My way to skills…
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1976
In April of 1976 I was born in Sliedrecht, a small town in the Netherlands.
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1980 – 1998
Kindergarten/primary school (Sliedrecht) – secondary school (Papendrecht) and two years of vocational school (social work) (Nijmegen)
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1998
In 1998 I started my 4-year bachelor program. The reason was not because I wanted to become a teacher, but because I wanted a study that would give me the opportunity to travel… Between myself and England lay just a little sea, which I easily and numerously crossed by ferry.
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2001
The third year into my studies we went to college in Lancaster (UK). This gave me and my friend Lobke an amazing opportunity to travel around the UK and Ireland. We went hitch-hiking a lot and met the most amazing people.
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2002
In the final year we were given the opportunity to create our own project which we could do in any country of our own choice. I ended up doing mine at a gymnazium in Jablonec nad Nissou. There, I did not only fall in love with my present husband, but also with the Czech Republic.
So after completing my studies, I took just a backpack and moved to Prague in 2002 where I started to teach English at grammar schools.
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2003
Prague was nice, but I missed the nature I had fallen in love with in Jablonec nad Nissau. My husband was OK to move away from the city and back to the country, but only if we went closer to his family. And that… is how I ended up in Nejdek….
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2004
In 2004 CZ became part of the EU and this meant for me, that I could start my own business without too much trouble.
In May I opened my doors and in September I already had a flourishing school!
With groups of 3-6 learners, children, adult learners as well as businessmen/women weekly attending fun and active lessons, I couldn’t be any happier.
What made my lessons different from others was that at least half of the time was dedicated to the practical use of the language and even beginners were expected to speak ONLY English.
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2006
2006 was the first year I traveled with my students. We were a group of 8 and traveled around Ireland in a mini van. Every day we started with lessons and then explored the country.
We got to sleep in nice hotels. It was quite luxurious!
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2007 / 2009
Our lovely daughters were born, which actually didn’t stop me from teaching. We lived on the first floor of my school, which made it quite easy to combine work with a young family. Of course, we couldn’t have done it without the help of ‘babicka’ and my husband’s flexible work.
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2013
In 2013 I took a different group on a trip and we went low-budget. We took a charter flight to York and then stayed at a Youth hostel. The great thing about hostels is, that you easily get in touch with English speakers. Every morning we started with a lessons in the kitchen and in the evening we made our meals in there. I also prepared tasks, like a treasure hunt and pushed students to get in touch with locals and have real English conversations.
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2014
This time we went to explore Liverpool. Students made me listen to lots of Beatles music and I showed them all of the city. The weather was not so good this year, but the company made up for that.
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2015
Hostel, good company, crazy teachers… Yet another lovely 5-day trip. This time to Bristol.
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Meanwhile
Meanwhile my husband Martin and I also raised two lovely daughters, who had the big task to learn to speak three languages fluently: Dutch (with me and my family), Czech (with Martin, his family and everyday life) and English (the language we use when we are all together).
It was intriguing to see how they handled and played with all these languages at the same time, but also to see how modern technology helped them to achieve this: Netflix, Youtube, Whatsapp (to stay in touch with the Dutch family) all supported their language development in ways that should not be underestimated.
This shift in learning can slowly but surely be noticed in second language learning in the Czech Republic too. At present there seem to be 2 kinds of learners: the Netflixers, YouTubers and gamers (often the ones who speak English quite nicely) and the ones who hardly speak English at all even though they take English classes. No surprise to me, since it is the difference between learning through experience vs drills/structured learning…
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2015
In September of 2015 we made a big move. I wanted our children to see the ‘real’ Holland. Not just the short visits on holiday, but enjoy proper Dutch culture, like ride a bike to school also in the rain and wind….
We stayed in NL for 1 school year. In this year I participated in an 8-week MBSR training and because I had more time at hand than before, I got the chance to start writing my book The Magic Language Switch.
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2016
In June 2016 we returned to CZ. We had sold the house/school in Nejdek and moved to Meziroli. I started teaching private classes again, but slowly added workshops for teenagers and teacher trainings.
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2018
This year I finished writing and published: The Magic Language Switch
The drive that made me write it, was that I wanted to help people understand the difference between learning through drills and grammar OR learning through practice and social contact.
The book is lovely and still for sale, yet in writing the book I came to understand that explaining people they could look at things differently (unfortunately?) is not quite as powerful as making them experience a different way of learning.
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2020
2020 … the year of COVID…
Because all of a sudden we couldn’t meet people in person anymore, I wanted to ‘play it safe’ and started working at a school.
What a change! All of a sudden I had so many colleagues and much bigger groups of children to teach too.It was great fun at first. I loved the pupils and quite a big bunch of the teachers were so funny and inspiring too. But pretty soon I felt I was getting stuck in the system … the Czech system on top of that…
After 2.5 years of teaching at ZS Jazyku I realized, it was time to move on again.
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Step by step
In order to revolutionize English learning, I kept on participating in different courses to find a new and better way. The mindfulness training (2016), the teacher trainings on 21st century learning in Ireland (2022) as well as competitive debating (2023) and CLIL (2023) all gave me the foundation that was needed to start SKILLS.
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2022
Back to school! The one-week teacher training in Dublin in 21st century learning was quite an experience. I got very lucky with the teachers from all different parts of Europe. It was quite a happy bunch. This was actually also the first time I ever heard about debating in the classroom. Thank you Rocio!
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2023
Participated in an EU program in Rimini, Italy. A group of teachers was invited to have a look at lesson materials the debate organization was making. For a week straight we debated about the classroom debates. Yet another amazing experience!
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2024
What hasn’t changed in all those years is that I truly desire to offer English learners something far more precious than just a handful of words and grammar rules.
Because what’s the point of knowing a language if you’re too shy to speak up or if you can’t enjoy the beautiful journey of discovering new cultures?
My goal is to empower English learners by boosting their confidence and igniting a passion for exploration.
With SKILLS all of the things I have been working on all these years are finally falling into place.
And the plan for 2025?! You will definitely hear from me! 🙂