Although Nina Lucia Stephan has never followed a Dutch course or touched a Dutch grammar book, she speaks fluent Dutch.
How did you manage that?
“Saurus”, smiles the first-year student of Economics – 20 years old, born in Hamburg, lived for eight years in Portugal and one year in South America. She didn’t choose the easiest way to learn a language, but the fastest. “Right after the Inkom, together with three other girls from my Inkom group, I joined the Maastricht student rowing club. If you tell a Sauriër you can understand the language a little bit, he or she always will speak only in Dutch to you. I have many German friends who took a course but they have no people to practise with. Then you never learn it.”
Why did you want to join Saurus?
“I didn’t know anybody when I arrived in Maastricht. I was searching for a new outdoor sport. During the Inkom – I had a lovely group – we rowed twice. It went very well. I first chose the sport, but I also wanted to experience what it is to be a member of a Dutch student association. In Germany you hear the most horrible stories about those associations, but in the Netherlands it’s part of student life. I’d already heard that the integration between Dutch and Germans wasn’t that good. I thought maybe it’s the same as in Portugal where the Portuguese and German children didn’t really mix. I wanted to integrate, be fully part of the Dutch student life. If it didn’t work out well, I could always leave the association. But it turned out very well.”
What’s the nicest thing that’s happened to you in Maastricht?
She smiles. “There’re so many things. It started with the Inkom. It was so cheerful, without worries. Every day I met twenty or thirty new people, I was living on my own for the first time. I felt euphoric.”
So you’re happy in Maastricht?
“Very happy. But sometimes I have a small crises, especially when I think about my study results.”
Why is that? Aren’t you typically German?
“I did very well at high school. That’s why I got a scholarship. Now I’m doing less good. My grades are above 7 – I’ve passed all my exams. But I could study harder. Besides that, I chose a subject – economics – that I’m really interested in but that wasn’t my best subject in high school.” Thinking: “There’s more in life than being the number one in your studies. That’s not where life is about, is it? It’s about getting to know the world. Every Wednesday evening I have a Spanish evening with friends, every Monday we have the ploeghap (team meal) with my team, I go to the Sauruskroeg once in a week, I’ve joined Amnesty. I chose economics because I want to know how the world turns. I also love physics for the same reason. I want to understand the world and the people who live in it.”