Dutch: Beginner's CD Language Course (Hugo in Three Months CD Language Course)

I moved to Belgium from the UK a few years ago and needed a course to help me get to grips with the basics of Nederlands. I have to say that in my opinion the best way to learn Dutch is to actually live amongst Dutch speaking people and take proper lessons. However this course has some good exercises that will compliment any lessons you may take. The problem this course has is that it can never explain Dutch verbs, sentence structure etc well enough in just a few hundred pages to give you any real chance of 'really' learning the language.

A competent course. (0/0 people found this helpful)

A very good course for someone who wishes to learn all aspects of the dutch language, however the actual vocabulary that is used to teach the language could certainly have been far more practicle.
Certainly the Hugo Itallian course, with its example's of how to check into hotels, or go shopping is far more usefull than this courses examples of being able to say that someone's shoe's look worn out, or that someone's wife studied in the nineties!

Also, when will Hugo learn that their CD cases are terrible, I damn near nearly snapped one of the CD's in half trying to get it out of the box.

Make sure you buy the CD (0/2 people found this helpful)

I have so far found Hugo in three months 'really' helpful, although I thoroughly regret not buying the CD straight away with the book, but in my defence when I bought the book I didn't realize it came with a CD.

It may take you longer than 3 months, but then maybe not if you have the CD's and don't get lazy.

If you are going over to the Netherlands, you may also want a phrase book as a quick fix as Hugo is teaching you the language and not how to get around day to day.

Reminded me of learning French at school (30/37 people found this helpful)

This book uses the same teaching technique that I suffered at school in French & Latin lessons.
When I studied these languages at school the method used was for the student to learn vocabulary and verb conjugations by rote before moving on. This was hard work and boring. I crammed the knowledge, passed the exams then forgot most of it.
Later I learnt German by learning key words, which allowed me to make myself undestood. I added grammar and a wider vocabulary later. It seemed like a natural progression of my knowledge and it has stuck - I can use my German language skills when required without much concious thought.
The Hugo book teaches Dutch in the way that I suffered French & Latin lessons at school. In one instance it explains familiar & non-familiar forms, subjective & objective cases (a pargaraph on each) then sets out the full conjugation of the Dutch "to be" verb. You are expected to commit this to memory before turning the page. I expected to have to memorise language elements, but expected the book to assist with this and help to develop my knowledge much more than it did.
I learnt very little from the book. I would have been better noting some key words & phrases from a phrase book as a starter, then learning more later, similar to how I learnt German.
I suppose it depends on your learning style and whether you are going to have the chance to use the language during your learning process, but I would not recommend this book, at least as a atsrting point.

little boring, not a converstaion course but a good start. (25/26 people found this helpful)

very good language course, a little bit boring, but has all the grammer (yawn) and structure (yawn yawn) you need. But with this course you start from the begining, and learn it properly. It's NOT a dutch conversation course.
The CD's really help with pronunciation, which I think is essential with Dutch as it sounds completely different to English, even though a lot of the words look the same, they are pronounced completely differently. I's aldo recommend Intertaal 'Taal Vitaal Nederlands voor beginners' (which makes learning Dutch fun) and 'Teach Yourself Dutch' (which has all the grammer but in dialogue form, which is also more fun!).

Dutch: Beginner's CD Language Course (Hugo in Three Months CD Language Course)

Jane Fenoulhet

Reader Reviews:

Ok.....but (0/0 people found this helpful)

A competent course. (0/0 people found this helpful)

Make sure you buy the CD (0/2 people found this helpful)

Reminded me of learning French at school (30/37 people found this helpful)

little boring, not a converstaion course but a good start. (25/26 people found this helpful)

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