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Learning English
1940
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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Most of the Dutch immigrants arrived knowing very little English and all agreed that this was their greatest challenge. Even those who had taken English in school, had learned British usage and encountered some problems with Canadian colloquialisms.

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Sid deVries' first steps
1949
Cressy, Ontario

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The younger children attended school and picked up English quickly, although there are stories of children born in Canada having difficulty when they started school because they only knew Dutch or Friesian.

Sid deVries was an infant when his family arrived in Canada. Since his family spoke only Friesian at home he had difficulty when he started school. By this time his eldest sister Ruth had married and was starting a family. Her mother advised her that she should talk to her children in English.

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Andrea on Dutch at home
24 August 2006
Bethel Rd, Prince Edward County, Ontario

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In the Van Vliet family, Sid's experience was repeated a full generation later. Although Paul arrived as an 11 year old, he worked alongside his father and married Eva Oosterlee, another Dutch immigrant, whom he had met through the Young People's group at the Christian Reformed Church.

His daughter, Andrea, described the Dutch environment in which she was brought up.

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The children attended school in one room country school houses. For many this was an adjustment from larger schools in the Netherlands. Although the teachers did not have formal training in teaching English as a second language, most did quite well, perhaps because they were accustomed to adapting their lessons to meet the needs of multiple grade levels in one class.

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Dini and Dirk Kamink with 1st car
May, 1955
Bloomfield, Ontario

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Dini Terpstra (Kamink) remembers being nervous her first day of school and having to chase her younger brother, who did not want to come, up and down the stairs at home. Her period of apprehension was shortened because a neighbour had alerted the teacher. Margaret Kerr had rounded up the class and brought them half way to welcome the new students. To help Dini learn English, she cut out pictures from magazines, glued them onto a page and labeled them in English. Dini would add the word in Dutch and found this picture dictionary to be most helpful.

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John Huizenga, 1946
1946
Birdaard, Netherlands

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John Huizenga was less fortunate in his experience at school. Although he did learn English, there was little to motivate a teenage boy to stay in school.

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For many who arrived as teenagers or young adults, school was not an option. There was an expectation that they would find work and help support the family. Many young women went to work as housekeepers and mother's helpers.

Ruth deVries worked in the home of their sponsor, who had three young children. Mrs. Kaiser pointed out things in the house and wrote down the English word for them. For example, as they set the table she would write down cup, saucer, glass, knife, fork, spoon… Ruth wrote the word in Fresian beside the English. She was going home to her family each night and shared these useful vocabulary lists with her mother.

Ruth also commented that children were wonderful teachers. If you made a mistake they did not think anything of it, but would patiently correct you.

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Arnold deVries: learning English
2006
Cressy, Prince Edward County, Ontario

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Ruth's brothers Arnold and Allan were working for other farmers in Cressy. Each tells a similar story of a farmer's wife who made an extra effort to improve his English by making him read aloud from the newspaper.