True, Amsterdam is an international place (I’ve heard that close to 50% of the people don’t have Dutch as their native language – somehow I doubt it). Also true, almost everyone in the Netherlands speaks some level of English (and a majority do speak quite well). And also true, you can live here for years without properly learning the language (I know more than a few people in this situation).

Yet somehow it does not feel the same (after two years of asking people to please speak English to you). Everyone is nice and polite, even offering to speak English to you, yet the moment that the conversation is not only with you anymore, then it usually shifts back to  Dutch.  Also, I wonder if I’d feel comfortable speaking in English to all my friends simply because one of them does not speak Portuguese. Well maybe at first… and this at first has kind of a limited warranty period. Once you are here for more than six months, yes,  there is some level of barely hidden expectation that… well, you will speak Dutch.

At first I tried with group classes in the Universiteit van Amsterdam – on INTT – which are actually quite good and well organized. They work with the Code book & CD, which means a lot of multimedia and interactive stuff that help not only read the language but also listen and in some cases speak. I was able to go through the Beginners and Pre-Intermediate courses from them, but the thing is – once you take a break for any reason, it is hard to come back and dedicate 6 hours of your weekdays plus homework on weekends.

One year or more of reading the free newspapers and dealing with the day to day burocracy (yes, the government is nice, but no, they don’t recognize English as the official language from the Netherlands), I got a bit tired and went through with the Michel Thomas method that you can buy in the iTunes Store and listen in your ipod/phone. I did the fundamental and advanced courses rather quickly, and they do make sense (maybe a bit to pricey, but I am considering the French option once I am done with learning Dutch).

With some friends helping – with patience enough to speak slowly and try to make sense out of my strange phrasal constructions, I’d say fluency started coming (well, actually, the sight of some level of fluency started arriving at the very end of the horizon). That plus the fact that walking with a dog makes everyone assume you are a local (locals speak Dutch to each other,  toch?), is making me feel a bit more confident in moving ahead. Finally, now I am in the process of starting with a private tutor on the weekends. Let’s see how it goes…  succes!