Canadutch
Do you have any idea what I’m talking about? If not, then you are proving something I’ve been asking myself about all the time.
I’ve been seeing these ads on trams all over the city but keep missing the chance to take a photo, but the other day on my way home from work I managed to snap this quickly as the tram was pulling away.
These are ads for free integration courses. Basically, the course I took a while back where you learn the language, a bit of history, some social stuff, etc. It was free for me then too, because the government paid for it, but I guess now it’s free for everyone.
Here’s what I don’t get though… if you need this course, how are you meant to read the ad? If you were new in the Netherlands would ‘Gratis inburgeren’ scream ‘FREE LANGUAGE LESSONS’ or ‘FREE INTEGRATION CLASSES’ to you?
Ok, so in a lot of cases people might have a partner who is Dutch and may see it and pass the message on, but they can’t count on that, can they?
I just don’t get how they are meant to be drawing people in with that ad when if they NEED the classes they obviously won’t be able to READ the ad.
Silly…
I’ve seen those ads. Being a monolingual english-speaker I parsed it out, like I do with most signs in the Netherlands.
It’s dodgy logic having these signs in dutch – that’s bureacracy I guess. Still, it’s great they are free and advertised at all.
Free in Canada, too.
Just keep in mind that in many cases, you get what you pay for! ;-)
There is no information available in English…in a large part because they assume few native English-speakers need to be inbuggered (we ARE a minority in the classrooms)…As I was always told “these courses aren’t REALLY for you….” they’re for the Turkish and Moroccan people; Canadians just fall under the same law, that’s all…
Couldn’t agree more! Lets face it more people in this world at least know some english so it would stand to reason that the add would be in english! Their government seems to run like the canadian one – not alot of common sense to some of their actions!!!!
Haha, kinda an oxymoron isn’t it. That’s kinda funny, but I guess it’s better than having it in many different languages. I mean who knows the nationality of the person who needs it I suppose?
But that’s cool that they do that. I don’t think the US does anything like that. And if it does, it’s certainly not free.
Def a good point and i found it kind of funny as well. Wouldn’t the add work well if it was English or something??
Glad to know that the Gov. pays for it and it’s free for everyone. That’s great they are willing to provide the service for new comers into the Netherlands from other countries.
That is silly.. but the good news is that they are free! I heard that I would have to pay but that clears that up. Thank goodness, the thought of paying out all that money scared the bejesus out of me. Ok… well I shouldn’t get too excited, the thought of going back to “school” doesn’t appeal to me all that much! =P