A Decade of Dutch Studies in Leiden
After other foreign students in Leiden had tried in vain, about 1980 Mjong Soek Djie from South Korea succeeded in obtaining her Master's in Dutch. She was to go on to make a name for herself with her translation into her mother-tongue of Multatuli's
Max Havelaar. The poor success rate of foreign students in the Dutch Department gave the Faculty of Arts food for thought. This brought them, in the eighties, to the idea of developing a completely separate four-year programme for foreigners, which led to the establishment of the independent
Department of Dutch Studies, which began work in September 1986.
The new course, which the university was prepared to finance for a few years until it could stand on its own feet, was open only to foreign students. From existing contacts with Chinese and Indonesian universities, it was expected that this new line of study could be a viable proposition. In 1986 ten or so students registered, mainly Indonesians and Chinese, the latter at that time still in pre-capitalist Mao-style dress.
The aim was to give students an education which would equip them to function in their country of origin as university lecturers in Dutch language and culture. To this end the curriculum was developed roughly as follows.
In the first year of preliminary study considerable attention is paid to all aspects of language skills. In addition, there are lectures in the art history of the Low Countries (the only lectures that are given in English), and in Dutch culture and society, supplemented by a programme of excursions. This first year is also followed on occasion by students who are studying in Leiden for one year only, often in conjunction with a Dutch course in their own foreign university.
In the second year of study, attention is still paid to language acquisition, but there are also introductory courses in modern and historical Dutch linguistics, in Dutch literature, and the history of the Netherlands. Students are familiarised with the bibliographical apparatus of the various subjects, and they are required to do a lot of reading. Students also take a course in linguistics outside their own department.
In the third and fourth years students diversify. In two years they must specialise in one of the subject areas of linguistics, literature, history of the Low Countries and art history. During this time, in most cases, courses are followed outside the Dutch Studies