Marius Drost, 3e-jaars student Leraar Engels.

Long before we had to organise and prepare our minor abroad I had already arranged to go to Northern-Ireland. In the summer of 2017 I went to visit my parents on their vacation in France. They were staying at an international  Christian campsite where they had made a lot of foreign friends, including some people from Northern-Ireland. One night I joined my parents and their friends for a boardgame and we got talking about my education. I told them that I had to do a minor abroad in the third year of my education. I was in the first year at the time. As soon as I said that I had to stay in an English speaking country for at least 13 weeks they jokingly said that I could stay with them for the whole period. When the time came to arrange my minor abroad I took them up on their offer!

I got in contact with Helen and Gary. These were the people that I was going to stay with. Helen and Gary are members of the Orangefield Presbyterian Church. I asked Helen and Gary if they knew any people with whom I could get in touch with to arrange an internship. They got me in contact with Thelma Crawford and Nicola Clarke.

Thelma Crawford is the principal of Rosetta Primary School and after a few emails back and forth we agreed that I could do an internship at the school. My day to day activities would be assisting in P7 (the equivilent of groep 8 in the Netherlands) and in the nursery (children with the aged 3 and 4).

My internship at Rosetta Primary School was the best internship I have ever done on a school. All the teachers were more than willing to help me with all my questions and the assignments I had to do for the HAN. The thing I enjoyed the most was helping with a project called Walking In Each other’s Shoes. During this project pupils from two different primary schools got to go on trips to cultural institutes and organisations in the area of the schools. The area in which the school are located are very multi-cultural. Together with the history of this area during the Troubles this made for an interesting learning experience fort he pupils and myself as well.

Nicola Clarke is the youth worker fort he Orangefield Presbyterian Church. My internship with her consisted of assisting with youth work such as; drop-in Fridays, sports and games, bible studies and just be there for the youth as a listening ear.
The church also has it’s own sports hall. The hall was mostly used fort he drop-in Fridays. Youth from the area can come tot he church and just have a good time playing sports and games. During my internship I made sportsbooklet. This sportsbooklet contains many sports and games with an explanation on how to play them. This is still used for youth work!

Looking back on my time in Northern-Ireland it is safe to say that my fluency in English has improved a lot. Some words I now pronounce with a slight Norther-Irish accent, such as skewl and kewl (school and cool).

I am very grateful for all the people who helped me during my internship and for Helen and Gary for taking me in tot heir home!