My Dutch Adventure with Root: From Oslo to Korea (wtf)

Hey everyone! I’m Pablo, the founder of Root. I’ve been wanting to create blogs for Root to share my experience with learning languages, creating Root and much more. Today I’m writing the first article, which is gonna be in how I started learning Dutch. Given that you need to be kind of crazy to learn Dutch, the story won’t disappoint. Let’s get into it 🔥

How It All Started

So, in 2023 I found myself in Oslo for a university entrepreneurship program (if you’re a university student in the EU, check if your university has any “BIPs” (Blended Intensive Programs), this is what I took and it’s soooo worth it). Cool stuff, right? We were a bunch of students from different EU universities and different ages and skills working together to create a business plan.

This is the university we went to for that week.

Well, it turns out in this program you actually get to present yourself in front of everyone else and just talk about whatever you want. I mentioned I love learning languages and I actually had been learning Norwegian for about 4 months just for this trip (I knew some Swedish from having studied there before but not that much, though it still helped me be faster), so when I mentioned it some people were actually surprised and curious (let’s not talk about the embarrassment because I didn’t know “fort” meant fast later when talking with one of them).

One of the universities that came to Oslo was in Utrecht, and I made some friends from the guys from there. One day, when walking back to the hotel we were at, one of them asked me "When are you learning Dutch?" And honestly, I hadn't thought about it until then. He was going to visit Valencia, my city, soon and I kinda half-joked I should pick up Dutch by then. I laughed it off, but the idea stuck in my mind for a while.

Root to the Rescue

Fast forward a bit, and I started working on Root on April 2023. I was actually gearing up to learn Korean back then because I was heading to Korea for an exchange. My Korean was rusty at best, so I decided to use Root to test the app and practice my Korean, which went pretty well (I can understand and speak it quite a bit now).

But here's the twist—while in Korea, I ended up pausing my Korean study. Funny how things turn out, right? I just stopped learning any language, maybe because of the culture shock and getting used to the life there, maybe the partying, or maybe just laziness. We’ll never know.

At around mid-September, my Korean uni (SKKU) hosted a K-pop concert at the Suwon campus, which is where I studied, and there I met a guy from the Seoul campus. We hit it off really nice and became friends pretty quickly. And, it turns out, not only was he Dutch, but he spoke Spanish! This woke me up again to the idea of learning Dutch, specially now that I had dropped Korean and had no other language to learn (because why pick up Korean again duh).

One day we went hiking for 7 hours, and there he started teaching me some Dutch basics like pronunciation rules and some words, which is when I started seeing how weird Dutch could be. But still, I think that was the spark that lit the flame of me learning Dutch. And that day, when I got home, I started learning Dutch firstly just through Root, and then expanding through Youtube vids and this wonderful dutchgrammar.com website. Later I joined Easy Dutch, but I still just mostly see their Youtube vids.

Guess who's me and who's my friend (impossible challenge).

The Journey So Far

I gotta say, it's been awesome. My vocabulary's looking pretty solid so far, with about 800 words on my deck (I should really add more) and almost level 28, and knowing Norwegian and a bit of Swedish probably gave me a head start. It's been about five or six months, and while I've had my ups and downs with consistency, I'm starting to get pretty comfortable with Dutch.

What's Next?

I'm thinking it's time to get serious again. I’ve just recently finished coding the AI essays tool inside Root and I’ve written a couple essays to practice Dutch with it and I’ve loved it so far. It still has a long way to go, but it has already helped me practice my writing without the need for someone else correcting my essays. It’s not perfect, but it definitely catches the more important errors or nuances of your writing. Plus, I want to dive into more Dutch content like podcasts, series, and songs very soon. It's all about soaking up the language in any way I can.

Wrapping It Up

Learning Dutch has been a wild ride, sparked by a simple suggestion and fuelled by my love for picking up new languages. It's funny how one conversation in Oslo set me on this path, but I'm so here for it. Root's been a game-changer, making the process a whole lot smoother and more fun. I’ve definitely sped up my vocabulary practice with it compared to other languages I’ve learned in the past. Hopefully it helps yours too!

So, here's to more language adventures and the unexpected journeys they bring us on. If you're thinking about learning a new language, just go for it. And maybe give Root a try—I’d say it's pretty neat. Catch you all later, and let's see where this Dutch journey takes me next!