Dutch Language Institute

Hi, I'm Ramon Janssen and I’m a native Dutch speaker who has taught both Dutch and English at universities and language centers for many years all around the world.

Whenever I have students, I always want to make the steps in learning a language as straightforward, stimulating, painless, and rewarding as possible. I have learned 6 languages myself and I know what works and what doesn’t work.

After many years teaching languages to students from Germany, France, Italy, Spain Japan, China, Thailand, Korea, it is quite clear that the traditional methods used by a lot of schools, language academies and online courses do not produce good results. Most of the students finish their courses with a very poor command of the language and this, at times, after thousands of hours of study!

As a result, I have created a new system:  Dutch Communicative Language Teaching. This system of teaching Dutch for beginners will provide you with a solid base and a practical usage of the language as quickly as possible.

The communicative system is based on the idea that learning language successfully comes through having to communicate real meaning. When learners are involved in real communication, their natural strategies for language acquisition will be used, and this will allow them to learn to use the language.

The Dutch Language Institute is a cooperation of Ramon and Thomas Smits. Thomas works as a lecturer and translator. Doing many different jobs in many countries Thomas travels all over the world to focus on his teachings, translation and coursework.

Together Ramon and Thomas have developed this and other courses and workshops for learners at all levels, from beginners to advanced learners. Both for self-study purposes and classroom environments.