The best part about living in Los Angeles is...
The sub-tropical climate and its natural beauty. Coming from the Netherlands, it's a dream to have so much sunlight and mild temperatures during the fall and winter. With the Pacific Ocean so close by, and the mountains and desert, there is an appealing variety of nature. The city of L.A. offers a wide variety of cultures and the Arts, and people in general are open and informal.
Recommend a place to visit where Dutch is the native language, and tell us why you like it.
Amsterdam, the capital city of the Netherlands, my birth place. I have an affinity for the architecture of this Medieval City, with its canals and quaint canal-houses and house-boats, bow bridges and brown cafés, bistros and coffee shops The sound of church bells and street organs, and not to forget the noisy trams, cutting through the narrow streets, is engraved into my memory! Amsterdam has a rich cultural life. The Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum are world renowned, as are as the City's Philharmonic and National Ballet. In my opinion, with its history and culture, Amsterdam is the best city to learn the Dutch Language. However, many of my students prefer The Hague or Utrecht.
What Dutch film or musical artist do you recommend students watch or listen to?
André Rieu with his Johan Strauss Orchestra is a joy to listen to and watch, especially because they give a very inviting, unorthodox and humorous presentation of classical music. As for movies, perhaps 'Black Book,' which portrays the Dutch resistance during the Second World War, against the Nazis. This movie is directed by Paul Verhoeven.
What most surprises your students about Dutch?
Students discover that some words and sentence structures are very similar to English and that Dutch has adopted many English terms—through the use of social media in particular. Dutch consonants are quite similar to their English counterparts and easy to pronounce. However, the vowels and combination-vowels or diphthongs take a bit longer to master. Spelling is very straightforward.
What one thing would you like your students to know about you?
I'd like students to be interactive language-learners. They need one another to practice the language in class and get over their inhibitions to speak a foreign language. I use the classroom as a language lab. Students need to be willing and able to put time into listening to the sound of the Dutch language—on their way to work or on a lunch break, in waiting rooms, etc.