Stories and photos
From AcculturationWiki
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Introduction
As a future NHTV student, you are probably interested in experiences from current and past (international) NHTV students. What did they expect, what did they find difficult and what did they find weird here? That's why we opened this page and collected some of the stories of other international students here. We strongly encourage you to write your own stories about your experiences once you have been here for some time! This helps other students, just like you, to get a better feeling of what life is like here before they come, and thus they come better prepared!
Introduction by Vincent Platenkamp, lector in Cross-cultural Management
My name is Vincent Platenkamp. I am working at NHTV, Breda, since 1988. I studied philosophy and sociology in Amsterdam. Afterwards I worked for eight years in the field of part-time education for Human Resource Management, until 1988. At NHTV I was at first involved in leisure management, but since 1993 I started to become an enthusiastic member of international tourism education. I got my PhD on ‘Contexts in tourism and leisure studies. A cross-cultural contribution to the production of knowledge’ and since 2007 I became an associate professor in Cross-cultural Understanding.
For quite some time now I have been interested in the unknown and complex background of cross-cultural phenomena in a globalising world. Much information remains hidden for various reasons. Power, for example, can be important. The book ‘Orientalism’ by Edward Saïd is symptomatic in this respect. In literature, but also in social sciences and in the humanities there still is a predominance of Western projections on what the rest of the world is like. What should be done is organise a polyphonic discussion where various voices are taken into account and not only the mega-voice of the West. But power is more complex than only the Western influence. Power is everywhere and it is not only repressive but it can also be productive. There is a lot of work to do in this area.
The international student community is a challenging experimental garden where all the influence of global and local background are introduced. We just do not see it in its full richness. That’s absolutely something else that should be taken into account in education and research. And that is exactly what I want to do. It is a beautiful task to pay attention to the richness of frustrations related to culture shocks or to the rich and unknown traditions where students from all over the world come from. How to organise that attention in order to get the best out of an international classroom remains one of the main challenges that the associate professorship Cross-cultural Understanding wants to commit itself to.
Otto-Jan, a German student, also member of Compass
Hi, my name is Otto-Jan Oellermann. I come from Germany and I study International Tourism Management and Consultancy (Fast Track) here at NHTV.
Before I came to the Netherlands I had already contacted several other students to give me some information of how it is like to study in the Netherlands. I was immediately told that it is more fun to study in the South which underlined my decision to come here. After a few years of working it was important to me to go back to a school-like education – with not too many students being taught at the same time. Besides studying tourism I wanted to be a student again and to enjoy the so-called student life. Especially the fact to study in another country was quite exciting as it is an international course with a lot of possibilities to explore other places.
I experienced my course International Tourism Management and Consultancy as being quite challenging, especially because I wanted to get good grades. First I thought there are not many classes and there is plenty of free time. I did not take into account the assignments to be written in a group which demands a lot of extra time. The system is quite varied as you have lectures and seminars for the tourism related subjects and lessons for the languages. In general, the contact to the lecturers is quite good and if I have questions I can easily drop by. All in all I enjoy going to the university as I like the surroundings, the people, most of the classes, and the way my study program is set up.
I did not have any problems to become friends with Dutch students. In fact, they are quite similar to the Germans which does not cause many problems. In contrast to the Germans, Dutch are satisfied with a pass which contradicts the German goal of achieving the best grade possible. Beside this matter the Dutch are just as crazy about partying, having fun and simply enjoying their student-life. Because I was lucky to live in the city centre I could easily join every event in Breda and get to know new people. Although Dutch just like the Germans seem to be reserved at first sight, they are quite open towards new people. In conclusion, I can say that I haven’t regretted coming to the Breda for my studies because these special experiences in another country add another important learning effect.
Greta Francesca Iori, an Italian student who was born in Ethiopia
Hey everyone! I am Greta Francesca Iora. I come from Italy but I was born in Ethiopia. I came here to study Tourism and Leisure management and I am currently in my first year.
Having grown up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the most part of my life, I had very few expectations when coming to the Netherlands. In my life I had the privilege to travel to many countries and continents. As a result, had an idea how life would be in the Netherlands and abroad, but I did not judge ahead of time. I was aware that the previous times that I had come to the Netherlands, I was on holiday and knew that it would be completely different when I actually resided here.
After nearly a year of living here, I can say that I believe I have painted a clear picture of the Netherlands and their ways of living. Personally, the most striking thing to me about the Netherlands generally, is how no one has time. It seems that everyone is in a rush and never takes the time to just stop and enjoy the moment. This is referring more to everyone rather than students. Back in Ethiopia, living life day by day is a very large part of culture, meeting friends, making sure you don’t lose touch with anyone and keeping a smile on your face are very openly encouraged. While here it seems much more restricted, life is about getting places rather than enjoying where you are.
NHTV as a school has been great; I did expect more international students but overall fulfilled all my expectations of the school and more. The system is indeed a bit hard to get used to, as sometimes it may feel a bit like secondary school. But the amount of opportunity offered by the school is endless and for this reason I’m really enjoying it. As many previous students have mentioned to me, the school system in Holland seems much more relaxed, young Dutch students are satisfied with a simple pass, all the time... it seems that if you just barely passed or received the highest score in the class, everyone is viewed the same, I would say that is probably the one part of the system that I don’t understand.
Finally Holland and the Dutch generally, I would say are some of the easiest people to talk to. Firstly, since I arrived in the Netherlands last August, I believe I have only met one person who had trouble speaking English, but all the others did not even think twice, making the Netherlands one of the easiest and pleasant countries to live in. Most Dutch people are very willing to help, even though at first glance you wouldn’t think so, as they always seem so serious, but with time I have learnt that all you must do is ask, and I’m pretty sure you’ll be welcomed with a smile.
