When you enter Taalhuis Amsterdam’s space in the heart of de Pijp’s Albert Cuyp market, you instantly feel part of the neighbourhood. A café-cum-workspace that sells excellent lattes and homemade Greek walnut cake (courtesy of Taalhuis co-founder Myrte Jansen) fits with the area’s welcoming, hip vibe. There’s even a lending library.
But if you take a closer look at the walls, tables and displays, you know you’re in a language school, too.
There are the newspapers: Spain’s El Pais, France’s Le Monde, the Netherlands’ very own Het Parool and The New York Times. The shelves are lined with items for sale, including bottles of Greek olive oil (for a mere €6.50!), coffee mugs in Arabic, a Turkish-language children’s book and Italian coffee. And language books… lots of them.
Dutch and more
More than just a Dutch language school, Taalhuis Amsterdam is unique in that it offers language classes from the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, including Greek, Turkish, Italian, Hebrew, and Arabic – as well as Nederlands.
Spaniard Oscar Jimenez Fernandez (39) moved to Amsterdam from Germany last October after his wife got a job transfer. The environmental scientist says he needed to learn Dutch to find employment.
After several courses at Taalhuis Amsterdam, Oscar started his new job as a data scientist earlier this month, one that he says will be conducted two-thirds in English and one-third in Dutch.
New language, new job
“I wouldn’t have made it without Taalhuis,” he says. “A big part of my job interviews were in Dutch. In class, there are a lot of role-playing exercises, so we speak and talk. You really put your Dutch into practice.”
His classmates, Estonian Berta Leibur (27) and 25-year-old Melina Paxinou from Greece, are also young professionals who took classes together and now, less than a year later, have reached the B1 level of Dutch.
“We started with an intensive course and then took one after another,” says Berta. “It’s intensive, but learning Dutch is one of the first priorities. I’m a scrub nurse and need to be at the B1 level to get my diploma recognized here. I actually chose my moving day in September 2025 so I could start classes here the very next day!”
Melina moved to Amsterdam two years ago to study linguistics and AI but realized she needed Dutch to set her apart from other English-speaking job applicants in the data field. She found Taalhuis Amsterdam’s prices, teachers and methods to be a cut above the rest.
“Language learning in Greece is not the same,” she says. “You spend a lot of time doing exercises and reading, and when you go out in the world, you cannot really speak the language. With Taalhuis, you can basically start using it from day one.”
Making it real
Emma Bakker agrees. She’s been teaching Dutch at Taalhuis Amsterdam for four years, but before that, she felt she wasn’t good at languages. “Frankly, I was a bit traumatised by my school French. Then I came here and realized learning languages can actually be fun.”
Her role as teacher, she says, is making learning entertaining, and that begins with creating a happy group dynamic.
“It isn’t just talking and telling people what to do,” she says. “It’s finding out together and getting to know each other. It’s also about focusing on the outside world, including the Albert Cuyp market, because that’s what we’re here learning for in the end. We’re going to make it as real as possible.”
Community
And that’s where Taalhuis Amsterdam excels: meshing the outside world of Amsterdam’s multi-cultural de Pijp with the several languages taught inside its open-to-the-public doors.
“Amsterdam has changed a lot in the last 10 to 15 years,” says Mijarca Schuyt, an Amsterdamer who is studying Greek so she can talk with her husband’s family and the staff at their Greek taverna on the other side of de Pijp.
“Amsterdam has always been an international city, but even more so now. In this area, you can easily walk around without hearing any Dutch. I think it’s important for people who come here to learn the language—not specifically with Dutch people, but with other nationalities. Because this is Amsterdam. So you get to understand each other a little better and be part of the community.”
In Mijarca’s class, no one must learn Greek to get a job or a passport. “It’s all people who love Greece,” she says. “They go, come back and learn the language, and then go back to Greece on vacation.”
Summer in the city
Which is why if you’re thinking about learning Dutch or another language, you should start this summer with Taalhuis Amsterdam’s one-week immersion courses, beginning in July and offered in several languages.
You can travel the world from de Pijp by taking Greek or Italian and get ready for next year’s summer holiday. Or if you want to learn or improve your Dutch, a summer immersion course will prepare you for your next level come September’s full fall schedule.
The Greek olive oil next to the Turkish language books and even the homey furniture from Myrte’s grandmother says it all. “It’s very vibrant here,” says teacher Emma. “The atmosphere is not only about learning Dutch, but about communicating in many languages and finding each other.”
More than just a language school, this social hub that also hosts film festivals and other events is a fitting venue for the neighbourhood. “What I find nice is that even if you don’t have class, you can come here and study and talk to people,” says Oscar. “It’s like this big living room with a nice vibe and music. It’s a community. Welcome to Taalhuis Amsterdam.”
Have any questions or need help finding what level suits you?
Contact Taalhuis Amsterdam at info@taalhuisamsterdam.nl or check their website
