Annotation
The subject provides the students with the basic knowledge of Dutch, as a medium-sized European language. The language is characterised especially in a contrastive way: as compared with its three dominant neighbours - German, English and French, the three languages that have influenced it for centuries.
The students get acquainted with the basic pronunciation rules and the grammatical categories. The first familiarisation with the vocabulary is conceived to maximise the student's reading comprehension and ability to deduce the meaning, especially using the knowledge of English and/or German.
This subject is a valuable benefit especially for those studying different kinds of philology, general linguistics, art history, European history, Indonesian studies (Indonesia being a former Dutch colony), political sciences etc.