宇崎ちゃん

I actually started using Memrise since Monday again. I used it many months earlier, but the vocab I was learning was so hard that I gave up. Now I'm learning grammar on Memrise instead, and now I like it much better that way. "Smeer" can have different meanings. The verb "smeren" means "to spread". Just think like spreading Nutella over your sandwich. The noun "smeer" is more like the yellow things here (warning: don't watch if you just ate): http://www.kno.nl/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Oor-uitspuiten-400x349.png "Laten prikken" literally means "to let them sting you" (verb), might be a (medical) injection or a bee sting, but seeing you used "laten" (to let (it happen)), I doubt it's the bee sting one. Edit: "Smeer" can also be used as a slang word: "SMEER JE WEG", which means "GET THE FUCK AWAY". But you shouldn't take too much attention on that one.

I went through a Cambridge one through Italki, it was just 10 dollars so why not? It had lots of questions that had little to no relevance to language skills, but instead the questions were all focussed on emphasis around the way English speakers talk. So in other words: pure bullcrap! It does have a "B2" level attached to my Italki profile, but I don't take it as seriously because of the questions.

Same thing here basically, minus the smartness level one because almost everyone here in the Netherlands speaks English any way. When people ask me what languages I know, it's like this: Dutch = "you don't say"?English = "you don't say"? German = "oh". A bit of Spanish = "nah, just a bit".Polish = "wow". Japanese = "REALLY?! WOW"! So apparently, speaking an Asian language is the smartness indicator here. Even though I find Asian languages to be straight forward when it comes to grammar (or at least Chinese, Korean and Japanese, I haven't really looked into the rest yet).

I forgot to mention that, but it's true. You have to apply what you learn in practise too in order to commit it to your brain. Theory is one part, practise is another part. Most people tend to work exclusively on the theoretical part, which results that in the end they wouldn't even know how to say "How much is it"? when the time comes they have to say that.

Sorry, I was on my phone when I last replied. I didn't see this one. Clearing it a bit up: 1. "Wat" means "what", but it's also used for "some" or "something". Neem wat geld mee. → Take some money with you. Wil je wat eten? = Wil je iets eten? → Do you want something to eat? Note that I used different colours to mark a word-by-word translation. 2. Ik heb je een tijd niet gezien. → I did not see you for a while. Note that the Dutch use many different verbs for what Anglophones would use "to do" or "to be". Like "Ik zit op school" → "I am at school", which literally means "I sit on the school". 3. Houd daar rekening mee. → Keep that in mind. This one is not word-by-word translatable though. "Don't forget that" would be "Niet vergeten" or "Vergeet dat niet".

It's because I'm born and raised in the Netherlands, but both my parents are Polish immigrants. We always spoke/speak Polish at home, but I had to speak Dutch outside of it (at school, at work, in shops, with friends, etc.). So I ended up having 2 native languages.

Both. There are community 'tutors' that do it for free, but they're hobbyists. There are professional teachers that charge you, they're actual teachers. And there are informal tutors that charge you, but they're hobbyists. Free vs paid makes a difference there, since community tutors may be like "I'm not in the mood, see you next time", while the paid tutors/teachers actually take it seriously.

The information on that blog is the real deal when it comes to language learning. But why would you run your site through *.wordpress.com? Sounds very limited when it comes to customising your site though.

Ever heard of Italki? It's filled with Skype teachers for pretty much any language.

Definitely online! One-on-one lessons on Skype, Google Play Music, YouTube, Anki flash cards (the sync part is online), Memrise, OneNote (again, syncing notes is online), Google Docs, Google Calendar, those are the tools I use most with language learning. Let's be honest, there's not much left you can't do online any more. Obviously not everything is possible online, you can't brush your own teeth online for example.

Heh, I feel there is much more to come too. Like the grammar rule I learnt today: (VERB)てみる。 = Try to (VERB). (ex: 食べてみる。 = Try to eat.)Except for this one, I've let my online Japanese teacher (= native speaker) verify it and they are all correct. Many of those grammar rules were taught by him, so I didn't have to let him verify those this much.

If you want, you can instead do a Japanese course on Memrise. It's for free too, plus it's made up by native speakers unlike on Duolingo and it uses mnemonics to memorise words (also made up by the community). The biggest difference may be that Duolingo puts more focus on your habit, while Memrise puts more focus on your memory.

Let's put it that way: 1. Which words are those exactly? 2. In which language? 3. In which sentence? Because it really depends on what you mean. It's hard to answer your questions without knowing the answer on my questions. Because my answer would be "ask a lawyer", but what if those words are slangs? He or she would have no idea what you're talking about.

I'm more of a listening-type of person, but it's ideal to do both listening and reading practises. Focussing on just reading will make you not understand spoken languages. Focussing on just listening will make you not understand written languages. So it's best to utilise both.

It has already been taken care of: http://web.archive.org/web/20080530201653/http://www.how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5307 In my honest opinion, learning vocabulary lists through rote memorisation is the worst thing you can ever do when it comes to learning vocabulary. Not only you'll forget it quickly, it also gets you de-motivated quickly. Seriously, you should work WITH your brain, not AGAINST it. Instead, I highly encourage learning through spaced repetition and mnemonics. Using these methods may take more time to learn new vocabs, but words will stick in your brain in the end, unlike rote memorisation. Spaced repetition and mnemonics can both be automated through Anki (flash cards app) and Memrise (website and app). Most ideally would be to put the word in your own language on the "front" of the flash card and the word in your target language on the "back". This forces you to think in your target language. It's also a good idea to include a mnemonic on the back if possible. Like: Caber (Spanish) = to fit (English), so: "It's BARely possible to fit a BEAR in a CAB".

It's true that Dutch people automatically switch to English once they notice you don't speak Dutch well. The best thing you can do is just keep speaking Dutch, even after they switch to English. This way you force them to speak Dutch to you (unless they overrule you of course).

Learning through active listening is as important to understand a spoken language, as learning through active reading is to understanding a written language. Even if you learn a language for years and you still didn't listen to the language (or just a bit), you may notice that when you finally got to speak with a native speaker, he or she may speak way too fast for you. It's no secret that when I started listening to English reviews, everything sounded like "skhdiujkasghbndfikjdnfjik" to me (even though I could even write English with proper grammar), but it all made sense over time as I continuously listened to new reviews and repeated the older reviews. But it's not listening in the sense of "let that arsehole talk, I don't understand any way", but instead I tried to pick out all the words and/or sentences until no "sdjksjd"'s were left.

I have learnt loads of grammar rules over the last month, either via Skype or on Memrise. Here they are, including the ones I knew for much longer: (VERB)てください。 = Please (VERB).(VERB)ないでください。 = Please don't (VERB).(NOUN)を(VERB)もいいですか。 = Is it OK if I (VERB) (NOUN)?(NOUN)を(VERB)てはいけません。 = It's not allowed to (VERB) (NOUN).(VERB)て、(NOUN)を(VERB)て、(VERB)します。 = Doing (VERB), (NOUN) the (VERB), and (VERB). (order is important!)(RESULT)。(REASON)から。 = (RESULT), because (REASON). (ex.: バスに乗ります。時間がありませんから。 = I drive by bus, because I don't have time.)(REASON)から、(RESULT)。 = (RESULT), because (REASON). (ex.: 時間がありませんから、バスに乗ります。 = I drive by bus, because I don't have time.)(SENTENSE)ましょう！ = Let's do (SENTENSE)!(THING)をしています。 = I am doing (THING). (also used to describe people and to tell where one lives.)(I-ADJECTIVE)くて(I-ADJECTIVE)です。 = It is (I-ADJECTIVE) and (I-ADJECTIVE).(NA-ADJECTIVE)で(NA-ADJECTIVE)です。 = It is (NA-ADJECTIVE) and (NA-ADJECTIVE).(VERB)に行きます。 = I went to (VERB). (ex: 見に行きます。 = I went to watch (a movie for example).)(VERB)と思います。 = I think he/she (VERB).(VERB)と言っていました。 = He/she said he/she (VERB).(VERB)のが好きです。 = He/she likes (VERB).(VERB)のが嫌いです。 = He/she dislikes (VERB).(VERB)のが上手です。 = He/she is good at (VERB).(VERB)のが下手です。 = He/she is bad at (VERB).(VERB)たいです。 = I want to (VERB).(VERB)したり、(VERB)したりします。 = I did (VERB) and (VERB). (casual version.)(VERB)ことがあります。 = I have ever (VERB) before.(VERB)ことがありません。 = I have never (VERB) before.(VERB)やすい。 = It's easy to (VERB).(VERB)にくい。 = It's difficult to (VERB).(WORD)そうです。 = It looks (WORD).(WORD)たそうです。 = I heard he/she (WORD).(WORD)はず。 = I expect it to (WORD).(WORD)はずがありません。 = There is no way they can (WORD).(WORD1)より(WORD2)です。 = I prefer (WORD2) over (WORD1).(VERB1)ながら(VERB2)。 = (VERB2) while (VERB1)ing.(SENTENSE)なら・たら。 = If (SENTENSE).(SENTENSE)たらどうです。 = What if you/we (SENTENSE).(VERB)ているあいだに。 = While I (VERB), something else happened.

Every language is written like you pronounce it from the native speakers' perspective. For example, English is written exactly like you hear them according to English speakers, but Germans disagree. And vice versa.

Technically, there is not much of a difference between "want" and "omdat". Both mean "because", but each one of them changes your grammar. For example: Ik ga naar het strand, want het is heel heet. Ik ga naar het strand, omdat het heel heet is. As you can see, "omdat" puts the verb to the end of the sentence, always. But "want" on the other hand doesn't. So for most foreigners, it's a good idea to go with "want", but that might sound unnatural over time. As for "er", that's a hard one to explain. It changes the meaning of a sentence a bit. For example: Ik ga aan. = I turn on. (not the sexual "turn on", more like a light switch) Ik ga er aan. = I'm finished. (as in, "I'm doomed" or "I'm gonna die") Another example when it involves "there": Er wonen in Nederland veel mensen. = There are a lot of people in the Netherlands. Daar wonen veel mensen. = A lot of people live there. Hope it helps.

I normally use Horizon TV, but it requires you to have a subscription at Ziggo or UPC. You could otherwise use one of the following: http://www.npo.nl/live - This is the official Dutch TV station. It shows you NPO1 by default, but you can switch to NPO2 and NPO3 in the menu bar. http://www.kijk.nl/ - These are the amusement channels, however this is all on demand. http://rtlxl.nl/#!/ - Yet another on demand-only site, but this time those are the commercial channels. All of these are official websites and most likely require you to use Microsoft Silverlight (or Moonlight if you use Linux). I guess you'll need a decent VPN service to watch those. If so, I can recommend HideMyAss. I hope it helps.

"Inburgering" typically means like "to become naturalised", so I assume this exam is especially designed for immigrants. But I might be wrong, I never had to get through any official language exams before.

Ever seen a doctor writing? I'm very sure you're much better at Japanese characters than your local doctor is at writing his/her own characters.

To me, speaking is the most fun part of the whole language learning process. But I know how people feel when they have difficult times speaking, I have also been there. You'll need to make yourself comfortable speaking, try it with professional teachers on Italki for example, they normally don't mind you have difficulties speaking and help you out of your comfort zone. Better don't use informal or community teachers at first, chances are they will not be willing to help you with this or in the worst cases, stop arranging sessions with you. On the other hand, these 2 categories of teachers are quite good when you need to check your current language skills, because professional teachers may make your life easier by concentrating on what you're trying to say.

Dutch is like German, but simplified I guess. Polish has some of the best tongue twisters in all of Europe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlOoSsfU6cM