{"id":81372,"date":"2017-10-31T12:46:54","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T11:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=81372"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:52","slug":"iedereen-hier-mag-elkaar-dankzij-de-universele-taal-van-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2017\/10\/31\/iedereen-hier-mag-elkaar-dankzij-de-universele-taal-van-sport\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Everyone here gets on with everyone thanks to the universal language of sport\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Travelling to and fro between The Hague and Rotterdam to take part in sport: ISS students can\u2019t see the logic in it. That\u2019s why, for some 25 years, the predominantly international students have attended De Blinkerd sports centre in Scheveningen. The majority of the close-knit and small-scale ISS community comes here every Sunday evening to participate in sport.<\/p>\n

The huge diversity of ethnic backgrounds in the dome-shaped sports centre is really striking. Students of all different types and sizes stand around the volleyball net, and it\u2019s the same at the indoor football later in the evening. Badminton particularly seems to attract Asian students.<\/p>\n

Badminton<\/h3>

\u201cBadminton is my favourite sport. I already played it when I did my bachelor degree in Indonesia\u201d, said Nofalia Nurfitriani (25). The Development Studies\u2019 master student has only been in the Netherlands since last September but has already made many new friends. The sports activities on Sunday play an important role in this. \u201cYou really get to know each other if you play sport together.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not an option for Nurfitriani to take part in sport at Erasmus Sport, even though she\u2019d like to: \u201cI\u2019d like to go to Rotterdam and to Erasmus University to play sport, but it\u2019s just too far to travel and I\u2019m really too busy with my studies.\u201d To compensate for this, she sometimes goes running near her ISS student house, as well as playing sport at the sports centre.<\/p>\n

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Intensive<\/h3>

Sam Talman (24) also only arrived in the Netherlands a couple of months ago. The American, who is following a master degree in Public Policy, is really enthusiastic about the sport options offered to ISS students, even if it is only a few times a week. \u201cI play sport here for four consecutive hours, so it\u2019s quite intensive. I also box twice a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talman starts his sport session with a warm-up in the form of basketball and volleyball, after which it\u2019s time for his high point of the evening: \u201cI come here for the indoor football.\u201d But he also thinks the good atmosphere is really important. \u201cI\u2019ve never had a boring discussion here and I\u2019m learning so much about countries I knew hardly anything about. Everyone here gets on with everyone thanks to the universal language of sport\u201d, he explained.<\/p>\n

Sport Card<\/h3>
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According to coordinator and supervisor Dieneke van der Waal, ISS students don\u2019t view the relatively limited sports facilities as a problem. \u201cOur students are often somewhat older. They generally think it\u2019s enough to play sport once a week; they\u2019re busy with other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Counsellor Martin Blok acknowledges that it\u2019s not an option for a small institute like ISS to have its own sports complex. \u201cFinancially, it\u2019s just not feasible\u201d, he stated. So students have to make do with the sports centre, which is a good fifteen-minute bicycle ride from the ISS and doesn\u2019t have a canteen open on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

International sports day<\/h3>

If students want to play more sport, they can request a sport card at Erasmus Sport or from The Hague University of Applied Science. But, according to Blok, that hardly ever happens.<\/p>\n

In any event, ISS students are really well-catered for in April as that\u2019s when the institute organises the International Education Sports Day for all similar institutes in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\t

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