Popular Netherlands-Based Modern Shows in Dutch?
 

Hallo!

A few months back, I posted asking about Internet resources to systematically improve my Dutch at essentially a beginner's level during my spare time. I feel I'm making some strides in my efforts thanks to the "Living Language" series and one site on youtube (I did consider Rosetta Stone as one of you suggested, but the price and immediate availability of the "Living Language" series made me go with that one instead.) I'm on Chapter 6 now and feel I'm making progress (boy is it tough though to start fresh a new language, as closely related to English as it is).

Anyway, to improve my listening comprehension, the dialogues have been great in my book, but also made me aware of the challenges of understanding the spoken language at a natural pace.

QUESTION: So, to help me out in this regard, I'd like to listen a bit to some well-liked Dutch shows from the last 20 or 30 years... could be period piece, comedy, drama, news show. To get my ear used to real people speaking at a real pace prior to a summer trip, but also to get more in the know of what non-angloworld programs some Dutch people appreciate. I wouldn't mind for example some Dutch equivalents of similar types of shows from Britain or the US: "Ab Fab", "Coronation Street", "Downton Abbey", "The Tudors", "Masterpiece Theater", "60 Minutes" , "Six Feet Under", doesn't have to be any of these though...

"Joris en Monique", "Koefnoen", "Weten Zij Veel" is what I've found so far, but I have no idea whether these are particularly "liked" shows or seen to be not so great (for the first, the scenes seemed a bit contrived, stilted to me, but maybe I'm wrong) While I couldn't piece together the meanings of many sentences, I found nevertheless that the sketches of these I heard actually helped me for hearing the rhythm and picking out words I did know.

Dank U heel! Daniel

Here is a great music station with news and weather on the half hour, http://www.classicfm.nl/luister/classic-fm.

Just for reading try http://www.telegraaf.nl/. I'm sure there are many other Dutch newspapers on line.

Are you looking online or for DVDs? Or on Dutch TV?

Koefnoen was very popular with young people, but it is weird humour and slang.
I don't know the other two shows.
You will not find anything of the quality of the shows you mention I'm afraid.
See if you can find the Baantjer series, or maybe Grijpstra en de Gier on DVD. Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden is a soap. Badly acted but good for the language. Not sure it's online or on DVD though.

I'll give it a bit more thought and see if I can come up with a few more, though tbh I mostly watch BBC. The best way to learn is of course to be in the Netherlands and to speak Dutch - people will want to answer in English but if you insist they will be delighted to help you improve.

A couple of other newspapers arewww.volkskrant.nl and www.AD.nl.

http://radioplayer.omroep.nl/3fm may work for you for a pop music radio station.

http://radioplayer.omroep.nl/radio1/ is talk based.

As hetismij2 writes people will want to answer in English. Hello, some will insist on it. Some will even claim to be Brits or Yanks just to practice their English. Most Dutchies will be shocked that you went to the effort to learn Nederlands for a vacation trip. Go the the Cafe Hoppe at the Spui in Amsterdam for instant conversation and friendship.

Thank you so much!

I'm looking on the Internet more than for DVDs, seeing what I can pull off youtube as a place to start (as I just did checking out a few snippets of the shows you mentioned; amazing what one can find there!).

I listened a bit to Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden and somehow managed to get sucked in to a storyline. I think I've seen worse acting on quite a few US soaps. :)

Baantjer and Grijpstra en de Gier from what I could tell reminded be a bit of a "The Equalizer" although more of a legit cop show... seemed reasonably well-produced.

If anyone thinks of any comedies, I'd like that too.

Thanks again! Daniel

You can find a lot of the Baantjer episodes on Youtube. They come in sequences of 10 minutes, so it may be a bit of a puzzle to put one episode together.
Goede tijden, slechte tijden is also on Youtube. These are complete episodes of abt. 25 minutes.

In case you're interested in Belgian news (in Dutch, also), you can watch it online via iWatch. The news is free of charge and it comes twice a day: at 1 pm and at 7 pm (GMT+1).
http://iwatch.be/nieuwsoverzicht

Keep in mind that Dutch humor can be very cruel and demeaning. They like to make a fool of people in public. I nearly got into bar brawls in my first few months living in Haarlem. Then I made the mistake of joking about the Royals. NOT good. Have some geduld, something that the Dutch don't have. I am surprised that they even have the word in their vocabulary.

spaarne - they need it for when things go wrong on TV - then up pops the sign even geduld aub ;).

Co
medies. Hmm. Old comedy is Zeg 'ns Aaa.
Dat was het nieuws is the Dutch version of the BBC programme Have I Got News for You.

Maybe you'd enjoy Ik hou van Holland.http://tvblik.nl/ik-hou-van-holland or http://www.hebikietsgemist.nl/progra...n-holland.html.

If that last one works for you (and it may not due to copyright rules etc) then it has stacks of Dutch TV programmes available.

Baantjer is based on Books by A.C.Baantjer who was a policeman in de Wallen in Amsterdam, and based his stories over de Cock (C-O-C-K) and Vledder there too. Particularly well acted series imho. The books are easy to read too if you can find them in Dutch.
Grijpstra en De Gier is also well acted and based on books by Jan-Willem van de Wetering, a Dutchman who lived in Maine towards the end of his life. The books are available in English as well as Dutch.

Most of the Dutch spoken in movies isn't representative for "normal" Dutch language. Intonation and choice of words is somewhat "different".

If you want something more serious, take a look at the following:
Dutch news: http://nos.nl/nieuws/live/journaal24/
Dutch TV for expats: http://www.bvn.nl/ (should be available everywhere)

Or you could try http://www.nederland.tv/ which includes links to Flikken Maastricht (Dutch crimi), goede tijden slechte tijden (horrible Dutch soap - LOL), and so on.

spaarne, hetismij, MyriamC, The_lonely_traveler,

Hartelijk dank; this has given me such a terrific supply of options that I feel will be invaluable to my improvement.

Hetismij--I was going to ask about talk shows, so I'm glad you suggested Ik hou van Holland. Nice thing about a show like that is you get people interacting naturally. The following episode I enjoyed, especially about 8 minutes in when I see that the Dutch too hearing a word struggle with spellings (like me, not knowing what diphthong/consonant they just heard).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-us0ny6cxM&feature=fvst

Ik hou van Zeg 'ns Aaa ook :). In the one episode I checked out, Theo & Thea had a hilarious look and fun energy. As for Baantjer, it's funny how even though I'm only several months into learning Dutch, I could tell already that it seemed well-acted!

Anyhow, I'm surprised and pleased at how many phrases I'm picking out... smatterings only, but it makes me happy. With these options available, I now have extra resources to periodically see how I'm progressing.

Nog een keer, ik wil jullie danken! DANIEL

<i>hetismij2 on Jan 13, 12 at 5:00am
spaarne - they need it for when things go wrong on TV - then up pops the sign even geduld aub</i>
They still do that?

check out "Het Klokhuis" : topical children's program with excellent spoken Dutch: not slangy, just straight Dutch.

And the "30 minuten" spoof documentaries by Arjan Ederveen would be good too.

"the middle ages"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agaKiJklqwU

30 minuten: scenes behind the scenes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds2wqWdJzyQ

Thank you so much menachem for your reply.

"Het Klokhuis" looks like a particularly well-done children's program. The thought came to me that kid's shows or kid's comic books might be good for my Dutch as these are often trying to educate (while entertaining) also, so thanks for this! The "Middeleeuwen" I felt did a nice job of recreating the daily life of that epoch.

Best wishes, Daniel

I wanted to thank everyone again for your help and to let you know your help has already paid off for me. I'm regularly checking out the Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden shorties (updated regularly) on YouTube and for some reason I'm finding I can follow it even better than the news (?!), which amazes me because the news is usually the first thing I can understand when I'm learning a new language. GTST has been incredibly helpful to reinforce words and get used to the language flow.

So, thank you all again! Daniel