My first conversation in a new language

I’ve been learning Dutch on and off for about 2 years, and only until a few weeks ago, I’ve been consistently doing 5 minutes a day, which is not much.

Yesterday while playing Chess online I notice my opponent was from the Netherlands, so I said: How gaat het? Dat is mijn een “phrase” or “How is it going? That is my one phrase” And then I continued with small phrases with absolute broken Dutch like ”I learn Duch but know very small”, and a few more along those lines.

I knew the phrases were wrong, the phone autocorrect got in the way more than once, and let’s remind, this was an online Chess game with time control! And yet, I manage to say a couple of things and be understood, got some replies, which I didn’t understood first and then were kindly translated to English.

The game finished, I lose (barely) Then I realized, this was the very first time I communicate with another native speaker in their own language. I felt all those Duolingo harassments reminding me to keep my streak and all those “This is a milk, that is a kid” over and over again were worth it.