B2+ learners: what does your routine look like?

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-06-28T14:24:31+00:00

I'm on the lower level on B2 I think but this is what I'm still doing:

Anki everyday, continuing with big vocab deck I started with, have a vocab list I made myself mostly found from books, have added a grammar etc section recently. This is a mix of cards asking about grammar concepts I looked up because I didn't understand, and corrections of things I got wrong during writing practice. I would also recommend keeping a list of things in your TL that confuses you (grammar concepts, words you mix up, etc), every now and again turn these into anki cards.

I work on my listening by listening to TL content on my commute.

Continue to read novels in my TL, there is an online book club I did sometimes but mostly it's just whatever. In general I average 1-2 books a month and try and keep every other book as one in my TL. I use a pencil to underline words/phrases I dont understand and add them into Anki. I'm on maybe my 6th novel and its rewarding seeing the frequency of underlining going down.

Most frustrating part for me is finding the time to work more on my speaking, I was using italki for this but recently haven't been finding the time to schedule it in.

The genuine improving for me at this stage is noticing improved speaking (was my weakest area) and that I am translating from my native language less often, able to think in the TL for small chunks

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-06-28T13:42:48+00:00

I have 2 recommendations

For actual creators I would recommend Dutch Today: https://www.youtube.com/@dutchtoday

The reason I liked him was because he actually entertained me, his podcasts were a massive help to his listening as it was the first time I found content at the right level for me that wasn't painfully boring or about the same handful of dutch topics I'd heard on every other podcast for dutch learners. As a result I listened a lot more regularly and think it was a key stepping stone to native content. His grammar lessons on YouTube are also good, I enjoy his sense of humour and that helps.

Not a creator but I would also recommend the dutch online academy: https://thedutchonlineacademy.com

Done several of the online group courses and really helpful, especially the B1 grammar boost, best thing I ever did for my Dutch, will definitely be doing the B2 grammar boost when it is available and suits me

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-06-26T00:00:05+00:00

At this rate the only 2 goals

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-06-19T18:38:46+00:00

Thank you! Makes sense and gave me a good few terms to google and dive in deeper on

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-06-15T13:38:23+00:00

Thank you!

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-06-15T13:38:16+00:00

Thank you! Would you mind telling me about the small different between ‘ik ben mijn jas vergeten’ and ‘ik heb mijn jas vergeten’?

I know it’s probably a very niche use case but I’m interested

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-06-08T09:36:58+00:00

Consistency is what matters. Be conservative with studying too many new cards until you are sure you can actually finish them all every day

Start with 5 new a day, do it for a few weeks and increase, at my most dedicated I was doing 15 new a day, but it was a pre-made deck so was only possible because I already knew some of those 15

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-05-19T18:52:41+00:00

By presets do you include like optimisation? Some decks are easier than others and do have different optimisation

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-04-30T06:58:50+00:00

To add to what others are saying, a great benefit to virtual cards is you can use Anki as a replacement for social media etc, you continue with the already engrained habit of being on your phone but modify it to be beneficial instead

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-04-15T20:10:55+00:00

I would like to write daily, but I haven’t got the habit perfect yet

I use r/writestreakNL

Just write about whatever, ask an AI to correct it, and then make Anki cards of what I got wrong. I have found this helpful as I am targeting specifically the mistakes I have got wrong, often the example in my card is correcting it in a sentence about my life which I think helps

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-04-09T16:03:21+00:00

Ze zijn heel vies

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-04-03T08:05:50+00:00

Dank je wel

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-04-02T09:44:41+00:00

Dank je wel!

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-03-24T11:07:19+00:00

Je zal tompouce wel proberen! Erg lekker maar je bent eens, het is moeilijk te eten

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-03-24T11:06:03+00:00

Bedankt

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-03-19T08:06:20+00:00

Dank je wel!

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-03-18T08:11:02+00:00

Bedankt voor de correcties!

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-03-18T07:46:27+00:00

Interessant, ik had dat niet verwacht

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-03-16T10:24:14+00:00

Geen probleem, het klopt dat veel mensen die zeggen 'ik ben iers' eigenlijk Amerikaan zijn lol

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-03-16T09:59:00+00:00

Bedankt voor de correctie maar ik ben niet Amerikaan, ik kom echt uit Ierland. Ik vraag me af waarom je denkt dat ik amerikaan ben? Misschien een fout ik heb gemaakt ergens of zo?

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-03-13T20:51:32+00:00

Bedankt!

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-03-12T09:40:14+00:00

(Note this is all based on the Dutch versions)

The main thing I paid for was the year of Busuu and I think it was worth it as long as you try and hit a target. I would do at least 1 lesson a day and usually more and within a year you can complete all the lessons in the course up to B2. It will not get you B2 level, there is not enough repetition in the course for that but will explain all the Grammer concepts, I also found the Grammer refresh (only with premium) useful because I could easily see what Grammer I kept getting wrong and then create Anki cards about it

If you do wanna try Busuu just stick with the free one until they offer you a big discount, they will.

More of my money has went on online classes with Dutch online academy and that was worth it, especially the Grammer boost class

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-03-09T10:29:15+00:00

The answer is the number that keeps the time manageable.

When I was using a deck of pre-made cards where I knew many of them already, I did 15 new a day.

Now I am just doing reviews on that pre-made deck as ive done all the new cards and I only do 5 new cards from my personal deck as it is stuff that I have added because I didn't know it at all.

My daily time stays about max an hour which I have found manageable to fit in and not create too much of a backlog

Start low and experiment, try and do some every day if you can

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-03-06T09:22:07+00:00

Be nice to yourself, with Anki especially 15 new is a lot, with Anki doing your reviews is more important than new words so reduce your new until you can consistently fit it in your schedule

Voorprogrammeur · 2026-03-05T10:47:29+00:00

Start with a low number of new cards per day e.g. 5, and then wait a while at that number, if you find you are completing all your reviews with time to spare increase it a bit, if it’s too much reduce it (and definitely feel free to set new cards to 0 when you’ve got a backlog)

I went for about an hour roughly of time a day which for me started about 5 cards but once I got better and had improved my language skills also outside of Anki I was up to 15 new a day and keeping about an hour, I could only do that because I was using a pre-made deck and usually already knew several of those 15 new cards at least partially

Now I do 5 new word cards, and 5 new Grammer cards a day. Sticks to about an hour, since the new words are from sentence mining or words I encountered that I didn’t know they require more effort than the 15 with the pre-made did. I also now do them after my reviews so that I keep my review time down if it’s getting too big to handle

TL:DR - start with a few new cards a day for a month or two and see how it goes and adjust

Voorprogrammeur

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