Skip to content

My amazing Primary Education Erasmus placement year: Teaching English in the Netherlands

George Bailey in the snow in the Netherlands whilst on placement
George Bailey in the snow in the Netherlands whilst on placement

Hello, I am George and I was given the amazing opportunity to go on a year abroad to The Netherlands. I was in my second year at Cardiff Met and saw an email pop up from the Global Opportunities team explaining that the University had funding to go on Erasmus and experience a different country. Because I was studying BA (Hons) Primary Education with QTS I first thought this was not possible as I had school placements to attend, but I was later told that I could take a year out and get to experience a whole year instead of the regular six months. Thus, I decided to go on this adventure!

The Erasmus application process
When it came to apply for Erasmus there was a range of things, I had to do first. The first thing I had to consider was what country I wanted to go to. Cardiff Met provided a wide range of countries for me to choose from, but I had to put this down to three. So I chose; Estonia, Sweden and The Netherlands. Those Universities then sent information on how they could help me and how this would help me. After going through each University and seeing what they had to offer I decided to choose Fontys University of Applied Sciences, which was based in The Netherlands.

My time at Fontys University
Studying at Fontys was one of the best experiences I ever had. The courses I chose were specifically designed just for Erasmus students so in my class was also a wide range of people from different countries who all spoke different languages as well as English. In my first week I met people from all around Europe! My courses themselves varied from the international perspectives on education to actually teaching English as a foreign language. The education I received was similar to at Cardiff Met in the way that it was mainly seminars but with a more one to one focus on learning which meant that my lecturer, who was also my Erasmus co-ordinator, was able to spend time on helping me with assignments when I didn’t understand.

Life as a English Language Teacher
Being an English teacher in the Netherlands was something that really helped me understand why it is important to become a teacher. The schools that I worked in had a range of ability and it made me question my methods and helped me become a better teacher. Other than the help it gave to my CV, I gained a lot of first-hand knowledge on how to develop language in students which I can use to help me in Wales when teaching Welsh to my students. The hours were the same as placement if not less and the staff that I met were more than happy to talk in English to me even if they were only fluent in Dutch. This warm welcome I received along with the experience I gained made the 3 days a week enjoyable and worth it.

Experiencing the Netherlands
My time in the Netherlands wasn’t all teaching, I was able to experience their culture too. There was a range of festivals that I went on throughout the year. Because the Dutch have different seasons of celebrations it meant that I experienced a whole load of new things. In the first few months Dutch Christmas and Dutch Carnival started. This meant that during the winter months a range of parties and cultural events such as the arrival of St Nicolas (Dutch Santa) or 11-11 which was the beginning of the Carnival season (Similar to Brazilian Carnival) where the whole town dresses up in costume and holds celebrations from 3pm to 5am with their own-coloured scarf for each city meaning you could spot someone from another city right away and learn something new. Once Christmas rolled around there were men dressed up as elves handing out kruidnoten (gingerbread) to anyone that walked past and your friends writing you poems to show how much you loved them with a sarcastic twist on something funny about them.

By the time February came around the true Carnival festival began just before Lent. This meant that for the next 3 days everything was shut, and all the bars stayed open until 4am with everything being half price. With my newfound friends we travelled the south of the Netherlands with a new city each day. From Tilburg to Den Bosch all the way to Maastricht in Limburg. This experience alone was enough to make me envious of what the Dutch have every single year!

How my sandwich year helped me
My Erasmus placement year abroad was one of the best times in my life so far. The new people you meet and the new country at atmosphere means that you can just be yourself the whole time. It is a brand-new slate on life and helped me find some long-time friends who I have already visited in other countries. It really helped me find myself and understand what I want to do in the future, after teaching English as a foreign language for a whole year I now understand that this is what I want to do in the future after my degree. Personally, a year ago if I had been told that I would go abroad and experience the whole of western Europe as a Mini working holiday I would have done it sooner had it not been for Covid. This is an opportunity that you cannot miss. Yes, it did hold my degree back by another year but the experience I gained is something that I will never regret.