All countries participating in this project – Belgium, Germany, France and the Netherlands – have good formal methods to learn a second language. This works for many newcomers (and a few early arrivals who never learned the language), but there is also a group for whom these teaching methods are too hard. We are talking about functionally illiterate people or people who have never learned to learn, for example because they have hardly received any education in their youth.
During a European cooperation project with Belgium (GO!), Germany (Arbeit und Leben), France (Elan Intercultural) and the Netherlands (Storytelling Centre Foundation and Talentenschool) we therefore developed an alternative method for the latter group.
The reason is that we also want to offer them an opportunity to learn a new language, even if it is at some basic level, because it still and more importantly gives them the opportunity to become an active part of society.