Master Dutch with ChatGPT

As an international student in Breda you want to get the best experience of your stay in the Netherlands. And though we Dutchies are decent speakers of English, you still need to speak Dutch to really blend in and to optimally enjoy your student life here.

No matter how much time you spend on Duolingo you still want to practice speaking Dutch language.

Unfortunately because we are among the best English as a second language speakers in the world, your Dutch friends are always quick to switch to English when you are around. So you will get little opportunities to actually improve your Dutch.

How can you break this vicious circle?

Get enough Dutch imput

Professor Stephan Krashen has shown that we learn languages through imput or put simply: by listening to and reading in the language you want to learn, in your case Dutch.

"So should I now watch Dutch TV and listen to Dutch radio all day long?"

Not so quick.

In order to absorb Dutch through imput, the stuff you you listen to and read in, must fullfill two conditions:

• It must be comprehensible to you: not too difficult but also not too easy for you.
• It must be compelling: you should be interest in the topic

You are not going to learn any Dutch by watching boring parliamentary debates on Politiek 24.

"How can I get the right stuff?"

ChatGPT is your friend

This is where ChatGPT comes into our picture.

Why ChatGPT?

Because ChatGPT is nothing but a program that is developed to process natural language. It is literally trained with milions of documents in many dozens of languages.

"How can I use it to learn Dutch"

Suppose you are studying Environmental Sciences, you can just ask ChatGPT:

"What are 20 import words in Dutch about Environmental Sciences?"

Now ChatGPT will give you a list of Dutch words on the environment with their English translation. For instance, you will see that the Dutch word for greenhouse effect is broeikasteffect.

No just memorizing words won't help. However, you can now use another prompt:

"Give a short description of 'het broeikast effect' in Dutch and then the translation."

ChatGPT gives you a now a short text in Dutch and its translation in English. You can read both texts but you can also listen to it, just by pressing on the speaker icon just below the reply.

(The pronounciation is decent, though a bit akward - but this should not bother you!)

You can repeat this with the other concepts.

If you are comfortable reading these short Dutch texts. You can ask for instance:

"Explain what 'zure regen' is (in Dutch) in max 3 paragraphs."

This will give a text that's not too long (Tip: specify the length of the reply, as ChatGPT could easily spit out a dozen or so paragraphs).

If you encounter unknown words (e.g. 'waterverzuring') you can ask ChatGPT to give the translation of these words. And if you are really struggling to follow the text, just ask to translate the text into English.

Get to the next level

Once you know more Dutch, you can try to write your prompts in Dutch:

"Wat is zure regen?"

You will get a reply in Dutch. Then you can follow up with:

"Waarom is zure regen slecht?"

And so on.

This way you not only build your reading skills but you also train your writing ability as well.

Why use ChatGPT to improve your Dutch?

• ChatGPT is free to use and 24/7 available to help you out!
• ChatGPT is patient and always willing to talk about what you care about.
• It is way more engaging than Duolingo.

But does ChatGPT not make grammar mistakes? In my experience ChatGPT is roughly 99.9% of the time grammatically correct. Yes, it does make mistakes and sometimes the sentences are formulated somewhat unnatural. But do not let that stop you from mastering Dutch!

Will your give ChatGPT a try?

Psss, maybe you might also read about how I learned English?

Like to talk Dutch with a real person?

Obviously ChatGPT is not a replacement for practicing your Dutch with real native speakers. So I am offering two free trial lessons!