Fast track to speaking Dutch: Student stories from the 2-Week Crash Course
This sponsored article was produced with NedLes, where new language courses start on an ongoing basis.
How much Dutch can you learn in just two weeks? A lot! If you sign up for a 2-week Crash Course at NedLes in Amsterdam-Oost. This intensive and very effective course is offered to complete beginners so they can reach the A2- level in 2 weeks. Beginners who already know the basics will reach A2+ in 2 weeks. Sounds intimidating? That’s what NedLes students Jordan, Judit and Maggie thought as well. But they took the step anyway - and are very happy they did.
Day 1
"I was very nervous before the first class," admits Jordan, who arrived from the United States. Her classmates all agree. They had the same feeling, right before the first speaking class. At that moment, most of them hadn’t spoken a single word of Dutch before. How were they going to speak Dutch in the speaking class, for one whole hour? Were they really able to do so?
Yes, the students were able to speak Dutch in their very first Dutch class, thanks to the special Delft Method that is used in the Crash Course. The approach of this method is quite different from more traditional language methods: speaking from day 1, no explicit grammar explanations, texts to study intensively at home.
Key to the Delft Method are the 1-hour-speaking classes. During the classes, the students speak, and they speak a lot! A specially trained Dutch teacher helps them and corrects the mistakes. In the Crash Course, students have two of these speaking classes a day. With around three hours preparation time for each class, you can imagine this is an intensive course!
Day 2
"On the second day, I felt an enormous sense of relief," Jordan says. "I realised everyone is in the same boat."
Her classmate Judit, from Hungary, agrees. She adds, "On the second day I already felt a lot more confident. I experienced it was ok to make mistakes, and that you learn from them."
The classes that had felt intimidating just one day before, are not intimidating anymore. "Speaking the language in the speaking classes is just awesome!" says Maggie, who is also from the U.S. Also thanks to the great teachers, who make sure everybody feels at ease in the classroom.
Day 5
At the end of the first week, Judit is impressed with herself and her classmates. "The lessons are even better than expected: speaking with only a limited vocabulary goes very well! In the first week, we can already joke in Dutch together." The students no longer feel that learning Dutch is an impossible task, like some of them thought before starting the course.
Maggie says: "I really love the focus on communication! In another course, with focus on grammar, I just felt so stupid because I did not always understand. With the Delft Method’s focus on communication this is not the case."
Day 10
The last day of the Crash Course. In the previous two weeks the students have discovered that learning Dutch is actually working out, for all of them. They’re learning more and better than expected, and that feels great! It has also been wonderful to engage with the other students in the group, and to help one another learn.
Would they recommend this Crash Course to others? Definitely! "Don't be afraid! But be prepared to make a commitment: it really is a full time course." The preparation of the texts beforehand, with several steps to take and to repeat, were demanding quite a lot of effort. But back in the classroom, the students soon realised what they had been working so hard for to actually speak Dutch, and a lot faster than they had ever thought possible!
All students agree: "It is really a full-time course. Be ready to make a commitment. But if you make the commitment, you can achieve fabulous results in just two weeks."
There will be a Crash Course to A2+ for those who already speak some Dutch starting at NedLes on February 26th. New Crash Courses for complete beginners (to A2-) will start in March.
Does the Crash Course sound too intensive for now? NedLes also offers an 8-week hybrid course to A2-: three intensive on-site weekends at the beginning, middle and the end of the course, and one online evening class per week in between.