Our mission
Kookoovaja’s goal is to help people connect with a culture and enjoy it to the fullest. We are happy when our students feel they have become part of Dutch society or of the, until recently, foreign culture they choose to immerse themselves in. To us, learning Dutch, Greek, Italian, and English means being able to move in the world with ease, improve your prospects and advance your career, make new friends and build a strong social network. It also means bridging cultural differences between you and your loved ones or to appreciate these differences better, understanding the songs, books and cuisine they love, gaining insight into the particularities of their background, learning how to cook their favourite dishes or talking to their grandmother!
We love multilingualism and we love teaching people from diverse cultural backgrounds. All Kookoovaja teachers are native speakers with a passion for sharing their culture. We are qualified teachers with years of teaching experience, but also students of foreign languages ourselves and we know what it’s like to open up to the new experiences another language brings with it.
Excitement and care are the foundations of our daily work in the classroom. We have a personal approach and teach in small classes so we can customise our teaching to suit individual students’ needs, provide immediate feedback and create a strong bond between student and teacher, but also between the students themselves. After all, learning a new language is also about making new friends!
What’s in a name?
Kookoovaja or κουκουβάγια is the Greek word for owl. The owl is an ancient symbol for wisdom. Speaking multiple languages makes you more open-minded and able to move easily within different cultures. It is also a work-out for the brain, since it improves memory, problem solving and multitasking. In short multilingualism is wisdom.
Our story
Kookoovaja was established in 2014 by Samantha. She wanted to provide Greeks living in the Netherlands with high-quality Dutch courses designed to cater to the specific needs of Greek native speakers. Samantha is a Dutch linguist and NT2 teacher who has studied and loves the Greek language and culture. Vasso, a Greek teacher and a student of Dutch language and culture herself, joined the team at the start of 2015 and has since provided modern Greek lessons to Dutch people and others. In 2017 we expanded our team with teachers who share our philosophy of language teaching and learning.