Hmm, I wouldn’t say that “mijn moeder” is less formal, but I think we don’t have the distinction in Dutch that exists in English between "My/his/her mum says that… " and “My/his/her mother says that…”, where the latter is obviously more formal in English. Both options can really only be translated with “Mijn moeder” in Dutch.
You’d never really here someone say “Mijn mama”, unless it’s a young child talking about his/her mum. “Mama” is really almost only used by people to address their own mother directly, as you say. Saying “Moeder” directly to your own mum sounds quite old fashioned, though you may hear it when older people address their mum. I know, confusing
As for the “Mutter” issue in German: I don’t believe that has happened in Dutch, no, luckily
Hi Merlijn. I have been using Memrise pro studying Danish and have just started learning Dutch now, but for some reason it doesn’t seem to have any of the Pro benefits Danish has (Learn With Locals, Speed Review, Pronunciation, Listening skills). Is this a mistake with my account or have they just not been offered for some strange reason? It’s the only reason I use Memrise, so without them it is pretty pointless.
Thanks in advance,
James
I’m using Pro and learning Dutch with the memrise courses and I have certainly been offered “Listening Skills” - that’s a purple box, right? - and “Speed Review”. I think “Learn with Locals” has come up a couple of times. I don’t recall seeing a special box for “Pronunciation”, though. That would be cool!
Maybe these things only come up when you have done a certain number of words or levels? How far have you got?
I’m Merlijn’s colleague, hopefully you don’t mind me replying on his behalf.
Listening Skills should become available once you’ve mastered at least 5 words.
As soon as the system detects one or more words you seem to be having difficulty with, you can consult the Difficult Words mode for extra practice.
We have yet to make it to The Netherlands so unfortunately it will be a while until we have video’s to add to Learn with Locals. For the time being, this mode is unavailable for our Dutch courses.
Pronunciation mode was only added recently and we’re still in the process of rolling it out for all languages.
Once my Product- and Engineering colleagues have finalised the technical aspect, they’ll pass it on to me (as a native Dutch speaker) for thorough testing.
Once we’re confident the feature works as intended, it will be made available asap.
Although it may not exactly be as anticipated, I hope my reply is somewhat helpful?
Let me know if anything remains unclear.
Pronunciation mode was only added recently and we’re still in the process of rolling it out for all languages.
Once my Product- and Engineering colleagues have finalised the technical aspect, they’ll pass it on to me (as a native Dutch speaker) for thorough testing.
Once we’re confident the feature works as intended, it will be made available asap.
Thanks for the reply. That’s a pity, as the Learn with Locals feature is the only reason I use Memrise. I just assumed each language would be launched with all the features advertised.
The problem with choosing the wrong version for “natuurlijk” still exists on the app, I’m afraid. I reviewed some words on the app just now and the two options for “natuurlijk” popped up and I chose the wrong one
One had an exclamation mark; the other didn’t, but I honestly couldn’t hear whether “natuurlijk” was spoken with an exclamation mark after it. I was doing speed review and it goes too fast for you to hear that.
I had added “natuurlijk” as an alternative option for “natuurlijk!”, but apparently didn’t do so the other way around later on in the course. Could you maybe try once again now?
Hello , I am taking Dutch 1 ,
There is one phrase 'Hoe zeg je in het Engels" in the website version that asks me to enter the words in the correct order . I am sure that I am doing it right but the program keeps registering it wrong and wont let me proceed to the next question . Thanks Daveo1
I am wondering if you have had a person with an actual university level education in Dutch and teaching Dutch as a second language to look over the words and sentences you are teaching in the courses? I love the app itself and how it works, but I just couldn’t get past level 1 of the course because some of the sentences seemed so off. I asked one of my dutch friends about it, and he said he could understand what the sentences where aming for, but that they where not propper Dutch. So yeah, wondered if your words and sentences have been looked over by a teacher with the right qualifications?
Interesting post! Do you live in the Netherlands, then, and already have some familiarity with Dutch?
I think the problem with the memrise courses is that (as far as I can tell) they all - regardless of the language - follow the same format and use the same phrases in every single language they are available in. The original “template” was - I think - English, so I can imagine that some of the sentences sound a little stilted or odd if they are too closely translated from English.
Which phrases did you find odd, by the way? If you don’t mention what they are, then it is impossible for improvements to be made and renders your criticism rather unconstructive, sadly, because I can imagine that you are making a valid point.
I know that there is a native speaker of Dutch (@MerlijnB) who is responsible for checking out any errors in the Dutch parts of the memrise courses and @Lien is also Dutch, I think, or at least one of her languages is Dutch. So there most definitely are native Dutch speakers on the memrise team.
What are your opinions on this member’s post, @MerlijnB and @Lien? Are some of the phrases used in Level 1 stilted and unDutch?
I do live in the Netherlands. My day to day language is English, but I do hear Dutch daily and I can often get the gist of the Dutch conversations. I also did linguistics as a minor in university. We spent quite some time doing syntactical analysis of languages we where both familiar with and not familiar with. Don’t remember much now , but guess maybe something has stuck in my unconsiusness?
Specifically one of the sentences I found odd was ‘Ben je Engels?’ My friend who is Dutch from Amsterdam said this wasn’t good Dutch. He said it was more like asking ‘Are you (the) English (language)’ than anything else. Engels = English, as in the language, not the nationality he said. Depending on context he adviced me to say either ‘Spreek je Engels?’ or ‘Kom je uit Engeland?’
Like you said, if you translate to closely it can result in sentences that are not quite right in the traget langauage. From what I could gather from my friend and the textbook i bought I was suspecting something like this was maybe happening in the memrise Dutch course, so I wanted to ask if it the sentences had been looked over by a proper teacher of Dutch as a second language too see if maybe I should reevaluate that suspicion.
