Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Language Immersion

Today the teacher got ahead of the ability of most of the class ... more despondency.
We're doing a lot of worksheets, learning grammar by doing grammar.
It hurts sometimes.

Those who are fluent in Nederlands can't begin to understand how a monolingual Kiwi might feel when she begins on her worksheet. The instructions were:
Noteer de juiste tegenstelling.
1. Als kind ben je van je ouders afhankelijk, als volwassene ben je________
I quietly sighed. I had no idea what afhankelijk or volwassene meant, and this seemed important.
I moved on.
2. Hoofsdstuk een en drie van dit boek zijn heel belangrijk, maar hoofdstruk twee is _________________

It was a long day this morning, and minus 4 degree celsius when I left home ... although I have to admit, the temp did rise to the giddy height of +2 by lunchtime.
I came home, ate and pondered my linguistic failures before climbing back into bed with a book and accidently falling asleep in the sun. Sun through glass is a beautiful thing here in Antwerpen, it works just like the real thing ...

Tot straks.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So you're an English teacher?

Di Mackey said...

I was ... in Turkey. Here I'm just waiting to be legal, learning a language and grammar as I go.

Anonymous said...

I read your article on expatica.com. This comment has no relation to your post, but can you give me info on where I can get these flemish classes? I live in Brussels though, but the Antwerp office may give me some feedback?

thanks!

Di Mackey said...

Hi anonymous ... in the original article I had written 'track down the Huis van het Netherlands and find out how to start classes.

If that is difficult then do what I did. I found out the name of a language school near me, phoned them and they passed me onto 'De Shelter' here in Antwerp. I was given an appointment and assessed there (there was a waiting list), and then streamed into a language school.

If you need more help, let me know and I'll get my Belgian partner to search for contact details for you in Brussels. :)