As part of our Dutch Christmas Carousel, some of our students were asked to write a poem – and not just an ordinary poem, but one that was inspired by Paul van Ostaijen’s Boem Paukeslag:

Paul van Ostaijen (1896-1928) was a Flemish expressionist poet, and Boem Paukeslag was one of his most famous poems. It had a specific visual style that he called ‘rhythmic typography’. The words were released from their usual order and their traditional typography, so you could tell from its appearance with which rhythm, tone and speed you had to recite it.

The task of our students: write such a poem with a theme of your choice. Their choice: celebrating Christmas with your family! This is what they made.

Simon’s adaptation:

Giacomo’s adaptation:

Besides that, we also asked our students to write a more conventional Christmas poem, making use of Van Dale’s rhyme dictionary. One of them wrote:

De hoogtepunt van de jaar Kerstmis is,
De winkel druk is.
Je kunt het niet verliezen,
En jouw boom moet je versieren.
Alles wordt helder,
De jesus stall wacht de herder.

Ik at een kerststol uit de foodhall
Het was heel droog en hard net als een honkbal
Ik voelde me verdrietig en ik heb de hele dag gehuild
Ik hou van kerststol niet zo nou.

And last but not least: other students learned how to make Dutch appeltaart. Teacher Lieke admits that one of her student’s appeltaart turned out quite better than her own. This is what Putri made:

Taalhuis Amsterdam wishes you all a buona fine e buon principio, vive le vent, chag shamech ve-shana Tova le-kulam, καλά χριστούγεννα και καλή χρονιά, fijne vakantie and felices fiestas!