Approximately ten people sit in a Vrijhof-room for five
working-days and absorb what they can of the Netherlands and its language. Most of the day is spent on learning Dutch, and as welcome relief one hour of culture is given.
Sitting in on one of the lessons it is clear that this is not the first time these students ('cursisten') have been taught a foreign language. They are already fluent in English even though their mother tongue may vary from Polish to Brazilian Portuguese. When they learnt English they were a lot younger, and the atmosphere in the room occasionally resembles that of a classroom full of teenagers. It is somewhat embarrassing to be incompetent at something again, to have to pronounce the unfamiliar sounds, to be unable to hear the difference between 'uit' (out) and 'oud' (old).
The teacher tells them not to laugh at the others, but mostly they laugh at themselves, at the recognition of their own mistakes. But a little embarrassment is worth it; after one day they write down the teacher's sentences with hardly a mistake, among them they think of 8 words with 'a short a' (for example 'land'), and the text of lesson 4 is understood (mostly) at the first read-through, even
though it contains difficult words like 'trouwens' and 'immers' which need context to be properly grasped and translated.
Of necessity a little culture is also taught with the language. 'Gek' (with a short 'e') means crazy, which can also be signed by making a grasping motion with your hand in front of your forehead, or tapping the tip of your finger on your forehead between your eyebrows. Victor taps his finger against his temple to show how they sign 'crazy' in Rumania. 'In Holland that sign means clever!' the teacher says laughing.
This exchange of information is also common during the culture lessons. Marcos from Brazil, for example, noted during the video about travelling by train that the people selling tickets were protected behind glass. He did not know that that is necessary in the Netherlands. The crime he has encountered here is stealing of bicycles, but that is nothing compared to the staggering amount of murders in Sao Paulo, a city with more inhabitants than the Netherlands.
Besides traffic signs, 'strippenkaarten' and train travel, the hour of culture on the second day also covers education from nursery
school to the 'studiehuis' in secondary education.
Aimed at well-educated and well-motivated aio's this course hopes to lay the foundations of the Dutch language and culture, on which the students can build in the years they are in Twente.
Would you like to know what the short 'a' sounds like, or what the 'studiehuis' actually is, contact Suzanne van der Kolk at the International Office for more information: [email protected].
The atmosphere in the room occasionally resembles that of a room full of teenagers.
