From our blog
News, developments and articles from Regina Coeli
Alaaf! The language of Dutch Carnival
Seven weeks before Easter Sunday, Carnival starts in a large part of the Netherlands. Especially in the provinces of Noord-Brabant and Limburg, life is dominated by this feast for a few days, but Carnival is also celebrated in some places in the eastern part of the country. Carnival means ‘carne vale’: farewell meat. Carnival marks the beginning of a fasting period, although few Carnival-goers still honour that tradition...
Through any kind of weather
Dutch people go by bike to work, school, the pub, the sports club, you name it. And you’ll generally find them cycling through any kind of weather. A heavy downpour doesn’t stop the Dutch (and the expats who have also adopted the habit) from hopping on their bikes. How do they manage?
Learning Italian for life in Italy
Most Regina Coeli course members learn a foreign language for work. Not Peter and Nan. They are enthusiastic Italy-goers and spent a week in Vught learning Italian so they could enjoy their time in Italy even more.
What language do you communicate in?
When you zoom in on language, you find that a multitude of languages are spoken in the Netherlands. Recent research has shown that 25% of adults here prefer to speak a language other than Dutch at home.If you aren’t required to learn Dutch, you can generally get by with English. An important question then is: is your English and that of your conversation partners up to scratch? And you could also ask yourself whether you’re comfortable not being able to understand and speak Dutch.
A solid foundation in the Russian language
That Russian is not a language you simply learn overnight can be confirmed by Veronique Jourdain. Russia and its language are part of this French artist manager's life. "Now I wanted to finally build a solid foundation in the Russian language so I can speak Russian with the musicians I support. Regina Coeli came highly recommended by the director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of the Netherlands. And for that tip, I thanked him wholeheartedly after the training.”
Once upon a time, ‘er’ was a little word...
Anyone who learns Dutch as a foreign language gets to take on the fun challenge presented by the simple combination of two letters: the word 'er'. ‘Er’ seems to be an insignificant word which doesn’t mean much of anything, yet it is used all over the place in Dutch and you cannot just omit it.