Dutch Language Islands[]
Welcome to Dutch Language Islands
(with parallel English translation)
Welkom bij Nederlandse Taal Eilanden
Dutch Language Islands are about learning Dutch and English by using a technique popularised by Boris Shekhtman, a very successful language teacher. His “method” is quite comprehensive and will not be addressed here. Rather, a part of his method called “language islands” will be used here to help Dutch/English language learners to vastly improve their conversational Dutch and English, and generally improve their writing, reading and listening skills as well.
What is a Language Island?
A language island is one or a few short paragraphs about some specific subject in the language you are learning. The objective is to memorise the paragraph(s) to ensure you could speak or write it very well. Ideally, your pronunciation would be native-like, but realistically, you pronounce it as well as you can. To make it easier and more productive, all these islands have parallel Dutch and English text.
One island by itself is not very useful. The idea is to have many of these islands at your immediate disposal. You use them to help you with a conversation, or in your writing. Typically, they might be about:
- yourself (to introduce yourself in a conversation)
- where you live
- what you do (student, work, retired, etc.)
- things you like to do
- hobbies and interests
- music, movies
- travels
- family
- things you need to do such as shopping
- travelling (directions, tickets, hotels, restaurants)
- whatever you want to talk about
The people who have used “language islands” successfully say it really helps their confidence, their conversations and it really speeds their progress. You will soon find yourself branching out from your islands, using parts of the information, the sentence structures and the vocabulary.
Ideally, islands are first created in your native language from the things you normally talk about. Then they would be translated into your target language by a native who, ideally, would also help you with the islands and especially with the pronunciation.
Some Dutch/English Language Islands