Yes… it sounds like a cliché, but it is true…. a new year can open the door to new opportunities and new adventures. The only problem is that quite often, your action is required…

Have you ever wondered how speaking Dutch could somehow make your life a lot nicer and far more interesting? If so, then make sure that you read the following 5 tips so that you can be sure that this time, you will speak Dutch for real!

1 Admit for yourself that you really love the idea of speaking fluent Dutch!

Have you been living in Holland for a longer time already? Then chances are high that somehow you got used to the fact that you always speak English with most people around you. Sure… it might annoy you once in a while, certainly when you are the only non Dutch speaking in the room, but probably you also got used to that feeling, right? Although it may not always feel good to be a kind of an outsider, somehow you also learned how to bear and tolerate this feeling. In a way, it is a good thing. At least you will not feel depressed about it… But… if you are too good at bearing this not so nice feeling, then it could stand in the way for something much better…

Step one is very simple… admit that speaking Dutch is something that you really like! 

That is why it so important to really say to yourself that you would love to blend in with any group, certainly if everyone speaks Dutch. You may have fantasized about it once in a while how nice it would feel, but maybe you also felt a bit discouraged at the same time. Although you love to idea of speaking Dutch with everyone, at the same time there might be a little nagging voice in your head that says that it would not be possible for you, or maybe only after a looong time and after  a lot of suffering….

Therefore, here is the first thing that you can do… Simply allow that feeling how nice it would be if you could speak about everything in Dutch and how nice it would be to have entertaining interactions with everyone. Also think about that new freedom you would feel… All of a sudden you could step out of your bubble and do many other things. You could follow any course that you wanted, have better opportunities for jobs or simply have more meaningful relations with the people around you…

That is why you should not push that feeling away when that feeling comes up how great it is to speak Dutch all the time…  Always accept that feeling and enjoy every second of it, even if you don’t know yet how you will learn and speak Dutch in the first place…

A new language simply starts with a desire that could lead to enthusiasm. It can give you that great positive energy that you’ll need for making that radicial  change.

2 Focus on all the benefits on the very short term

One big obstacle that stops many people from taking action is that most people erroneously think that it will take a long time before you can reap benefits. Although it may take some time before you can really start to use your Dutch on a professional level, the good news is that you can benefit from many great things, long before you start to speak it fluently.

Once you start learning Dutch, all of a sudden you will start to notice many more things in your daily surroundings. Places of streets, restaurants and cafés start to make more sense to you. When you speak English with Dutch people, you start to realize that the English that they speak is often a direct translation from their Dutch. Somehow it allows you to pick up other meanings, different intentions. Even if you speak English with Dutch people you start to hear what they really want to say and chances are high that it has a positive impact on many interactions with all the people around you.

Think of all the great things that you could gain! 
Make sure that you also focus on many positive things on a very short term! 

By the way, learning Dutch can give you a great sense of satisfaction from the very first minute that you start with it. If you know how to do it, you can learn Dutch relatively fast and you will get many new insights. It could also be a great opportunity to meet some new friends. It is quite easy to make new friends when you learn  a new language. It is one of the reasons why I always love to learn Greek in Greece. I always meet great people that otherwise I would never meet… Dealing with the same challenges and enjoying the same victories somehow can bring you closer to other people in a group 🙂

By the way here is another great benefit… Even if you don’t master a new language yet, once you start to understand more things around you, it is easy to feel at home. Once you can read signs on the streets and catch up conversations around you, it gives a very special feeling…

3 Speaking a new language is not about memorizing… it is about adopting a new way of thinking!

Most people believe that speaking a new language is all  about memorizing, but luckily this is not true. Although you will always have to memorize at some point, learning a new language has little to do with cramming in new information.

The most important thing that you need to do is that you open you. You simply start to look and listen to the world around you with new eyes and ears. You will play with new concepts and ideas and if you can accept them, you’ll notice how fascinating it is how you could look in many different ways at the world.

Speaking a new language has little to do with just memorizing…
Just memorizing is very unreliable by the way…
Clear understanding always beats stupid memorization!

Once you understand how different people can observe the world in a different way, then all of a sudden it is easy to feel more flexibility in all kinds of different situations.

Another great benefit can be that you notice that somehow you are more  conscious when you communicate in your own language. Somehow it always helps to learn a new foreign language, because it helps you to understand words and sentences in your own language on a deeper level.

Here is one important secret: learning a new language starts with observing, accepting and then if you see or hear it again and again, you can simply copy it. If you live in the Netherlands, then there is not so much need to study o lot. All the information is always around you, the only thing that you need to do is that you learn how to see it and how to hear it. The good thing is that when you truly see and hear all the information around you, it is relatively easy to speak Dutch fast on a satisfying level!

4 Understand that you will be your biggest challenge! 

Every time that you learn a new skill, you will always meet challenges and obstacles. Just one question… what do you think that your biggest challenge would be for speaking great Dutch?

Surprise, surprise, it will not be the so called complexity of the Dutch language….  Learning grammar and new vocabulary will be relatively easy. But… one thing that will really make the difference is how you will deal with that negative voice in your head.

Any time that you like to create something meaningful, a negative voice may come up. 
Don’t believe what this voice says and simply move ahead! 

You may know that negative voice from other areas in your life. It is a voice that loves to tell you why your results are so pathetically low and that no matter how hard you try, you will always suck 🙁   Although the voice may sound familiar – maybe you even believe it is the real you – it is a destructive  power that can ruin many great things in your life….

If you hear this voice, then remember you are not the only one….  Somehow it seems that  one big hobby of this negative voice is to ruin the creativity of people. Here is a strange thing… many artists also suffer from it, no matter how good they are… Even artists that enjoy a worldwide recognition know this voice… It is a voice that likes to tell you how bad your results are and strangely enough, it has nothing to do with failure or success in the real world. For example, even if you sell a paining for one million euros, you may still hear a certain voice that the painting was worthless and that you are an impostor.

One great secret is that you will have to learn how to be kind and gentle to yourself if you like to speak a new language. Sure… doubt and hesitation may come up, but it does not have to stop you. Even if there is a negative voice in your head, you can still move forward and then, if you like, you will be able to enjoy your results 🙂

5 Launching your Dutch language rocket 

Let’s imagine that this year you decide to speak Dutch for real and then you even decide to sign up for a Dutch language course, once a week for 2 hours… What do you think will happen?

Probably not that much. Although 2 hours is a very little tiny step towards your goal, soon enough you’ll discover that it will not be enough.

Every time that you like to launch a language rocket, you need a lot of energy
Enthusiasm combined with fixed focus for a short time form the perfect fuel for your launch

Two hours per week will not do the trick. If you think about it, it is quite obvious….  When you try to speak some Dutch for 2 hours then what will happen? Probably you will go home, right? And then… what will you do the day after? Probably you will start to work and then of course, the week goes by like crazy. Then one week later, you will try to remember what you learned that week before, but probably it will already feel like centuries ago…

Here is a very simple secret. If you really like to learn a new skill – any skill – you need to focus on it for a couple of days in a row. If you focus on it with a laser beam focus then it is easy to get it in your system and then you can do it automatically. Here is another great advantage… If you learn and practice a couple of days in a row then making your homework becomes a lot less relevant. If you think about it then focusing on a new skill for a couple of days is the biggest time saver that you could ever imagine!

Here is some extra help:

If you like to make sure that this year you will speak Dutch for real, then here are a couple of things you can do. You can download a free eBook for some first inspiration or even better, you could join a  FREE live class where you can discover for yourself how you can learn Dutch in a whole new way. Or… if you like to have a personal chat with me, then simply send me an email! I am here to help you….

The most important thing is of course that if you like to speak Dutch in 2019, then make sure that you take some action as soon as you can… Because only action can transform your daydream into reality!