“Nick Walker at Dutch & Such is a diamond. He provides a high quality, effective and extremely personable service as a language teacher. Even if you consider yourself to have little or no language skills, he is the man for you. Each lesson is non-threatening, encouraging, structured and creative. I’ve taken more than one course with Nick, as I progressed through higher levels of understanding. He has great skill in making students feel comfortable and safe – even when you are making mistakes. Perhaps most important of all, lessons at Dutch & Such are fun.”
Kerrie Finch director at The Finch Factor
“Learning a new language was always going to be tricky for me however Nick quickly structured my sessions around improvement without necessarily mastery; flexibility but with discipline; and enjoyment without losing sight of the objectives. My language skills improved markedly under his tutelage although I am confident that I will never be seen as one of his star students! I would recommend the highly personable and professional Nick to anyone wishing to learn Dutch.”
Warren Hammond Manager at Monsterboard.nl
“I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know how good I think the course has been and how much I enjoy the lessons. I feel that I have learnt a lot and made progress, not just in linguistic terms but also with regard to my understanding of Dutch culture and way of life. I also feel that ‘Nederlands in Actie’ is the first text book I have used, which I will happily revisit to carry on learning the language.”
Isabel Hyams – PA at Off The Fence BV
“Nick is a very friendly, patient and motivated teacher. Lessons are structured with grammatical as well as interactive topics. It is fun and entertaining learning Dutch in a small group. Nick makes Dutch easier!”
Melanie Lemahieu – Office manager at Network Hardware
“I really enjoy Dutch classes with Nick. He customizes the lessons so that they are relevant to what we’re doing.”
Paula O’Connell – Director O’Connell Marketing Executive Search
“Thanks Nick for being a great teacher, I really enjoyed the classes I managed to attend and even with the modest amount of homework it has made a huge difference to my ability to understand what people are talking about!!”
Paul Armstrong – Manager at Gouden Gids
“Om je werk goed te doen, is taal heel belangrijk. Om jezelf te integreren in de maatschappij, is taal essentieel. Bij IKEA vormt het Nederlands een brug tussen alle verschillende culturen die er worden vertegenwoordigd. Daarom is een goed gebruik van de Nederlandse taal juist voor ons extra belangrijk.
Wij hebben veel geleerd in onze twaalf lessen; vooral de taal van onze werkplek. We vonden de Nederlandse cursus leuk en leerzaam. Door Nick Walker, onze docent, is ons Nederlands verbeterd. Het boek ‘Taaltrainer’ vonden wij een uitstekende keuze, omdat daarin de nadruk ligt op zakelijk Nederlands.
De cursus was ook een mogelijkheid om de relatie met onze collega’s te versterken. Het was erg leuk om met mensen van zoveel verschillende culturen in één klas te zitten. Van Nepal tot Mexico, van Marokko tot Polen… Een wereld is de Nederlandse les.
Helaas is voor ons de Nederlandse taal nog steeds lastig. Er zijn meer uitzonderingen dan regels. Behalve de grammatica zijn bepaalde klanken heel moeilijk. Bijvoorbeeld het verschil tussen de ‘i’ en de ‘ie’ of de ‘eu’ en de ‘uu’. Het verschil tussen Vis en Vies, Deur en Duur is moeilijk te maken.
Kortom wij hebben ons doel nog niet bereikt. Een vervolg van de Nederlandse cursus zou ons zeker helpen om binnen en buiten IKEA beter te functioneren. Mocht IKEA in de toekomst een vervolgcursus aanbieden, dan zouden wij daar dankbaar gebruik van maken…”
Feedback van cursisten bij IKEA Amsterdam. (Deze cursus vond plaats tussen september en december 2008)
Dear Nick,
Sorry this note is not in Dutch, but I wanted to say that I really enjoyed the summer school classes I took with you this summer (June 2010).
I especially enjoyed the Martin Bril gedichten (poems) and the klein mopje (little joke) about hemel en hel (heaven and hell). I loved the Martin Bril poetry so much, I downloaded all of his poems available on his website and I am reading them all now (it’s 70 pages of poetry!) His poetry is so good that I want to translate it to share with my English speaking friends! He reminds me very much of an American poet named Billy Collins.
I also have loved the “question games” that you hand out – we play them at my studio. I know I am very lucky to work at a studio where they are happy to play Dutch games with me! And the brainstorming game is such a great way to learn new vocabulary – I make them play that with me all the time.
Thanks again for everything – taking your classes always makes everything much clearer to me and a real pleasure!
Diane Peters – Designer at Mannschaft
I had the pleasure of learning from Nick Walker at Dutch and Such this past year. From September through April 2011, Nick provided private lessons for me as I prepared for the NT2 Staatsexamen.
Teachers returning to the classroom can be a very tough audience on other teachers. As a teacher of English myself with over 26 years experience working in high schools, I am impressed by Nick’s abilities as a teacher. He knows his subject, employs a range of methods to get students talking and his professional, positive approach instilled the confidence needed to really start talking.
Although my requirements for the course were widely varied, Nick’s dedication to meeting the needs of his learners was always present. Regardless of the range of questions I posed, Nick’s clear, positive and encouraging manner of explaining provided me with the clear understanding of the language and its use that I needed to make progress in acquiring Dutch.
I’ve taken many Dutch classes from a wide range of teachers over the years in my attempts to improve my Dutch. While appreciating the enthusiasm of other teachers, Nick’s unique position as a native speaker of both English and Dutch enables him to provide clear explanations using the subtleties and innuendo of English far beyond those offered by the many other teachers with whom I’ve worked in the past. His explanation of idiom, expressions, and actual use of the language could be explained in terms of how a native-English speaker uses language rather than an approximate understanding afforded by non-native speakers of English.
It is this combination of his own language skills, enthusiastic instruction and responsiveness to the needs of his students that distinguished the lessons I had at Dutch and Such from other language schools in Amsterdam. I hope you, too, have the good experience of learning Dutch with Nick Walker at Dutch and Such.
Elaine Flynn – English teacher at The International School of Amsterdam