4 jaar: My unexpected journey with Dutch language
It is often said that great things will come at the time when you least expect it. My journey with Dutch language sounds a bit similar to that. Four years ago, I was looking for a scholarship to study abroad. With unclear destination but determined, I was reminded about the Netherlands because the country offer master programmes in English. Curiosity brought me to search for Dutch tutorials video on Youtube. I found Lidewij and her Dutch lessons on her channel and others on the site. I made a small note on my research journal which I'm still grateful for today. From there, I started practising with Dutch people I met before starting to do volunteering work that allow me to practice my Dutch.
It seemed unclear at that time of exactly why I would learn Dutch for. A country with only 16 million people made it so much more reasonable to learn French or German in many ways. However, at that time, I was curious and could only think about learning it. I started looking for Dutch people everywhere I go. I picked up the love for urban cycling, and joined as many activities as possible where I can practice the language; going to European film festival, search for stroopwafels, having a little Dutch notebook with me all the time etc. Even now, I'm still amazed at my own energy back then.
Looking back, I think one of the many factors that helped me kept going was the changes I saw in myself and the events and experiences that were coming in my path. I was reminded of how different life can be by start exploring the things around me, for example, I learned a lot more about cycling, urban planing, and geography after I started going to places by bicycle. I got to learn about the patterns of people's daily lives in my neighbourhood. And more importantly, I got to connect with people and that's my most favourite thing about learning a language -Connecting. We can be different in the way we look and the clothes we wear, but language allow us to communicate and learn how much similar we are on the inside. It's a tool that came with opportunity to share your experience and dreams.
Thank you for everything that came to my life during the past 4 years of learning Dutch. It's still surprised me up to now that I got to work in a job that allow me to use Dutch and help people almost everyday. Thank you for everyone that I met and allow me to practice Dutch with them. Thank you for all my followers for your support and thank you for myself that I didn’t give up. And if there’s anything my readers can take away from this post is to keep exploring, no matter how strange or unpopular it may seems, if it gives you energy and joy, then go forward. Only you know what’s right for you and you will be surprise that everyone is there to help you get to where you would like to go.
