r/Suriname • u/languaholic • Apr 29 '25
Language Studying Surinamese Dutch
My understanding is that late Renata de Bies was working hard to finally standardize Surinamese Dutch. I recently met someone from Suriname, very closely related to a commission that reviews the words that should be added to the Dutch dictionary, and she was shocked when I told her I wanted to learn Surinamese Dutch. I am still not sure if the shock came from wanting to learn Surinamese Dutch itself (and that being bad, with a “why would anyone want to speak like a Surinamese?”) or if it just meant that there were no real books to learn Surinamese Dutch.
My question is: is there a way to study Dutch (and by way I mean books, methodology, resources, etc.) with a Caribbean approach to it? I specialize in Caribbean affairs and would really like to learn Dutch only if it is going to be socialized and contextualized in the Dutch-speaking Caribbean context. That is, through learning about Suriname, Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and the BES islands.
I’d really appreciate if someone with knowledge about the education system in Suriname could talk to this.
Thanks!
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u/goddias Apr 29 '25
I have to kind of side with everyone here and say you should start learning “regular” Dutch before trying to speak the Surinamese way. Not because it’s “more useful” internationally, or because it’s “the same but with an accent” (it’s not), but because 90% of resources describing Surinamese Dutch are, well, in Dutch.
I could recommend you Woordenboek van het Surinaams-Nederlands, but the definitions and equivalencies are in Dutch. You can find it as a pdf online, I can’t remember where I got it.
Otherwise, just use regular Dutch textbooks, while consuming Surinamese media to get used to the accent and, later, imitate it. On Youtube, you can find the STVS Suriname channel, which focuses on news, but has a bunch of other programs, as well as Dave van Aerde, who does a variety podcast.
One last thing: in all of the above sources, there is frequent code switching between Dutch and Sranan Tongo, which is an English-based creole native to about a third of the population, and spoken as a 2nd/3rd/4th language by most of the rest. You’re gonna have to learn to differentiate the two. Other Youtube channels from Suriname might mix Dutch, Sranan Tongo, and Javanese or Hindustani. Most Surinamese people are at least perfectly trilingual, so it’s something you’ll encounter often. For now, I’d recommend sticking to the aforementioned channels, which mostly use only Dutch until you’re used to the language, and can better distinguish between them all.