Niels from Rotterdam, who attended the Romanian language workshops offered by Interconnections Online SchoolHe was kind and told us about how he found the courses, the teaching and how much they helped him.
What courses have you taken at Interconnections Online School?
I have taken three courses this year. In February I started the Romanian language course, the first module, and last week I finished the third module. Each module has ten lessons, so I had thirty lessons this year.
How did you find the courses? What can you tell us about the atmosphere during the lessons, the instructors or the subject matter?
I loved it! This was the best introduction to Romanian I could imagine. I am 27 years old and work full time, which means that sometimes it can be difficult to find the time to do a language course. But as these interactive courses happen in the evenings, online, then they fit perfectly into my schedule.
And the Clickmeeting platform is great - on one screen you can see and hear the instructors, chat with other colleagues and watch the educational material! Plus, you can be invited to practice speaking too. Together with the instructors Gia, Ruxandra and Dana, with their incredible energy, determination and motivation, everything went really well!
The courses and lesson plans were well done, well-paced, and not only a step-by-step understanding of the language, but also of Romanian customs, cuisine and culture.
It was good to receive via Google Drive the lesson sheets in advance and the video recording of the lessons after they were finished. That way, even if you can't attend the lesson, you can catch up later.
How much did the course help you? What difficulties did you have before you started studying Romanian and how big is the positive impact after finishing the course?
The course helped me a lot. It was a real starting point in understanding and speaking Romanian. Before, I only knew a few words, which made communicating in Romanian quite difficult with people who don't know much English. I wanted to be able to talk to them and learn more about the background of my Romanian friend.
Now I can finally take the first steps. I still need to learn more verbs and words, but now I can make sentences with different tenses, I know how to ask for something, how to introduce myself, how to talk about the weather, how my day went, about food, I can say how I feel and what I like.
This Christmas I will be going to Romania again with my girlfriend and her family and I am confident that I will be able to communicate better!
What suggestions do you have to improve the courses?
Other than a better internet connection for Gia, I don't have any suggestions that would add more value to the course at this point. It was very nice!
Would you recommend the course to others?
Yeah, right! It's very exciting to learn a new language! Especially if a regular, long course doesn't fit into your schedule, then this is the course for you!
We thank Niels very much for his answers and wish him a Merry Christmas in Romania!
One year of activity at Interconnections Online School
January 2017, first module, three courses:
- Dutch for beginners
- Dutch intermediaries
- English beginners
May 2017, second module, three courses:
- Dutch for beginners
- Dutch intermediaries
- English beginners
September 2017, third module, four courses:
- Dutch for beginners
- Dutch intermediaries
- English beginners
- English intermediaries
Number of learners per module:
- January 2017, first module: 89
- May 2017, second module: 49
- September 2017, third module: 77
Number of learners per language studied:
- Dutch: 156
- Romanian: 59
Interconnections Online School will resume Romanian and Dutch courses from January 2018. We will come back with details soon.
