In order for our participants to have a hope at becoming legal citizens of the Netherlands, they need to have a solid and basic knowledge of Dutch.

I came to know about the The Bridge2Hope project through Azar, one of the Management Team Board volunteer members. After exploratory talks with other MT Board members, as well as the project coordinator, I agreed to take this position. September 2017, I started giving the participants weekly Dutch language sessions. Up until then, they had been receiving 'ad hoc' lessons from a variety of volunteers.

The importance for the participants to be able to communicate better in Dutch, their repeatedly expressed desire to do so, the significant involvement of everyone, the confidence they showed to me and the warm feeling which that evoked in me, were the decisive factors in my decision. Naturally, my work experience as a consultant in primary education in The Hague also played a role.

I needed to provide clear guidance in my lessons, when asking the participants to carry out the assignments. Given the language proficiency level of the participants, it was decided to work with ABC - are you participating? , a basic Dutch course. After completing this course, the participants are expected to have a basic knowledge of the language; know a large number of daily expressions and simple sentences; and have built up a vocabulary of more than 800 words. In the course, the emphasis is on listening, comprehension, and vocabulary.

Since starting, the participants have had 20 lessons, varying from 75 -120 minutes. At the time of this writing, the basic course has progressed by more than 50%. The attendance up until now is at 90%. On a first test (end November), all six participants scored at least 60%.

Every week, I make a short report about my lesson for the management team. I experience their feedback, actions and the support of Amanda, as supportive and motivating.

You learn a new language faster and better, if you regularly repeat the taught material yourself and practice. Doing homework is not possible for everyone. We have made arrangements to improve that. For example, we use a registration form for homework. A WhatsApp group is also used for motivation and homework messages. Since a number of weeks, every lesson is started with a short simple test of the previous homework.

The involvement and active participation during the lessons are admirable. Serious work is being done. Attention, in a disciplined manner, is being given to the subject matter. This tells me, my time is being well-spent.

Peter Korst

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