It is easy to be believe that you are stupid if you try to learn and speak a new language, certainly a language like Dutch. Before you know it, you mispronounce things or you put your sentence in the wrong order again. What is a stupid reaction? It could be stupid me.. This is not a very empowering thought, don't you think? No one likes to feel stupid and chances are high that this is also true for you.
That is why it is a good idea to look at some negative thougths a bit more critcally... Are you really that stupid if you do something wrong in a new language? Hopefully you tend to agree that of course the only right answer should be no.... Nee natuurlijk niet! No of course not!
We all know that making mistakes is something that you must do if you like to learn something new. In that sense, making mistakes is actually an intelligent thing that you can do and this automatically means that from now on it does not make anymore sense to call yourself stupid.
Therefore, if you are not happy with the current level of your Dutch yet, you do not have think anymore that you are stupid, but it does not mean that the 'problem' is solved. Have you ever considered that instead of being stupid, you may be too smart?
This thought might go against your intuition... How can you be too smart for speaking real Dutch? It is actually quite simple. If you are more intelligent, than some specific traps are waiting for you.. Let's discover 3 of them and then you can see for yourself if it could also apply to you...
The most important thing to understand that intelligence can help you to learn a language faster and to speak Dutch with far more ease, but... intelligence is like a sharp knive. You can use it both for good and for bad things and if you use intelligence the wrong way, it can actually do a lot of harm.
1 You tend to make things too complex and difficult
What happens if you want to create a sentence in Dutch? Do you simply take some words that you know and can you put it in a short sentence fast? If you do, then congratulations. However, knowing a lot does not always mean that you can say a lot.
Are your thoughts a bit more complex in general? Then expressing them in Dutch can be a great challenge. Chances are high that somehow you are missing some essential words and that you like to cram too much information in a long and complex sentence.
If you like to speak Dutch with ease, then simplicity is a great idea. The first step is that you realize that you may have the habit to make things more complicated than they have to be. Although you may inintially not like the idea, just go and create many sentences that are ridiculously simple. Do this again and again and then all of a sudden, a great thing will happen. You'll start to notice that you feel that saying things in Dutch can be easy and then - while speaking Dutch again - you'll notice that gradually you can make your sentences longer and longer and even more complicated. Once you embrace the idea of simplicity first, you'll be able to reach much higer levels, sooner than you imagine
2 You like to express your thoughts accurately
A frustration that people often feel is that all of a sudden they sound like a litte child. If this is what you like to believe, then here is something that is really good to know...
Sounding like a child is very difficult to achieve. Here is a very strange thing.... We have all been in child in our lives. We should be able to know how it feels like, right? It should be easy to simply use your memory and then act like a child. But... here is a great paradox... For an adult it is acually quite difficult - if not impossible - to sound and to act like a child. Sure, there are some memories that you may still have but... somehow your brain and mind changed, if you like you could see it as a caterpilllar that now turned into a butterfly.
If you like, just try it out for yourself. Call some people and act like a child of 4 years old. Would they believe you? It is virtually guaranteed that people will always figure out that you are not a child anymore, even when you speak in in your language...
That is why you a good idea to dismiss the idea that you sound like a child while talking Dutch. If you really managed to do it, it would be extremely amazing....
Let's do a little test. Can you guess the meaning of this sentence? Mijn werk is monotoon..... It means that my work is boring, right? If you share this sentence with a Dutch child, then chances are high that it would not understand you. In this sense, you could already outsmart a Dutch child. The most important thing that is good to really grasp is that children and adults learn and speak a language in different ways...
3 You are too much focused on acquiring new information
One risk of being more smart or intelligent is that you love new information and that you don't really speak. To the mind new information can feel really good, because if you have more insights then it feels quite good. Now you feel more confident!
The tricky thing is that quite sometimes, focusing on understanding things can sometimes work like a drug. You stay in that beautiful realm of theory and you never bring all what you have learned into real practice.
If you like to speak Dutch, then what you need to do is quite simple. Just start speaking, keep it simple and do some silly and stupid things. Your cricital mind may not like this idea... If you say, it has to be correct and it needs to make sense, right? Sure... this thought sounds more than logical and.... what if the opposite is true? Just try and see what happens.... If you know how to do it, you'll experience a first flow and you can have some fun too :)
Conclusion
Intelligence can certainly help you to learn Dutch faster and to speak it with far more ease. Just make sure thaat you use it the right way. Don't let it stop you from diving in for real. Knowing how to use your intelligence is a skill by itself and you never know... You can be smarter than you think. Once again, just start speaking for real and enjoy the experience. Once you understand this simple principle, then you are already miles ahead!
