Dutch B1 Listening Skills – 5 Tips to help you reach your goal: a Dutch passport, a Permanent Residence Permit, or better Dutch. Integrate listening to the new language into your daily life – these 5 tips show you how.
Estimated reading time 7 minutes
Margreet Kwakernaak, author and director of Suitcase talen. The third edition of Dutch for Dummies was released in 2023
Vocabulary is the foundation of your listening skills
Words are the foundation of language – expanding your vocabulary should be as logical as sleeping
Dutch B1 Listening Skills – Tip 1: Acquiring your 4400 words
Level B1 requires 4400 Dutch words. The Delft method is the shortest route, but there are alternatives. Take a look at Word learning: make it part of your daily life for a slower way of learning.
Being open to the words you come across is the foundation of natural language learning.
As a consequence, even native speakers continue learning new words. Some reach a vocabulary of over 50:000.
The more words you know, the easier you remember new ones. Usually, a native speaker knows the word family already, and that new family member matches like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle.
Accelerate the learning of Dutch B1 words guides you through the first steps of B1-vocabulary learning.
Finding connections and guessing to improve your listening skills
The hardest part is in the beginning of learning a new language: every word is new. However, when you speak a language related to the new language, you have an anchor to tie the new terms. German and English are closely related to Dutch. So, when listening and reading carefully, you’ll recognize parts of the words, making connections with the ones you know. Guessing does part of the rest.
Only after you have observed and pondered the new NT2 word, do you look up the word. After that, its meaning is no surprise – or it is! You may have guessed wrong- and the better you’ll remember the new word. In general, when you think over a word before you look it up, remembering it will be much easier.
In Dutch B1 – The Main Points, you read more about the four other language skills at level B1.
Second Tip: Use your words
In the beginning, don’t learn words that do not interest you. Just start with the ones you need most and that interest you most. And, once they are in your written or spoken notebook: use them! The blog How to remember words: The Seven Steps explains the functioning of your short and long memory and how to use them effectively.
Additionally, it may comfort you that you must know 4400 words passively – and not all of them actively. This means that you must have mastered the meaning of 4400 words when reading or hearing them. However, you don’t need that many words when speaking at level B1.
Each skill is learned by applying it
Unfortunately, language experts are unclear about how many words you should know when speaking at level B1. The only thing they agree on is that all language skills are acquired through the activity itself: speaking by speaking, listening by listening, reading by reading, and writing by writing. Words and grammar are accessories: they are not the ultimate goal, but they help you when exercising the skill itself.
Dutch B1 – how many hours? calculates how many hours to invest in achieving level B1.
Resuming: activate your vocabulary by using it – if necessary by talking to yourself. A Delft method conversation course offers you great opportunities to talk and listen. Classes are online with Zoom – so you can join them at any location in the world!
Dutch B1 Listening Skills -Tip 3
Make listening to Dutch your new routine
Ears and eyes are our best allies in learning a new language – be it Dutch or any other. How does a baby learn to say ‘mama’? A baby listens to the word, watches the required mouth movements, and finally imitates what he hears and sees. That’s the natural way of learning! That takes a long time though, but even with the most advanced methods, language learning takes years.
By the way – why do some students believe that listening comprehension is only from listening exercises? Or that listening comprehension means that you understand each word? Outdated language learning methods made them believe that. Forget that idiotic assumption, and keep your ears and eyes open! When you are in the Netherlands, Dutch is everywhere, when you are learning Dutch or NT2 in a non-Dutch environment, the internet is there, 24 hours per day.
Keep your ears open
Listen informally, making as many listening miles as possible to reach Dutch B1 listening skills. You can do that while you organize the kitchen, run, or do some other activity that goes well with listening. Instead of being frustrated that you don’t understand, set realistic goals. Your first goal may be: being able to pick up words like Ja, nee, goedemorgen, dank je wel.
The second step may be: picking up international words like : internationaal, president, democratie, unie, socialistische partij, Verenigde Naties, Verenigde Staten, Oekraïne and other names.
Your tactic of learning to listen playfully can be almost identical to that of learning to read playfully, as mentioned in Dutch B1 Reading Skill – 5 Tips
Understanding Verbonden Taal – Tip 4
You may have noticed that the Dutch you hear in the streets, on talk shows, and when your colleagues are joking, sounds different from the Dutch in courses. Though educational authors do their utmost to write realistic dialogues, those dialogues hardly ever sound realistic. Mostly they are read from a paper by voice actors who do their best to speak clearly and not too fast.
On the contrary, in real life, people say things like hoelawakhier? Hoessie?and komgoed. On paper, these sentences would look like this: Hoe laat was ik hier? (At what time did I arrive), Hoe is het? (How are you?) and Het komt goed (Everything will be OK). Voice actors in language courses, pronounce each part of a word and avoid this verbonden taal (connected language).
Words in a sentence are pronounced connected
At the moment that I am teaching, I will say: de buurvrouw is terug van vakantie, ik heb vanochtend even met haar gepraat. On the contrary, when talking with a Dutch friend, I say Debuufistrugfanfekantie, kebfenogton efe medrgpraat.
Swallowing (not pronouncing) unstressed parts of the word and connecting all stressed parts are common in spoken Dutch. But, how can a newcomer get used to this phenomenon? You’ll upgrade your Dutch B1 skills by listening to commonly spoken Dutch – in the street, in the gym, and to your children when they talk with Dutch friends. All places where Dutchmen meet are great occasions to overhear them talking.
Listening at the exam – Dutch B1 Listening Skills Tip 5
Up to now, the listening comprehension part of the B1 exam does not resemble real life at all. Though exam makers use real-life interviews as a base, they adjust the texts to the exam.
In the first place, professional language is replaced by more common terms. Exam makers make sure that all words belong to the B1 domain of the 4400 most used words in Dutch. Secondly, the redacted interviews are read from a paper. Though speakers may have a slight regional accent, they pronounce Dutch well. As they speak quietly, the use of verbonden taal is restricted.
Restricted use of connected language
Consequently, when you have mastered your 4400 words and done your street homework well, understanding Dutch B1 at level B1 in the exam is no problem.
Passing the Civic Integration Exam B1 focuses on the exam.
On the contrary, for the exam, you must acquire some new skills concerning the questions and the answers. Recognizing keywords and analyzing question types, are the most important ones.
Though the name of the subject is Luisteren B1, reading skills are required also. Find more about reading in Dutch B1 Reading Skill, 5 Tips
In one of our next blogs, we will zoom in on specific exam skills.
Conclusion Dutch B1 Listening Skills
- Be open to new words
- Make your vocabulary active by talking to yourself
- Listen whenever and wherever you can
- Get used to verbonden taal
- The B1 exam requires both listening routine and exam skills.
Learning Dutch with Suitcase talen en De Delftse methode
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