Column: Application letter from Sonja

Dear mister or mistress,

My name is Sonja and I live in de Village of Haps, the Netherlands. I follow a study at the Avans High school. The Avans thinks internationalization is important and that’s why I apply for a practical period at your organization in Curacao (you have to make from a nut a, well you know!)

My teacher says you can learn a lot from being in a foreign country for a while. I agree. I learned bubbling at Costa Brava, drinking vodka in Blanes and I have had my first sexual experience in Lloret de Mar, so I know from handcloves (without fingers).

Avans finds internationalization so very important nowadays that even our course ‘Dutch language’ is in English. Unfortunately nobody past the test but that’s not strange because when the course was in Dutch, neither did anyone.

By the way, it is very difficult to follow our teacher when she speaks English. It is really stonecoal English what she speaks. Fortunately the Avans is also very ahead when it becomes on digitalization so the ‘kennisclip’ our teacher has made from this course is subtitled in Dutch.

We also have one teacher and he is from Morocco so we are very diverse at the Avans High school. The teacher is just like us and he speaks Dutch very well. He can tell interesting stories about his country. We also can look for international sources to use in our assignments. I prefer literature from Belgium. Avans calls this ‘internationalization at home’.

Lately somebody told me Curacao is one of the islands which belongs to the Netherlands (OMG) I didn’t know! I thought the weather at Terschelling and Ameland was always bad and the same as in Haps, but luckily Curacao appears to be an exception!

I am looking forward to meat you and at my stay at Curacao!

With kind regards, Sonja

Stefan van Teeffelen is docent bij de opleiding Social Work in Den Bosch