u/Public_Waltz6778

Hi everyone!

I just passed my B2 Dutch exam all 4 parts on the first try, after 2.5 years of continous learning.

I don't want to come across as ignorant, but I was able to pass the exam without going to language schools and I want to share my experience of how I managed to do that, as I know a lot of people are deterred from learning Dutch because of the high cost associated with it.

Caveats: I already speak English at C1 level and my experience can be more applicable to people who live in Rotterdam, because of the help I was able to get.

To start with, I started seriously learning Dutch in January 2024, when I just finished my bachelor degree in Netherlands.

I didn't want to spend too much money in the beginning to learn Dutch, because from my experience with learning English, getting frequent exposure to the language is just as important as having good curriculum and good teachers. Besides, I didn't know much about the quality of language schools here and their style of teaching.

One day, I got a newsletter from my "huis van de wijk" that they offered free Dutch lessons, organized by volunteers. I went there and against my expectations that I would sit in a class with 5-10 students, they gave me the option to have lessons with just another student. This is also because the volunteers themselves preferred a small group, as it's easier for them to teach. The organization that matched Dutch volunteers with the students is actually SOL (sol samen ondernemend leren) solnetwerk.nl

At first, it was mainly learning grammar, but because the group was small, I got plenty of opportunity to speak the language. I also had to supplement the lessons with my volunteers through a lot of self-study, from watching Youtube videos to learning from textbooks.

With my volunteer's help and self-study, I was able to get to the A2-B1 level quite easily. Later on, I also get another volunteer's help from an organization called "Gilde Taal Rotterdam" (as far as I am aware, Gilde Taal is also present in Leiden). The experience is also fantastic. While with SOL volunteer, I studied vocabulary and reading, I studied with Gilde Taal volunteer the other aspects of learning Dutch, such as writing. And ofc, speaking is a big part of every lesson. The volunteers also helped me to prepare for NT2 exam by doing practice tests with me.

So through my experience, I just want to recommend you to reach out to organizations that offered free Dutch language help in your area. Oftentimes, there are more help available than you realized. Of course learning with volunteers have pros and cons.

Pros:

- you usually get lessons in a small group of max 2-3 students. thus more time to interact with the teacher than in a course from a language school.

- the volunteers are usually flexible and because it's small group, it's easier to find a time where you are all available.

- I might be biased, but the interaction with a volunteer can get more personal and warmer than in a course (especially an online course). You thus will also talk about a lot more topics and widen your speaking skills much faster. You also make friends with Dutch people and get to know the culture more.

- you can shape how you want to learn, choose your own material. Thus the cons are:

Cons:

- you have to shape how you want to learn. The volunteer do have some books or materials given by the organization, but as they are not trained teachers, they will understadably not have a well-shaped currriculum on how and what you should learn. Sometimes it can feel disorganized, but if you are someone who understands your needs, the flexibility of the volunteer is actually a great advantage compared to learning in a school.

I also want to share other help that I used or know of (excluding books)

- Taalcafe (the tip is to choose the teacher whose style suits you, it took a while for me to figure that out, but I stopped going because of time conflicts)

- https://oefenen.nl/ good for learning from A1-near B1, the exercises are a bit repetitive though

- https://www.hetbegintmettaal.nl/

- https://www.rotterdam.nl/beter-in-taal I have never tried it, but the Gementee of Rotterdam seems to offer free Dutch lessons too.

- If you wander in the leaflet displays in public libraries, sometimes you will see the leaflets for free courses from language schools. That was also how I found Gilde Taal.

- Easy Dutch Youtube, indispensible for listening skill!

And tips for preparing for the exam

- I would say the most important thing is to practice the exams directly through old exams and oefenexamensnt2.nl It helps you to get farmiliar with the format. After all, it's a exam so you need to come up with tricks to do it well, especially with the speaking exam.

Hope this post is helpful to you and wish you the best to pass NT2 exam!