As toddlers we all learn to speak our first language seemingly unconsciously, probably being distracted by trying to master the art of walking. Later in life our language acquisition abilities diminish, and learning requires a little more effort.

People can, and do, learn new languages at all stages of their lives. Unfortunately, there are a number of myths and fallacies surrounding the process of language learning that may hinder or even discourage students.

Some languages are too difficult to learn

James Clapper, the director of US national intelligence, has said that the governmental security services have difficulty finding speakers of Arabic, Farsi, Pashto, Dari and Urdu. He said: ‘If you hark back to the Cold War days, it was much easier for us to raise and have a cadre of highly qualified linguists, say in Russian and east European languages, which come to our people much more naturally than these mid-east languages.’

Clapper’s contention that North Americans are more likely to be able to speak Russian and Polish than Arabic or Farsi says more about the country’s education system than it does about the languages themselves. Until relatively recently few US colleges taught Arabic. By comparison, eastern European migrants, arriving in the 19th century, ensured that their languages were represented in US schools.

English is particularly difficult for foreigners

Books such as Crazy English by Richard Lederer and Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson delight in pointing out the idiosyncrasies of the English language. Such reading has created the impression that English is a mostly ruleless and profoundly mysterious tongue. The truth is that English is fairly simple: it is easy to make nouns plural; verbs rarely conjugate; and there is a happy lack of genders.

Adult learners will never truly learn a new language

Eric Lenneberg’s Critical Period Hypothesis appeared in 1967. In it he proposed that, after puberty, neurological changes make it impossible to learn a language completely. His study was based on children who had received no language-based contact at all until after puberty. Over the years Lenneberg’s work has been wrongly generalised, and the myth has developed that adult learners will always be irrevocably deficient in their language of choice.

Learning a language is easier in its native country

Whether it’s an Anglophile studying one of St Georges language courses in London or a Spanish lover arranging a home-stay with a Mexican family, many a person has deluded themselves into thinking that nascent foreign language skills will magically flower by spending time in the language’s native country. While this is true for those willing to study, those who hope that casual interaction will boost their skills are sadly mistaken. The reality is that someone deeply committed to learning will succeed whether they learn Spanish in London or Mandarin in France.

Gisele Navarro Méndez

One of the more difficult aspects of learning Chinese is becoming familiar with the tones. Total, there are four tones in Mandarin (using the syllable “ma” to demonstrate the tones):

• high level – first tone (mā)
• rising – second tone (má)
• falling rising – third tone (mǎ)
• falling – fourth tone (mà)
• There is also a neutral tone (ma)

The tones are used to determine the meaning of a Mandarin word. So mǎ (horse) is very different from mā (mother). Various sentences using the syllables mā, má, mǎ, mà, and ma are often used to illustrate the importance of tones to foreign learners. Look at this sentence for example: Chinese: 妈妈骑马马慢妈妈骂马; pinyin: māma qí mǎ, mǎ màn, māma mà mǎ. This literally translates to: "Mother is riding a horse, the horse is slow, mother scolds the horse".

Another example can be found in this ancient Chinese poem:
Chinese: 施氏食狮史; pinyin: Shī Shì shí shī shǐ. The poem translates to: “The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den”. The original poem consists of 92 characters, all with the sound “shi” (in 4 different tones).

At first many foreigners find it hard to distinguish between the tones, leading to many well-known Chinese jokes that poke fun at the mispronunciation of Chinese words. A well known one includes the mix-up between “nǎlǐ” meaning “where” and the out-dated word “nàli ” (the word “nali” consisting of different tones). However, a while back, the word “nàli” was used as a common and modest response to flattery. So, the joke goes, a foreigner is talking to a Chinese person. The Chinese person tells the foreigner that they speak Chinese very well. The foreigner responds to the Chinese person with “nǎlǐ nǎlǐ”. In this joke, they are poking fun at the foreigner who meaning to say “nàli nàli ”, a respectful response to flattery, utters the words meaning “where, where”. Chinese humor is an interesting thing to say the least. If you say this phrase in China, you will either get laughs or puzzled looks. If you're a risk taker, try using the phrase “nàli nàli” sometime! See what reaction you get and hopefully you pronounce it better than the foreigner central to this joke.

It goes without saying that tones are essential when learning Chinese. The Chinese language is made up of tones, that is what makes the language so interesting and unique to learn and speak. Push yourself to pursue your personal goals and expectations for your Chinese learning.
Ask yourself “what is important to me?” Decide what your goals are and figure out what are the next steps to take to make that a reality. If that means taking up a Chinese course or enrolling yourself in Chinese cooking classes or Taiqi, then DO it. Make your China experience what you want it to be.

Take that leap with the Hutong School! We offer a variety of programs to help you get exactly what you deserve from your China experience, from flexible Chinese courses to fit your hectic schedule, an Internship Program that entails Chinese courses to an Intensive Chinese language program. Take control of your Chinese learning with Hutong School NOW!

Learn Chinese in China

The old adage about never really knowing a language until you’ve spent some time in the country itself is undeniably, irritatingly true. When I arrived in Spain for a year of study, I was immediately struck by the contrast between the Spanish I’d been learning from my grammar textbooks back in the UK, and the Spanish my taxi driver was shouting at everyone who got in his way as we careened through the streets of Madrid. I was lucky enough to find a flat with other Spanish speakers, including my formidable landlady who took it upon herself to educate me whenever possible (“Did you understand that word I just said? Go write it down and learn it.”)

I spent several months studying at language schools, including the excellent Don Quijote, which has schools all over Spain and Latin America, and the slightly cheaper AIL. Often I found that the best moments in class were when the teacher and the other students went off-topic and started just having a general conversation: it’s nice to feel free to make mistakes in your conversations knowing that the teacher is happy to correct you. Another fantastic opportunity I discovered was the Madrid institution of the intercambio, a real lifeline for a solo traveller where you get the chance to meet new people and practise Spanish with locals.

Of course, homesickness is inevitable, but what people don’t often mention is being homesick for your language. Even though my Spanish was improving faster than ever, I still had to think before I spoke. I especially missed certain phrases in English that proved untranslatable. When my roommate played me some rather cheesy Spanish rock I tried to come up with a word that encapsulated this very English concept. “Es un poco…quesoso,” I ventured, attempting to adapt the Spanish word for cheese only to be met with a blank look. Trying to explain the importance of cheesiness in English culture quickly proved futile, while my roommate’s suggestion of “cursi”, meaning twee or affected, just didn’t encapsulate it.

The other phrase which I found myself sincerely longing for was “looking forward to it.” As a set phrase in English, it has a very specific meaning, an accepted amount of desire and anticipation for something. But it has no direct equivalent in Spanish. There’s “tengo ganas de” for “I really want to”, “Estoy deseando” or “Espero”, verbs closer to waiting for or wanting something, but everything just seemed a little too enthusiastic. Was this my English reticence and stiff upper lip clashing against Mediterranean openness?

This idea of trying to translate the untranslatable fascinated me, so I signed up for a course in literary translation with Cálamo & Cran, a specialised editorial and translation school. As the only non-native speaker there, I found myself translating ‘backwards’ – working from my mother tongue into another language. Learning the tricks and techniques of translation was a great experience, and I found the basic approach to the task – careful analysis, comparison with similar styles and constant revision – universal in their appeal. Yet in spite of my improved Spanish, it quickly became apparent that I would never be able to work at the level of my classmates. I’d occasionally pick a word which, according to numerous dictionaries and thesauruses, should have been an ideal fit, only to be told, “It just doesn’t sound right.” Still, being the only native English speaker in class proved to have its advantages, as I was able to explain the intricacies of certain English words, particularly in terms of double meanings or cultural background. All our translations were ultimately imperfect ones, because none of us could quite capture the culture behind the language. However, the fun of playing with language, of trying to find Spanish equivalents to children’s books and nonsense words was something that could not be matched. Living in Madrid allowed me to get a truly rounded idea of the Spanish language, from my taxi driver’s colourful curses, to boozy conversations at intercambios, and to our literary experiments in class. It’s an experience I’d recommend to anyone, and one I’m longing to repeat.

About the author:
Lindsey Ford is a London-based writer and translator, currently blogging for SubwayHotels.com about Madrid hotels, attractions and other handy tips for first-time travellers.

The story of America, since the arrival of Europeans on the continent, has always been in part about people leaving their homes to get away from prosecution or to find a better life. In other words America has always also been a concept that defined itself through a collective dream of the people arriving in the new world.

After the East coast had been settled, the reasons that had motivated people to leave for a new continent still existed and so a drive for the west began with new dreams and hopes of gold rushes and unowned land (although of course it was owned by the natives). When the west coast was finally reached and settled as well there was no more land left to explore, on which the dreams of settlers and immigrants could have been projected.

In retrospect the inception of Hollywood or a city like L.A. in general, which draws most of its water out of the neighboring state of Arizona, could been seen as a final breaking of the wave. With no more room left to the west and hence no more unknown land for people to dream about, industries where founded to continue giving people a canvas onto which they could project their dreams of another world, which would be theirs to claim.

Improbable places like William Randolph Hearst's St. Donat's Castle - also known as Xanadu from Citizen Kane - came into existence, as well as the original Disneyland. Both of which are manifestations of fantasy worlds that sprung from the minds of singular men. Many places can be found along the west coast like Las Vegas or Palm Springs, which in all logic should not exist - Built in the desert and sustained only by streams of water coming from other places through huge pipelines, making them more mirage-like than real.

It would therefore seem that the dream never really stopped and is making up some substantial part of the American culture until today.

About the author
Jan - I am a computer scientist from Germany with family in the States. Therefore I have a special relationship with the American culture and the English language.

WHY ACCENTS ARE IMPORTANT

Some linguistic theorists explain that we have accents to mark our tribal affiliations to separate us from others. People like to speak to someone who sounds like them. It makes them feel comfortable. While light or medium accents in other languages are acceptable, if someone speaks with a heavy accent in another language, it can be very difficult for native speakers to understand them. Some native speakers may avoid communicating with people with bad accents because it sounds as though the language learner is butchering their language. In those cases, both the listener and speaker get frustrated. There are those who may write perfectly in another language and know grammar even better than native speakers. However, if they have poor pronunciation, their grammatical knowledge will be practically useless in verbal communication.

I can attest to the importance of accent. I can just say a few words in a foreign language and native speakers will automatically tell me how good I am in their language, even before I produce any complex sentences or use sophisticated vocabulary. In fact, even when I do make some small mistakes with grammar, people still say I speak impeccably. My accent and excellent pronunciation almost deafen native speakers to my mistakes.

WHY SHOULDN’T I BE A PARROT AS SOON AS I START A NEW LANGUAGE?

As adults, we are eager to speak as soon as we start a language class. Our teachers ask us to repeat after them on the first day. This defies good reasoning when it comes to how we process sounds. As babies, we listen for almost a year before we start speaking. Though in adolescence or adulthood we may not learn languages in the same way we did as infants, we could take a lesson from that period of our lives and listen to our target language before trying to emit its sounds.

Languages have a range of frequencies. Your target language may have sounds in higher or lower frequencies than you are used to hearing in your mother tongue. When we try to make sounds that we are not used to hearing on Day One of language class, we are most likely going to incorrectly make the sound. This will be even worse if our language teacher is not a native speaker and pronounces the words with an accent. If on Day One we say words incorrectly and then continue to reinforce our accented speech as we learn the language, it will be super hard to rewire our brain and change our accents later on. As we all now, it can be difficult, if not painful, to modify our habits.

HOW TO LISTEN

Here are some listening tips that you can use to tune yourself to your new tongue. They are excerpted from my book, Language is Music: Over 70 Fun & Easy Tips to Learn Foreign Languages. (The book has tips on how to use music, TV, radio, movies and the Internet to learn foreign languages in a fun and inexpensive way.)

1. Listen Carefully
Learning a new language means you have to change your key and tune. Take in the sounds of the language as though you were listening to a new piece of music. Even if you are just a beginner and barely know any words, you can still learn by listening. Pay attention to how people speak. Does it seem like they are reading a phone number or rattling of a list of numbers? Are they angry? Happy? Shut off your brain and inclination to interpret to analyze. Listen to the words and to your intuition.

2. Relax
Find music in your target language that you like. It does not matter if at first you do not understand the lyrics. You may start singing along without even knowing what you are singing. Relax and close your eyes. Turn off the lights. Lie down or sit in a comfortable position. Do not try to understand the words, just listen. Give yourself the time to simply listen and not do anything else. Your mind needs to be calm in order to absorb the sounds. Your ears need no other distractions to let them properly hear all the high, medium and low frequencies of the language. Do this regularly.

3. Emphasis
Where is the emphasis in the word? Many times people mispronounce words in another language because they accent or emphasize the wrong part of the word. For example, in Hungarian, the emphasis is always on the first syllable of the word. Sentences in Hungarian always have a predictable sound. The emphasis will never be on the last syllable of the last word, as may happen in other languages when someone is trying to stress something in particular.

Remember. Listen first. Talk later.

Susanna Zaraysky

About the author
You can find out more listening tips and suggestions of how to make language learning fun with music, TV, radio and movies in Language is Music (www.languageismusic.com).
Susanna speaks seven languages (English, Russian, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Serbo-Croatian) with excellent accents because she learned languages with music and the media. She has also studied Hungarian, Hebrew and Arabic. After teaching English in Argentina, Bosnia and the United States, she realized how to make foreign language learning fun and easy through listening exercises and music.

Language is changing. The net is making it happen.

There is a lot of talk about the net 2.0 generation and many of the exciting (and terrifying) things that will come to pass as we struggle to get a hold on what these developments mean. Language learning is no exception, and we have in the past few years seen quite a few blogs, services, and programs designed to help people learn languages. While the vast majority of these things come in different flavors, there is one unifying element that is common. All of them are designed with the independent learner in mind.

Independence is by no means new to language learning. Research has often talked about “learner autonomy” and its importance in linguistic development. However, old models of instruction involving a teacher in front of students imparting knowledge (what some colleagues and I have dubbed “chalkboard teaching”) are falling by the wayside. There are a couple of reasons why this is so:

• While cheap, it is teacher-centered, and it often fails to be engaging to students.
• Marketing for the classes is often not handled by the teachers, but by administrators of schools and businesses offering instruction. This results in a large majority of students who are simply not interested in what teachers are teaching. Very often true with English classes, which are often mandatory.
• The method itself encourages dependence on the teacher instead of development of new skills that would foster independent learning (such as learning how to use a target language dictionary, or identify one’s own weaknesses, etc.)

In addition, old models of instruction have not been very kind to teachers or students, with ready-made classes and syllabuses that are “one size fits all” and can often not be tailored to individual needs. Teachers don’t benefit because this often dehumanizes the very process that attracted them to teaching in the first place, resulting in lost career advancement, stagnation of skills, and a questionable future.

This is one of the reasons I’ve been investigating the internet and other alternative means of language learning. What will language look like in the future? Here are some thoughts:

• Teachers will be less like teachers and more like trainers. They will have taught themselves a language to prove that they can walk the walk, and instead of following a “content-dump” model of language instruction, they will be periodically checking in on learners to investigate their progress.
• Language learning will be less about what you know and more about the learning habits that you develop in the direction of language learning.
• The idea of tests and quizzes will (ideally) fall away as a substandard means of assessing progress, instead focusing exclusively on real tasks to be accomplished in the target language.
• The learner will be trained to do most of the assessment themselves until autonomy is reached.

As you can see, the development of new behaviors and means of assessing these behaviors will be important. I have long not been an advocate of traditional assessment because it encourages substandard habits, but that doesn’t mean I am anti-assessment. Teachers have always worried about teaching to the test. But we always will, and so instead of avoiding the process, we should change the test to more accurately reflect the behaviors we want to occur. Indeed, learners’ being able to assess their own progress is crucial, and the future of educators’ careers lies in our ability to give up the power and show them how.

About the author:
Ryan Layman is the author of RyanLayman.com, a bilingual website written in English and Japanese to teach people how they can teach themselves a language. He is also currently Assistant Professor of English Language at Kanazawa Institute of Technology, where he has been teaching Japanese students for nearly two years. You can visit his blog www.ryanlayman.com.

Today , Modern Greek is the official language both in Cyprus and the Republic of Greece. It is also spoken by Greek communities which are spead all over the world, known also as the Greek Diaspora (Διασπορά in Greek is equivalent with the dispersion).

But is the Greek language so important today ? And if not , why should someone learn Greek.

The answer is obvious. Modern Greek has no special importance in the financial or scientific fields. Unless you are working in the tourism industry or you have a firm in Greece you would probably not need to learn Greek; it is not an international language and due to its difficulty it is a rare choice as a second language.

Modern Greek is ranked 61st according to the number of native speakers, but is quite widespread due to the Greek Diaspora and there are Greek communities in almost every industrialized country. We can trace also massive idigenous communities in Egypt (Alexandria), south Albania, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine.

So , why learn Modern Greek?

There is no other reason, I think, unless you have a genuine interest in the Greek culture and civilization. The literary importance of the Greek language cannot be denied and many people learned Greek for academic reasons, but it was Ancient Greek they leaned and not Modern Greek.

Still, many Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, in fields like mathematics, astronomy, philosophy etc. Greek word elements in common with Latin words are the foundation of the scientific and technical modern vocabulary. And this also means that you know a lot of Greek words if you already speak a European language.

On the other hand, these two forms of Greek (Modern and Ancient) are not even mutually intelligible. You will not find anyone that speaks Ancient Greek, not in Greece or elsewhere, I suppose. But this is not a reason not to study it, particularly as the retreat of the humanitarian studies in our ages is not a good sign for future. Sanskrit , Latin , Classic Arabic , Ancient Greek and others of the like are all very important for a deeper understanding of cultures and of our past.

Another group of people that learn Modern Greek is mostly Europeans who have settled in many places of Greece like the Mani Peninsula, Pelion and Corfu and learned the language not only for practical reasons, but because they love to communicate with locals. Moreover, Greece is a host country for 1.1 million immigrants, most of them coming from the Balkans or other countries of the Middle East. They also learn Greek to an intermediate level for reasons of daily communication (mostly for verbal communication).

Regarding difficulty levels, Modern Greek belongs to the group of languages with significant linguistic or cultural differences from English. That brings it in the same group as Armenian, Finnish and Hungarian which means that you need 7 weeks or 1100 class hours to reach fluency, but this approach can be quite gloomy and discourage any effort.

In a blog that I maintain about Modern Greek I have already explained how you can start learning on your own. If you are not just learning for academic reasons, you should probably start with Modern Greek. It is much simpler that Ancient Greek and it will not be hard to find someone to talk with, because there Greeks in every country. In any case , you can give it a try at your own speed. And don't get stressed about it, language learning takes time....

Is that informantion sufficient for you ? Is there anything else you would like to know about Modern Greek or Greeks , or is it all Greek to you ? Just leave your question in the comment box below....

Glavkos Xaon

One of the characteristics of an advanced learner is being able to actually think in your second language rather than needing to translate back to your mother tongue. Cultural context is really important for language learners, too. So, after spending years learning about a language and the culture that goes along with it, surely the way you speak and present your ideas will become similar to people from that culture.

In my experience as a language teacher and learner, I've found that people seem to be split into two quite distinct groups on this. Generally, people who learn a language in a classroom and don't have much chance to interact with native speakers of that language, won't take on many of the cultural traits that go with their new language and their personality will remain relatively unchanged in their second language.

Of course, there are exceptions to this. Some people who learn a language at school make a real effort to learn about the cultural background that goes along with it. Usually this is because they are actually interested in the culture, though, rather than just learning about it to improve their language skills.

The second group of people tend to treat the language and culture with equal importance. Often they are people who are actually living in a country where their second language is spoken. Sometimes, they are learning to communicate with friends or new family members. Other people may be learning a language because of a specific interest in that culture (e.g. many people learn Japanese to watch anime and learning Korean to follow TV drama in Asia is very common).

I'm often amazed by the things students from this second group say to me. Some students tell me they are pessimistic in their native language but optimistic when they speak English. There are others who have trouble talking about their emotions in their own language but have no problem telling me all about their hopes and dreams in class. There are even some of my students whose posture and physical gestures are completely different when they speak English to when they speak their mother tongue. Generally, it's the students like this who reach their goals fastest.

I have personal experience of this, too. My life is fairly evenly split between three languages. I speak English when I talk to my family in the UK or at work. I'm fairly serious and polite in English. When I speak Indonesian on the streets or with friends, I love making jokes and I'm really outgoing. When I speak Balinese at home, I swear a lot (especially when I'm driving) and I generally say what's on my mind a lot more directly than I would in the other languages.

Of course, speaking another language isn't going to affect your main morals and ethics, but it can be fun being 'someone else' for a few hours a day. Is your personality different when you speak another language?

The author
Wil Procter is a blogger and English teacher. He shares tips for advanced English learners at http://wilsworldofwords.com/. Follow him on Twitter @WilsWords.

One of the themes for a blog that I've wanted to write is how things that have been part of Argentina’s history and culture, like tango and Eva Peron, influence the modern daily life of Argentineans. After an extensive amount of time here, I actually began to see the similarities between dancing tango and daily life. I will explain this to you shortly, but first I will explain the dance. If you've ever watched or danced the Argentine tango, you will know that it is a unique dance. It is unique because you never really know what will happen next. It is almost like surfing on the waves where the surfers just go moment to moment, caught somewhere between the past and the present. The man leads the steps and the woman has to feel what comes next and although he leads the direction, she is welcome to do what we call "adornments" or do a little improvisation.

Tango symbolizes life in Argentina because in Argentina, you literally have to live moment to moment. It has taken months of living here to finally see this. Things in Buenos Aires can change in an instant. It's happened one time when I took the subway to visit somewhere and then when I made my return trip, I found that they had closed it for cleaning and repairs but without giving any notice at all. A girl I know told me the story of how she went to the place where she volunteers. It takes her an hour to go there and back and she found on this particular day that it was closed. Nobody had given her any warning about this so she just decided to go back into town and do something else.

This may sound a little barbaric to some of you reading this who live in a society where schedules and appointments are important. This girl at the residence is actually from Luxembourg so she has Germanic roots. Anyone who is of Germanic roots or knows about people from that culture knows that being on time is of upmost importance. I have had several friends here from Austria or Germany who told me that this is how they show respect in those countries - by arriving on time and no minute later. But this girl had such a good spirit about what happened because she knew that this was not Europe and this was very acceptable in this country. I told her that stuff like this would drive people from Germanic backgrounds nuts - they would have a very hard time accepting this type of thing happening in this country!

The idea here in Argentina is that if something doesn't work out, you just find something else to do with your day. This is why if you are making plans with a friend and they tell you that they are going to call or text you and they don't, it is acceptable in this country. Indeed, in the matter of a few hours or even minutes, things can change a lot in this country. Every Argentinean would have an enormous phone bill if they had to send a text message for every single time that their plans were going to change! Schedules and plans are good and people in this country plan as best as they can, but if something changes (which is highly likely) they are very good at on the spot creative problem solving.

The other factor that I couldn't help but notice is that in this country women are viewed with respect. Some days here, I can't help but feel like the spirit of Eva Peron still lingers in the atmosphere of Argentina. Though her time in office was short lived, her influence stretches far beyond the length of her life and her era. Maybe it was because of her that here in this country, there seems to be such respect towards women. This is not a country where you will see much of an issue with the subjugation of women or having the idea that women should be in the kitchen. In fact, if you get a chance to visit the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace, you will actually see a room that is dedicated to all the heroines in the Argentinian history. How can the church or state downplay the role of women when one of the greatest liberators in the history of this country was one? In my opinion Eva Peron's legacy is the reason that here in this country, women aren't seen as only being homemakers but rather leaders who can champion causes in every aspect of their world, just like Eva Peron...

"More and more I am finding that tango is not just a dance, it is a way of life in this city even for those that don't dance the tango. The city has a way of wrapping its feathers around me to comfort and ease all loneliness and thoughts of home and the people there. Like a mother hen, it soothes me safe and & warm under its wing."

Angelina Khoo
http://www.makingthesamedifference.blogspot.com/

There are two reasons for learning a language. One is practicality. The other is enjoyment. Even though I've been through the process, I wonder what makes enjoyment. Why one language and not another?

The first time I set out to learn a language, I wanted to learn any language. I envied code switchers. Spanish was the choice, because it was the number two language in the area. The whole process was exhilarating.

Now, I'm on my 5th language. I want to read and listen to more Dutch. As with Spanish, I fell in love with it, but that did not happen with other languages, French for example.

Although it is unlikely I will ever speak Dutch, I really want to know it. I would like to read more. Max Havelaar comes to mind. It is in the public domain, and I have bookmarked it. I would also like to watch more Dutch documentaries. Although I have run across the trashy elements of Dutch culture, I still want to read and hear more of the good stuff. I will most likely continue to listen to the news.

There are other reasons for learning Dutch. It lacks the infrastructure of more popular languages. Sometimes, such things get in the way. It's written up as the best jumping off point for other languages in the Germanic group. The bonus is similar to what one gets by learning a Romance language. Learn one, and you get comprehension of several. Being far away from Dutch speakers, it's an internal learning process. There is nobody to impress. It's more relaxed. If I miss something on a tv show, there is no pressure to know exactly what was said. I can read and listen at my own pace. Finally, there is the underrated food. Try a large Dutch pancake made in an iron skillet with lemon juice and powdered sugar over it. Incredible.

Peter Laurence
http://learningdutchwithgeertmak.blogspot.com