Immersion Dutch courses.

Monday

9 a.m. arrival, moving in, informal acquaintance with coffee or thee.

9:30-10:30 a.m.: Testing your level of proficiency in Dutch according to the European Proficiency Scale.

Most important is learning Dutch the way native speakers would prefer to hear, in order of importance that is : correct pronunciation, correct sentence structure, vocabulary, respect of basic Dutch manners. This allows them to understand you and creates goodwill.

Richards courses focus on conversational Dutch. Focussing on understanding and speaking you're of course learning Dutch grammar, syntax and spelling too.

You discuss test results with Richard and together fix goals and priorities for your week.

10:30-11 a.m. Break with informal conversation, in Dutch of course.

From the first day your teacher only speaks Dutch with you. This full immersion in Dutch may be somewhat strange at first glance but it's the only really efficient way to learn Dutch at your pace in the shortest possible time. Such a 'sudden' immersion in  Dutch demands some adaptation from your brain but you can trust its sensor-motor coordination.

Your brain will switch to a state of 'creative dissatisfaction'. It will start to function autonomously, looking for contextual and nonverbal clues to understand what is said. That's why this is the best possible way to learn Dutch for the higher educated: you know you can trust your brains innate ability to grasp structures.

11 a.m. -12:30 p.m.: private one to one Dutch lessons with your dedicated tutor. Theme-centered learning Dutch: conversation topics are your topics. Your made to measure Dutch course is build up around what you are interested in and want or need to communicate about in Dutch .

Meanwhile you get the help you need to progress: your dedicated Dutch teacher hands you the every-day or professional vocabulary you need, teaches you good pronunciation, shows you the right way to express yourself, emphasizes on clear 'one idea one sentence' Dutch and common language as the fastest ways to express yourself in easy understandable good Dutch.

During your course we may use articles, radio or TV news, recordings, texts on subjects your interested in, hobbies, work, family-life, home, Dutch ways of live, ... . If you're starting from scratch we use 'Wablieft' a weekly newspaper for foreigners learning Dutch.  By 'Wablieft' you get information on last weeks news and actual topics among the natives. Most useful : although printed, Wablieft uses every-day spoken Dutch. 

Seeing and reading commonly spoken Dutch, although you may not be aware of, your brain notices Dutch spelling and pronunciation (more regular than English). Seeing and reading Dutch helps you to abandon English pronunciation more easily. You see what consonants are assimilated by what others and how the word is written and quite unconsciously your brain grasps regularities in Dutch pronunciation.

And, you see the sentence structure. Seeing sentence structure makes it more easy to imitate and copy the way native Dutch-speakers stress parts of the sentence and parts of the words. You see where you can take a breath to have enough air for correct pronunciation of those long Dutch vowels respecting the rhythm of Dutch sentences.

12:30-1:30 p.m. Lunch

Another opportunity to practice every-day Dutch in an every-day situation. If there's time left you watch Dutch TV-new together.

1:30-3 p.m. private Dutch lessons, revision and choosing key-sentences. You review vocabulary, sentence structure and pronunciation and if necessary grammar encountered during morning lessons, breaks or watching the news. From yours and your teachers notes 'key-sentences' are chosen.

free time until 6:30 p.m.

Learning Dutch is a  demanding mental activity. Having a siesta, taking a shower or bath, going for a walk to discover the village, it's park and surrounding country-side, ... are necessary to keep your brain optimal. After your break you can do some personal reviewing of notes and key-sentences the way you like. You may need 2 to 3 hours for optimum results.

6:30-8 p.m. Dinner with a partner from local social or cultural life = extra learning opportunities.

Relaxed dinner conversations, acquaintance, exchange, ... . An opportunity to meet ordinary Dutch speaking people and ask them everything you'd like to know about the way Dutch speaking natives are and think, our history, social life ... .

8 p.m. free time. Or time for reviewing your key-sentences, watch Dutch TV or DVD's. Essential for an optimal result  learning Dutch is to keep yourself immersed in Dutch. The more you cut of yourself from reading or speaking any other language, the faster you learn understanding, thinking, feeling and speaking Dutch. Don't mind to sleep enough : during sleep your brain processes and integrates the days experiences and what you learned. Students often tell they even started dreaming in Dutch.

Learning Dutch, made to measure immersion Dutch course Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, (+ Friday and Saturday if you chose to add the weekend). Schedule largely the same as Monday. Every morning briefing and feedback to  adjust this made to measure Dutch course to your learning.

What's getting easier? What's still somewhat difficult? Feedback about yesterday evenings conversations with the local. Your made to measure private Dutch course can be adapted day to day according to your progress and needs, rhythm and learning pace.

Theme-centered conversation learning Dutch: topics are your topics. Subjects your interested in and are important to you.

You want to understand and share in Dutch on those topics in your professional, social or every-day life. So you're learning Dutch you're interested in.

Learning every day Dutch. During this course Richard stays with you at breaks and lunches. So there's plenty of opportunities to talk in Dutch about anything that comes up: weather, daily live, what comes up during chat with your teacher, diner partner or the hotel owner.

Learning Dutch the natural way : ongoing inventory of your pronunciation and intonation progresses and needs, of your sentence structure and where needed introducing spelling and grammar.

Together you choose key-sentences. Typical sentences offering you an easy opportunity to train specific aspects of vocabulary, pronunciation, essential grammar or sentence structure. Key-sentences carry more than it seems at first glance. While reviewing them in the background your brain remembers and integrates everything  you learned that day.

After 6 or more private Dutch lessons and ongoing conversation your brain needs a rest to integrate! Maybe you don't think so but disconnecting, a good balance between activity and rest, contact and withdrawal are important to learn Dutch the fastest possible way. These intensive private one to one made to measure Dutch courses are rich and intensive.

Letting your thoughts flow freewheeling is the way your brain integrates new experiences. To calm down, decanting, without any conscious effort leads to internal conversation, thinking and even dreaming in Dutch.

Dinner with partners from local socio-cultural life:

Through these contacts you start to understand how the Dutch perspective as it is embedded in the language, words and sentence structures you are learning. You get acquainted with how Dutch speaking people perceive and experience live through the very language you are learning. Through learning Dutch in full immersion, you get in touch with the Dutch 'soul'. Our way of being. 

Learn Dutch, full immersion Dutch courses for the higher educated, last day.

9 a.m. made to measure intensive Dutch course, informal briefing: Together with your dedicated teacher you discuss what you would like to review, deepen or train this last day. That can be some pronunciation or intonation, some points of sentence structure, essential grammar or spelling...

After lunch: Evaluation of your progresses: Richard uses a similar method to evaluate your progress on the European proficiency scale. Taking into account the goals and priorities you fixed yourself at the beginning of this intensive week. This test offers  you, your boss, colleague, friend or partner a more objective experience of his or her progress. But most pleasant of course will be your real life experience: your better understanding, speaking more easily and thinking in Dutch.

1 p.m. informal good bye.

In one single week one to one full immersion Dutch course with Richard van Egdom an experienced private Dutch teacher you, your higher educated boss, colleague, friend or partner learn as much as during a full year of weekly classes or group teaching.

Here you progress one level of proficiency in Dutch in one single week of intensive and efficient one to one private Dutch courses. Fully tailored private Dutch lessons. Full immersion Dutch courses. Emphasis on understanding en fluently speaking Dutch.

Dialogue centred learning:  through conversation about those topics you're interested in.