Native speaker. 5 years of experience in a language school in Brussels! Lessons are visually fun and engaging!

Find out more about Benita

• Do you speak this language fluently because of your origins or because a teacher inspired you to learn?

  Dutch is my mother tongue; it's the language both of my parents speak and which I have been schooled in. Learning English came later, with films, high school and YouTube :)!

• Can you name a living, historical or fictional character that you think is the emblematic representative of the language's culture?

  As a kid who loved reading, I have to of course say Roald Dahl, the children's book author famous for stories like Charlie and the Chocolate factory, Mathilda and the big friendly giant. These stories shaped my childhood imagination!

• Is there a typical word, phrase, tradition or behaviour in the language that you particularly like?

  Dutch is a Germanic language, which is characterized by compound words, which translated, can sound very funny. Think about: handschoenen (hand-shoes = gloves) or Nijlpaard (Nile horse = hippopotamus)! And there are many more... :)

• Why does speaking this language matter to you?

  Languages say a lot about the culture and history of its people, when a language is lost a lot of its knowledge and expressiveness are as well.
  Many Dutch words give a new or fresh perspective on concepts by adding prefixes (in-, uit-, op-) which is often very hard to translate while keeping the same feeling to it.
  Uitkijken (looking forward to), uitdrukken (to express), inzien (to realize)...
  Which makes it a very unique language to write and read in.

• What is the main difficulty in learning this language and what can help the process of learning?

  The most difficult part about learning Dutch is sentence structure, something the most advanced students struggle with. Every time you add a new component; the whole sentence can suddenly be shaken up (much like adding a picture in a word document haha!)
  Ik ga pizza eten => Vandaag, ga ik pizza eten.
  It becomes really fun if you think of it like a puzzle, where we constantly add new pieces every time you get the hang of it!

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your language learning or your days at school.

  Something I remind myself of every day (with every-thing) is that things go much better if you just have fun with it!

• How has travel or a specific trip helped you to increase your skill and knowledge of the language?

  Spending my masters in Sweden, has made me more aware of its connection to other Germanic languages; its fun seeing how many words are so similar in Swedish, German, Norwegian and Danish (but often written different, and pronounced a bit funkier haha)! Dutch probably sounds like a funky English to you too ;)

• What makes you a Superprof in language?

  I have worked now with adult's and children for a long time and these two different methods have been merging more and more; I started making games for my adults more and more and challenged my even my youngest students with some simple conversations! I am constantly learning new methods, revisiting my courses to make them more fun and taking in students tips (they often tell me their memory aids for remembering certain words; so i have learned to remind my students of words like 'elders' to remember the word ouders (parents) better, or rice to help them remembering reis (travel)).