Dutch Winter School

The annual Dutch Winter School (organized by the Southern African Association for Netherlandic  Studies with funding by the Netherlandic Language Union) is considered a highlight in the academic careers of students who are fortunate to attend. Three UP students shone at this event: Marno Swart, Lollie Viljoen and Hardus Engelbrecht.

From 1-7 July, students from eight South African universities and the University of Namibia attended this year's winter school in Port Elizabeth. A total of 23 students followed the week-long course in Dutch language acquisition as well as Dutch literature. This year's language acquisition classes were taught by me. Renée Marais of the University of Pretoria. The literature lectures were presented by Dr. Johan Sonnenschein of the Université de Liège in Belgium. As part of the program, students were exposed to Dutch and Flemish culture through films and a number of documentary programs were also presented to students to increase their knowledge of the Low Countries.

We invite interested students to enroll for the course “Leer Nederlands” next year. One never knows where learning a new language might take one!