 My name is Esther Bals, I am a lecturer for tourism management students. I teach Dutch as a second language for the students. I also teach communicative skills and I teach, I do a lot of coaching for international students. Coaching means first of all that every student receives a study career counselor that he can talk to whenever there isn't a problem or we also talk a lot about the study progress so every year we have a number of meetings together in which we discuss this progress and in which we also discuss if there are any situations that might interfere with the study progress and we also try to coach them on the individual talents that each and everyone student has. One of the challenges that international students face here is first of all the weather, the weather here in Holland it's always too warm, too cold, too wet, too sunny every time there is something but most of all it's very different from what the students are used to abroad. Second of all what they struggle with as well is the way of teaching. Most international students are used to a lecturer standing in front of the classroom teaching the students from a book what they need to know theory wise whereas here we like to work in groups we like to present the students with a certain problem or certain situation and the student has to come up with a solution to that problem all by himself of course with the help and the coaching of the teachers but mostly together in the group which is a struggle and then they also have to work together with students from other cultures so the cultural reference framework always plays a role here students from Asia have to work together from with a student from Bulgaria one from Spain one from Lithuania Holland so that is that is also a struggle especially in the beginning in the first year first of all I think that independence plays a huge role for the international students for most of them it's the first time away from home and especially that far so they have to do everything themselves which means that they grow in having responsibility they grow in being themselves they grow in finding out who they are and what their talents are I think that is one of the biggest advantages when I look at our students