Max Koedood studied philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam, speaks six different languages and wrote the book 'Nieuw in Rotterdam', a novel specifically for expats who want to learn the Dutch language. After various wanderings around the world, Koedood currently lives in Seville, Spain, and gives online language lessons to beginning and advanced speakers. What drives him and what does he still hope to achieve?
Before studying philosophy, Koedood enrolled in Dutch teacher training for a year. He found out that while he really wanted to be a teacher, he didn't necessarily want to finish that education. “It felt a bit like being in havo 6, it was too practical for me. That's why I decided to study philosophy, which felt more like proper studying. I remember the first day at Erasmus University: If you want to become a philosopher, you have to read a new book every week and you have to keep that up your whole life, Professor Ger Groot told us. Advice that inspired me enormously. I didn't quite succeed, but I did start reading a lot more from then on.”
Because he had time to spare in addition to his studies, he taught Dutch lessons part-time at a high school in Leiden. Without a teaching license and with only five hours of teaching experience. “The first lesson I taught was ... not very good. But I really liked teaching. The moments when you see: Hey, I really taught this person something. Those are the best. I teach language classes these days, so being a teacher never went away.”
Language and philosophy
His interest in philosophy is closely tied to his love of language, he says. “In one of the very first working classes, a tutor said to me: I recommend that you study language. In philosophy, you work with concepts and you have to have those concepts very clear. For example, if two words have almost the same meaning, you have to be able to explain exactly what the differences are. Language is the most important and really the only tool you have as a philosopher.”
During his masters in Leuven, Koedood studied Wittgenstein's Philosophische Untersuchungen. Wittgenstein's ideas about language fit well with his ideas about language education: “Whereas words in the Tractatus are still names for things with which the world is described, as it were, on a one-to-one basis, in the Untersuchungen that meaning is determined much more by the communicative value. That means that you can't do a direct translation of a language with a dictionary, for example, but you also have to understand things like culture and context to figure out the meaning.”
That very understanding is the starting point of the method Koedood uses in his book. It's about enabling novice speakers to understand the words and structures in his stories in a 'natural' way rather than through glossaries, definitions or translations. “Then the communication is successful and I have adhered to the nature of language”.
Nieuw in Rotterdam
The idea to develop a language method had a lead-up and a trigger. “The lead-up was that I met a Spanish girl in Leuven and therefore started learning Spanish. After my studies, I left for the Canary Islands, where I went to work as an entertainer in a hotel. Just to do something totally different to just 'being in my head'. There were mostly Germans there and in order to communicate with them, I had to speak German. So now I was suddenly learning two languages at once.”
“Then, to get even further out of my head and into my body, I joined a yoga retreat. Exactly at that time, the corona pandemic broke out. The yoga centre staff, mostly young women from Guatemala, were now suddenly out of work. I thought, why not start teaching them English? Since we had no books, I started writing my own stories. That worked well, and I thought very smugly: you know what, these stories are much more fun than the ones you usually find in textbooks. Why shouldn't I turn them into a whole novella, which, like those textbooks, becomes increasingly difficult and complex? Then you have the best of both worlds.”
Back in the Netherlands, he set to work and the result is “Nieuw in Rotterdam'. The book is intended for expats and is also about expats. As a reader, you witness how the main characters integrate into the Dutch language and culture, while the language itself becomes increasingly rich and complex. “The first printing is now sold out and soon the Belgian edition will be published, set in Antwerp. We are even already working on Spanish and German versions!”
The joy of reading is the most important
Through his work, Koedood is hoping to make reading fun again. “In primary education, for example, there is a lot of focus on reading comprehension, but that is not important at all. Enjoying reading is much more important and then the rest will come naturally. For children, it is better to read three fun books than to analyse three texts to the bone. I hope that the 'natural method' of language learning - the foundation of which, by the way, was laid by American linguist Stephen Krashen - will become even bigger than it already is. It is the most fun and easiest way to master a language. Language underlies our identity and our culture and I think it is very important that we understand each other better. I recently started learning Persian and I noticed that I immediately feel more connected to people from Iran or Afghanistan. And that is very beautiful and valuable, I think. Especially in these polarised times.”
More information
Want to know more about Max Koedood and his natural teaching method? You can check out his website here
