How to Learn Dutch

Dutch is a Germanic language spoken by over 23 million people native speakers in the Netherlands, Beligium, Flanders, and Suriname and Aruba in South America. Mainly due to the extensiveness of the slave trade, Afrikaans, which is spoken by millions of citizens of Nambia and South Africa, can be understood almost entirely by Dutch speakers.

Dutch is a very popular second language amongst native English speakers due to it’s close resemblance with English. Many scholars claim that Dutch is the easiest second language for native English speakers to learn. For anyone aspiring to learn a more complicated language such as Russian or German, Dutch would make an excellent confidence boost.

The true importance of understanding Dutch comes from the forward thinking of the people who speak the language. The Netherlands is infamous for legalized prostitution, yet it has some of the lowest teen pregnancy and STD rates in the world. Most drugs are decriminalized in this country, yet more than 90% of citizens living in the Netherlands choose to remain sober. This unique outlook on commonly taboo subjects has given the Dutch the opportunity to understand the good and bad in life and make a logical understanding of how to move forward as a community.

Many scholars claim that Dutch is the language that most closely resembles English, making it a very popular starting point for English speaking individuals looking to learn a new language. Dutch is an excellent confidence boosting language for anyone who is skeptical about their ability to learn a foreign tongue. Rosetta Stone is the most effective and time-efficient method of learning Dutch. This unrivaled interactive software provides all of the materials and instruction necessary to master this language through a candid development of vocabulary, proper grammatical understanding, and a confident grasp on pronunciation. I would recommend Dutch for any English speaker debating whether or not they should learn a new language.