Last week I had the opportunity to finally do an intensive, (5 days, 9 hours per day) Dutch language program with two private tutors. In other words, I was “sent to the nuns to be straightened out”.

The Marcus Evans Linguarama Program is basically a language training center for professionals. It caters towards the needs of people who find themselves needing to grasp or master a foreign language in the most time efficient manner as possible. There are several language classes options, each custom tailored to the  demands of the potential student.  With Bram’s encouragement, I did the business track program in order to learn Dutch as time-efficient as possible.

At first I was a little hesitant about having to stay at a hotel/language institute that was formerly a convent. However, there was something about the place that gave me a sense of peace and quiet that I wasn’t able to find in the Netherlands before. Perhaps it was all the lingering iconic religious statues/references scattered throughout the grounds, or maybe hundreds of years of prayer. What ever it was, I felt incredibly comfortable and safe.

And I must confess that I was a bit spoiled. OK. Really spoiled. For each meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), I was assigned my own personal table, with a designated name card, Mev. Acosta (Mevrouw~Miss/Mrs Acosta). Each morning, I woke up to a pretty good buffet of croissants and all different assorted breads, fresh juices, fruit, eggs, cheeses, meats, yogurt, granola, coffee/tea etc. When lunch time came, I was treated to various types of salads (and not the typical Dutch mayo salads mind you), fresh baked breads, lunch meat, a warm dish of the day, juices/coffee/tea, and of course, sweet little pastries.  When dinner rolled around, I had a nice European three course meal, complete with wine and (almost) impeccable customer service. Let’s just say that the concept of “diet” was temporarily put aside as I ate till my heart’s content. =)

Before starting the program, I was personally warned by Linguarama that it was going to be intense. I must confess that I didn’t really take them that seriously–after all, I did manage to survive Berkeley and UPenn. I was pleasantly surprised of how tired I was at the end of each day. Who knew that someone drilling Dutch into your head for about 8 hours a day, with additional homework could be so exhausting? Having the undivided attention of a sole teacher demanded you to be alert at all times, unable to hide behind notes or others. By the end of the week, I felt a lot more comfortable with Dutch and it no longer seemed like such a foreign language after all.

Perhaps the most valuable part of the experience that cannot be so easily replicated in any other language course (be it at the local Dutch community center or university) is the personal, one-to-one coaching that I received. The “coaching” went beyond the simple Dutch language but also integrated a much appreciated cultural and psychological component to it as well.

To say the least, I was a bit “traumatized” during my first year and a half in the Netherlands. I had, on more than one occassion, experienced unpleasant encounters with extremely rude, selfish, and morally questionable Dutch people.

There were also certain misconceptions I had about the Dutch attitude towards hospitality/food. For a while, I dreaded attending certain gatherings because I didn’t enjoy having to go home hungry or feeling so self conscious about what I ate because there simply wasn’t enough food available. I thought that, in general, the Dutch were so money conscious and stingy, that when it came to inviting others, they would only serve “just enough”  or the bare possible minimum.

The Linguarama program unraveled all these misconceptions I had about the Dutch culture. Confiding in my tutors and other Dutch around me, I realized that what I experienced was unfortunate and that it was definitely not the common experience anymore. The hospitality/generosity that Bram’s Dutch friends, my Erasmus classmates, and Quintiles colleagues  have shown me was not actually unique and out of the ordinary, but rather the more common experience with the mainstream Dutch culture in urban cities.

To say the least, the Linguarama program was my own rehabilitation program back into Dutch society. The Dutch may arguably be the most direct, straightforward people that one will ever encounter–but they too can also be sentimental, kind, generous with food, and of course, open-hearted towards strangers.  I just needed “my hand to be held”, to just be consoled and encouraged.  By the end of the week,  I was able to take ownership of the language, to embrace it completely, and to finally understand what it all means to think in Dutch. And…to finally realize that I can actually be genuinely happy in this country.

That my friends, is priceless.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 at 12:27 pm and is filed under "Fit" Nation, Expat Journey(s). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.