In between jobs When this interview took place, our student Zuzanna “Zuza” (bijna 27 jaar jong, in Nederland sinds juni 2018, super energiek en lief, afkomstig uit Lodz, Polen, Insta: @zuzathezorro) got fired a few days before. However, Zuza probably does not have to wait a long time to get a new job… Our interview got interrupted after a few minutes by a recruiter calling her with a new job offer. This was the 8th time she got contacted in a few days. Apparently, if you are a technical person and a biomedical engineer in me ..read more

Hoi! Ik ben Kim en ik werk bij Koentact. Ik ben private program en content coordinator, maar ook een geboren en getogen (born and raised) in Amsterdam, and I’d love to share some of my favorite Amsterdam tips with you. Voting Did you know that a lot of internationals can also vote (stemmen) for the Amsterdam municipal elections (gemeenteraadsverkiezingen) on March 16? Everyone who has an EU passport, or has been living in The Netherlands legally for over five years, has the right to vote for the municipal elections. To do so, you only have to be registered as a resident (inwoner) in Amsterdam ..read more

It has been over a year since Koentact’s courses went online. Teacher Kiki saw an opportunity and decided to continue teaching from abroad. She went to Portugal. In this blog, she will tell more about what it has been like to teach Dutch while being away. How did you end up in Portugal?Normally I travel every winter. This is partly why I chose to become a language teacher; it gives me the freedom to travel for longer periods. When classes suddenly went online, I realized that I could be teaching from anywhere! I decided to search for a place abroad where I could live for a couple of months. I ..read more

First of all, we want to mention that it giet oan sounds weird for Dutch people as well. To explain, it giet oan is a Frisian phrase which you can translate as ‘it’s happening!’. So, what is happening and why do all Dutch people say it in Frisian? And what is Frisian? FrisianThe Netherlands is divided into 12 Provinces, among which is Friesland. This province is in the north of the Netherlands, next to the province Groningen. Most of our provinces have their own accents, but the Frisians have their own official language called Frisian, or as we say in Dutch, Fries. No, not French Fries, Dutch ..read more

2020 has been quite the year. In March all of our classes suddenly went online from one week to another. In our current courses, both our morning and evening courses are being taught in a virtual classroom. We’ve had online open days, workshops, escape rooms and pub quizzes. For our intensive weeks, we have found a way to teach classes offline again. In collaboration with L’ecole de Francais we have arranged spacious classrooms in which small groups can enjoy face-2-face classes again. This location in the center of Amsterdam is close to our office location and good to reach by bike, which is ..read more

Koentact is giving away a free Dutch course for beginners! You can join the contest by visiting our Facebook or Instagram page, liking and replying to the post, leaving a funny small dialogue in which the shown saying is used! So, what is it that I can win? We’re giving away an online Dutch Absolute beginners’ course. (After completing this course, you are halfway level A1.) The classes are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting on June 30 and ending on July 30. The classes begin at 19:00 and last until 21:30. The value of this online course is €360,-. The recap classes and Saturday worksh ..read more

It has been a month since Koentact decided to switch to the virtual classroom. We have learned a lot since then, from digital skills to social aspects. This is the story of last month at Koentact. We started with a search for the right program to use in our online classes. That’s when we first heard about Zoom. In our first Zoom meeting, we tried out the different features and were happy to have found this. Soon after we had meetings with the teachers, to explain how they can use Zoom for their classes and to get familiar with this online ‘classroom’. We learned a lot. About cameras and micro ..read more

NL Wat?! Heeft een cursist de docent een stommerd (a silly person) genoemd? Geen zorgen, de cursist is er ongedeerd vanaf gekomen! Stommerd is een van de woorden die je leert in onze workshop ‘Underground Dutch: schelden en vloeken’. Afgelopen sessie vond onze allereerste Workshop Saturday plaats. In online sessies van een uur, maakten cursisten kennis met de hobby’s en passies van hun docenten, terwijl ze hier en daar ook wat nieuwe Nederlandse woorden en grammatica leerden. Zo oefenden ze hun sollicitatieskills, schreven ze Zeer Korte Verhalen, leerden ze op een creatieve manier over Nederla ..read more

To keep as many classes going as possible we now offer the Covid-19% discount on all new courses. The course price for a full evening or day course is €360 and the conversation courses are €220. Current Courses Updated June 9: For our Evening, Morning, and Conversation classes we use Zoom to create online classrooms. We are convinced this program offers an excellent alternative to our in-person lessons, and we have strived to make our online lessons as fun and interactive as we normally do.   Instead of our offline field trips, we are organizing (online) workshops to o ..read more

The Netherlands is famous for its cheeses. You will find cheese shops in every city in the Netherlands, selling many delicious kinds of cheeses. From jonge kaas to oude kaas and from kaas uit Gouda to kaas uit Edam! So, how do you pick the right cheese? Well, it’s a true journey, but here are some things that might help you with your first pick! We have young and old cheeses, and they’re categorized by age: So, now you know what it means when it says ‘JONG’ on the package. But then, there is something else you need to know. Next, to these terms there are also numbers with a + sign next to the ..read more