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tomnj Tuesday 05th of July 2005 04:32:53 AM
Dutch News - So I had this idea that a good way to learn Dutch would be through reading and translating news articles written in Dutch. News articles are generally written by people with a somewhat better grasp for grammar than most so I figured this could be a good learning tool. I found a website called nu.nl wich has some smaller sized articles so translations shouldn't take long. I picked one at random and pasted it in its entirety below. If someone doesn't mind translating this and you guys think you could learn from this we can pick new ones in the future or maybe even step it up to Volkskrant articles.

Ok, heres the article. My Ditch is extremely basic so I can only tell you it's about celphones in some way.

'Crazy Frog troggelt kinderen geld af'

Uitgegeven: 1 juli 2005 17:36
Laatst gewijzigd: 1 juli 2005 17:37
LONDEN - De Britse telecomwaakhond ICSTIS is een onderzoek begonnen naar mBlox, de verspreider van de populaire Crazy Frog ringtone. Mogelijk wordt de ringtone gebruikt om nietsvermoedende kinderen geld af te troggelen. Kinderen die de 'gekke kikker' op hun mobiele telefoon downloaden nemen automatisch een abonnement op andere ringtones, meldden Britse media vrijdag.

ICSTIS stelde een onderzoek in nadat het overladen werd met klachten van bezorgde ouders, die schrokken van de hoge telefoonrekening van hun kinderen. De ringtones kosten namelijk drie pond per stuk. Als ICSTIS constateert dat mBlox telecomregels overschreden heeft, dan kan mBlox een boete van maximaal 100.000 pond tegemoet zien of zelfs buiten bedrijf worden gesteld.

In Groot-Brittannië was de Crazy Frog ringtone zo populair, dat het Coldplay van de eerste plaats in de hitlijsten stootte. Ook in Nederland doet de kikker goede zaken.

Mathieu Tuesday 05th of July 2005 04:51:01 AM
- 'Crazy Frog rips children off'

Published: 1st of July 2005 17:36
Last edited: 1st of July 2005 17:37
LONDON - The British "telecommunication watchdog" ICSTIS started an investigation on mBlox, the distributor of the popular Crazy Frog ringtone. The ringtone is possibly being used to rip off unsuspecting children. Children that want to download 'gekke kikker' on their mobile phone automatically accept a suscription to other ringtones, as the British media reported on friday.

ICSTIS initiated the investigation after it was showered with complaints of worried parents, who were startled by the large phone bills of their children. For the ringtones cost £3 each. If ICSTIS finds that mBlox has exceded telecommunication rules, then mBlox can await a £100.000 fine or even get closed down.

In Great Britain the Crazy Frog ringtone was so popular, that it bumped Coldplay from 1st place in the rankings. The Dutch frog is doing good business too.
___________________

However, I think it'll be more useful to study colloquial language, especially since there is quite a big gap between written and spoken language in Dutch.
Ok, it is good to be able to read newspapers, I practise Swedish this way too. Best of both worlds can be found at:

[b]www.fok.nl[/b]

The site (partly) aims at youth, and the articles are also replied by ordinary native speakers. A perfect way to learn colloquial language on the one hand and learn to read news articles on the other hand, and moreover, articles that aren't crammed with weird old fashioned or hard terminology that'll only cause you head aches and waste your time on looking it all up. I really think this should be one of the top sites to learn written Dutch from, and it's a nice read :)

Nostromo Tuesday 05th of July 2005 08:39:18 PM
news - Just as thought, I don't think news articles represent Dutch as it can be learned (i.e. learning the rules before breaking them). There are many words used out of context and words 'invented' in newspapers, take a look at your own papers! Also journalists are notoriously bad a grammar... aaah, but who am I?...

Mathieu Tuesday 05th of July 2005 09:16:51 PM
- You're right, there is no reason why journalists would be better at grammar than the ordinary Jan met de pet ;)
Also articles sometimes require knowledge of the world that you don't always have (especially when the news is national or even regional), when I read the Swedish news I try to ignore the problems with the invented words and everything as much as i can, it's not ideal, but a welcome extra now and then.

tomnj Wednesday 06th of July 2005 05:54:48 AM
- See the problem with trying to learn Dutch here in the US is that there is little to no Dutch speaking people to talk to. As a result, you're confined to the written form or listening to recordings. I've tried watching Dutch programming online but without subtitling I found it pretty much futile as I'm just not advanced enough to comprehend more than a word here and there yet. I have Dutch learning cd's but there's usually not enough of a variety of contexts and I find myself just memorizing the dialogs. Here's a thought-do DVD movies in NL come with Dutch subtitling? If so it might be worth getting a PAL region player here in the US. I've read Dutch people pick up on English better than other Europeans because they don't overdub our movies they just subtitle them. Someone learning Dutch could possibly use that to their advantages(as far as reading and grammar goes).

Mathieu Wednesday 06th of July 2005 06:26:18 PM
- Yes, all movies have subtitles. None are dubbed, so you can't hear it, but the subtitles are way more important anyway. It's probably true learning English is facilitated by the subtitles, since in Belgium the people from Flanders, who have subtitles, speak English way better than the people from Wallonia, where all the movies are dubbed.
I've got 75% of my knowledge of Swedish from Swedish subtitles that I have on TV here, it is extremely useful, and since English is your native language, it should be even easier to you than it is to me, since I'm dealing with 2 foreign languages at the same time.

If you (or any other students) want to buy any movies and you can't find them, and you can pay by Paypal, IBAN, or you can send cash, I could buy them for you and send them. I do alot of international shipping anyways. Just send me a PM, anyone that's interested.

La_Pluie Sunday 24th of July 2005 10:48:24 AM
- I haven't studied much Dutch, but I think that news articles are a great way to learn. What I do is read an article and put words I don't know on flashcards. It's how I learned French. If it weren't for news articles, there's a good chance I'd still be a beginner.

nostromo Monday 25th of July 2005 08:46:23 PM
- Personally, I think they are a terrible way to learn. If you mean actually 'learning by' news articles I don't believe it can be done; if you mean using them as a resource material then o.k.

Phrasebase Archive
	tomnj	Tuesday 05th of July 2005 04:32:53 AM
	Dutch News - So I had this idea that a good way to learn Dutch would be through reading and translating news articles written in Dutch. News articles are generally written by people with a somewhat better grasp for grammar than most so I figured this could be a good learning tool. I found a website called nu.nl wich has some smaller sized articles so translations shouldn't take long. I picked one at random and pasted it in its entirety below. If someone doesn't mind translating this and you guys think you could learn from this we can pick new ones in the future or maybe even step it up to Volkskrant articles. Ok, heres the article. My Ditch is extremely basic so I can only tell you it's about celphones in some way. 'Crazy Frog troggelt kinderen geld af' Uitgegeven: 1 juli 2005 17:36 Laatst gewijzigd: 1 juli 2005 17:37 LONDEN - De Britse telecomwaakhond ICSTIS is een onderzoek begonnen naar mBlox, de verspreider van de populaire Crazy Frog ringtone. Mogelijk wordt de ringtone gebruikt om nietsvermoedende kinderen geld af te troggelen. Kinderen die de 'gekke kikker' op hun mobiele telefoon downloaden nemen automatisch een abonnement op andere ringtones, meldden Britse media vrijdag. ICSTIS stelde een onderzoek in nadat het overladen werd met klachten van bezorgde ouders, die schrokken van de hoge telefoonrekening van hun kinderen. De ringtones kosten namelijk drie pond per stuk. Als ICSTIS constateert dat mBlox telecomregels overschreden heeft, dan kan mBlox een boete van maximaal 100.000 pond tegemoet zien of zelfs buiten bedrijf worden gesteld. In Groot-Brittannië was de Crazy Frog ringtone zo populair, dat het Coldplay van de eerste plaats in de hitlijsten stootte. Ook in Nederland doet de kikker goede zaken.
	Mathieu	Tuesday 05th of July 2005 04:51:01 AM
	- 'Crazy Frog rips children off' Published: 1st of July 2005 17:36 Last edited: 1st of July 2005 17:37 LONDON - The British "telecommunication watchdog" ICSTIS started an investigation on mBlox, the distributor of the popular Crazy Frog ringtone. The ringtone is possibly being used to rip off unsuspecting children. Children that want to download 'gekke kikker' on their mobile phone automatically accept a suscription to other ringtones, as the British media reported on friday. ICSTIS initiated the investigation after it was showered with complaints of worried parents, who were startled by the large phone bills of their children. For the ringtones cost £3 each. If ICSTIS finds that mBlox has exceded telecommunication rules, then mBlox can await a £100.000 fine or even get closed down. In Great Britain the Crazy Frog ringtone was so popular, that it bumped Coldplay from 1st place in the rankings. The Dutch frog is doing good business too. ___________________ However, I think it'll be more useful to study colloquial language, especially since there is quite a big gap between written and spoken language in Dutch. Ok, it is good to be able to read newspapers, I practise Swedish this way too. Best of both worlds can be found at: [b]www.fok.nl[/b] The site (partly) aims at youth, and the articles are also replied by ordinary native speakers. A perfect way to learn colloquial language on the one hand and learn to read news articles on the other hand, and moreover, articles that aren't crammed with weird old fashioned or hard terminology that'll only cause you head aches and waste your time on looking it all up. I really think this should be one of the top sites to learn written Dutch from, and it's a nice read :)
	Nostromo	Tuesday 05th of July 2005 08:39:18 PM
	news - Just as thought, I don't think news articles represent Dutch as it can be learned (i.e. learning the rules before breaking them). There are many words used out of context and words 'invented' in newspapers, take a look at your own papers! Also journalists are notoriously bad a grammar... aaah, but who am I?...
	Mathieu	Tuesday 05th of July 2005 09:16:51 PM
	- You're right, there is no reason why journalists would be better at grammar than the ordinary Jan met de pet ;) Also articles sometimes require knowledge of the world that you don't always have (especially when the news is national or even regional), when I read the Swedish news I try to ignore the problems with the invented words and everything as much as i can, it's not ideal, but a welcome extra now and then.
	tomnj	Wednesday 06th of July 2005 05:54:48 AM
	- See the problem with trying to learn Dutch here in the US is that there is little to no Dutch speaking people to talk to. As a result, you're confined to the written form or listening to recordings. I've tried watching Dutch programming online but without subtitling I found it pretty much futile as I'm just not advanced enough to comprehend more than a word here and there yet. I have Dutch learning cd's but there's usually not enough of a variety of contexts and I find myself just memorizing the dialogs. Here's a thought-do DVD movies in NL come with Dutch subtitling? If so it might be worth getting a PAL region player here in the US. I've read Dutch people pick up on English better than other Europeans because they don't overdub our movies they just subtitle them. Someone learning Dutch could possibly use that to their advantages(as far as reading and grammar goes).
	Mathieu	Wednesday 06th of July 2005 06:26:18 PM
	- Yes, all movies have subtitles. None are dubbed, so you can't hear it, but the subtitles are way more important anyway. It's probably true learning English is facilitated by the subtitles, since in Belgium the people from Flanders, who have subtitles, speak English way better than the people from Wallonia, where all the movies are dubbed. I've got 75% of my knowledge of Swedish from Swedish subtitles that I have on TV here, it is extremely useful, and since English is your native language, it should be even easier to you than it is to me, since I'm dealing with 2 foreign languages at the same time. If you (or any other students) want to buy any movies and you can't find them, and you can pay by Paypal, IBAN, or you can send cash, I could buy them for you and send them. I do alot of international shipping anyways. Just send me a PM, anyone that's interested.
	La_Pluie	Sunday 24th of July 2005 10:48:24 AM
	- I haven't studied much Dutch, but I think that news articles are a great way to learn. What I do is read an article and put words I don't know on flashcards. It's how I learned French. If it weren't for news articles, there's a good chance I'd still be a beginner.
	nostromo	Monday 25th of July 2005 08:46:23 PM
	- Personally, I think they are a terrible way to learn. If you mean actually 'learning by' news articles I don't believe it can be done; if you mean using them as a resource material then o.k.