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English speaking jobs in Belgium

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.

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Dutch for intermediate students: new course

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.

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6 Best Dutch learning websites to learn Dutch with

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.

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Dictionaries Maltese-English and English-Maltese

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: ċ, għ, ġ, 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 ġ? 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 ġ’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.

Ġabra 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 Ġabra, 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.

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Learn Maltese with dialogues

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.

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Dutch course for advanced beginners

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:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=UWyT9lUMlac%3Fversion%3D3%26rel%3D1%26showsearch%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26iv_load_policy%3D1%26fs%3D1%26hl%3Den-GB%26autohide%3D2%26wmode%3Dtransparent

I’m looking forward to your feedback on this brand new course.

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New book: 10 stories to learn Dutch with

After a few months of writing, I’m happy to publish my latest book. It’s for advanced beginners who want to learn new words while reading stories in Dutch. You’ll also learn about Belgian (and Dutch) culture.

Almost no past tenses are used, so it’s for people who haven’t reached the intermediate level yet.

The book can be bought via Amazon or Bol.com (affiliate links).

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Maltese newspapers and television channels in Maltese

Learn the Maltese language to express yourself in Malta's official language

A list of newspapers, television channels and other news organisations who publish articles and other news in the Maltese language. Perfect to inform yourself while learning some new words…

TV Malta has two television channels: TVM1 and TVM2. It’s the public broadcasting system. Live streaming is available as well as written news, which is translated into English. That’s why it’s my favourite.
https://www.tvm.com.mt/mt/

The two main political parties publish written and online news. They also have TV channels you can stream live. However, none of the articles published are translated.
The Nationalist Party‘s website: https://netnews.com.mt (live TV via tab above)
The Labour Party‘s websites: https://talk.mt and https://one.com.mt (live TV below)

The church in Malta has its own website publishing news and short videos: Newsbook. It is translated in English.
http://www.newsbook.com.mt/

Some independent news organisations are Strada Rjali with a news website (Maltese only), F Living with a television channel (Maltese), and Smash Malta with a television channel. If you’re only interested in reading popular news like gossip, head over to Gwida’s website, no translations there either.

There are quite a few radio stations in Maltese. Bay is the most popular one. But also check out a list on TuneIn. And interestingly, Australia’s SBS has its own radio with a few articles and many audio fragments in Maltese.

More of a newsletter, but experts can check out the European Commission’s Maltese language magazine – completely in Maltese.

More resources here.

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Dutch adjectives: when to add e

Why is it ‘een goed antwoord’ and ‘de goede auto’? And why do we say in Dutch: ‘Dat is goed?’ Let’s learn when to add an e at the ending of Dutch adjectives.

Dutch grammar rules can be… complicating. But luckily, this rule is rather easy. So, when do you say goed and when do you add -e at the end of goed?

First, we only add an -e when the adjective is in front of a noun. For example: ‘interessante dingen.’ If you put the adjective at the end with a verb, it doesn’t take the -e: ‘Die dingen zijn interessant.’ So as in the first example ‘dat is goed.’

And what about two adjectives? They’ll both take an -e: ‘Dat zijn goede, interessante dingen.’

If the adjective is in front of the noun, there will be some specific cases where you won’t use the -e. And they are: if the noun has ‘het’ as an article and if the article before the adjective is undetermined.

Examples:
– Een goed boek. (het boek, een is undertermined)
– Een goede auto. (de auto)
– Het goede boek (het boek, het is not undetermined)

And that’s it. Not sure whether to put an -e? Know that most nouns have de as an article, so your best bet would be to put an e. Also don’t forget the het changes into de in the plural, so your adjective will adapt accordingly:
– De goede boeken. (het boek)

Another case where an -e is added, is ‘mine’, ‘yours’, etc… :
– Dit is jouw boek, en dat is het mijne.

If you’re learning Dutch, try out my courses via the webshop!

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How to learn Maltese with Facebook

Facebook can help you learning the Maltese language. Let’s find out how.

First of all, there are two active groups where you can (and should) post questions about Maltese. The first one is for beginners, and the second one is for advanced students. Both focus on the proper use of Maltese. The second one is really high-level, it’s the place where natives ask each other questions.

Another important trick is to put your account in Maltese. You can do so via the settings. This way, you’ll be immersed in a repetitive way. It won’t take you long to understand ‘Jogħġobni‘ means ‘I like’ and ‘paġna‘ means ‘page.’ Unfortunately, Facebook hasn’t managed yet to translate everything into Maltese, so you’ll still see some words of English. And don’t forget how to switch it back to English though. You could also change your location to Malta, increasing the likelihood of getting ads in Maltese.

Hit the social media to learn Maltese!

There are many pages in Maltese, like the page of Television Malta. You could try to read the comments too – even though the quality isn’t guaranteed. It could also be nice to flood your wall with posts in Maltese, but it only makes sense when your level is high enough. But there are some pages posting in both English and Maltese. My favourite is the People of Malta, regularly posting about people in Malta. Another one is a page about the weather, occasionally posting in both languages.

If you’re at least at intermediate level, try out this page with short sayings. It’s a page made for native Maltese language lovers. An alternative is Isma’ ftit.

More resources? Check them out here.