01 Oct '19

No finger-wagging

10225
door Tina Deneyer
A growing number of non-Dutch-speaking inhabitants in the Flemish Rand are eager to join local sports clubs. ‘de Rand’s’ Boest! campaign is designed to help clubs cope with the increasingly multilingual environment they are faced with.

Not by wagging fingers but by offering ready-made advice. Digestible information on how to cope with linguistic diversity and Dutch as a connecting language is available for sports clubs at the following address www.boestjesportclub.be. The former top athlete Kim Gevaert is lending support to the campaign. ‘Five short films are featured to offer sports club coaches ideas on to deal with non-native speakers in various situations: making them feel welcome when they enrol, communicating with parents, dealing with multilingualism during off-field activities, addressing non-native parents when they are signing their children up for sports activities,...’