Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
it eventually, especially after Hannah made a special meal of
stamppot,
Dutch apple tart,
and imported Dutch beer. He realized that this trip was important to Hannah, so he made
time to try the first lesson one weekend, did it a second time, and then started doing the
lessons in his car. He seemed to be getting more and more confident with his Dutch, and
it was really fun when the two of them had a chance to share their new skills with each
other. Hannah was ecstatic to be doing something special with Mark again. She loved him
so much, and it had been a long time since they had connected over a common activity like
this
.
“
Pardon, mevrouw.
” Mark pulled Hannah out of her reverie with a too-formal “excuse me,
miss.” Then he asked her if she would like something to eat: “
Zou u iets willen eten?
” It
took Hannah a second to process what he had asked, but then she smiled and replied, “
Ja,
zeker!
” meaning, “Yes, certainly!”
“Well then, come on, sweetheart. I could use your help in the kitchen. We're taking a break
from Dutch food tonight, and I'm making pasta. Someday, I suppose, we'll learn Italian,
and then we'll finally know how to say the names of those noodles!”
“Yes, someday,” Hannah thought, quickly unbuttoning her jacket, eager to spend the even-
ing with her husband. A whole new world was opening up to her
.
There is of course more to language learning than completing all of the Pimsleur audio
lessons in your chosen language. The Pimsleur recordings will give you excellent pronun-
ciation as well as a level of comfort, but you'll need additional studies to reach conversa-
tional fluency. In addition, although reading and writing are not as important as speaking
and listening, they will still be important on your trip for reading menus and signs. The re-
mainder of this chapter will discuss these two goals: reaching conversational fluency and
functional literacy.
For conversational fluency, you'll need to understand grammar more explicitly than
Pimsleur will teach you. But having completed Pimsleur, your comfort in your new lan-
guage will make the grammar much easier to learn. To keep learning auditorily, I recom-
mend the Michel Thomas method for your next step. You'll start with the basics, but you'll
