Journey to learning Dutch

It's taken me 2 years of evening  school, 2 times per week to pass the NT2-II exams. NT2 stands for 'Nederlands als Tweede Taal' (Dutch as the second language). More info on the exam here. The European Language Framework recognizes me at a Dutch level of B2 (refer Wikipedia).

Although Dutch is not really my second language, it has been real fun learning it. Until now, I knew languages - English, Hindi, Marathi, Konkani and Gujarati, and Dutch has been a very welcome addition. It's a very different experience trying to learn a language in your adult life. Being a software developer, I'm no stranger to learning new languages. But languages such as Java, Groovy, UML tend to have a strict set of rules which natural languages do not possess. With a natural language, it's often the rule, and then the exceptions to the rule. It's a bit hard to learn the exceptions, particularly when they're so varied. I often compare natural languages to the laws of society.

Initial Approach
My initial approach to learning Dutch was to learn the grammar. Naive! After few days of schooling and on advice from the teachers, I dropped that approach. I then focussed on learning more and more words and pronunciation. This helped me identify them being used in texts and communication. What sounded gibberish until then started to make some sense. I also made it a point to learn the correct spelling of the word while I memorized it.

Thinking in Dutch
There was this day after six or so months of schooling, when all of a sudden I stopped thinking in English. I could think in Dutch. This was the point of revelation. Learning after this point was so much easier. After this point, I focussed on the language grammar and tried to form sentences.

Speaking Dutch
Although I spoke Dutch in school, I did not have the confidence to speak it outside. I was motivated by my teachers to just start speaking in public without worrying about being completely correct. It was easier said than done. I hestitated because I could not express myself correctly. In an interview for a new assignment, I was asked to speak Dutch. They wished to check my Dutch since all of the system documentation was in Dutch. That was the first moment where I spoke Dutch outside school borders. It was like a hurdle passed, a big hurdle! (Felt like potential energy being transformed to kinetic energy). Although I thought I could have done much better if the interview were in English, I got the job. In this assignment, I began speaking and e-mailing in Dutch. The colleagues were supportive and understood that I was just a learner.

NT2 exams
I decided to give the NT2 exams on advice of one of my teachers. The diploma would be a proof of a certain level I have when it comes to the language. Although I cannot prove that my level of the English language is X, I decided to go for the NT2 exams. It served as a good challenge and at the same time a good end to the schooling journey. After a lot of preparation through sample exams, I appeared for the NT2 exams on 6 and 7 April 2011. The exams consist of four topics - writing, speaking, listening and reading. The listening exam still gives me the chills!

I'm very proud to have achieved this, something I had never thought I would need to do if you asked me 5 years back.

Outdoors @ Bartiméus

Bartiméus is an institution for the blind and the visually impaired. It houses around 350 people and aims to improve the quality of their life by providing personal advice, guidance and knowledge. It’s located in the midst of beautiful nature in Doorn, Netherlands. (Visit them at http://www.bartimeus.nl/)

 

On Friday 25 February, I got an opportunity to visit and help out at Bartiméus. It was arranged by the customer where I presently work. Bartiméus had an 'Ijskoud weekend' (Ice cold weekend) - a winter party on 26 and 27 February. We were to help out with decorating the place for the party.



The party consisted of several sections; the chapel, the school, the huts, party tents and the skating place. Our team was to help decorating all of these and help set up the party tents. After a briefing from the co-ordinator and a cup of tea, we were on our way.





I helped getting the decorations from the cellar and like a true developer contributed in one of the core services – inflating balloons. They need a lot of them and they needed them fast. The work-floor consisted of three balloon-inflating machines, lots of blue, white and silver balloons, lots of balloon string slipknots and four enthusiastic teammates (surprisingly fellow developers). Three of which kept themselves busy with the inflation of balloons and one of whom responsible to make bunches of five balloons. In a period of three hours, we inflated over six hundred balloons. Impressive eh! Our core services transformed Bartiméus into a party place ready to rock.

I truly enjoyed this outdoor activity. Still jump at every balloon burst though! Thanks Bartiméus.

The year that was: 2010

In my last blog of the year 2010, I thought (like many others) of doing a short recap of this year. Like all previous years in my career, I hadn’t really any special goals to be achieved in 2010; just the long-term ones mentioned in my personal development plan. I like to embrace each day as it comes, so a new year generally doesn’t start with a resolution list.

Unlike most years in my career before, this one saw me doing 4 different assignments. When I say ‘different’, I really mean it. I started the year continuing to create a mortgages application (which had been ‘on’ for almost 2 years already).  After that I dirtied my hands in the well buzzed ‘cloud’ domain. From there on I moved towards software maintenance and lastly created a batch application for pensions; 2010 buzz words being ‘mortgages’, ‘cloud’, ‘maintenance’ and ‘pensions’. Also for the first time, Java wasn’t the common factor. Java wasn’t in the cloud then! And software maintenance is a totally different ball-game.

There was one other cool thing brought about by this year. I got the opportunity to lead the Java expert group at my company. It was something new, something I hadn’t done before, something very special (and still is). I enjoyed organizing all the events, summarizing them in our WIKI, networking with the group, and other stuff that came with this role.  This role was my highlight of 2010.

And unlike all other years that passed by, I do have resolutions for 2011. Resolutions for the Java Expert Group.

To the year that was. Cheers!