Learn Dutch for social media

In the last few years a whole new area of communication has been added to learning Dutch: social media.

When I was studying Russian (more than 15 years ago) nobody spoke about Facebook, Twitter, Youtube or Instagram.

In this blog I will tell you all about learning Dutch with social media and the words that are important here.

Meet Dutch students online

First, these online channels are a great place to practise and learn a new language. I found out myself that Youtube and Facebook are great ways to meet students and show my online material.

I also saw that students met each other on my Facebook platform. Studying Dutch together can be more fun and efficient.

Learn Dutch writing on social media

I always find it fun to see that learners write in Dutch in the comments. And a lot of you do it! I appreciate that.

The more you do it, the better you get at it. This is definitely the case for learning Dutch in general, but also for writing.

Of course, you can use it for other reasons, for example to learn more about the pronunciation of Dutch.

Learn Dutch pronunciation on social media

You may know that pronunciation is a difficult part of learning Dutch. The good thing about Youtube is there are hours and hours of material to be found there of people speaking Dutch.
And not only Dutch, but all the dialects and accents that exist. So if you are planning to move to Maastricht. You can listen to people speaking Maastrichts.

Another important aspect of learning a language is the culture. And of course, things like music, movies and television shows can be found online, often for free.

Learn Dutch reading on social media

There’s a lot to read on social media. The good thing is that there are a lot of easy to read texts to be found. And if you know something about the subject it gets even easier!

So for example a good thing to read is the news on Twitter. If Dutch pop ups on your screen you cannot avoid it.

Another tip: change your language setting on your phone

This may sound a bit crazy. But it’s really helpful.

One key aspect of learning Dutch is that you have to be around it. As much as possible, in a lot of situations. It doesn’t matter how, but it has to Dutch. A small thing, like adjusting your language setting to Dutch helps with being immersed more in Dutch.

Social media vocabulary

Of course there are a lot of words that have to do with social media.

Here are some of them:

Follow Volgen
Like Vind-ik-leuk
Share Delen
Post Posten
Tag Taggen
Block Blocken of blokeren
Update Updaten
Write a comment – Een opmerking schrijven
Leave a comment – Een opmerking achterlaten
Downloaden Downloaden
Befriend – Bevrienden
Unfriend – Ontvrienden
Login – Inloggen
Logout – Uitloggen
Hashtag – Hashtag / Hekje
@ – At / Apenstaartje
Dot – Punt

In the last few years English words from social media have entered the Dutch language. What the Dutch do is that we take these words and turn them into Dutch verbs. And these Dutch verbs are used with Dutch grammar. So you get:

Facebook – facebooken

Ik facebook elke dag.

Netflix – netflixen

Ik heb gisteren genetflixt.

Whatsapp – (whats)appen

Ik appte je gisteren.

This last one causes a lot of confusion for foreigners. It may sound like the plural of ´app´. But here the Dutch are referring to using whatsapp.

And sometimes you can also use these nouns for a person. A facebooker is someone who uses Facebook. Like a youtuber is someone who uses Youtube (like me)

Sentences relating to social media