Case examples
Language is rarely the only problem.
These examples show how language, professional communication and organisational culture influence one another. The situations differ. The underlying pattern does not.
Too quickly into Dutch
An ambitious Ukrainian communications officer worked in English and was learning Dutch alongside it. As soon as she reached B1, colleagues switched entirely to Dutch in meetings and in the breaks. Well meant, but too early for B1, certainly for someone using English as a second language too. The frustration rose so high that she was on the verge of leaving. With management we established what B1 means in practice, agreed fixed Dutch-language moments, appointed two colleagues as language buddies, and agreed explicitly that switching back to English remained possible at any time, without comment. She was able to grow to B2. And she stayed.
C2 is not the answer
An IT company sought help with a vacancy and demanded C2, the highest language level there is. I explained that my own teaching qualification is based on C1. That changed the conversation. No longer which CEFR level someone had to have, but which language acts a professional at B2 still needed to develop. It turned out to be mainly about client conversations, and that calls for conversational technique as much as language training. The C2 requirement disappeared; clarity took its place.
Fluent is not always enough
A technician, socially skilled and highly communicative, was promoted and got stuck. Nobody had noticed that his vocabulary was actually too limited. He commanded the idiom, made jokes effortlessly and, musical as he was, hit exactly the right intonation. Everyone heard fluent Dutch. At his new level, with reports, meetings and more abstract conversations, that proved insufficient. We mapped the gap and developed an individual programme using material from his own work: the shortest route from sounding fluent to functioning professionally.
A B2 course was not enough
A mathematics teacher was working as a classroom assistant. The school had sent her to a generic B2 course, because that was required for her teaching qualification. But language was not the only thing standing between her and teaching. We paired her with another international teacher, not for the language, but for the unwritten workings of the Dutch education system, explained by someone who had travelled the same route herself. So she learned in parallel, and faster.
Parent conversations are culture too
A well-educated, committed woman wanted nothing more than to work in childcare, but failed her probation period time after time. She saw discrimination as the cause. In conversation with her last employer something else emerged: nobody had ever explained to her how Dutch parent conversations proceed, or which cultural expectations play a part in them. The outcome was not only coaching for her, but a workshop for the whole staff. Because the children in the group came from all corners of the world too.
A smile is not a diagnosis
With the Eastern European healthcare professionals I support, we regularly discuss how patients present themselves, here and in their country of origin. In many Eastern European countries a patient wants to remain dignified: you smile, even when you are in a lot of pain. In the Netherlands the severity of a complaint is often read precisely from how someone expresses it. International healthcare professionals therefore learn not only the Dutch codes. They also bring knowledge that helps their Dutch colleagues understand patients better.