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Estimated reading time: 3 minutes False friends are words that look alike in two languages but mean something different, and between Dutch and German they are everywhere. In part 1 of this series we covered five of them. In this second part: five more false friends to watch out for...

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes False friends are words that look or sound the same in two languages but mean something different. Dutch and German share a surprising number of them, and precisely because the languages are so similar, people fall for them more easily. In this article: five false...

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes It is one of the most common objections in conversations about language training: “We already did a course once, but it didn’t stick.” The team got ten weeks of lessons, everyone was enthusiastic, and a few months later most of it had faded away. Not...

The moment a language programme appears on the training budget, one question follows almost immediately. What does the organisation actually get back? For HR and L&D teams, that is harder to answer than it looks. The cost of a course is easy to read off an invoice. The return shows...

The meeting starts in English. Everyone nods, the agenda gets going, and then someone asks a question in Dutch. The answer comes back in Dutch too. Within five minutes the whole meeting has switched, and your new colleague from Spain sits there, watches it happen and slowly tunes out. Nobody...

You have just hired the international specialist you spent months looking for. The working language is English, the collaboration is going well, and on paper everything is sorted. Yet you see it happen in many organisations: a few years later that same person is gone. Not because the work disappointed...

Most teams in Dutch organisations speak decent English. Good enough for an email, a call with a foreign colleague, a presentation that just about lands. But between “decent” and “truly fluent” sits a grey zone that nobody measures, and that still costs time and money every week. This article is...

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes | Nicci Severens Sometimes you do not have six months. A new international role is around the corner, a foreign client is at the table, or a team suddenly has to meet in English next month. That is when you are not looking for a...

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes Booking is one phone call. But what does your employee actually get after that? A behind-the-scenes look at the Summer Crash Course: five weeks of intensive language training. In our previous blog, why you book now and not in six weeks, we wrote about timing....

Summer is the best time of year to learn a language. Not because it sounds appealing, but because it actually works. Fewer meetings. Less deadline pressure. More headspace. Exactly the conditions under which people genuinely absorb and retain new skills. Not a rushed training day squeezed between two projects, but...