“Holland chose me,” says Tonya. At har 26, she went on a world trip. “To discover the world and myself.” Via Indonesia, Singapore, she arrived in Germany to visit a friend. From Berlin, she visited Amsterdam. I actually wanted to stay in the Netherlands for three weeks and then go to London. But I liked it so much here that I did want to stay. Someone advised me to go to an English cocktail bar in Rotterdam. Because I could find work there. And indeed, in 1 day I had a job in the kitchen. And then in 1 week I had a room. So that went very easily. From here I can work internationally and travel easily. Then I thought: this is my destiny, I have to stay in the Netherlands.”
Busier
She has now been in Rotterdam for 26 years and she enjoys it. “I find Rotterdam very multicultural. I am a richer person because of the diversity Rotterdam offers me. People here are open-minded, I really like that.” Tonya does see the city changing in that time she has lived here. According to her, it is starting to look more and more like Melbourne, her hometown. “Rotterdam is getting busier, there are more and more international people. In the beginning, shops were not open on Sundays, now they are. Now everything runs 24/7, I like that. Everything is much easier. The municipality is also doing a good job. There’s a lot more green space and it’s easier to get from South, East, West and South so I like that.” Still, she sometimes suffers from the crowds. “There are more and more scooters and trams. And when I go to the city, I hear more English than Dutch. While I deliberately did not choose such a very big city like Amsterdam because it is so crowded there and nobody speaks Dutch.”
Speaking Dutch
Although she now speaks Dutch and she wants people to speak Dutch, learning it was not easy. “The language was really a utid challenge. At first I thought I would only be here for a few years. So I didn’t want to learn it. But then I stayed longer and wanted to know the culture. Then it helps if you know the language.” So she took a course. “But everyone around me was talking English to me. and then you go on talking in English anyway. That makes it difficult to learn the language. So after four years, I told everyone to talk Dutch to me. Because I had tried my best to make a start in Dutch. That way I learnt it better. But I still make mistakes with grammar.”
At home in Rotterdam with Australian jokes
Meanwhile, Tonya feels at home. “I have gathered friends around me. For instance, I signed up to a tennis club.” And that is also exactly what she would advise other newcomers. “Learn the language, join an organisation where you can connect with other people. Get to know the culture.” Twenty years ago, she bought a house in Rotterdam. ‘That made me feel good and peaceful.’ Yet it is also nice to have something from your home country around you from time to time. “A few years I had some Australian friends. With them I could make inside jokes, that was nice.”