Nela
Well-Known Member
I arrived in the Netherlands in May. In June, we moved into our home. Meanwhile I had to do some tests and go to appointments about the dutch integration program (Inburgering). Anyway, they FINALLY got back to me last week and told me I was starting Monday.
They had mentionned having various times for the courses and I was pretty adament about wanting mornings since it meant Jeff could drive me there and then I would only have to walk back. They didn't put me in the morning class. Now okay, I was pretty disappointed and worried because it's a 40min walk one way and I have torn tendons in both feet as well as heel spurs which haven't healed yet. Anyway, I could overlook that and I told myself maybe i wouldn't be a problem and we'd see how it goes.
Monday was my first class. We are only 4 students in our group because all the others canceled. Anyway, they took us to a computer class where there were other students and explained to us how to log in and then left us on our own. Now let me tell you how this went.
The computer program shows you a short video which is all is dutch. After that, you get a list of words which is all in dutch. The next step is answering questions. All in Dutch. So I asked the teacher 'How can I answer a question I cannot read?' And this made the teacher annoyed. She got annoyed and told me if it's too hard for me to just do the words. So I calmly asked 'But Miss, I understand that they pronounce the word but I do not know what the word means and the definition is in Dutch.' Her reply was to get a dictionary.
Anyway, it turns out the 4 of us just sat there and stared blankly and were getting very frustrated. The teacher got irritated and took us to another class where she started a more interactive lesson. That was much much better however, she made us start reading things and pronouncing things without teaching us phoenetics, alphabet, etc.
Yesterday, I had the worse day. We had a new teacher. She started us off in the 'interactive class' only to make it much much less interactive. She basically sat there and watched us struggle. She then gave us a sheet which had a picture of a kitchen with smaller pictures of objects found around the kitchen and the dutch word under them. And that was that. She didn't pronounce the words. She just left us to it. And of course, with none of us having done phonetics, it's pretty much impossible to just guess the pronounciation.
She picked on me in particular because I have absolutely no knowledge of the dutch language and I struggle with the 'v' and 'w' sound. She got mad at me and told me that I need to go home and learn these things. I asked why I was at school if I had to go learn it at home. She didn't answer. At one point we asked about a word in a sentence to find out it means 'learn'. She got irritated and said that if we do not know these words, we should go home and look it up in the dictionary. I had my dictionary with me but of course it could not be found because it was not the infinitive form of the verb. Nice. We have to guess that too?
She also lied to us at one point about a certain rule not existing for the use of two different articles. She said they use one more than the other and that we just have to learn it. In fact, there is a clear rule in place, though it may not be too easy for a beginner. I would respect that if i were told that, but please do not start treating me like I am so stupid and do not need to know of things existing.
Anyway, the teacher got so irritated with us asking questions that shesaid 'Enough for today' basically kicked us out, and walked away leaving us standing there in bewilderment. We spent some time wandering around and then figured maybe we should go to the computer class. Who knows. There were students there that we had never seen but we just sat there and well basically we did anything other than learning dutch. All of us are very discouraged.
This is for my citizenship. It's a crucial part. I have 3.5 years to learn all this and pass the exams... It seems the school doesn't give a darn though. The way those teachers treat us is despicable. We're all adults. We're not stupid. We're trying hard to learn and yet they cannot be bothered to teach us. You voice your concerns and they automatically label you as a troublemaker. You ask a question and they make you feel so unbelievably stupid...
I'm not sure how to handle this?
They had mentionned having various times for the courses and I was pretty adament about wanting mornings since it meant Jeff could drive me there and then I would only have to walk back. They didn't put me in the morning class. Now okay, I was pretty disappointed and worried because it's a 40min walk one way and I have torn tendons in both feet as well as heel spurs which haven't healed yet. Anyway, I could overlook that and I told myself maybe i wouldn't be a problem and we'd see how it goes.
Monday was my first class. We are only 4 students in our group because all the others canceled. Anyway, they took us to a computer class where there were other students and explained to us how to log in and then left us on our own. Now let me tell you how this went.
The computer program shows you a short video which is all is dutch. After that, you get a list of words which is all in dutch. The next step is answering questions. All in Dutch. So I asked the teacher 'How can I answer a question I cannot read?' And this made the teacher annoyed. She got annoyed and told me if it's too hard for me to just do the words. So I calmly asked 'But Miss, I understand that they pronounce the word but I do not know what the word means and the definition is in Dutch.' Her reply was to get a dictionary.
Anyway, it turns out the 4 of us just sat there and stared blankly and were getting very frustrated. The teacher got irritated and took us to another class where she started a more interactive lesson. That was much much better however, she made us start reading things and pronouncing things without teaching us phoenetics, alphabet, etc.
Yesterday, I had the worse day. We had a new teacher. She started us off in the 'interactive class' only to make it much much less interactive. She basically sat there and watched us struggle. She then gave us a sheet which had a picture of a kitchen with smaller pictures of objects found around the kitchen and the dutch word under them. And that was that. She didn't pronounce the words. She just left us to it. And of course, with none of us having done phonetics, it's pretty much impossible to just guess the pronounciation.
She picked on me in particular because I have absolutely no knowledge of the dutch language and I struggle with the 'v' and 'w' sound. She got mad at me and told me that I need to go home and learn these things. I asked why I was at school if I had to go learn it at home. She didn't answer. At one point we asked about a word in a sentence to find out it means 'learn'. She got irritated and said that if we do not know these words, we should go home and look it up in the dictionary. I had my dictionary with me but of course it could not be found because it was not the infinitive form of the verb. Nice. We have to guess that too?
She also lied to us at one point about a certain rule not existing for the use of two different articles. She said they use one more than the other and that we just have to learn it. In fact, there is a clear rule in place, though it may not be too easy for a beginner. I would respect that if i were told that, but please do not start treating me like I am so stupid and do not need to know of things existing.
Anyway, the teacher got so irritated with us asking questions that shesaid 'Enough for today' basically kicked us out, and walked away leaving us standing there in bewilderment. We spent some time wandering around and then figured maybe we should go to the computer class. Who knows. There were students there that we had never seen but we just sat there and well basically we did anything other than learning dutch. All of us are very discouraged.
This is for my citizenship. It's a crucial part. I have 3.5 years to learn all this and pass the exams... It seems the school doesn't give a darn though. The way those teachers treat us is despicable. We're all adults. We're not stupid. We're trying hard to learn and yet they cannot be bothered to teach us. You voice your concerns and they automatically label you as a troublemaker. You ask a question and they make you feel so unbelievably stupid...
I'm not sure how to handle this?