‘Because of that weekend in Vught, I was able to set up my own business’

Even before Ulrike Niehoff came to the Netherlands with her family to work as Artistic Director at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, she started online Dutch lessons at Regina Coeli. Three years later, she set up her own consultancy company in the Netherlands, working for clients such as Philzuid in Maastricht and Stichting Omroep Muziek in Hilversum. Ulrike: ‘I didn’t expect that a person’s confidence to start speaking another language could grow so much after three days at Regina Coeli.’

‘We hebben het niet tien jaar geleden ineens bedacht’

Jarenlang was Lori Tierney hét gezicht van Regina Coeli. Terwijl ze aanvankelijk dacht dat ze maar tijdelijk Engels zou geven - want dichtbij huis en gemakkelijk met de kinderen - vond ze bij Regina Coeli haar thuis. Of zoals haar dochter zei bij haar afscheid in 2019: ‘Dit was Engeland voor mama.’ Ter gelegenheid van het jubileum van Regina Coeli gaan we met haar in gesprek over het vakgebied.

Even though orchestras, with their dozens of internationalities, are very international in character, Ulrike realised how important it was to learn Dutch. ‘The company and the audience are, of course, Dutch,’ she says. ‘If you make programmes for an audience in Amsterdam or, as I am now, for Philzuid in the south of the Netherlands, it’s important to have an even deeper understanding of who those people are. Language and culture are so intertwined, even though English is the prevailing language in the sector.’

About three months before she came to the Netherlands, Ulrike started online Dutch lessons at Regina Coeli on the recommendation of her new employer. ‘That was really wonderful to do. Their system works really well and the people working there are truly very good, so I was able to lay a good foundation.’

Additional motivation

Since Ulrike and her husband moved to Amsterdam, their son has been going to a Dutch school. ‘Naturally, he speaks Dutch now. That has motivated me even more to speak Dutch because I want to help him with schoolwork, for example. Dutch is a bit like German, though. The only problem is that very often it’s also not like German,’ she says, laughing. ‘You discover that as you go. It’s the little differences, the grammar. And writing is really a challenge. But also, for example, a word like “er”, which you never know when to use. I think those are the kinds of things you never think about when it’s your native language that you do have to think about when you’re learning a language from scratch.’

‘Through my experience at Regina Coeli, I learned that it’s about just daring to do it.’

Ulrike Niehoff

Cultural differences

Ulrike comes from southern Germany, and before that, she lived with her family in Vienna for 12 years. She felt it was important to move to the Netherlands with her husband and son so they could build something together. Upon arriving, Ulrike was surprised by the considerable differences. ‘At first, I thought it might be a bit like northern or western Germany, but I see a completely different culture. Added to that, Amsterdam is different again from the southern part of the Netherlands, so you can’t speak of one culture either.’ What she really had to get used to is the directness of the Dutch. ‘Germans are direct too, but there’s a difference between the two, and in Vienna more gets done behind the scenes. In the Netherlands, everyone’s allowed to have a say in everything. As a result, it sometimes takes much longer before you can make decisions. That’s something you have to contend with as director in the beginning.’

‘Maybe milk is good’

Ulrike also experiences cultural differences in day-to-day life. Spontaneous coffee-drinking, for instance, is out of the question. ‘Here, it’s extremely important that things get planned in your diary. Or that you’re at home eating dinner with your family at six in the evening. And I never thought I would see adults drinking milk for lunch. A few days ago, I had a presentation at the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Hilversum. It was a lunch meeting, there were sandwiches—and milk. And then I thought, “Maybe milk is good.” And yes, you’re right. I’m going to do that a bit more often now.’

‘We feel good here’

The Dutch lessons not only ultimately helped Ulrike start a successful business; she also found herself at home in the Netherlands. ‘We’ve been here for three years now, which isn’t that long, but we feel really good here. Our son has made all sorts of friends, and we’ve also made great friends ourselves. On Saturdays, you’ll find us standing on the sidelines, watching our son play football. Amsterdam is a beautiful city. And everything around it, like the sea, has a certain quality of life. I find that very important.’

Phone settings in Dutch

At the moment, Ulrike is no longer really actively learning Dutch. Her work is in Dutch, she has subscriptions to newspapers and her phone settings are now in Dutch.

But, as she also notes during the interview, ‘Sometimes I know perfectly well: “No, I really can’t say it like that,” but then I’ve already said it like that. In those moments, I would really like to know how to do it better. That’s why I would like to take more lessons when I can get around to it…’ And then she just might return to Regina Coeli.

Photography Agnes Keijzers & Bas Quaedvlieg