Samenwerking Archieven

Working language

“It went fine, but we thought it was so strange that he didn’t greet one customer who came in.”
A drugstore employee about a student who came to test run for a day. He did his best to be as modest and restrained as possible.

“I understand everything that is said in Dutch class, but I don’t understand anyone outside the classroom!”
Almost all students have difficulty with the speaking level of Dutch people who are not used to speaking with non-native speakers.

“Can you tell me where the sore spots are?” (Where does it hurt?)
In many different sectors, not only is spoken at a high level (above B1 language level), but also written communication often starts from C1.

“Every time I spoke to him he didn’t look at me. It seemed as if he didn’t want to hear it or something ”.
In many cultures there is a great hierarchical distance between the employee and the employer. Not looking at your boss shows respect and submission.

“Every time an invoice has to be signed, they ask a hundred questions about it and then it has to be taken home!”
In Eritrea, there is generally suspicion about anything related to the government. Nobody can be trusted if they want money from you. The invoices therefore always had to be checked with their own community before they could be signed.

Whether you like sausage !!
Maybe you recognize it in yourself or you have seen it around you. You start to speak louder when you notice that the other person doesn’t understand you.
People are generally so used to speaking at their own language level that it really takes some time and effort to switch back to a level that matches someone who does not speak your native language well. And what level is that actually?

Look at me when I talk to you !!
Even things that are terribly self-evident to us are not at all in other cultures. For example, making eye contact is a matter of course for us, a sign of rudeness for others.
In some cultures, it is a virtue for women to be as shy and reserved as possible, while Dutch women are expected to ‘stand their ground’, no matter how contradictory this expression may sound.
In short, what is right or wrong, polite or rude, heard or unheard of differs enormously from culture to culture. This all sounds very logical and may not be entirely new to you, but many people are quite unconsciously incompetent at dealing with these intercultural communication differences.

Excuse me? You mean ‘may I please?’
Intercultural communication is communication that takes place between people from different cultural backgrounds. When promoting communication, you can mainly think of learning a common language. Speaking the Dutch language is an important goal for every newcomer to the Netherlands, which is made mandatory by the government. Everyone agrees on this. It starts with language. But … it doesn’t stop there. Communication takes place in many more ways than just language. The way in which language is used, the choice of words, the sentence constructions (the way in which it is sent) play a role, but the interpretation also plays a role (the way in which it is received). This definitely has to do with an individual’s background. The norms and values that have been learned and applied throughout his or her life. You really cannot get it out just like that.

They can get a kick in the ass!
Nederlands de Baas has many years of experience in communicating with people from other cultures and building bridges between the receiving society and the different cultures that we may / must receive.
Just as every form of communication works both ways, Nederlands de Baas also works both ways. We give workshops to native people in the workplace to offer tools in adapting their language use in everyday speech but also in writing to the level of low-linguistic colleagues. We are also happy to give an insight into the background and culture of the country where the new colleague comes from. These are seemingly minor actions but they can be crucial in generating understanding, patience and cooperation among colleagues.
On the other hand, we provide support and guidance to foreign-speaking people who are just starting to work at a Dutch company. This support takes place both in the field of language and in the field of non-verbal communication. The focus is on learning the jargon. In addition, there is also a meeting with the employee concerned and thinking about ways to make the integration in the workplace as smooth as possible.

What we offer ….

by Jeroen

Collaboration Klusbazen, Schilderkracht and Schilderbazen

Cooperation companies

In particular, Nederlands de Baas has an intensive collaboration with the company Klusbazen bv, founded in 2019. Klusbazen was co-founded by Ahmad Shawish, the student who first registered with Nederlands de Baas and was also the first student to complete his integration with our school.

After receiving the integration diploma, we guided Ahmad to work in collaboration with the municipality of Gennep and Intos. Ahmad was given a trial placement in the packaging department of the Jan Linders supermarket chain. This company initially hired Ahmad for two months on probation while retaining benefits.

Handymen

Support Dutch the Boss on the work floor

During this trial period and afterwards, Dutch helped de Baas Ahmad with language directly on the job. Coaches from Nederlands de Baas let themselves be trained as regular employees and thus experienced which language is necessary to master in the training process.

Nederlands de Baas then developed a learning program aimed at learning the 100 most spoken sentences and the 500 most used words. In addition, we supported the simplification of the collective labor agreement and the translation of the business rules to the A2 language level (equal to the integration level).

Nederlands De Baas also helped with practical matters related to work such as: Who do I report sick to? When will I receive a salary? Will I be paid if I am sick? What happens to my allowances if I work full-time? Can I take vacation days and will I be paid for them?

This may seem of minor importance, but many status holders have such questions about work. We have found that we can easily get rid of stress by going through these questions.

Entrepreneurial desire

Although Ahmad did his job well and he also got two extensions of his contract, there was still dissatisfaction within himself. In Syria he has gained a lot of experience as an entrepreneur and worked as a painter for more than 15 years.

The entrepreneurial desire that already existed during the integration became greater and Ahmad then decided to ask Sander to help. After some hesitation, Sander helped set up Ahmad’s painting company Painting power .

Sander helped Ahmad register with the Chamber of Commerce, obtain the necessary insurance, find an accountant, register with the painter’s pension and arrange the first private clients. Ahmad’s customers were happy with the paintwork and word-of-mouth advertising even arose. However, this did not result in enough assignments to stand on your own two feet. After some time, Ahmad sought collaboration with Sander (co-founder Nederlands de Baas) and they decided to set up the Klusbazen company.

Painting power