Heather Tucker
Goede Morgen/Middag/Avond/Nacht (depending on where you are reading this from!),
Hello! My name is Heather Tucker and I would like to introduce myself as a new blogger for the Transparent Language – Dutch blog. As of today, I will be joining the team to bring you news and information from the Netherlands and about the Dutch language.
So, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I was born in the United States, where I lived until I was sixteen. I was then lucky enough to have the opportunity to be a Rotary Youth Ambassador taking me to Tallinn, Estonia for one year. During that time I lived with four Estonian families and learned about the country, its language and its culture. I also got to travel quite a bit in Europe. It was this experience that helped identify for me my love of Europe. After returning to the States for about one year, I moved to London, England where I lived for nine and a half years (even obtaining British citizenship). While in England I worked in primary schools supporting children with special needs and/or behavioural difficulties, until 2003 when I went to work for Victim Support Lewisham as the Children and Young Persons Officer, setting up a service for children and young people who had been victims of crime.
In 2007 I made another move, this time to Rotterdam, the Netherlands where I currently live with my two cats, Anya and Amelia, and my Dutch boyfriend. When I was in the process of preparing for my move to the Netherlands, I began a blog, Cloggie Central, which is all about life in the Netherlands as a foreigner. It includes news, reviews and adventures, as well as some humour thrown in for good measure. Cloggie Central allowed me to identify another passion, writing, and the almost inevitable step of combining writing and travelling was next to occur, allowing me to write for various expatriate publications. When I am not travelling or writing, I enjoy listening to music, reading, taking photos and starting new projects.
My time in the Netherlands has been very interesting, as has been my experience in learning Dutch. I am by no means 100% fluent but I can navigate most everyday situations and even have conversations with people above the four year old age range. I love to explore the Netherlands and learn as much as I can about the culture and places it has to visit. I look forward to sharing these experiences with you and also hearing what you would like to know more about. So don’t feel shy to let me know!
Until the next post…
Heather
Comments:
Eric:
Heather,
welkom als blogger. Ik ben zeer benieuwd hoe en op welke wijze je ons gaat prikkelen om met onze taal te spelen en daarbij anderstaligen te betrekken.
Ik ben graag bereid je daarin te ondersteunen, mocht dat nodig zijn.
vriendelijke groet,
Eric
heather:
@Eric Hoi Eric,
Bedankt voor je welkom. Ik ben ook een student in de nederlandse taal, dus jouw hulp is heel welkom. Ik hoop dat door mijn ervaringen in Nederland te gebruiken, anderstaligen nieuwe woorden te leren, begrip te kweken en hun aan te moedigen om te oefenen.
Ik hoop dat dat helpt. 🙂
Heather
Christi Kennedy:
I am thrilled to find this blog! My husband and I will be visiting the Netherlands in a couple of weeks to explore to see if we would be willing to be expats there for a few years. Do you have any words of advice for our first trip?
heather:
@Christi Kennedy Hi Christi,
Glad you enjoyed finding the blog and how exciting for your upcoming trip! You might like to join the Dutch Transparent Language group on Facebook if you haven’t already because you will probably get a lot more advice and suggestions there. A lot will depend on where in the Netherlands you will be considering. While the country is not that big there are different opportunities/groups and things to do in different areas. Do keep an open mind when you come as it is a bit wet and windy at the moment. Everything is always nicer when the sun is shining (like everywhere).
Naomi Betts:
Hi Heather,
What a find you and this blog are! As a breeder of Friesian horses in Australia, I have just started learning Dutch (with the help of a dutch friend and several ‘learn dutch’ texts and CD’s. Struggling with a clear definition of neuter nouns in respect to de and het – I came across your blogs! Fantastic! Clear explanations and exercises to apply the theory, I have copied all your blogs for my ‘homework’ and added you to my Favourites. Keep up the good work! Dag!
heather:
@Naomi Betts Hi Naomi,
Thank you for the positive feedback and I am glad to hear you are finding the posts useful. Heel veel succes met jouw studie!
Heather
Elsje:
Hello there. It has been a while since you’ve posted this but I was wondering…have you obtained your Dutch citizenship yet? and how did you do so? I am from the United States. I do have some Dutch roots but everyone says it’s nearly impossible to get citizenship as well as a good paying job in the Netherlands. Is this true??
heather:
@Elsje Hi Elsje, I don’t have Dutch citizenship. I can’t tell you too much on the process because I am here as an EU citizen (I have UK and US citizenship). You could check this website though for more info: http://english.ind.nl/residencewizard/ Good luck!
Elsje:
Ah then. Well thank you very much. 🙂