Dear ,


Because this letter is a little longer than usual (sorry for that, there was a lot to tell;-), I'll start with the headlines so you can quickly go to the subjects that are of interest to you:

• Things to do for Long Distance Learners
• Free Webinars
• Discount on Lessons with Jorine Samsom and/or for Garden Plants
• Download Poster about Vriend/vrienden/vriendin etc.
• Old and New Contest (& Asking for your Help to locate the Winners of the May Contest)
• Hammer the Grammar: Irregular Past with Several Free Downloads
• Scheduled Courses (Walk & Talk, Living with a Dutchie, visit Zaanse Schans and more!)
• Announcement about Course Rates

Things to do for long distance learners

After the previous newsletter (about fun things to do near Bussum to improve your Dutch), I received the following email from Antonio, who has moved back to Mexico:

"Your new Logo looks fantastic to me!!! Very Dutch and very fresh!! Congratulations! I would like to improve my Dutch, but as you know, the distance is now an issue. All the events mentioned below are quite nice and exciting but I see no events that I can connect with. Is there something available? Take care and regards, Antonio"

Therefore, I'd like to start with some advice for the people who live too far away to attend any of the activities in the surrounding area:

An online audio-book website where you can read along on screen. However, if this is a little too fast for you, you can find the text in the drop down menu below the story.

A playlist of Dutch films with English subtitles on Youtube.

Learn Dutch by watching videos with subtitles. Practise your listening comprehensive skill and learn new words.

On this Facebook page, I'll regularly post tips and tricks for distance learners.

It is also possible to sign up for the Distance Learning Program or for the free online webinars.

Talking about webinars

The test webinar went really well! (Thank you for this picture, Bureera;-)

A series of follow-up webinars will be coming soon.

The schedule will be available as soon as possible on this website and will be free of charge.

The webinars usually start in the morning and if popular enough, the webinars will be repeated in the evening for people who live in a different time-zone. Thank you, Antonio, for bringing this to my attention:

"It's just great that you are now moving into webinars !! I will try to join, but just as a suggestion. Would it be possible that in the future, Webinars could be a bit later? This webinar at 10:00 hrs Dutch time it's 3 am in Mexican time. Would be great to have them on a more comfortable timing."

The planned themes for the upcoming webinars are: Basic Dutch, long sounds and short sounds, present and past tense, word order and much more. Any requests?

Back to people who live in or near Bussum

Some of you will remember Jorine Samsom, a singing teacher who comes to Learn Dutch Fast often to teach guest trainings (singing, breathing techniques and more).

Last week, she taught a course about pronunciation. She gave us very useful tricks.

To practise your pronunciation, you can pronounce the code words below to obtain a nice discount:

It is possible to attend an one-hour pronunciation lesson, a singing lesson, or maybe even a piano lesson, or an hour of breathing-exercises with Jorine. These lessons are normally €50,-, and only €35,- with discount with the 'secret word' UITSPRAAK (pronunciation). Only valid until the 1st of September 2014.

and/or:

You'll be able to get 3 Geraniums (see picture on top of this mail) for €4.50 instead of €5.95 at Tuincentrum Ruizendaal (Address: Melkstraat 12, Bussum). Limited stock! The secret word = TUINCENTRUM (garden centre)

New downloadable poster

Another request I received after the newsletter about irregular verbs was the letter below:

"Hi Sylvia I really enjoyed this month's newletter and wanted to let you know! I have made my dice, and put the cheat sheet on the toilet wall. The kids are helping by playing the verb game with me...they let me know if I have it right or not. I am also using the dice to help me learn other verbs. One grammar question I have that continues to stump me is how to talk about friends. The difference between friends plural, and a friend that is a girl, and a girlfriend, and when the kids are playing with their friends. I thought others might also have this problem and so thought I would suggest it as a grammar topic for a future newsletter. Anyway, just so you know, your hard work producing the newsletters is appreciated. Have a great day, Bridget"

I've promised her to make a poster about the grammar aspects of 'friends' and here it is! You could use this poster either as screensaver for your computer, or you could print it out for use in the kitchen or toilet. ;)

Old and new contest

In the previous newsletter, there was an opportunity to win a free Dutch lesson by entering a competition.

It was very difficult to decide which person would win the competition. But after reading all stories again and again, I decided that the winning person is… *drumrolls* …Pamela Woolley! Congratulations Pamela, you are welcome to attend an immersion course for free!

All other nominees will get 15% off of an immersion course, but also the opportunity to attend a free walk-and-talk with the people who entered them in this competition. I would be honored to help you to speak Dutch.

Since there were several people who asked me to keep the competition going, I've decided that there will be a second chance to win an immersion course. Make sure to enter the competition before the 30th of June and follow ALL the described steps, otherwise I won't be able to contact you because of Facebook settings.

That's also the reason why I need your help to get in contact with Marina Advahova (or Milko Kliemert), Luciano Mendes (or Gesuino Poddighe), and last but not least Pamela Woolley (or Tjessica Stegenga). Pamela is the person mentioned above who won the free immersion course of the May contest.

So if you happen to know one of those people, please ask them to send me a mail…

Hammer the Grammar

The Hammer the Grammar of this month is the irregular past tense. However, there is not much to explain, since are no such rules for irregular verbs ;-) The only way to learn them is to learn them by heart, e.g. by using flashcards.

For a list of irregular verbs for making the flashcards (with German & English translations), click here. To crown it all: as a bonus for readers of this newsletter I have included an mp3 soundfile with irregular verbs that you can use whilst walking/sitting in the sun, etc. For a real live version, you'd have to come to a Walk&Talk ;-)

An example of how to use the list: drinken - dronk(en) - gedronken

ik drink thee
ik dronk thee (wij dronken)
ik heb thee gedronken

I'll discuss more details of the past tense in the next newsletter and in one of the forthcoming webinars.

Scheduled Courses

All scheduled courses can be found here.

Newly added courses are the Walk & Talk (June 27th) and the "Living with a Dutchie" (June 20th).

Are you living with a Dutchie or do you have a nice Dutch colleague/friend/neighbor etc.? Then the two of you are welcome for a fun filled evening including a cultural training taught by starting trainer Isebrand Kremer.

Not living with a Dutchie, but you would like to use your Dutch with some native speakers? Join us to Zaanse Schans! Or walk along with the Walk & Talk.

Extra announcement

After 6 years of handling the same prices for all lessons and courses, I'll have to let you know that after the 1st of September, all prices will have to go up with 5%.


Met vriendelijke groet,

Sylvia Clements