IA SPROG collects used white board markers: It protects the environment and supports aid projects

With 3000 students and more than 100 teachers many kilometers of letters are put on IA SPROG’s whiteboards every year and the consumption of the particular whiteboard markers is huge. That creates a corresponding pile of discarded markers, normally sent to destruction like most other garbage.

But it is past now – Last year, teacher Louise Frank Jørgensen took the initiative to collect the markers. Now they are remelted and reused. The past six months the many discarded markers have been collected and sent to the Danish branch of TerryCycle, an international charity recycling organization, initiated by American Tom Szaky in 2002. The organization started out as a manufacturer of compost and fertilizer, but has since then launched recycling programmes for many other types of garbage, e.g. pens and markers.

So, the language school at Hejrevej is a member of TerraCycles ‘Pen Brigade’ launched in cooperation with the BIC company in order to protect the environment and support charity. The markers are remelted into different plastic and metal products, e.g. watering cans and pen holders sold at retail. The more markers collected the more points you can get and exchange into financial support to a charity project of your choice. Louise Frank Jørgensen and her colleagues at IA SPROG haven’t yet decided how the money should be used – but most important is that the money is supporting people in need and that we contribute to protection of the environment, Louise says.

The first ones to try Chat Forum is a number of students who are already learning Danish online with IA SPROG’s Agro Online for foreign employees at Danish farms and nurseries. Later on, Chat Forum will probably be offered to other groups of students.

Chat Forum is not the only new online offer from IA SPROG. Online practicing of discussion where the student meet another student and an ‘ordinary’ Dane in a video conference for a topical discussion, is another. The possibility of online tuition for ‘Studieprøven’ – the superstructure of Danish Language Lavel 3 – is yet another offer.

The total number of Danish language students in Denmark has grown since the first quarter of 2010 from 30.000 to well over 35.000 in the first quarter of 2012, calculations from the Danish Social- and Integration Ministry shows.

Out of the total number of students in 2012, more than 16.000 were Danish Language Level 3 students, 15.000 Danish Language Level 2 students and almost 3.000 Danish Language Level 1 students. The biggest group – about 10% – came from Poland, while the second biggest group – 5,6% – came from Romania.

There is no need for two to hang up a map but Haider and Nazar will do whatever to please the photographer

From early morning till late evening IA SPROG’s premises at Hejrevej are full of life – students and teachers are coming and going, people are running up and down of stairs and hallways, chairs are clattering and doors are slamming.

The building is getting worn from this of course. All the time there is something to repair, fix and maintain. IA SPROG has a skillful international team to manage this – Robert Bates from England is the chief maintaining officer – and he is assisted by two broad-shouldered brothers who came to Denmark almost 20 years ago as refugees from the war in Iraq.

Strong arms are needed when Haider and Nazar Karim, as they are called, have to carry tables and other inventory from and to classrooms and between different floors, when painting and maintaining is needed, when locks have to be replaced, copiers have to be fixed and new classrooms at VIbevej are organized and decorated.

The school’s atmosphere is always good, but in case somebody wants to make trouble, it is just a glance at the brothers and he will give up the idea! However, behind the fitness-builded armor of muscles there are two really nice and helpful guys, just ask any student and teacher at IA’s.

Haider came first – he was a student at the language school himself and got the chance when a service assistant was needed. When Haider two years ago went on paternal leave, his smaller brother Nazar got the opportunity of a temporary job. Later Nazar became part time employed and last year he got a permanent employment. IA SPROG is admitting an increasing number of students – it requires more classrooms and more maintenance. The school has to work – also in a physical sense and this is service team’s responsibility.

Haider and Nazar were teenagers when they first came to Denmark and started a whole new life. They had the age to be tempted by ‘bad friends’ . “But our father kept an eye on us – and he made sure that we stopped before we began. What we were looking for in Denmark was peace. There are other ways to live your life than making trouble – hopefully they will realize that in Iraq one day”.

Online tuition in several new ways will be part of the new offers: A pilot project offering Studieprøven (the superstructure of Danish Language Level 3) online/on Skype is one of them. Conversation and writing online are yet other pilot projects.

Apart from that IA SPROG works with the presentation of a number of tuition videos focusing on Business Danish – and with Danish language tuition using an online quiz to call forward most students’ motivation.

Read more in IA SPROG’s Business Plan 2013 (in Danish)

The principal of IA SPROG, Jørgen Jespersen, congratulates Ólöf Hauksdottir

But first, Icelandic Ólöf Hauksdottir had to go through lots of  linguistic misunderstandings

When you are an Icelander, grew up in Sweden and have settled in Denmark, you are almost bound to meet the ‘language wall’ – the point where you need assistance to find out what is ‘true Danish’ and not ‘Dicelandic’ or ‘Swadish’.

- I didn’t learn Danish at school though unlike most Icelanders and in fact I believed that the Danish language was like Swedish. But in the beginning I didn’t understand a word, says Ólöf about her first time in Denmark.

It is much better now, for sure, and her pronunciation is almost perfect. Ólöf’s Danish is so good that she achieved top marks  – 12 – when she passed her Danish Language Level 3 in December at IA SPROG.

In the beginning – at module 4 – she had classes at the school; but in module 5 she changed to online tuition. A session once a week with a teacher on Skype. When you have a daughter of three years, the flexibility of online tuition is heartily welcomed.

Now, Ólöf considers to aim for ‘Studieprøven’ the superstructure of Danish Language Level 3. She is studyinga bachelor in International Business at Copenhagen Business School. Here, classes are in English, but if Olof wants to continue with a study taught in Danish, Studieprøven can be very useful. An the fact that Studieprøven now is being offered online is still more tempting.

- But first, I want to practise my Danish as much as I can – just like I did when I first came to Denmark three and a half years ago. I immediately started to speak, watch Danish TV and practice for myself. When I come to realize that I need help to get any further I will look for tuition that focus on my language problems – just like I had it at IA SPROG, Ólöf says.

Written tests:
‘Studieprøven’: May 21st
Danish Language 3: May 22nd
Danish Language 2: May 23rd
Danish Language 1: May 24th
‘Studieprøven’ listening test: May 31st

Oral tests:
June 13th-26th

13 of IA SPROG’s own students passed the Danish Language Level 1 exam, 105 passed Danish Language Level 2 exam and 134 passed Danish Language Level 3 exam. 10 students passed ‘Studieprøven’. The students were celebrated  just before the Christmas Holidays.

IA SPROG had full house when the school celebrated students who finished their exam

“…it is in fact one of the most flexible, high-tech and innovative schools when it comes to meeting the needs of the students”. So is the characterization put on IA Sprog in an article featured in the weekly english newspaper The Copenhagen Post Vol. 15, November 2012.

The newspaper has paid a visit to the school and concludes that “one only has to look at the plethora of options available to students at IA” to know that other language schools “aren’t even coming close when they proclaim their flexible approach to teaching”.

And the article goes on: “With options to study intensively, online, during weekends or at a slower pace, IA has carved out a name for itself in tailoring courses to suit a person’s every need”.

Among others, 37-year-old Khalid Haddi from Marocco has been interviewed for the article:  “I was looking for a place where I could learn Danish efficiently without wasting time. Friends I asked said IA was the best and, having studied here for two years I would definitely recommend them”, he states.

Chinese Liya Chen and Semayeh Rajaeinejad follow up with praising the the productive working environment and the exiting teaching materials.

On top on this, the Copenhagen Post emphasizes the extensive use of computer programmes, videos and other innovative etching methods, developed by IA Sprog.

Facing all this excitement, superintendent (so named by Copenhagen Post) Jørgen Jespersen, modestly points out that IT is just a tool:

“In modern-day language instruction there are many important factors, such as well-trained professional teachers, a good and proven product and an inspiring environment. Only when technology is added to this does it work”, he says.

After a start where the teachers tried different tuition material the department invented a audio lingual material based on IA SPROG’s unique and all-covering Skolegade-material. This audio lingual material is mostly used during the first modules to automatize the students’ pronunciation.

The target group for IA SPROG’s Intensive course is mostly students with a higher education – i.e. students who are used to study. Since the start five years ago Intensive’s teachers have made a great effort in becoming the first choice of higher educated students when it comes to Danish tuition. There is a great competition on the field but many students choose IA SPROG’s Intensive course because the school has been recommended to them by other danish learners.