How to get started again when you’ve given up on Dutch Last year was challenging in many aspects, but for language learning it was the worst. Learning a new language is simply not something you are meant to do on your own, locked in a room! But how to start again after you’ve given up? Often when language learning goes wrong, we tend to put the blame on ourselves. Or the language, the culture, the people around you, your boss or the Dutch rain. It’s hard to start again if you have convinced yourself that learning Dutch is a lost cause. Do you think it is your own fault? Even with all the time ..read more

When you start a course with Rubio Dutch, we tell you to engage, take risks, interact, ask, absorb, make mistakes and to be creative with the language to grow your comfort zone. But how, where and when to start? Choosing the right activities Just like you wouldn’t eat everything that is on the restaurant’s menu, it makes no sense to to try to engage in every single conversation, read every single word you see, decipher every news paper article or TV show there is, listen to every single song that is popular. The language you learn should fit you, your needs, your environment, your goals. To he ..read more

Does it even matter if you are good or bad at languages? Most of our new students say something about themselves like: “I am quite good/bad at languages”. Probably you yourself also have a mini-theory about how well you do at language learning. The interesting question to me as a teacher is not whether this assumption or prediction about yourself is true or not, but rather how you came to believe this and how that influences your learning process. If you think you are ‘good’ at languages, is that a helpful thought? Or will it only make you feel more frustrated when it doesn’t work out the way ..read more

It can be sooo frustrating. You try to have a conversation in Dutch, you gather all your courage, and then... they respond in English. 'Did I do so badly?' you ask yourself. Your self-esteem is now on the floor and instead of trying again in Dutch, you follow along in English. Does that sounds familiar? Simultaneously, when you speak English by default to everybody, you will be met with raised eyebrows, or get the question when you will ever learn Dutch. Confusing, because if you do try, they don't let you, and if you don't try, they scold you for it! English as the unofficial second language ..read more

"I am so slow when I speak!! For every word, I need to stop and think. Do I need to conjugate this? Where does this go? Is this the right preposition?". If this is you, then you are not alone. In intakes, people often tell me, "the grammar is slowing me down". So what can you do when grammar is bogging you down? Grammar is a tool. Like any other tool, there is a correct way to use it and an incorrect way to use it. If you use a hammer to drive a nail into the wall to hang your favorite painting, then the hammer has served you well. If you use the hammer to eat your soup, it will probably take ..read more

Hi there! This week, our Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced that our Christmas is going to be at home. I know. We all saw it coming, but still. If you need a virtual hug, let me know and I’ll give you one. So I thought I might give you some options to pass the time. Below you can find a list of Dutch tv-programmes that you can watch for free, online through www.npo.nl, and many of them come with subtitles as well (click on the settings symbol in the window as soon as the show starts, so right after the commercials). First, I would advise you to just pick one and watch it for a bit to see if ..read more

Creating Dutch Habits Why should we create Dutch habits? When we do something new, it requires a lot of brain power. Do you remember the first time you drove a car? Every action required an active thought: checking mirrors, switching gears, to brake before a curve, where to put your hands on the steering wheel while making a turn. Every action required a conscious thought, until they became automatic and your motor memory took over. You can now probably drive while listening to music, talking to the person next to you or going over a work problem in your mind. This is because once a set o ..read more

Why? My daughters have sung along with everything they hear on the radio, old-fashioned cd’s, Spotify or, more recently, Tiktok, for as long as I can remember. Mostly English songs, even though Dutch and Spanish are their native languages. They mimic the sounds and ask me what it means. Little by little they learn English words and pronunciation by imitation. Is it a coincidence that in countries where movies are subtitled instead of dubbed, people tend to speak more languages? Compare Portugal to Spain, or the Netherlands to Germany, for example! Research has shown that older people ..read more

Afraid to speak…? Language was created to communicate. Learning a new language is mostly a process of trial-and-error. Even people who memorize the whole dictionary and learn all the grammar rules will have to start practicing and using these words and rules at some point if they ever want to become fluent. Don’t wait till you “have enough words” or “know enough rules”. Learning will never be ‘finished’ anyway, and because language is nothing more than a vehicle for connection and communication, we really need to connect with other people to l ..read more

Starting to speak in a new language is hard. You slowly try to make sense of the grammar, and every day you recognize more words. But why don’t they come out when you need them? The traditional way of building vocab, by memorizing lists of words from a book, turns out to be quite ineffective. Usually, people can remember the words long enough for the test the next day, but not much longer than that. And even if you do remember the words on a test, that is no guarantee you’d be able to access those words when you need them in a real-life interaction. And that is precisely the problem. Our brai ..read more