Placement Report: Internship in the
Rutu Foundation in Amsterdam
Yulong Lyu
S3448851
MA in Multilingualism Faculty of Liberal Arts University of Groningen
Supervisors:
Eva Juarros Daussà
Contents
Contents………...1
Introduction………..………2
The Rutu Foundation...3
Internship Experience……….4
Evaluation………..5
Career Goal………9
Conclusion……….9
Introduction
Having taken part in the Multilingualism Department of the University of Groningen as a Master student, I, also as a Chinese graduate who has always been more than intrigued in languages and cultures, decided to participate in a internship position which was offered by the non-profit organization-the Rutu Foundation, and which has devoted itself into the revolution of a modern education that is equipped with the respect for the equality in basic human rights-the freedom of speaking a particular language, and that holds the best interest of young multilingual children in its heart. The Rutu Foundation has been working on creating language friendly schools that allow students of different cultural backgrounds to speak what they desire instead of being forced to compromise into the mainstream educational system by speaking the official language of a school or a region. As an intern in the Rutu Foundation, I began to learn to understand the flaws and inequality in the current Mainstream Dutch educational system that, sometimes, depresses young pupils’ nature of expressing themselves in their own languages; I started to learn that this situation has the potential to transform at a cost of nearly nothing, but to enlighten the parents, the teachers and the policy makers of how it could be done and in what degree the benefits could be largely created. Working with plenty of weekend language schools and migrant parents as well as many academics has taught me that, for most people, the awareness of cultural difference and the knowledge of the importance of multilingual education are what could possibly transform our current educational system into a chapter new, into a better and brighter stage that one individual can thrive at his or her best potential without any
unnecessary force.
The Rutu Foundation
The Rutu Foundation is a non-profit organization in Amsterdam which has been working on promoting mother-tongue based multilingual education projects and has already accomplished a plenty of projects in countries such as Mexico, Suriname and Philippines. The main purpose of the Rutu Foundation is to focus on raising the awareness of applying mother tongue education in schools. During contemporary times in the Netherlands, the Rutu Foundation is determined to help the immigrant children in their education by creating and providing bilingual educational materials, such as the project that is named as AVIOR. Moreover, the Rutu Foundation also steps into the field of teacher trainings and establishes workshops for teacher trainers. Further, the foundation has always made the conviction of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by supporting and promoting mother tongue education.
In 2018, the Rutu Foundation has launched the project of creating language friendly schools which aims to promote multilingual education in mainstream Dutch schools in Amsterdam. This spring the Rutu Foundation already organized a few meetings with expats and academics in Amsterdam who are preparing for the summer event “Inequality in Education in Multilingual Amsterdam: What can we do?” which will take place in the middle of June. A group of policy makers, teachers, and expat parents will be attending the event to talk about multilingual education and share their thoughts.
Internship Experiences
As an intern in the Rutu Foundation, my duties are as follows:
1. Searching for and mapping out the weekend language schools in Amsterdam and gathering the information of each weekend language school and creating documents for the target groups (weekend schools, expat parents). 2. Reaching out the weekend schools and immigration
organizations by email or call. Asking them if they would like to participate in the promotion of multilingual education and also collaborate with mainstream Dutch schools, including sharing education materials.
3. Working as one of the event/meeting planners to help create new projects by providing ideas, brainstorming, making programs of the event as well as finding potential attendants. Also making a budget plan for the event and managing souvenir purchase.
4. Uploading events on the social medias of the Rutu Foundation, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Also, creating and designing invitation letters for events organized by the Rutu Foundation.
5. Uploading a series of new books on the official website of the Rutu Foundation, and also creating a google map just for the weekend schools in Amsterdam which will be used on the Rutu Foundation website.
6. Reporting on the weekend schools that I’ve gathered so far which will be used as a guide for the expat parents in need.
7. Visiting Turkish weekend school with one colleague and conducting an interview with the executive director of the school. Sending emails to the weekend schools that are not available for interviews and asking them to fill a questionnaire.
Evaluation
There were a few internship options at the end of last semester and they all looked very interesting. I eventually chose to do my internship in the Rutu Foundation after I visited its website. The Rutu Foundation has not been doing something completely new, mother tongue education, which has been paid a lot attention during recent years in the education field. However, the successful projects that Rutu Foundation has already accomplished really amazed me, and their new project-Mother Tongue Education in the Netherlands, not only greatly intrigued me but also made me want to be part of the whole work. I have been interested in multilingualism, as well as multilingual education which was completely new to me back in China. I had no idea how languages can change the outcomes of the study. Of course, as a Chengduhua (a dialect of Chinese)-Mandarin-English speaker (I guess I could call myself trilingual, strictly speaking), the learning of English taught me how puzzling just learning a new language could be, let alone learning something else with a unfamiliar language as the instruction language. Hence, I chose the Rutu Foundation to actually embark on the journey of promoting mother
tongue-based multilingual education, because I know it is the only way that education could become truly inspiring. As a Master student of Multilingualism, the courses of the first semester have a integrated range of the knowledge of multilingualism. Courses about sociolinguistics and language planning and policy, as well as multilingual mind and multilingual school have pretty much helped me deal with some difficulties which I encountered during the internship in the Rutu Foundation. To begin with, the acknowledgement of the beneficial influences that multilingual education can bring out set up a basic foundation for me as a promotor of multilingual education for the children in Amsterdam, as well as mother tongue education that is so crucial for young pupils in schools who are not capable yet to use the standardized language of the school. Most young migrant children in mainstream Dutch schools cannot keep up their study pace with other Dutch-speaking students, and they tend to fall behind the study schedule and most of them end up with very low grades. However, most schools are not willing to offer courses taught in their own language, and most classroom refuses multiple languages to be spoken by the students, with even worse cases that students who speak their own language in school are punished for that. Hence, the inequality if education has been greatly affecting the children who are struggling with language. Studies have shown that children learn at their best with their language. Therefore, my position in the Rutu Foundation is to appropriately approach to the weekend schools, to communicate with them on multilingual issues that most Dutch schools are having, in order to win their understanding and more importantly, their support of helping the organization to
conduct such events and promotions. During this procedure, my skills of communicating with different groups of people, information gathering have improved, as well as the skill of turning my academic knowledge into something that’s easy and approachable for normal people to understand.
Secondly, organizing meetings and event programs that are meant to promote mother tongue education constantly needs creativity and brainstorming. Most meetings and events we’ve been working on take around two hours long, and the programs that we put into the event have to be precise with our main point properly delivered meanwhile not making the audiences bored out. We created a couple of games which the audiences can interact with each other, meanwhile through interaction they develop a deep understanding of why a diverse language policy matters a great deal in the education system. Moreover, the searching and selecting of speech lecturers are also crucial because we have to think about if the lecturers are available during that period of time and is his/her professional field suitable for what we are doing. Organizing a meeting or an event needs a lot of preparation, consideration and motivation. Moreover, promoting the event through social media also takes time and energy when you are trying to make up a short context in twitter that will attract people and also be clear on the point. I’ve learned how to organize a meeting or an event with critical and creative thinking, and not to drop out the small details that also play an important role in functioning the whole event efficiently.
Moreover, searching for the weekend schools, mapping them out and creating a google map just for the schools
taught me how to use my resource both online and offline. Most weekend schools are small institutions with very little information to find on the Internet. However, the embassies of different countries and other immigration institutions can also provide useful information about the language schools. Thinking from a different angle to approach to the same goal has always been important when working in the Rutu Foundation.
During the five months working in the Rutu Foundation, I came to understand how multilingualism and mother tongue education could be approached in reality, and how it can change young students’ learning outcomes and how multilingual education can be practiced in daily classrooms. To a large degree has this experience expanded my academic knowledge of multilingualism and mother tongue education. The internship experience in the Rutu Foundation has also opened my horizons to all the amazing linguistic educators who have been trying new methodologies in the field of language teaching that bring out a more positive learning outcome to the young learners. What’s more, I’ve also come to know all the struggles that the young migrant children are suffering from because of the language barriers, and that could absolutely help me understand how to solve their problems if one day I stepped into the field of language education.
More importantly, Eva Juarros Daussà as my internship supervisor not only offered me a lot of helpful advices at the beginning of my internship about the practical information of mother tongue education, but also many times Eva offered to join one of the events organized by the Rutu Foundation, and also contacted a couple of academics and
professionals so that they could be aware of the activities from the Rutu Foundation and maybe even help with those activities. Eva also offered to help with one of the “multilingual parents event”, but unfortunately that event was postponed due to the unavailability of most of the guests. Furthermore, Eva was all the way through paying attention to my internship and always asked about how everything was going on, at which point I feel more than grateful to have her as my internship supervisor.
Career Goal
Working as an intern in the Rutu Foundation has enlightened my views in the education field, especially in language education that I have come to understand the importance of multilingual and mother tongue-based education as well as the importance of raising the awareness of mother tongue education. These acknowledgements have given me the insights of how education should be, and how modern education can be approached and practices in reality. If one day I am going to step my feet into the field of education, these insights will be more than precious as a gift.
Conclusion
Working for the Rutu Foundation for nearly five months has been a remarkable experience for me. I’ve learned the most useful skills of organizing academic events, communicating with different language institutions and academics efficiently, conducting interviews with educators, and most importantly, I’ve learned how to practice multilingual and mother tongue education in a daily basis,
and in an educational level. The comprehension of modern education, and the awareness of the importance of multilingual and mother tongue education are what makes good changes happen, and in the future, I will use these priceless insights to help with the development of my career.
Timetable:
Month Main Task of the Month
Feb Promotion plan for the book “Meertaligheid & Onderwijs”
presentation. Start looking for weekend schools. Creating
documents for the target groups (schools, parents) and looking for the target groups. Start contacting some of the schools.
March Gather information of the weekend schools (address, phone numbers). Draft programs according to things discussed in the meeting.
April Call the weekend schools and ask for collaboration. Search for possible locations to host the meeting and event. Keep reaching out to the weekend schools. Adjust invitation letters to the weekend schools. Design the invitation letter for the event.
May Prepare for the pre-meeting of multilingual parents in
Amsterdam. Update the weekend schools’ status. Discuss the programs of Multilingual Amsterdam with the group. Report on the weekend schools.
June Prepare for the second meeting with the parents. Host the meeting and discuss about the programs of the Multilingual Amsterdam with the parents and the academics in Amsterdam. Brainstorming on the design of the flyers of the event. Make the google map for the weekend schools and upload it. Renovate the Rutu online library by uploading the new books and researches.
