Spreekt je nederlands? Ja, ik spreek nederlands. Misschien.

The truth is, I feel that this Germanic language is harder for me to grasp than perhaps one of Romantic origin. Last summer, I drove through France into Italy, and listening to the radio in the car was completely jarring once the radio started fuzzing into Italian (never mind the winding coastal roads with speeding Italian vehicles) . I speak both French and Spanish, and have never thought to become acquainted with Italian; even so, I felt that I understood a good 63.5% of what was being said, and that is applicable to the rest of my stay in Italy. Maybe Romantic words run through my veins in a way that Dutch hasn't.

I in my everyday use English--so with English being West Germanic, surely I can adapt quite easily to another West Germanic language, Dutch? Nee. Not so easily.

I started with Dutch courses in Flanders. Nobody told me that would be irrelevant in Amsterdam (and truth be told, I wasn't set on coming this way at the time). I thank UGent for their time, but when asked questions about sentence structure or general grammar questions from international students of all kinds, the professors could not give answers. It was incredibly frustrating, and at this moment let's take a moment to partake in the most favorite of Dutch past times, laughing at the Belgians.

Every day has gotten easier, and I can read Dutch with mild success. I thought to subject myself to the nuns for the immersive courses. I feel that being surrounded by this language so often, my brain has all the pieces to this jigsaw puzzle that my mouth does not know how to process.

Hoe zeg je TRAGIC in het Nederlands?