Will a new year automatically lead to much better Dutch? Unfortunately the short and ugly answer is no. But... there are many reasons to be optimistic anyway. With a longer answer you could all of a sudden have much more perspective :)
Sure.... a new year will not automatically lead to much better Dutch. But... there are many things that you could do, so that your chances of succeeding are much higher! Here are some first tips and insights. Some of them may look quite obvious and still they make absolute sense!
Some simple insights can bring a massive change!
First of all, a new year is always an invitation for reflection. Hopefully there are plenty of things of last year that you are very happy with and... chances are high that somehow you would always like to welcome some positive change.
Some things could be really simple.... Maybe you like to get better along with your Dutch family in law, your coworkers or maybe you like to follow your first Dutch about any topic that you like, such as meditation or cooking :)
The first insight is therefore very simple. Just use more knowledge of Dutch so that you can improve some aspects of your life. Sounds logical, right? Here is the weird thing however..... when most people start to learn Dutch, they just focus on boring text books and then you spend hours and hours on telling the time in Dutch or talking about the weather....
The most logical thing however would be of course, to use your real life as a first resource of inspiration. A bored mind will never ever learn fast, but.... once you can see how every thing that you learn in Dutch can have an immediate impact on your Dutch life, then soon enough you'll feel far more excited about it!
Here is the thing.... learning and speaking Dutch is not so much about memorizing complicated and dry stuff... It is about discovering the world around you. You could be amazed with all these new things that see and hear of a sudden.... You start picking up some sentences of rand om conversations, you understand more Dutch signs. Quite often people find out that some how all of a sudden, you feel more at ease and at home!
Do something different and you can have new results!
Another important thing is that most people unfortunately do no realize how difficult most language courses really are. This is why often it is so hard to make any progress, certainly if you try to figure out things all by yourself. And then.... even if you go to an official language course, there is a big chance that you'll feel overwhelmed with stupid things that don't have your interest in the first place....
The sad truth is that most people never think about it.... they think that this is how you learn a new language.... But.... even if you have learned some great things from your courses already, there is so much more that you can acchieve on a very short term once you start to think in a logical structered way and once you really have outrageous fun with it! Once you do this, things can chance, quite rapidly for the better....
Here are two other articles that could help you to make a jumpstart with your Dutch in 2023....
Why Speaking fluent Dutch in 2023 might not be such a crazy idea
