Dutch B1 Speaking – 5 Tips show you how to learn to speak at level B1 for daily life. On the exam, speaking is more specific, the last two tips refer to that.
Margreet Kwakernaak, author of Dutch for Dummies 3rd edition
Estimated reading time 8 minutes
First Tip – For level A2 you learn home, garden, and kitchen words. However, for level B1 you need more difficult words
Home, garden, and kitchen words are words you need for basic communication in daily life. You run into them, as soon as you try to communicate in Dutch.
On the other hand, at level B1, you learn more cultivated words for the same fields.
Moreover, you learn words to communicate at a higher level. These are words that you need to talk about your surroundings: housing and transport, and the town you live in. Most probably you do sports, and Duch National holidays are your new days off. At some moment, you’ll use Dutch healthcare and, from the first moment you live in the Netherlands, you are confronted with rules and regulations. All these fields have their vocabulary.
The blog Accelerate the learning of Dutch B1 words will help you.
In short, you must add some 2200 B1 words in these fields to the 2200 home, garden, and kitchen words you must know for level A2. Read more in Dutch B1 – The Main Points
How to learn B1 words?
You learn B1 words partly like you learned the A2 words. You can read more about it in Word learning, make it part of your life. But now, you must develop a new strategy as you don’t run automatically into B1 words. A1 and A2 words are everywhere and you cannot ignore them. Unfortunately, if you are a highly skilled migrant, it’s easy to avoid Dutch in your daily life. If you live in an expat town, even the trainer in the gym speaks English.
When you studied for A2 the free app Duolingo may have helped you a lot, but its highest level is A2. The same concerns most language learning videos on YouTube, the free classes in buurthuizen, and libraries. They all finish at level A2.
Resuming: B1 requires a new strategy to learn the right words. How to apply the newly learned words, is explained in Dutch B1 Reading Skill – 5 Tips
Dutch B1 Speaking Tip 2 – Level B1 requires sentences of two parts, connected by words such as ‘als’ ‘toen’ and ‘omdat’
For most of us, English is the language we use for work, and for many of us, English is a near native language. We are unlucky, as the Dutch word order differs from the English one.
A good teacher needs 10 minutes to explain, and you’ll understand. However, to speak and write in the right order takes much longer. Lifelong word order attention remains a requirement for NT2 speakers.
This already applies to level A2, but level B1 requires more.
A2 and B1 word order in short
A1 word order
Let’s go into details. At level A1, you speak in short sentences.
However, at level A2, you also must be able to use the words en, maar, want, of en dus to make a connection between sentences. With them, you can make longer sentences, like:
Ik woon in Almere, maar ik werk in Amsterdam. Dus, ik ga met de trein naar Amsterdam.
or:
Ik ga elke dag met de trein naar Amsterdam, want ik woon in Almere, maar ik werk in Amsterdam.
In a normal sentence, the verb comes in second place. Find more details in Dutch word order 1
B1 word order
As mentioned, level B1 requires more conjunctions than the 5 easy ones, ‘en maar, want, of en dus’. For level B1 you need the indispensable als, hoewel, omdat en terwijl, You’ll also need zodra, dat, voordat, nadat, totdat, en zodat.
Unfortunately, these conjunctions require a special word order. After these, all the verbs come at the end of the sentence.
Hij wil in Amsterdam werken als (when) hij in Amsterdam gaat wonen.
Ik werk in Amsterdam, hoewel (though) ik in Almere woon.
Hij woont in Amsterdam, omdat (because) hij in Amsterdam werkt.
Zij woont in Almere, terwijl zij in Amsterdam werkt.
This B1 word order is a new obstacle to overcome. This may take several months. Dutch word order 2 adds details and exercise. A correct word order is required to sound as an adult and to pass the B1 exam.
Third Tip – How to find and learn B1 words, how to practice word order
Shorten your study time for Dutch B1 Speaking: do a quality course. Do not stick to self-study: it does not work at this level.
First, B1 courses offer carefully selected vocabulary that brings you from A2 to B1 as soon as possible. However, it will take time. Read more about the hours to invest in Dutch B1 : how many hours?
second, good lessons offer speaking practice
third, the teacher answers your questions and
finally, the teacher corrects your word order.
B1 Speaking and The Delft method
If you study with The Delft method, e-learning takes over part of the teacher’s job. You prepare your lessons with it. E-learning is patient and you can repeat as long and as much as you want. As a result, an e-learning-based course is cheaper than a traditional one.
De Tweede Ronde offers you the B1 vocabulary in interesting texts, suited for conversation. E-learning is fine for self-study. However, if you do e-learning only, you miss the most essential part of learning a language: talking.
When you do B1 with Suitcase talen, you have two online conversation classes per week.
The Delft method B1 vocabulary helps you in your daily life. Please note! The Delft method is aimed at highly educated people. It is not useful for technicians in a garage, healthcare assistants, and kitchen employees, to mention some examples. For them, more common B1- vocabulary can be found in the Ad Appel B1 materials, which serve a broader public.
Tip 4 – The required subjects for Dutch B1- speaking and the B1- exam
In most B1 materials, the vocabulary refers to what’s in and outside the house, health, traffic, and transport. You have learned the basic ones at level A2 already. At level B1 you expand this vocabulary.
You discuss the texts of the Delft method in conversation class. They talk about the major towns and regions of the Netherlands and their characteristics and life outside of town.
Moreover, the Delft method informs you exceptionally well about the royal family and the history of the Netherlands. It digs deeper than other B1 language methods.
Finally, The Delft method proudly reports about dikes, dams, and polders. In these texts, you’ll notice that the Delft method is a Technical University product.
The speaking assignments of the B1 Exam
The speaking assignments in the exam, are parts of daily communication in education at work. Other parts you won’t find in any learning method.
Even not in the Delft method, though it offers more conversational language than most other language methods
For B1, only real-life experience helps.
A gym or some other kind of club is a great place to learn and practice spoken Dutch. Dressing rooms and sports tribunes are outstanding places for social talk in Dutch.
In groups with common interests, the Dutch open up. You are lucky when you are a parent, that helps to meet people who have the same interests as you.
Try out the mock exams at Oefenen taalniveau B1 en B2 and you’ll know what to expect on the exam.
Dutch B1 Tip 5 – Save time, and nerves by paying for good exam training for the B1 level
Exam anxiety and procrastination are quite common.
Don’t make your Dutch B1- B1-speaking exam a nightmare, but pass all B1 parts on the first attempt. Read more in Passing the Civic Integration Exam B1
When you invest some money in training you’ll thank yourself forever.
As the B1 exam is not easy, the exam training consists of 10 classes. It takes 5 weeks and you have 2 classes per week.
During the training, you do 8 mock exams. An experienced examiner, Margreet Kwakernaak corrects them and gives you feedback.
In that training, you will not learn any new language. Instead, you’ll learn exam strategy.
You find dates and hours on the schedule of Suitcase talen courses
Before admitting you to the training, I will test your level of Dutch informally if you are not a student of Suitcase talen. As long as an intake remains within 30 mins, it is for free.
Are you interested? Use Contact, mentioning:
- your motivation,
- the courses that you had
- the study materials that you used and
- your telephone number. We will talk things over by phone.
Conclusion
- At level B1, correct word order is essential
- Find B1 words by using B1 class materials and add the ones you pick up in life
- Focus on B1 subjects so as not to get lost
- Lessons double your learning speed
- Invest in exam training for immediate success
