I’m currently learning my fourth language, Dutch. Thanks to those previous languages, particularly English and German, I think it will make the task a bit easier. However, the last time I was formally learning a language was when I was in high school, so I don’t expect it to be easy at all.
Last update: Aug 9th 2023
Overall
I understand a bit and can have basic interactions, like when going to the grocery store or buying something at a local shop. Sometimes people catch my bad accent and switch to English, but many times they don’t! It’s still a long road ahead.
Duolingo
Disclaimer: I used to work at Babbel, so what does that say that I’m using Duolingo instead. To be honest, not much. I wasn’t part of the team building the product, so I cannot judge. The main reason why I’m using Duolingo, is because I was learning a bit of Esperanto, which is not available in Babbel. Plus, I have also heard that Duolingo is coming up with an AI-based version, which I’m very much looking forward to trying.
One major drop back, is that Duolingo doesn’t offer Belgian-Dutch, or Flemish as it is commonly known. However, I haven’t seen Flemish in any other app, so I’ll just learn Dutch from The Netherlands and then probably join a local class.
Progress
Duolingo’s Dutch is divided in four sections: Rookie, Explorer, Traveler and Champion. My plan is to finish them all before my subscription runs out.
Rookie
Finished the Rookie section!
Explorer
In progress
Traveler
Not started yet
Champion
Not started yet