Start learning a language with Alain
Do you need to start speaking Dutch at work? Good news: with my course, you’ll learn over 250 phrases you can use now as soon as you go back to work.
Using dialogues and many practical examples, you’ll learn what to say during presentations, meetings and other situations at work.
The level of the course is around B1, so make sure you already know 1000 words before starting. The course is completely in Dutch.
Learning languages costs money, right? Not always, but it definitely helps. Let’s take a look at what your options are – according to the amount of money you can spend.
For free
What can you do for free? Many apps are for free, such as Duolingo. Using Google Translate to learn all the basic phrases can be an option too. Ask your friends, colleagues and family to teach you a little every day. Also ask if you can borrow their language learning books. Talking to people on the street is also for free.
0-200 € per year
Evening classes by the government are relatively cheap. Many apps have paid options, which are better than the free ones. There are plenty of second hand books of high quality to find on sites like Amazon or in your local second-hand bookshop. Looking for an online teacher? Some might have lower rates on Italki.
200-1000 € per year
Group classes in smaller groups are more efficient, so check out if there’s a language school in your neighbourhood. Private tutors might also help, online or offline. A good, high-quality book might be offered by the language school. But you can always buy one for yourself.
1000+ € per year
The fastest and most expensive way? Individual language classes. If you own a company, don’t forget to put them in your costs and check if there is public funding.
Want to learn over 1000 words and expressions with a book? You’re in luck, I’ve just published this new book for students at A2-B1 level. The stories are about foreigners getting to know Dutch and Belgian culture. So you’ll not only learn Dutch, but also learn about the Netherlands and Belgium.
All difficult words are translated into English, the literal translation of the expressions are also given as well as the articles and plurals of nouns. Verbs’ past tenses are also given.
The book is available as an ebook as well as paperback. Enjoy!
Pleased to announce my latest book: Dutch grammar for beginners. Most English speaking beginners have the same questions about Dutch. That’s why I wrote this brand new book, which serves both as an exercise book as well as a reference book.
Included are all the different pronouns, the tenses beginners need to learn, many prepositions, and more. A link to the appropriate videos on my YouTube channel is added.
Enjoy!
Surely, learning Dutch definitely helps to get a job in Belgium, and here’s your place to start your journey. But where do my students who haven’t reached fluency yet work? Who are the people actually recruiting English speakers?
A first group of students works at multinational companies. Due to the international nature of the companies, English is often used as the working language. So check out if they have job openings at industrial companies like Volvo, Volvo Trucks or Bekaert. Chemical company Dow is just over the border in Terneuzen. Tech company Google has offices in both Brussels and the French-speaking region in the south. Other companies include Eastpack, Unilever, Petronas and travel company Booking.com. There are many more companies around the port areas of Ghent and Antwerp.
The second group works in Brussels for international governmental institutions. For example, for the European Union, which almost exclusively recruits EU citizens, or NATO. However, there are many ngo’s and lobbying companies collaborating with these institutions. A list of these jobs can be found on EuroBrussels. Also check if your embassy or consulate isn’t recruiting.
The third – and biggest – group of students have their own company. Even though having your own business can be quite a big responsibility, it’s relatively easy to start one in Belgium. First step would be to go to a social secretariat like Acerta to register your business. My students are active in various sectors, from baking to consulting.
Many students are doing their PhD and sometimes continue working at a university. They do their research in many fields, and as the academic environment has become increasingly international, Dutch isn’t mandatory for many positions. Technically, doing a PhD isn’t work, but it’s considered normal to get a decent wage when doing one. For example with scholarships.
Other students are working at mid-level companies, mostly as specialists. I’ve had medical experts and engineers, some people working in industrial environments like in Brose or in IT companies like DataRoots.
The last categorie would be foreign language teachers, either in a secondary school or in a language school.
After long hours of filming, drawing up exercises and recording MP3 files, I’m happy to announce my fifth course to learn Dutch is ready.
Using total immersion and a practical approach, the course focuses on those topics intermediate students find challenging, like the word ‘door’ or ‘het hangt ervan af.’
Every video lesson is about 10 minutes and contains new words, expressions and grammar. Most of the words taught are among the most common words used in Dutch. After the video lesson, the words are written down and read in an MP3 file.
Each lesson also contains a text in which the new words are included, which is also read in a downloadable audio file. Lessons finish with a quiz to test the knowledge. At the end of the series of lessons, there’s an exam.
This method is also used in my other courses you can find here.
Which websites should you bookmark while learning Dutch? Obviously no websites for absolute beginners, as you’ll quickly improve. The websites below are almost all in Dutch and from Belgium.
Most students know the obvious suspects: Duolingo, Dutchgrammar.org, all the YouTube channels and other popular apps or websites. But which ones haven’t you heard of?
Nedbox: even though it’s completely in Dutch, this little gem offers articles and videos to practice your comprehension skills. Choose a topic, choose a level (the little stars on top), choose to learn Dutch.
NederlandsOefenen: again completely in Dutch, the main point of this website is to put Dutch learners together. Groups a lot of activities like reading classes, language exchanges, group classes per region. Plus some inspiration and other tips.
Wablieft is a lovely initiative to make reading easy. Has a newspaper with easy articles and links to many books for foreigners while indicating the level of the book.
Even though the visual aspect and the navigation are… well, ready for improvement, Dutch with Ambition offers intermediate students many high-quality exercises. Click on the tabs on top, you’ll see options.
ZichtbaarNederlands makes grammar visual and I do refer many times to their explanations. Only one on this list with English version and from the Netherlands.
For experts, Taaladvies answers most of their questions. Only for advanced learners, mostly at C-level.
Looking for a good dictionary to translate English into Maltese, or the other way around? Let’s go over some dictionaries.
Two tips first, though. The Maltese alphabet has some letters English hasn’t: Ä‹, għ, Ä¡, ħ and ż. So when you’re looking for a word in a paper dictionary starting with għ, do not look at the words starting with g, you won’t find it there. Also pay attention: is it a ż or a z? And an h or a ħ? G or Ä¡? This might save you some time – and frustration.
Second: online dictionaries are better than paper ones. Why? Some correct the mistake of writing g’s instead of Ä¡’s. Also, unlike English, conjugations change verbs… a lot. In English, the verb to eat has few conjugations: eat, eats, eaten, eating and ate. Four of them start with ‘eat.’ However, Maltese has… fifteen conjugations, with five different first letters. And without counting the negative forms.
In paper dictionaries, you’ll only find the so-called ‘mamma’, which serves as an infinitive but is actually the past tense of ‘he’: Kiel (he ate). So most conjugations won’t be in the paper dictionary. Also, some letters at the beginning of words change, depending on whether the preceding word ends with a vowel. For example: jiena wkoll (me too) or jien ukoll (me too). Other example: u jkolli naħdem (and I have to work) / ikolli naħdem (I have to work). Both of these forms are rarely in paper dictionaries.
So let’s take a look at my favourite online dictionaries.
Ä abra is definitely on top of the list. Decently structured, it works both from English to Maltese and the other way around. Has phonetic transcripts and root consonants. Shows related words: typing ‘worker’ in Maltese would show you ‘to work’ as well. You can add direct and indirect objects to verbs, which are pasted to Maltese verbs: I see them is nara + hom = narahom. This example is simple, but some are more complicated.
On the negative side, the site is sometimes offline. Also, it isn’t perfect… like all Maltese dictionaries. For instance, it has no conjugations of some verbs of Italian origin, like ‘induna’, to notice, to realise.
MalteseDictionary.org is a close second. Similar to Ä abra, but not as well structured to show verb conjugations and without objects to attach to verbs. On the positive side, it shows you how frequently the words are used, so you can focus on the most used words. Some words are shown in sample sentences, which is really cool.
Google Translate may not be the best, it doesn’t differentiate between the two ways tiekol (she eats or you eat?) is used, for example. But for phrases, idioms and texts it’s pretty useful, whether you’re writing sentences yourself or looking for a translation. Also, it uses different sources. So have a second look on Google Translate if you didn’t find a result with the two above. It also works with other languages than English, but I’d stick to the English translations. Google sometimes gets lost in translation too.
Glosbe is a dictionary I haven’t used much, but I do appreciate the suggestions when starting to type. Suggestions include short phrases. Gives you sample sentences too, but it seems a bit ‘automatised,’ so I guess there will be quite a bit of mistakes. However, it does include verbs of Italian origin.
Looking for a paper version? The one I use is decent. This one also has good reviews.
Since there are so few materials for advanced Maltese students, I decided to create my own. Below are dialogues, texts, homework and other materials for more advanced students (A2-B1). All of them were checked by a Maltese native. Click the links below to get the PDFs.
A dialogue between a boyfriend and a girlfriend about work. Here’s the text.
A conversation about following Maltese classes… The PDF of the conversation is here.
Two people talking formally in Maltese about scheduling a meeting, and other things. PDF here.
Two colleagues in a discussion about computers… Here is the PDF.
A text in Maltese… about the mobile phone, here’s the PDF version.
Here is the PDF of this text about a proposition.
The PDF of this dialogue about a bus drive is here.
Head over here for more resources.
Since I’ve already published several Dutch courses for beginners, it was time for the next one. If you’ve followed the previous three ones, you’ll know exactly what you need to know to start this one… for intermediate students.
What do you get? With my total immersion approach, only Dutch is spoken, from the very first lesson on. I explain words using Dutch, facial expressions, dialogues, synonyms, a story to follow and so on. This will help you to directly thing in Dutch, an essential feature when learning new languages.
After each video, there’s a list of words as well as a test and MP3s to listen to, so you can practice wherever you like. And what’s different about this course? It’s for intermediate students and follows directly the previous ones.
How did I choose the content? Mostly based on questions of intermediate students, as well as tricky grammar points on that level, like ‘waarvoor’ and ‘daarvan’. Being a fan of ‘most common words’ lists, I put as many words I could from the 2000 most common words in the course. Here’s the promo video:
I’m looking forward to your feedback on this brand new course.