{"id":7652,"date":"2015-03-25T11:08:11","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T11:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress72\/?p=27494"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:25","slug":"inexpensive-language-course-for-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2015\/03\/25\/inexpensive-language-course-for-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Inexpensive language course for students"},"content":{"rendered":"

A language course on campus could become a lot cheaper for EUR students after the summer, when Erasmus Language Sharing (ELS) is set to begin \u2013 a language course for students, taught by students. <\/p>\n

Students Jan Radermacher and Florine Groenen came up with this plan, which Jan explains: \u201cSay you\u2019re planning to do your master\u2019s in Brazil starting in the autumn. Picking up a Portuguese class at the Taal & Trainingscentrum is pretty expensive. Yet there are people on campus who grew up speaking Portuguese. The idea is to match you up with a native speaker. The teacher earns a few extra euros and you get a cheap language course.\u201d<\/p>\n

The price for a course is currently estimated at about 45 euros per class, a big drop from the 280 you\u2019re likely to spend at the Taal & Trainingscentrum (TTC). Still, Marjon Menten of the TTC doesn\u2019t see the new project as a threat: \u201cActually, we think it\u2019s a really great idea. We want to support the ELS from the TTC too. For example, we\u2019re going to give the students involved training in working with groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any consequences from the extra competition have yet to be proven. \u201cJan Radermacher thinks that it will open up a whole new market. It\u2019s also possible that we\u2019ll lose students, which would of course be a shame. But right now, it\u2019s all just guesses,\u201d says Menten. A big difference is the fact that at TTC you receive an official certificate at the end of a course. That\u2019s not the case at ELS. <\/p>\n

Cultural evening<\/b><\/p>\n

According to Florine, ELS isn\u2019t just about the language: \u201cWe also want to include lessons about the culture of a particular country. And we will have theme nights, where, for example, a group studying French organises a cultural evening about France, and invites the other course groups.\u201d <\/p>\n

The development of ELS is still in the start-up phase; Jan and Florine are looking for people interested in helping. Anyone interested is welcome to send an e-mail to els@oos.eur.nl<\/a>. ES<\/p>\n\n\t

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