Teaching English to the Dutch

Happy Friday, everyone!  Who's excited for the weekend?  I know I am. We are heading up to Amsterdam this evening because Todd is going to the Netherlands vs. Estonia World Cup qualifying match. And I'll just get to hang out in Amsterdam, with Mindy, a fellow expat wife.  I'm looking forward to it.  I'll tell you all about it next week.

I've been meaning to share about the English conversation course I'm leading.  A few months back, I had decided it was time to find some sort of volunteer activity.  I had heard of a nonprofit called the Vrijwilligers Punt (Volunteer Point) in Eindhoven, that matches people up with volunteer opportunities.  After initially being turned down due to my lack of Dutch language skills, one of the workers at the nonprofit was able to hook me up with an organization called 55 Plus Educatief.  This organization is a center for people who are 55 and older.  They offer multiple classes and workshops on a variety of topics.  And it just so happened that they were in need of a teacher for their English conversation class.  After an "interview" (laid back) I was "offered" (I'm not getting paid) the position.  The course lasts for 10 weeks this winter and spring and then will start up again in the fall.

I teach once a week on Thursday mornings for an hour and a half. I was actually pretty nervous for the first class, but it went very well.  I have 5 students in the class who are all retirees from various different careers. Each of my students has a great reason for working on their English.  A few of them have children who are dating or married to native English speakers. One even has 2 grandchildren that live in Scotland.  Another does a lot of traveling and English is typically the common language amongst people she meets. 

In terms of structure of the course, I have free reign.  We typically begin each course by having everyone tell something that happened during their week.  This usually leads into discussions of current events since many of my students bring in news articles to share with the group.  Then, based on feedback I received, I give a very small lesson of sorts.  Yesterday, for example, we went through a list of English homophones, practiced saying them, and determined their meanings.  We then have a topic we discuss after our break.  Yesterday, we discussed family traditions in the Netherlands. It turns out to be a great way for me to learn more about Dutch culture as well, which is a nice side benefit.  Last, I nominate someone each week to bring in a story to tell for the following week's class. I had originally intended this piece to be very casual storytelling about anything, but my students have run with it and we even had a Powerpoint presentation 2 weeks ago.  I think it's good practice for them to do a mini-presentation.  

Every week has been fun and different, and they are a talkative bunch, so it makes class fun.  They each can speak conversational English rather fluently, but they do have varying levels of proficiency when it comes to grammar and vocabulary.  

I did receive some constructive feedback a few weeks ago. One of the women in the class took me aside to tell me that she "wasn't learning anything new" in the class.  That she could "just talk to her husband in English" if she wanted to. And that she is "paying for this class". My first reaction was to defend myself by saying this is a conversation course, and that I'm not meant to be teaching English, just leading a conversation in English. I did mention this to her, but I did also decide that having a small lesson could be fun too, so I started to incorporate that into each class.  It is just funny how blunt the Dutch can be!  She wasn't saying it to be rude to me at all, but my American self's first reaction was, "crap, she doesn't like the class!". I know this isn't the case now, but it's easy to be taken aback by the directness.  There is definitely no mincing of words.  Now, I am also trying to do a better job of correcting my students when they make a mistake. Hopefully this is helping!

All in all, I am very happy that I volunteered to teach this class.  It is fun to get to know these people a little bit, and I hope they feel better about their English skills once the class is through!

And now, since I didn't have any photos for this post, I snapped a few of the tulips I bought a couple of days ago. Pretty, right?

Have a great weekend, everyone!