NEW2NL ANNIVERSARY PARTY
On Sunday, July 9th, we held a successful anniversary party at Jeugdland in Amsterdam-East.
We celebrated 10 years of New2NL, and I invited some of the 1000+ (!) families I have worked for in those 10 years.
Here’s to the next 10 years!
Prize draw
Would you like to have a chance of winning a free, one-hour consultancy call about education in the Netherlands? Send us a picture of yourself or your school when you were 10 years old.
Send your picture before July 20th to annebet[at]new2nl.com, and describe in which country and when it was taken.
The winner will be announced shortly after, and some of the received pictures will be shown on the New2NL website. We are curious to see how your school looked like, or how you used to dress for school. Thank you very much in advance.
Moving as a child – a personal story
A personal story: when I was 10 years old, I moved with my family from the South of the Netherlands (Noord-Brabant) to the North-East (Drenthe). Although this was still in the same country, the difference was huge. In the beginning, I couldn’t understand the people in my new home town, for example. I remember very well how my mother sent me to the green grocer’s with a shopping list. I asked the sales guy for the produce on my list. I didn’t understand his answer and asked him politely to repeat. After repeating twice more, and me still not understanding anything, I went home crying.
I started school there mid-group 7, and had to get used to everything new. I also had to make new friends, while I had to leave many great friends behind. Looking back, I don’t remember much of this school. I should have a picture of the school from when I was 10, but I have no idea where to search for it. So, above you see a current picture of how I vaguely remember it.
And then, less than two years later, a lot changed again when I went to secondary school… And then the whole process started all over again.
Although this was all very difficult at that time, these and later experiences (I have moved many times after, and also changed secondary schools) helped me to understand the needs of families moving to a new place. Now I profit from these experiences when assisting my clients.
Italy
And by living in Italy, I have also experienced how it feels to be the foreigner and how to arrange everything in a language which isn’t native to you.
So, in the end, everything has come together, and it did serve a purpose.
I am proud of what I have achieved in those 10 years, and I am enthusiastically looking forward to the next ten years!
