Julia Mestala
1/5
School
How should I start? Dutch course...taught 100% in Dutch...for people who don't speak Dutch. I think that pretty much says it all. All of us who come to this course are from different countries, we all learned a foreign language at school at some point, but that foreign language was also taught and explained to us in our mother tongue, so we all speak that language fluently from school to this day. This school starts with a totally wrong idea from day one. They speak to you 100% in Dutch, then they expect you to understand everything perfectly and take various tests, after which from the end of the first level everything is largely focused on grammar. When we don't even know how to form sentences. We're talking about people mostly over 35, with hard, physical jobs, very difficult schedules and families at home, but especially with a lower learning, attention and memory capacity than when we were in high school. But the expectations are still huge and you are constantly pressured by your teachers, something that didn't happen to me even in college. Even after a few levels, most of my colleagues, like me for that matter, have to translate every sheet with google translate photo to understand anything from that course. Don't teachers realize that the whole system is wrong when they see this? When after a few levels, students still ask the teacher questions in English, because they can't express themselves otherwise? You are reprimanded for being absent if you are even a minute late after the teacher has entered the classroom and made attendance. Maybe we should all resign from our jobs during the school term, so that we can be present at their classes from the beginning without any tardiness, because teachers pay our rent, bills, food and children's schooling. Another major problem is that this school employs children just out of school as teachers. When you are a 20+ year old teacher trying to give life advice to 35 to 65 year old immigrant adults who have been through a lot of hardships and blue collar jobs, and they tell you that they know exactly how difficult everything is but you still have to fulfill 100% of their requirements. I'm telling you, you don't know anything. You were born and raised in the Western European system that gave you everything on a plate and always helped you. You have never been confronted with real life and have no right to an opinion to people who have lived a hard life or lived with war on their doorstep. These are kids new to the job market who try to impose their views as teachers on adults, but they do it all wrong and it's embarrassing for them as well as the school. Teachers also ask a lot of personal questions to students, about family, work, etc. I have been asked repeatedly where exactly I work, the location of the job, the exact hours of work and exactly what kind of work I do there. Why don't you learn at home from the course at all? If I had the time to learn at home after many hours of physical work and then time-consuming family life, I wouldn't come to school. That's exactly why I come to school, because it's the only place where my attention is not distracted and I have little time to devote to this activity. To reproach me for not learning at home, after 10-12 hours of work and then family obligations, is again sad both for the teachers and for the image of the school, when I do my best to be present at least half of the time, as it is in my interest to do so. If I had the time and conditions, I could easily stay at home and learn the language on duolingo/youtube, without wasting months of my life being physically present in a classroom at school. Which I also recommend to anyone who wants to enroll in this school...it's a waste of time and a constant frustration. It's much more ok in the evening before bed to learn 30 minutes - an hour on the internet with translations into your native language or English, and I guarantee you will be much more rewarded. That was my experience with SNT Brugge, also considered the best school in town.
