Taalschool Natuurlijk Nederlands was founded in 2024 by Amanda Jacinth van der Beek.

It all started with some volunteering work at RPM (Refugee Project Maastricht), where I helped out as a Dutch teacher. I met some great people, but also saw the struggles some of the students had. This inspired me to do more. I started creating my own materials and in September 2022 I started teaching one-on-one on a platform called Italki. I never expected there to be so many people that wanted to learn Dutch! I also noticed there is a lack of proper and especially natural language learning resources. So, I took it upon myself and set a new goal: make learning Dutch fun and help students learn a natural way of speaking!

This, of course, is easier said than done when it’s just me and my hamster. Moreover, creating materials, lessons and courses that would cover every single aspect of a language is obviously quite impossible. Because I’m not only talking about the basic grammar rules; I’m talking about every single exception we make in daily life situations when it comes to things like word order and pronunciation, but also all the strange expressions and word combinations we use. Even though it’s just me, I am very dedicated to creating as many (useful) materials as I can for my students.

My commitment to this is one of the ways I stand out compared to other teachers and language schools. I am always on the lookout for oddities, interesting expressions and grammar in my own language. Which means that I’m “on” 24/7. When I hear an interesting, but useful, phrase during a conversation, I write it down. When I’m reading a book, I’ll always make note of important words my students won’t be able to learn from a casual study book.

The more I started “collecting” and the more questions I got from my students, the more ideas I got. I was raring to start my own online language school to put all these ideas in, on one platform. And this is how it all started. I never would have been able to build this language school if it weren’t for my amazing students who keep booking my lessons and give me all these amazing ideas and inspiration to create more. So, thank you! 🐭