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I guess the only day that the Dutch speak a bit of German is during Queensday on 30 april, but i guess that is because of the alcohol that goes in ;-)

Wow! Give yourself more credit. Your English is very good. I have read quite a few of your postings, and you communicate on a lot of topics very well.

see title by the way. It is \Do american, instead of does right?

thanks huntse, was about to kick some ass

It do not matter (lol). The fact is that you communicate/converse many ideas and topics very well. This is my definition of fluent.

Just use a Grammar/Spell Checker.......and/or a Thesaurus . It is a life-saver even for native English speakers who have to do any amount of writing.

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Never heard about the "th" sound being so difficult. It is an interesting thing to me, that Spain and Puerto Rico (may be others?) use a sort of "th" sound for the letter S. Kind of like a "sthuh". Sometimes it is possible to actually see their tongue. How does that happen with the letter "S"? lol

I have always taught the "th" sound a bit differently (learned in a training course).
KEY: the tip of the tongue BETWEEN the teeth......as well as forcing air (not just vocal cord).

It exaggerates the action for learning the new habit. The problem usually comes from the person tapping the back of the teeth like a "T" or "D". So I have them exaggerate the action. Think about this. When we get tired or lazy, we always fall back to our old habits. My method is that.....exaggerating it, reinforces it (memory too).


NOW, if someone could just help me with the ROLLING R's in Spanish -- my accent would be excellent. Double r's sound like a rrrRRRrrr. ...... cigarro carro barril ferrocarril burrito torre
Just kidding about the help. I gave up a long time ago. lol

ohyea btw for the Belgium haters :
couple of months ago there where a couple of articles saying that Flanders (the dutch speaking part of Belgium) was the second richest region in the world, except for Oberösterreich in Austria.
Booya you white trash, overweight, unemployed, Swarschnegger voting, jesus loving, flag loving, oil pumping, war starting American dreamers...

It do not matter (lol). The fact is that you communicate/converse many ideas and topics very well. This is my definition of fluent.

Just use a Grammar/Spell Checker.......and/or a Thesaurus . It is a life-saver even for native English speakers who have to do any amount of writing.

-----
Never heard about the "th" sound being so difficult. It is an interesting thing to me, that Spain and Puerto Rico (may be others?) use a sort of "th" sound for the letter S. Kind of like a "sthuh". Sometimes it is possible to actually see their tongue. How does that happen with the letter "S"? lol

I have always taught the "th" sound a bit differently (learned in a training course).
KEY: the tip of the tongue BETWEEN the teeth......as well as forcing air (not just vocal cord).

It exaggerates the action for learning the new habit. The problem usually comes from the person tapping the back of the teeth like a "T" or "D". So I have them exaggerate the action. Think about this. When we get tired or lazy, we always fall back to our old habits. My method is that.....exaggerating it, reinforces it (memory too).


NOW, if someone could just help me with the ROLLING R's in Spanish -- my accent would be excellent. Double r's sound like a rrrRRRrrr. ...... cigarro carro barril ferrocarril burrito torre
Just kidding about the help. I gave up a long time ago. lol

That is because the spaniards speak the R's with their tongue behind their teath, while dutch people use their throath for that lol
I can know it because i am a spaniard that speaks with Dutch R ;-)

Side history note (not on language):
I watched John Adams a few weeks ago.
It was the Dutch who gave "America" its first lines of credit, while also recognizing their new Independence. I actually went back in the video to hear the number again. The mini-series said $5million (dollars), but with some research, that appears a bit inaccurate. Seems it was over at least three (3) loans -- whether it was Guilders or gold/silver, I am not clear.

But without the Dutch loans, it would have been very difficult to start and maintain a new nation.
The first Line of Credit helped establish the US with other countries (recognizing our Independence). This also demonstrates the power that Dutch had in International Trade. "Sure, we trust you. Here is a few million dollars/guilders/gold" (in 1782).

Th is really hard for most dutch speakers. My wife wanted to call our first kid Theo, but they pronounce it Teo.

Also, one of the most wacky things about dutch is the fact that they have some really long words (which are just multiple small words glued together. Example

Vrachtwagenachteruitkijkspiegeltje

IMO Hardest dutch word that most native english speakers cannot say (took me YEARS) is Vliegtuig
(means airplane).

What happends with English words in Dutch is also quite interesting, for example: geüpdatete

the th-thing definitely true. uncountable lessons here in german schools in the first year you learn english to just pronounce th. id say less than 50% of the ones you guys would consider to be fluent (and more than 90% in total or prolly even more) saying a "s" "sh" or a "f" ... let them try to say "the southpark theme" .. it will be "se souspark feme"
all the americans i meet though with huge problems to pronounce ä ö ü

zamboni , I'm never going to play scrabble with stanmore!

LOLOL for some reason that was the first "z" word that came into my head.

I think I read somewhere that the 'th' sound is one of the absolute toughest things to pronounce in language, and if you haven't picked it up by a certain age (fairly young IIRC) you have essentially no shot of ever getting it.

The French 'r' has to be up there as well.

LOLOL for some reason that was the first "z" word that came into my head.

When you are in the zone, at zenith I would score zero, zilch or zip.
(I need a bigger dictionary.)

The Dutch I ran into in Amsterdam were super friendly- why do they think its so funny when Americans go to coffee shops? And why don't they smoke more weed? wtf?

And why don't they smoke more weed? wtf?

its like america and guns, if its everywhere, its not really that interesting anymore

The Dutch I ran into in Amsterdam were super friendly

Even so.... watch where you're going?