As a student, I studied Dutch language and literature and graduated in linguistics. While most of my fellow students worked through college as a waiter, pure by accident I got a student job as a teacher of NT2 (Dutch as a Second Language).
Apart from the occasional vacation in Europe, I had little foreign experience, so a world opened up for me.
People from all kinds of countries and cultures gathered together in my Amsterdam classroom. I taught them my language, while they taught me about theirs, about their culture and their food.
Like the homemade treats a student brought to class one day during Ramadan. She couldn’t eat them herself until after sundown, but she insisted that we taste them: “Eat, eat!”
Another time, I was invited to a student’s family home for a full-fledged Thanksgiving dinner. And sometimes one of them would take me to her favorite restaurant during evening class, because after all, even when learning Dutch, one has to eat. Right?
Friends for life
Some students became friends for life.
Not long after college, I quit teaching to pursue my greatest love: writing for newspapers, magazines, books and TV series. I have covered many subjects, and still do. But food has long been my main focus. My early NT2 students may have had a hand in that.
A few years ago, again by pure chance, I wound up back in NT2 teaching. And although much has changed and I have since traveled the world, teaching still deepens my perspective of other cultures.
An infinite source of inspiration for a writer.
Teaching people from all over the world, I notice of course that we are all different.
But despite our differences, in class we laugh together, listen to each other, help each other out and learn from one other in many ways.
Plus, we all love ‘typical Dutch’ gezelligheid.
And bitterballen.
Especially bitterballen.
© Marjan Ippel, November 2024