This book book aims to teach students beginner to intermediate-level Dutch in a slow yet steady pace and it will help you focus on all four language skills while working with each lesson.
Do you want to start learning Dutch from scratch with a textbook and some extra audio support? If so, Colloquial Dutch might be the perfect solution for you! This book will teach you beginner to intermediate Dutch in a slow yet steady pace and it will help you focus on all four language skills while working with each lesson.
"Colloquial Dutch is easy to use and understand; it covers all the essentials of Dutch Grammar and it is suitable for self-study or classroom use."
The book starts off with an introduction focusing on proper pronunciation. In this section students will go over a detailed explanation of how every vowel, consonant and letter combination is said. While working with this section, students will also go over some important spelling rules and work with an alphabet pronunciation chart. After this first section, the book provides the student with 17 chapters which all follow a specific structure and order. Each chapter begins with a summary of the lesson, a vocabulary list, and then new grammar structures are introduced and explained. After these initial sections, students will come across a reading activity which can be read along with a cassette/CD ROM (depending on the edition you bought). While reading along with the audio clips, students will practice their listening comprehension and get used to the proper rhythm, tone, and pronunciation of the language. In each lesson there is also a section focusing on Dutch culture. These sections give students an insight to Dutch customs, history, and other relevant information related to life in The Netherlands or Belgium.
Of course, as with every well-written language textbook, there are plenty of grammar exercises provided in each lesson. At the end of the book you will also find an answer key as well and an alphabetical list of irregular verbs and their English translations. Although this book is a great piece of material, there are a few things that the book lacks. One thing that I noticed is that the list of alphabetical verbs in the back of the book does not provide the student with conjugations for each verb. In every chapter there are also many difficult words that are not listed in the vocabulary section. If you are a student who is interested in building up your vocabulary and learning how to properly conjugate Dutch verbs, perhaps some extra material and/or a dictionary might be needed to work with this book. Another thing that might pose as a challenge to is that the speakers in each audio activity speak at a somewhat fast paced. Although this might be challenging for the absolute beginner student to understand, it might actually be somewhat helpful since the voice actors speak Dutch as it is spoken in an informal and casual context. While working with this book students will also learn some slang and idiomatic expressions. This can be very useful especially for student who are planning to go on holiday or move to a Dutch speaking country.
Colloquial Dutch is easy to use and understand; it covers all the essentials of Dutch Grammar and it is suitable for self-study or classroom use. The cultural notes, reading exercises and listening activities also help students put all four language skills to use in each chapter. Colloquial Dutch is perfect way to start learning Dutch and I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to take the first steps at learning this language.
