From our blog
News, developments and articles from Regina Coeli
‘To be able to manage, it’s useful to speak Russian’
Paul van Deuren took a Russian course at Regina Coeli about a year and a half ago. Because of COVID-19, he spent less time in Russia than he would have liked. But, now that the Russian lockdown is over, he’s working at the McDermott office in Moscow again. We reflect with him on learning the Russian language.
Business Spanish for beginners
Have you ever looked into Spanish courses for beginners? Apparently, if you want to learn the language, you can’t get around learning the names of fruits and vegetables, colours and all kinds of sports. But what if you mainly need the language to speak with Spanish-speaking suppliers or customers? Then it’s a bit handier to be able to present your product and write a decent email than to be able to name every fruit and vegetable in the produce section of the supermarket.
Take a journey by reading a book
When you were in school, you probably frequently heard that reading books was good for your language development. No matter how much education has changed, schools still really promote reading, so an idea that has survived all these years must have some merit to it, you might say. In fact, reading books helps you develop your language skills even when you learn a foreign language as an adult.
Cross language learning off your bucket list!
Learning a language is on a lot of people’s bucket lists. Which is logical, because how nice would it be to be able to effortlessly talk with others when you’re in Spain? Or to be able to ask the chef for their recipe in fluent Italian? But how useful is it to put learning a language on the list of things you want to do ‘one day’? It’s not something you just go and do in one go. Besides that, the sooner you learn a language, the longer you can enjoy it. Or are you content to wait until you retire to learn a language that you like the sound of or that would give your CV a big boost?
Little time and still learning a language
Learning a language takes time. If your days are already jam-packed with work, sports and family commitments, it can be hard to fit in time to study every week. Then it’s a godsend to be able to concentrate completely on learning a language for a week. That's what Edo Boerefijn, Chief Operating Officer at Cryonorm, did, for example.
The language of the ‘Hollandse pot’
Every winter, steaming hot plates of food magically appear on tables in Dutch homes everywhere—things like big pots full of snert, boerenkool or hutspot. These are collectively called Hollandse pot, or stamppot. These are quite hearty meals that fill the belly and warm up you right down to your toes. Even though Dutch winters aren’t as cold as they used to be, these dishes are still wildly popular in the winter months.