Five students straggled into a Fletcher Free Library meeting room on a Saturday morning, unusual peers for an unusual class: Dutch. Over the next hour and a half, they wrapped their minds around a language rarely heard in Vermont, and their tongues around its guttural pronunciation. Comments like "That sentence is hell" and "That's a lot of vowels" punctured the atmosphere of studious concentration. So did laughter. Yes, this language class was fun. Instructor Bob van Heeks made sure of that, balancing lessons on grammar or parts of speech with games based on, for example, "Wheel of Fortune." (Tip: "Buying" a vowel — including ÿ— is a good idea.) The affable, 43-year-old Amsterdam native moved to Burlington with his American husband last March. Soon he began using the website Meetup to announce free classes in his native language. "I wanted to do some volunteer work, kind of paying it forward," van Heeks explained. He looked around at local colleges and did not find any other Dutch offerings. The sessions began in mid-May with three students; average class size is now six, van Heeks said, and more are welcome. Students may enter at any time, not just at the start of a semester, as in a traditional school setting. In fact, there are no semesters. There are no grades, either — but that doesn't mean van Heeks won't throw in pop quizzes now and again. His classes are free not just because of altruism but necessity. A longtime flight attendant on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (if you've ever wondered what that stands for, it's Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschaapij), he can't earn income in a foreign country while employed in the Netherlands, for tax reasons. But van Heeks does have a green card, and offering classes gratis serves his long-range dream of launching a second career in academia. "Doing this after 16 years of flying, it relights my fire," he said. "It's a new reason to get up in the morning, a new passion. Eventually, I'd like to make this my [job]." Earning a master's degree in Russian gave van Heeks partial preparation to teach. Still, to gear up for Dutch class, he said, "I literally went online and looked up 'how to teach a language.'" Watching him in class, anyone might think he had years of experience. He's a natural — comfortable, confident and organized, but also endearingly enthusiastic.…
Five students straggled into a Fletcher Free Library meeting room on a Saturday morning, unusual peers for an unusual class: Dutch. Over the next hour and a half, they wrapped their minds around a language rarely heard in Vermont, and their tongues around its guttural pronunciation. Comments like "That sentence is hell" and "That's a lot of vowels" punctured the atmosphere of studious concentration. So did laughter. Yes, this language class was fun. Instructor Bob van Heeks made sure of that, balancing lessons on grammar or parts of speech with games based on, for example, "Wheel of Fortune." (Tip: "Buying" a vowel — including ÿ— is a good idea.) The affable, 43-year-old Amsterdam native moved to Burlington with his American husband last March. Soon he began using the website Meetup to announce free classes in his native language. "I wanted to do some volunteer work, kind of paying it forward," van Heeks explained. He looked around at local colleges and did not find any other Dutch offerings. The sessions began in mid-May with three students; average class size is now six, van Heeks said, and more are welcome. Students may enter at any time, not just at the start of a semester, as in a traditional school setting. In fact, there are no semesters. There are no grades, either — but that doesn't mean van Heeks won't throw in pop quizzes now and again. His classes are free not just because of altruism but necessity. A longtime flight attendant on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (if you've ever wondered what that stands for, it's Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschaapij), he can't earn income in a foreign country while employed in the Netherlands, for tax reasons. But van Heeks does have a green card, and offering classes gratis serves his long-range dream of launching a second career in academia. "Doing this after 16 years of flying, it relights my fire," he said. "It's a new reason to get up in the morning, a new passion. Eventually, I'd like to make this my [job]." Earning a master's degree in Russian gave van Heeks partial preparation to teach. Still, to gear up for Dutch class, he said, "I literally went online and looked up 'how to teach a language.'" Watching him in class, anyone might think he had years of experience. He's a natural — comfortable, confident and organized, but also endearingly enthusiastic.…