No. Avoid using it for more than three weeks. Instead, find a good, simple book or a very simple video series. Book: Nieuw in Rotterdam. Video series: heb je zin? from Bart de Pau.

Dutch is classified als a level 1 language fro English speakers. That means it will take you only about 600 hours to become intermediate. That is relatively easy. It will take you 2200 hours to become intermediate in Chinese, for example.

1) Just practice with people who don’t switch. There is enough of us. (Never use our English skills as your excuse.)

2) Keep reading and listening to interesting content until your Dutch is so good you won’t need them to switch

3) Tell them: sorry sir/madame, I am practicing my Dutch, could you please speak Dutch with me?

You probably won’t. Since you can’t know if a word is de or het, you’ll make mistakes with that forever.

If you keep at it, you will get to 99% of perfection. Don’t worry about de and het, worry about learning as many words as you can by reading and listening to understandable content.

1) Listen a lot and keep track of your listening hours

2) Pick an audio file and write down what you hear. Then check. Then listen again.

3) Translate a song and practice singing it until you don’t need the text (Take ‘Avond’ from Boudewijn de Groot for starters)

Don’t memorize. Instead, keep reading and listening to interesting stuff. The words will come back so many times, you won’t forget them.