Teaching Danish Worldwide By Gregers Moller
D
ansk i Hele Verden is a Danish online school offering to teach Danish children reading and writing in their native Danish language while living abroad. The aim is that the children should be able to enter the Danish primary school system on the same level as their current grade abroad. The school started last autumn and has already students in many different countries. The founder of the school is Michael Juul Jensen, who is currently a teacher at an international school in Brussels. “I got the idea when a parent to one of my students told me the problem she had as they were relocating to Zambia and there was no Danish teacher available there,” Michael Juul Jensen explains. “The fact that the students use computers instead of books is for most children in itself motivational. Many parents mention how it is much easier to make the child start working with their Danish language lessons now that the media has changed from a book to the computer. It is simply perceived more fun.”
“New digital educational material becomes available every day that my students can easily get access to and using skype I can individually guide them further in the adaptation process. I would say they are very close to have the same possibilities of developing their Danish language skills as if they were students in a school in Denmark.” “I teach students on all levels. The youngest students start with a very efficient reading program with a sound function that will teach the students all the sounds of the characters from
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scratch. I am impressed to see how fast the students become readers. Other programs teach spelling and continues up to 9th Grade level. They also enjoy access to a lot of book written on different levels offering training in reading and in learning from reading.” Anyone can sign up for a free introduction on www.danskiheleverden.com if they want to try if this is something suitable for their children. But the children must speak and understand Danish at a reasonable level as we do not teach speaking and understanding Danish. When the parents sign up, they only commit themselves for the first three months. The cost is 69 Euro per month and for the first period of three months we only charge for two months. After this test period, you commit yourself for one full year. “Dansk iHele Verden has come to stay,” says Michael Juul Jensen. “Over the past year it is clear that there is a big demand out there for what I offer. So now I have taken leave from my regular job in order to devote myself fully to working with my online school from the next term.”
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April 2014 • ScandAsia.Thailand 49