Embarking on my journey to master Dutch for naturalization studying on my own, I’ve come across “A Frequency Dictionary of Dutch”. This is the dictionary in which all the words for the language exams can be found. Moreover, they are listed in order of most to least used. It also has an example sentence for each word. It sounds good and at the same time quite intimidating. It contains 5000 words. It is the bare minimum you need to communicate and understand the world around you. Since it is also recommended by the government – this is the go-to book.
My initial idea was to go page by page and memorize the words. Needless to say, it did not get me far. The flashcard method works for me more like a test than as a way to remember the words. Just one sentence doesn’t place the word anywhere in my memory to recall later So I wanted to know what is the best way to use this book to enlarge my Dutch vocabulary
If you choose to own the dictionary go to Amazon and get your copy. Doing that through that link will help me keep journaling my Dutch learning journey and sharing all my finds with fellow solo learners.
Now give the first 25 words a try:
You probably did know them all, just like me. But do you feel like you learned something more from a flash card set like that? Be honest – NO. Me neither. Then what would be the point of going over all the 5000 words this way?
The way my memory works is it needs a story linked to a word to be able to recognize it for example in a song. As soon as i start recognizing it and turning it around in my head i can start thinking of using it. Being an adult learning a language I have already lived through a huge number of experiences. Those exist in my mind first in my native language, then they are also available to me in English. Now my goal is to make them available to me also in Dutch so I can share them with the new people i meet and converse with. The word itself is not the goal. The goal is to link her to experience and put my meaning into it.
The vocabulary dictionary has those not very comprehensive Thematic vocabulary lists – Animals, Body, Clothing, and so on. Being a visual learner I played with the animals’ list and it got me to have this
Some of these animals I’ve had in my life – several dogs, cats, budgies and also hamsters. My friends have had turtles, rabbits, and goldfish. This little picture can prompt me in my language and also in English to tell you so many stories. It provokes my mind to want to know more. The word dog, makes me want to know the names of different breeds, i want to know how the paws and tails and other parts are called in Dutch. I also want to be able to tell you stories about the fun things my dogs did, about tough times when they were sick, and how we and the doctors helped them. Those are several more lists starting with HOND in the middle and focusing on one subject or another related to them.
This is in essence the mind map method with pictures. At school our teachers taught us this method but they wrote on the blackboard (whiteboard for the newer generations). Now with canva possibilities, i can make those lists way more engaging for me and to expand them as much as i want. Being a dog person I always want to talk about dogs and this subject i will expand in every possible direction. The snake on the other hand prompts me to explore the names of fobias and to stop there.
How I plan on using the Dutch frequency dictionary?
The mind map method is great for people who want to dig in and expand. Being a beginner I need to cover more broad subjects first so my understanding of the language in general is better. Having all this in mind and figuring out what I like about the flash cards ( the audio) I managed to make this:
When you press the purple plus you get to hear the word and also see it written. You are also going to see videos with my own sentences. Of course this will take a while to build but it is a goal on my list. Eyes and ears work simultaneously, almost like reading aloud from a book.
If you can’t help others why bother at all? And while making resources for yourself you can also help those that are just like yourself but don’t have exactly those skills. That is the mission behind this website and everything published here. I intend to review the frequency dictionary and build interactive picture lists.
Check weekly here and on my Facebook page to see the new ones. You can use them free of charge forever here on the website.