Dutch vs Flemish (Belgian Dutch) – Introduction

Please share and like this video !

Transcript:

Studio Studeo is a video course, which deals with the differences between the Dutch spoken in the Netherlands and the Dutch spoken in Belgium (in other words Flemish). The course is made by Tom Raes from Belgium and me, Bart de Pau, from the Netherlands.

The good news for any Dutch learner is that the differences are just very small. You will absolutely not have any problem if you learnt Dutch in one country, to use it in the other. The difference is mainly the accent (you will hear it) and some specific words. You can compare it with the difference between UK and US English.

How did we set up this course? We have 10 episodes. Each episode is a conversation between Tom and me. And we talk about the differences in the language, but we also cover some general differences between the Netherlands and Belgium (or more specifically: Flanders – which is the Dutch speaking part of Belgium).

The conversation is in Dutch, but we speak very slowly, so that even students who are just above beginner level, will be able to understand.

In the video, you will see the Dutch text of the conversation. And in youtube, you can add the English subtitles – by pushing the CC button. So you can see the sentences in both languages at once, and that may be a great help in studying the language.

The transcripts of the conversations in Dutch and the English translation, you can find on learndutch.org

Attention: this course is NOT about dialects. Because learning dialects would be almost impossible for a foreigner. There are hundreds of dialects. People from one region in Belgium have difficulties to understand people from other regions within Belgium and the same for the Netherlands. So this course is about the official language, as for example is used on television.

Oh yeah, just to give a hint to understand the humor in the videos. The Dutch traditionally make fun of the intellectual capacities of the Belgians.

And the Belgians make fun of the Dutch for being greedy.

Have fun with the course !