Out of Pod Experience

I think she wants to know whether we have courses in our mother-tongues too.
Yes of course we do.

I guess he's asking a different question.

The Dutch are great with languages (lived in The Hague for 7 years), but he is asking, do you have subjects in School/University that are the equivalent of Dutch 101, Dutch 102, etc.

In school, a lot of English as a first language countries have English, which focuses on grammar, composition, literature, etc.; essentially subjects that teach the rules of communicating formally in English, even though you might think that is something natural because it's the first language of the country.

CAM is asking whether the same sort of thing exists elsewhere. Do Dutch schools have Nederlands 101 that teaches proper grammar, etc.

That would probably be the equivalent of a “practical writing” course at uni level around here, but as general concept it's normally only part of some larger foreign language programs. In the case of Swedish, that kind of stuff is generally handled far earlier in the schooling system. Since foreign language schooling — usually English — is mandatory from the 4th year (age 9–10:ish), grammar becomes a natural and necessary part of the curriculum that way. Without it, the second language can't really be taught. Swedish as a subject is taught all through 9 years of primary school, in most cases, 3 years of secondary school. So it's more of a high-school kind of exercise than something that you'd come across in college or university.

That said, there is a “Professional Swedish” set of courses at the university around here, but it's a far more advanced than what the OP describes. I's more if you want to go into the field of corporate communications, and funnily enough, its prerequisite is that you've taken at least two terms worth of university-level English before you're allowed to apply.


Also, Netherlands 101: The Netherlands is comprised of 12 provinces and 3 old colonial municipalities, two of which are Holland.

see, a question I assumed to have an obvious answer shows me once more, that assumption is the mother of all ****-ups.

That's news to me. I assumed that in all developed countries, mother-tongue 101 would be part of the curriculum far earlier, because it is with us and our neighboring countries.

However...

Yes, however...

Really that sounds so natural it wouldn't have come to mind as a question.

ah well still lots of stuff to learn and yes we do have those classes

That will vary within English as well. While the OED doesn't always include them, British English has a long history of hyphenating colliding vowels in prefixed and composite word formations, making “no-one” a fairly common occurrence (along with co-operate).

My favourite tip is to take us Scandinavians down a peg is to look for agreement errors. We don't really have number as a factor in our verbs, and thus have a tendency to overlook it in other languages as well. Of course, as the complexity of a sentence increases, it also becomes more difficult for anyone to keep track of the subject, but it'll be far more common for those of us who never have to bother with it on an every-day basis.

Correct. The corresponding terms in German are both single words: niemand / keiner. Using two words to describe *nothing* sounds illogical for Germans.

@ Tips
Cool stuff. I'll have to watch for those errors in the future.

I'd advise you to not try Icelandic of Finnish.

It's not the words, it's the syllables (Ha! Found that word on the internet).

nie-mand / kei-ner

It's like 'no one', if you don't look at the word count.
Or maybe it's just a thing for illogical Germans.



No, we have not.

'I AM FUNNYBOT!'

Johnny