1/2 Language teacher Karen Tangel with her Filipino students (photo: private collection)
In a classroom in Manila, Filipino nurses have been toiling on the Dutch language for months. For the first time in the almost sixty-year existence of language institute Regina Coeli, better known as ‘the nuns of Vught’, the language teachers have flown out for months to teach abroad. The nurses will soon start working in Dutch hospitals, because there is a staff shortage in the Netherlands.
A recruitment agency, Otto Health Care, has hired the language teachers to teach the nurses Dutch. That way, they master the language as soon as they get to work. “It’s a pilot”, says teacher Karen Tangel from Manila. “If it succeeds, the Vught language institute will probably receive even more students in the Philippines.”
“Young people work abroad to support their families.”
According to Tangel, it is quite normal in the Philippines for young people to work abroad. “They earn much more than they would get at home. They provide for their family and relatives. It is really different here than with us.”
The nurses are taught according to the typical ‘nuns of Vught’ method. “That means that they are working on Dutch five days a week, eight hours a day. An hour of lessons, followed by an hour of self-study. In Vught, the students are already exhausted after a week,” Karen says. “So you can see what it’s like for the participants here. It’s very intensive.”
“I can only say ‘thank you’ in Filipino.”
Karen herself only speaks a few words of Filipino after a month. “All I can say is ‘thank you,'” she lets out a little guiltily. “They also speak fluent English here. You will then make less effort to learn the local language, because you can express yourself anyway.”
In total, Karen will stay in Manila for eight weeks. “I was really excited when it became clear that they wanted to send teachers to the Philippines. It was hard for my husband. We had just brought our daughter to France for a long time and then I left for two months. It is now suddenly very very quiet in our house in Tilburg.”
“Our cell phones sounded massive alarms, a typhoon was on the way.”
Karen sees her trip as a great adventure. It was immediately apparent when a super typhoon was en route after a week. “We were totally ignorant on our way to the beach when our cell phones went off massively. We couldn’t read the text on the phones because it was Filipino, but it was clearly alarming.”
“The locals remained very relaxed”, Karen continues, “but they advised us to turn around quickly and take shelter in our hotel. Eventually the typhoon cleared and we especially had a nice story for drinks.”