{"id":1044,"date":"2017-01-12T12:44:57","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T11:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/?p=64549\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:06","slug":"bijna-200-studenten-willen-vluchtelingen-helpen-met-nederlandse-taal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2017\/01\/12\/bijna-200-studenten-willen-vluchtelingen-helpen-met-nederlandse-taal\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost 200 students offer to help refugees with Dutch language"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMarko de Haan<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

The Language and Training Centre of the Erasmus University has already received 194 notifications of mostly students and a few staff members to become a \u2018language buddy\u2019. The centre will link them to some fifty refugees following an accelerated Dutch language course.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are delighted with so many applications\u201d, exults Marjon Menten, organizer of the event. She explains: \u201cWe need this buddy system. The refugees say they need somebody to practice the language with. In their own environment, they don\u2019t speak Dutch very often, so it\u2019s good if someone does so an hour per week.\u201d<\/p>\n

How they do this, is up to the buddies and refugees themselves. The buddies will be following a workshop by a language teacher and will receive a list of topics covered in the courses, as a guide for the informal talks.<\/p>\n

Lunch as a launch for the new batch<\/h3>

In October, the Language and Training Centre has started the course, designed for highly educated refugees who want to study or are about to enter the labor market. On Friday, the second batch of the course began\u00a0with a lunch for all participants and volunteers.<\/p>\n

Menten gleams with pride as one of the refugee students kicks off the lunch at the sports bar with a speech in flawless Dutch. \u201cAnd we didn\u2019t even help him write it!\u201d The speaker has just had three months of Dutch lessons and starts with a follow-up course today.<\/p>\n

The audience consists of fifty refugees, mostly men and a quarter of the language buddies, mostly women.<\/p>\n

'Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht is quiet, which is something to get used to.'<\/h3>
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At one of the tables sits Mohammed Rahmeh (25). He insists on speaking Dutch, which he has already mastered quite well. Especially for someone who did not follow a course. He laughs: the food is \u2018heerlijk\u2019 and the people are \u2018gezellig\u2019. Occasionally, he switches to English as he doesn\u2019t understand something. Rahmeh has been in the Netherlands for a year. \u201cMy trip here took four years: From Damascus via Lebanon to Turkey to Greece via Germany, to finally arrive in the Netherlands.\u201d<\/p>\n

On his wrist he wears a band with the Palestinian flag. \u201cOfficially, I am stateless, but I feel Palestinian, even though Damascus is officially in Syria.\u201d He smiles: \u201cIt\u2019s complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

With his mother and sister, he lives in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht. Quite a contrast to his past. \u201cDamascus was chaos, Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht is quiet. It takes some getting used to. But I wanted to go to the Netherlands, because my mother was here already. \u201d<\/p>\n

Rahmeh is dressed in a skaters blouse and has his hair shaved, according to all the latest trends. In Damascus he designed interiors: from offices to hotels to homes. Here, he envisions a study in architecture after the language course is completed. Does he have any wishes about his future buddy? \u201cNo. But I love football and chess, in Damascus I was quite good! Although I\u2019m a bit out of practice after four years. \u201c<\/p>\n

\u2018They started reading from the back'<\/h3>

\u201cThe student refugees really have to start from scratch. To give an example: during the exam, there was an instruction, and they started to read from the back to the front\u201d, a smiling Menten said.<\/p>\n

The pace is high, so students can quickly move on to further education or a job. \u201cWe select at the gate, because we want to have refugees who have a high learning rate. The previous batch went from zero to A2 (the ability to understand and communicate in simple, everyday topics, MH) in three months. \u201c<\/p>\n

"I like to do something for someone else."<\/h3>
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Judith Baker and Aisis Bergman, both 19 years old, are sitting at the same table as Rahmeh. Judith had heard about the language buddy program through an email from her student association NSR. She convinced Aisis to also get involved.<\/p>\n

And now they\u2019re in the Erasmus Sport canteen. Judith: \u201cI like to do something for someone else.\u201d The lunch is already coming to an end. \u201cWe\u2019ve had great conversations with some refugees. I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect, but I\u2019m definitely excited\u201d, Aisis said.<\/p>\n

Exactly how they\u2019re going to do the meetings with the refugees, they don\u2019t know yet. \u201cWe could have some nice coffee somewhere, or actually do something together,\u201d says Judith. \u201cGo to the Markthal, for example,\u201d Aisis adds. \u201cOr show Rotterdam.\u201d To which Judith dryly comments: \u201cOr the other way around: the refugee shows us. He might know Rotterdam better, we don\u2019t even live here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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