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On Thursday, 26 November 2026 The Hague International Centre organises a range of activities for Praat Nederlands Day. Volunteer The Hague is giving a presentation about how to find opportunities to practice and improve your Dutch beyond the classroom. 📅 Thursday, 26 November 2026 🕔 18:45–20:45 📍 More information: PEP Den Haag, Riviervismarkt 2, 2513 AM Volunteer The Hague Communications Advisor, Lucie Herraiz Cunningham, moved to the Netherlands in 2003. She is French and also works as a language instructor. She learnt Dutch right away but still found that taking an intensive Dutch NT2 course was not enough to be confident understanding and speaking Dutch. She will share some practical tips on how to learn and practice Dutch outside the classroom. Learning does not to have be boring, the secret is regular short moments of practice in your weekly or daily routine. Intrigued? Join us at PEP Den Haag and share what has been working for you too. The door opens at 18.45. The presentation starts at 19.00 and is followed by networking. Drinks and light snacks will be served.

Ask anyone who has tried to learn Dutch in a classroom, and they'll tell you the same thing: the textbook takes you only so far. You can memorise verb conjugations and drill vocabulary for months, but the language stays flat and distant until you use it with real people, in real situations, about things that actually matter. This is where volunteering quietly does what no course can. In The Hague, offering your time is one of the most natural and rewarding ways to grow into the language and the culture, even if you begin without speaking a word of Dutch. You can start in a language you already have by joining the free Volunteer The Hague volunteer pool! One of the biggest fears that newcomers carry is that they can't contribute until their Dutch is "good enough." The reassuring truth is that you don't have to wait. The Hague is one of the most international cities in the Netherlands, home to embassies, international courts, expats, and organisations that work across many languages. Plenty of volunteer roles are carried out in English, or in whatever language you and the people around you share. This is why Volunteer The Hague was created, to empower people who speak other languages than Dutch to find volunteer vacancies that require no fluency in Dutch. Starting in another language isn't a compromise, it's a doorway. It lets you become useful and connected from day one, while Dutch slowly builds in the background. You show up, you help, you belong, and the language follows. Fluency grows through repetition and context What makes volunteering such a powerful teacher is that it surrounds you with the same words, phrases, and rhythms again and again. If you help in a community kitchen, you'll hear how people greet each other, ask for the salt, and say goodbye, every single week. If you sort donations at a charity shop or help at a neighbourhood centre, you pick up the practical vocabulary of everyday Dutch life: numbers, directions, small talk, polite requests. This is language learning with context attached. Instead of memorising a list of words, you learn them tied to a moment, a person, a task. That's how the brain actually holds on to a language. Over time, the Dutch you hear stops being noise and starts being meaning. You begin to catch the gist, then whole sentences, then you find yourself replying without translating in your head first. Colleagues and the people you serve tend to be patient and encouraging, too. In a low-pressure, friendly setting, you feel safe making mistakes, and mistakes are exactly how fluency is built. A volunteer environment forgives the wrong article or the fumbled word, because everyone can see you're there to help. Reading the unwritten rules Language is only half of fitting in. The other half is culture, the unspoken norms that shape how people behave, and these are almost impossible to learn from a book. Volunteering puts you right inside them. You'll notice how direct Dutch communication tends to be, and learn not to take plain-spokenness as rudeness. You'll see how seriously appointments and agreements are taken, how meetings often start and end on time, and how the famous Dutch calendar culture works in practice. You'll observe the value placed on egalitarianism, that the coordinator and the newest volunteer often speak to each other as equals, and the way decisions are frequently talked through until everyone has had a say. You'll pick up smaller customs too: bringing something to share, the rhythm of coffee breaks, how birthdays are celebrated, and why the whole room might congratulate you when a family member has good news. Absorbing these norms by living them helps you move through daily life in The Hague with far more ease and confidence. A community that carries you forward Perhaps the greatest gift is the network you build. The people you volunteer alongside become a real social circle, and that circle is where the deepest learning happens. They correct you gently, invite you to things, explain the joke you didn't get, and cheer on your first full Dutch conversation. Motivation matters enormously in language learning, and nothing motivates like relationships. When you care about the people around you, you want to understand them, and that desire pulls your Dutch forward faster than any deadline. So don't wait until your Dutch is perfect. Start volunteering in whatever language you have. The fluency, and the sense of belonging, will grow from there. One day when you are much more fluent in Dutch consider applying for volunteer vacancies in our sister volunteer programme Den Haag Doet. Visit Volunteer The Hague’s online volunteer vacancy platform to start your volunteer journey in your new city!

This month, PEP Den Haag's two volunteer programmes Volunteer The Hague and Den Haag Doet were invited to run a stand at a special event at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Leiden called 'Students and Society Fair.' In addition to their campus in Leiden, this university has a campus in The Hague with many international and Dutch students who could use our free online volunteer vacancy platforms. Students could talk to organisations that had open volunteer opportunities and faculty members could discuss potential research projects about the causes they are supporting through their services. Phtography credits: Leiden University, Faculty of Social Sciences At Volunteer The Hague, we see that many international students experience real fulfilment in volunteering in the local community. It gives them a sense of connection to their new city and a life beyond the campus bubble. Many also recognise that it makes them more competitive when applying for part-time jobs in The Hague, or for their first job in the Netherlands after graduating, than students who only have a degree to show. Local volunteering experience and professional references make a difference. It shows initiative and character to give some of your spare time towards improving society. Volunteering also lets them join a new team and do work with real-world impact, a welcome contrast to group projects done for a grade. Attending the fair granted us the unique chance to interview Francien Bouhuys, Coordinator and Policy advisor Career Service Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at The University of Leiden who is an advocate of volunteering for the students of her university. When asked to contrast international students and Dutch students about their approach to volunteering, she notes that her team sees “that international students are often very interested in volunteering. Many of them are also more familiar with it than Dutch students, because civic engagement or ‘community service’ is often already part of the (university) culture in their home countries.' She adds: 'Volunteering is a great way for them to gain practical experience, develop new skills (including language skills), build a network, and strengthen their position on the job market in a new country.' She comments that much of this also applies to Dutch students, although they are sometimes less aware of how valuable volunteering can be for their personal and professional development. She concludes that '”they tend to be more familiar with (extra)curricular activities such as internships, part-time jobs, student associations, and board positions.That is why we believe it is important to bring students and civil society organisations closer together, for example through this Students & Society Fair.” Leiden University states on their website that ”volunteers can be mentors, buddies, coaches, activity leaders, supervisors, client support assistants, team managers, committee members, fundraisers, communications assistants, marketing assistants, museum staff, coordinators, hosts/hostesses, readers (for people with reading disabilities), maintenance assistants.” These are the most common roles organisations advertise but Volunteer The Hague also offers more surprising roles on their online platform. Curious about what opportunities there are? Join us at our Mix and Match Volunteer Job Fair on Saturday, 28 November at the Social Hub The Hague for vacancies that won't be posted on our platform. There you can talk live to representatives of 30 non-profit organisations. Can't attend the fair, check our vacancies online as new ones come in regularly.