"Naima's promise of an all-round training on voice and communication in Dutch got me curious, because I had already had a couple traditional pronunciation trainings and because I work at a hospital, where communication proceeds at a high tempo, and was looking for a way to feel generally more confident in my use of Dutch in that setting. I was initially skeptical but she was right: I got insights and techniques that cut across both pronunciation itself and psychology. Now I do feel more confident and that's a load off my mind. What's more, she truly makes good on the promise to tailor the training to your needs: she makes more of an effort to do that than any other personal training I have ever followed. I recommend to start with an open mind to get the best from the training!" - Luca "It's hard to put into words the magic that Naima weaves with her workshops and classes. Having lived in the Netherlands for almost 10 years, I was able to understand and read a large amount of Dutch but just didn't have the confidence to speak it. Naima set to work with a series of vocal exercises to help boost pronunciation of certain sounds and other exercises designed to help you just get on with speaking. We laughed and experimented and played. I spoke lots of Dutch without any worry of mistakes or mispronouncing words. Naima is a genius at making you feel comfortable and confident to speak Dutch. I couldn't recommend her highly enough!" - Claire Bown, Thinking Museum "After two years of learning Dutch I was stuck, I knew the words, just not how to pronounce them properly. I would stutter my way through a sentence, until the perplexed listener would respond in English. This was met by me with a mixture of relief and frustration. Then along came Naima. I was initially sceptical. I wasn't particularly keen on the idea of vocal exercises and role play, but after just one lesson I was convinced Naima knew what she was doing. Within a few lessons colleagues were noticing a new found confidence in my voice and after a few more weeks, hey presto (hardly) no more replies in English! Naima's lessons were totally tailored to my needs, a mixture of conversations, vocal exercises and role play. Even the role plays we performed were written to reflect my specific job and words I would use every day at work. Naima is a genius at what she does. So if you (sort of) speak Dutch but want to speak with more confidence and clarity I cannot recommend Naima's lessons highly enough!" - Maria Pippias "Naima's lessons have been amazing for my confidence in speaking Dutch in public and in 'real life' situations. After lots of formal lessons and grammar exercises I felt like I had a grasp of the language, but then actually using it in a bar, restaurant or cinema always ended in embarrassment... Naima and I talked about what I wanted to achieve - e.g. asking questions about a menu, buying cinema tickets over the phone - and then she devised ingenious little scripts for me to practice with. The sessions really worked - I am much more comfortable speaking Dutch when out and about in Amsterdam and have even achieved the holy grail of getting Dutch people to speak back in Dutch even when they know I am not a native speaker! I would highly recommend Naima's lessons to anyone that wants to get away from a textbook and really use their new language skills" - Sarah Deacon "I have been learning Dutch with Naima with great pleasure. My expectations were fulfilled, after 5 intense and fun sessions of "training dadading". At last I can understand better the structure of this language, and pronounce it in a way that people can understand me. But above all, I got confidence to speak without fear of being wrong and without shame not to pronounce things as it should. I really like the method of repeating and repeating until the words come out as a "Natural Dutch" Thank you Naima!" - Martha Luz Machado "She is the best to make you feel comfortable when it comes to speak Dutch. Her method is fun, creative and really useful! I would totally recommend her to anybody!" -Guadalupe Castillo "I wanted to speak Dutch fluently and I didn't knew what to do, so I sent Naima an e-mail. She replied very friendly and gave me confidence. I was very comfortable with her. The lessons were not like standard boring lessons, you feel as if you are with your close friend and talking about daily things. I think this is the point, when you feel comfortable, then you can easily speak. Naima makes you feel comfortable, she helps you with what you need. She has a personal training program and I'm so happy to have met her, I recommend it to everyone who wants to speak fluently and clearly." - Diren Demirci "Naima uses her acting coaching background in her ‘lessons’. She gets you to focus on your motivation for learning Dutch and gets you to use the language so you can be understood in spoken Dutch. A year on I am so much more confident in spoken Dutch. Fluency may come at some point but for now my spoken Dutch flows relatively well. I still make some grammar mistakes but I am understood and each week I get better and the conversation continues in Dutch. By combining the speaking coaching with Naima and my grammar lesson it feels like I am getting the returns from my investments in time and money." - Karen Gower "Hello Naima, Your private classes have helped me to be more aware of the composition of the sentences. The book was a wonderful idea. From the basic direction to the top. Thanks. I really enjoyed our meetings and conversations. Ah before I forget: people say that my Nederlands has improved." - Greetings, Margarita "She believes in a realistic way in herself and others. In Naima's lessons and coaching sessions she gently encourages the native abilities in people to bubble to the surface. She helps people know themselves better. I feel she could apply her g#fts to anything. She happens to apply them to Dutch language training and language confidence." - Richard "Helped me to improve my accent and communication skills in Dutch tremendously. Highly recommended as a private coach in the Dutch language!" - Olga Sosnytska "Naima has a unique teaching method that is creative, innovative, and fun! This helped me a lot and I believe it can also help people who are going through the same thing as me (stuck in conventional methods feeling that they are not learning anything any more omg what am I doing with my life help-people). She also has a personal approach and adjusts the session according to the student’s needs. I am very happy that I found her (: " -Bruna "Finally, I don’t need to translate in my mind first before I decide to say anything in Dutch; finally, I don’t care about how people think about me when I speak in Dutch; finally, my biggest motivation of Dutch learning is not for the social integration but the fun of language learning, which I had for my very first Dutch course back in 2015. And all of these achievements were received under the help of Naima. I’m so grateful, not only because I found such a professional trainer who helped me overcome the obstacles to start speaking Dutch naturally based on my personal experiences, but also because I feel supported by Naima during the past 4 months, which gave me so much encouragement to be more confident in Dutch speaking and everything else. Thank you Naima, you made this training the best investment I did for myself in 2021. Dankjewel:)" -Shuwen Chen workshops
“I attended Naima‘s workshop and it completely changed my perspective on learning a new language! As an absolute beginner in Dutch, it was intimidating to speak the language. However, through the pronunciation workshop, Naima assisted me to put aside my fears. The exercises are relaxing, fun yet very technical. I highly recommend it!” - Yang Shen "Naima's workshop was wonderful in helping me to understand the rules of Dutch pronunciation. She picked up on my errors and explained where I was going wrong, as well as teaching me how to pronounce sounds that would be usually completely out of my comfort zone! I now feel confident in speaking and can also understand others' spoken Dutch far more easily" - Katie Kelsey "Hi Naima, Thank you for the workshop on Friday! I just wanted to say after having a large gap from Dutch lessons, it felt great to be back around Dutch and especially having a workshop with a main focus and the focus being achieved after the 2 hours. I felt the focus around the alphabet and the nouns has really helped me and made me look at words differently and pronounce them how they should be. You are a fab teacher, with a lot of enthusiasm and energy as well as very funny – I loved learning with you. Thank you!" -Hope Kennedy "Hi Naima, I very much enjoyed the session this afternoon. Even though, theoretically, I’m well beyond this material, I never properly learned pronunciation of the Dutch alphabet and vowel combinations. This gave me exactly what I was hoping for and you did it effectively, efficiently, and in a fun learning environment. So thank you very much." - Harrison Klein "Hello Naima, Thank you very much for sending my recording. Through the workshop, I was able to have insight in Dutch pronunciation, and now I become more confident in speaking Dutch. Your workshop was so amazing, and if there are another Dutch workshops in the future, please keep me in the loop ." -Terry "I am beginner in Dutch and I didn’t know anything about the language. I had really a great time with Naima. Our main focus was on how we can pronounce Dutch alphabet and now I’m happy to say I can say ‘W, V’ in a Dutch way, Finally!!! Thank you Naima." -Marjaneh Taghavi "I loved the workshop with Naima and learned so much. She loosened us all up and gave us the confidence to forget what we thought we didn't know "and just speak". I highly recommend taking one of her classes which was great fun." -Anita "Naima's method is one of a kind and her workshop with all the fun and interesting activities was of great contribution to how I speak Dutch now. I am looking forward to participating in another workshop." -O.Z. "The workshop was such a fun and comfortable way to work on my Dutch, and Naima was so helpful and supportive. If you feel uncomfortable with speaking Dutch to others, I highly, highly recommend her. The energy in the room was unbeatable." - Louis "Naima's way is clear, precise and fun! I took the "Dutch Alphabet" workshop and the learning objectives were fully achieved. This is a great way to improve confidence in spoken Dutch!" - Pedro "It's not an ordinary Dutch for Expats class I've been attended before. Naima has a professional view but also easily digs into basics to help with improving language. 2 hours in the atmosphere of patience, kindness and peace." Enjoy!" -M.M |