duolingo. I think for a more advanced student this site wouldn't be a good choice either to be honest, if only they used more realistic examples, because seriously I speak Spanish and i say things like ''soy el oso'' everyday xD Of course not I tried to give this site a try when I had zero knowledge of dutch, I did learn a few words there, but those out of context sentences didn't help the case. So I quit and I doubt I will ever go back. Actually I think Duolingo was holding me back and confusing me a lot.

It's weird, because in the manual of said course they clearly mentioned active listening. And given the fact after this course the person is supposed to reach a A1 level, I don't think it's so bad. This is a government course you need to study in order to pass that test... well, I really have no choice.But it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. You hear, repeat and complete exercises. The layout is the same, it's a bit boring. The text comes with a word list too, but guess what? Despite that I have already reached level A1. But I will surely need check some grammar books, I was so mad at first because there were no grammar bits. Just a few sentences at the end of the lesson, with some bits of it in bold, they were intended to serve as grammar points... but they weren't related to that lesson in particular.

I hear ya, I hate their out of context sentences... things like: ''the bear likes beer'' or ''I am a banana''. Dutch is filled with some really crazy sentences, I think whoever made that course thought it would be so funny to include translations like those. For me it was kinda funny at first, but after a while it gets old and tiring. What Duolingo needs is a touch to reality and revamp all those courses... give us real examples that makes sense instead of really random sentences that seem to have been constructed by a 6 year old with a very vivid imagination.

That was my problem with Duolingo and the reason why I stopped ''learning'' with it. I didn't like all that out of context learning, specially because I was starting to learn dutch, and all those phrases used made no sense at all. So I did learn some words, but I started to wonder how could those words could be used, or if it was ok to use them in certain way in some phrases... because everything was so out of context. I know they have to keep things simple, but no need to be so random, I'm talking about phrases like: ''ik ben een banaan'' or ''the bear likes to drink beer''.

Cool app, sadly it seems there is only one person teaching dutch in there, and she lives in Spain. Plus it seems dutch is not even her mother language Otherwise very cool app, I am sure it will be handy for people learning other languages

Yeah, I was told the same. Not the kind of job I'd like I was told basically the same, the really intense jobs are for people who don't speak dutch, but if you really want to get ahead you need to learn it well. So far I am at level A1. I can understand very basic texts... I've checked some reading practice test and wow! If it wasn't for memrise I'd not know so many of those words. Not cool those people use words that we didn't even get to study in the official course.

Agreed, I know for a fact I'd not be able to handle more than 5 languages at once. I'm sure I'd not reach a high level spreading my efforts into 6 or 8 different languages, just crazy. But to each their own. It's interesting to discuss this though, since we are on a language learning board I'm amazed to see most people here don't like the idea of learning more than 5 languages at once

His goals are to master all those languages o_O ALL! The boy is super motivated, I have never seen someone as motivated as him, but I'm sure he'd do more if he focused on only 2 or 3 languages at once. He is very smart, but I really think he is not using all his potential... his English could be better! He reminds me a bit of myself when I was younger, I wanted to learn as many languages as possible, but I only focused on one or two at the time. I lacked that kind of motivation (he is so motivated!), but I managed to master English and improve my Spanish orthography greatly.

Yes, there are so many things we have inherited from the Spaniards over here as well. Adobo is also eaten here, I had it when I was little, it comes from the spanish verb ''adobar'' that simply means ''to marinate''. My dad used to prepare ''pollo adobado'', that was my favorite I love eating adobo, but it's been a while since i don't eat it. We also like menudo, but I think in Spain they call it ''callos de cadiz'', they prepare it using the meat from the stomach of the cow and chickpeas as the main ingredients, our menudo is similar, but instead of using chickpeas we use corn It looks like this:

So I am guessing you are British? I must admit I have felt tempted to learn polish, because over the place where I will be living there are a lot polish people working there. So I guess learning some polish could be really useful, since in my future job I might come in contact with a lot of them But I am not so sure, polish is one of the many languages that has never attracted me. By the way, how advanced is your polish now? I ask because I am currently learning a language I don't even like nor I ever planned to learn, but I'm forced to learn it since I am moving to the country where said language is spoken.

Awesome! Are you coming to study to Europe or something like that? If you want to live in a good country... pick one that is not part of the European union, Norway is one of those countries and people live so well there. I really wish I was moving there and not the Netherlands (nothing good about the Netherlands really) the language is much easier to learn, life quality is great, new mothers get one year off from work to spend it with their baby, healthcare is excellent and very cheap, etc. Iceland is also a great place Most countries that don't belong to the European union are.