Languages

At home in two languages

I am a native speaker of (British) English and a near-native speaker of Dutch. My wife is a born and bred Amsterdammer, and we speak Dutch at home.

I am not bilingual, but my command of Dutch is a significant advantage when I am working with Dutch clients. It helps me understand – and explain to them – where their difficulties come from.  

Fascinated by the others

I have an intermediate level command of French and have used it in a professional context. I have also taken formal classes in Spanish, Chinese and Arabic. In my twenties, I could hold a simple conversation in Shona (the majority language in Zimbabwe). At school I had Latin and loved scanning the poetry.

If I had my time over again, I would study comparative linguistics. It fascinates me that “thing” in English, “(kort) geding” in Dutch, and “alþingi”, the Icelandic word for parliament, are cognates.

Happy teaching everyone

Although Dutch native speakers are my speciality, I have also taught first language speakers of Arabic, Armenian, Azeri, Berber, Chinese, Farsi, Finnish, French, Friesian, German, Hebrew, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Kurdish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Shona, Siswati, Somali, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Ukrainian. 

I enjoy working with all language groups.

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