Het lijkt mij hoognodig tijd u in te lichten van een groot wonder dat zal geschieden. Vergelijk het als de geboorte van een baby, maar dan een heel andere materie.
Begin deze zomer overviel de voltallige cast en crew van de kortfilm Nicht de Antwerpse straten en gebouwen. (Geloof mij,...
Ik ben een echte stadsmens, ik hou van de stad en dat is vreemd. Ik hou namelijk niet van drukte, ik kan niet tegen vervuiling, ik hou van groen, ik heb een hekel aan het openbaar vervoer en ik durf in heel wat straten niet te fietsen door het drukke verkeer. Desondanks ben ik zot van "A"! Ik ben zot van "A" en Antwerpen zot is van mij. Antwerpen is zot van mij omdat ik jong en geëngageerd ben, net als duizenden anderen jonge -en wat minder jonge- Antwerpenaren.
When you move to Belgium, you need to learn by heart words like “frietjes” or “regen”, and expressions as “een pintje, alstublieft”! But that’s all you need to know to survive here, because for your everyday communication you can manage with your English without problems. From the oldest grandfather down the youngest teenager (even some little children!), everybody speaks English properly and French of course, or even German and Spanish!
That’s really surprising for us. For example, if you need to ask for an address in Spain, you will have to ask four or five times before finding one person who speaks English… And probably that person will prefer to go with you to your destination more than to try to speak in English with you.
But language is not only a way of communication, it is also useful for understanding the culture and costumes of the country in where you are living. So, if you want to go a bit further with the language you have to cram and go to Dutch lesson, as EVS are doing!
From July on, the five European volunteers -together with two more EVS that live in Antwerpen too, Marie and Ewelina- are attending Dutch lessons. We have had until now two different nice teachers, Karen (July) and Marjon (August); is it because they can’t stand teaching us more than one month? They swear that’s not the reason… but the fact it’s we are looking now for a new one. Anybody interested in the job?
With Karen we worked especially in vocabulary. We are now able (more or less) to order a meal in a restaurant or to ask for the time and, what it’s the most important for the EVS-ladies from the South, to go naar de dokter or de apotheek! Because here, “Regen regen en nog eens regen”! (the first sentence we learnt here, lekker, eh?). But unfortunately, Karen had to leave us at the end of July because she went to Indonesia! We miss you a lot!
But then, in August, Marjon fill her place. She is explaining us a bit of grammar and we are trying to find out together some rules in the mess it seems for us the Dutch language. Marjon is our colleague in AEYC team and we are very grateful she could find some hours in her schedule to teach us. Thank you, Marjon!
But we are not only studying Dutch in the classroom, we practice it everywhere, especially during the weekend with Belgian people. We try to repeat the conversations we study in the lessons with them, but the native speakers sometimes don’t follow exactly the examples we learnt and we get lost and angry with them!!
Here you are one example of EVS speaking Dutch, do you guess which is the topic?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc0iib-XyjI
Written by Beatriz Romero in category: EVS.
The EVS-girls found a new destination for the sunny Saturday. We travelled two hours and reached Knokke, the most North-Eastern sea-side resort of the Belgian coast. It lies close to the Dutch border and is separated from the Dutch territory by the 'Zwin', a beautiful and extremely interesting natural reserve. Everybody said: Knokke is considered to be the most exclusive beach city in Belgium, primarily because of 'Knokke-Zoute', an area of splendid villas where the Belgian jet-set feels at home.
Few weeks ago, five European volunteers joined AEYC team. We will be working here till the end of November and we would like to share our experience of living in Antwerp with you all. After reading us, maybe you will like our stories so much that you will want to apply for an European Voluntary Service like us!
Ik heb een zwak voor parochiezalen. Waar je ook woont, overal zijn er parochiezalen. Met wat geluk op wandelafstand, maar hoogstwaarschijnlijk zeker op fietsafstand. De afstand van de zaal tot je thuis is zo'n afstand waarvan je je geen zorgen hoeft te maken of je te veel gedronken zal hebben,...
