The Delft Method and KNM, a part of the Civic Integration Exam. It is your roadmap in the Netherlands. Read here you how KNM works in the Delft method.
Author: Margreet Kwakernaak, certified trainer NT2, certified ONA-coach, director of Suitcase talen and author of 8 Dutch textbooks
What’s in KNM, Knowledge of Dutch Society
To begin with, all candidates for Civic Integration Test must pass KNM. Expats, highly skilled migrants, refugees, all those who want to have a permanent residence permit, have the same exam. KNM has two objectives. The first is your integration in Dutch society, the second is to provide you with the tools for it.
Consequently, has the exam the following parts: Work and Income; Manners, Values and Norms; Health and Healthcare; History and Geography; Organizations; Politics and Law, and Education.
Most of the information you need, is in the Delft method.
Read more in the KNM exam,
Continue reading the next paragraphs of this blog to know where to find knowledge of Dutch society in the Delft method.
Delft method excels in long term information: History of the Netherlands
The Delft method excels in information about geography and history. Basic geography, description of landscapes, polders and the Randstad with its big towns in the West: you’ll find all this in the second half of the A2 part of the Delft method, Nederlands voor Buitenlanders. The Delft Method is circular: all the mentioned themes come back in the B1-part of the method, de Tweede Ronde. Here they are again, with more details and more difficult words.
Whether you are a Dutchman or a newcomer, Willem van Oranje and the 80-year War are unavoidable in Dutch history. To be honest, as a well-educated Dutch lady I was bored with this old stuff. However, the Delft method revived everything.
How did it happen? In the Delft method conversation classes, history and geography are discussed in a much wider setting than just the Dutch point of view. When I asked my international students, it turned out that almost every country has its own Willem van Oranje – a person who liberated the country from the oppressor or reformed the country – or both of them.
De Delftse methode and KNM: history in an international perspective
Additionally, it’s very interesting to ask the students which countries have been their oppressors. Or have their forefathers been oppressers themselves? Dutch history pales in comparison to what some countries have experienced. And you know, what you discussed with emotion, you don’t forget. Delft method themes like the Dutch Golden Age, Aid or Trade (about development cooperation) and Host Country the Netherlands, all of them in Nederlands voor Buitenlanders, provoke these interesting discussions. For sure, this goes much deeper than what you need for KNM. The KNM exam has nothing philosofical. On the contrary, it is very practical.
Delft method geography compared to the Geography part of KNM
Let’s move to the geography. Delft Technical University developed the Delft method for the foreign students who came to Delft to do technical studies. Because of their technical interests, the information about water management is extensive. Polders, the flood of 1953 and our national pride, the Delta plan, to hold back the water forever – everything is there. For KNM it is an overdose, more than you need. No need to study extra geography for KNM!
Unfortunately, Covid reduced part of the fun of the geographics in theDelft method. After more than a year in the Netherlands, some new residents of Almere still haven’t visited any other Dutch town than there own – even not Amsterdam, 35 km nearby.
KNM- students, in your interest, make some trips to the places mentioned in the Delft method! Covid Measures still give many opportunities. Fortunately, others have seized the opportunity to visit remarkable places without hordes of tourists. In old Dutch towns like Amsterdam, Utrecht, Haarlem en Delft, past and present come together.
The KNM topics – Work and Income and education in the the Delft method
Of course, you’ll find those themes in the Delft method. However, there is a separate exam part for those Civic Integration candidates who don’t work yet in the Netherlands. It’s name is ONA, Oriëntatie op de Nederlandse Arbeidsmarkt and it’s meant to help newcomers to find work. Read all about it in Orientation on the Dutch labor market.
As a result, the work part in KNM is not the most important. In the Delft method only one text is explicitly about work, at the end of de Tweede Ronde, the B1 book of the Delft method.
Like most KNM subjects, Education is both in the A2 as in the B1 part of the Delft method.
For practical information that is subject to rapid transmissions: use the most concise book existing
Finally, use a book for practical, actual information like organizational aspects of Healthcare, Organizations, Politics and Law. Though Kleurrijker KNM is attractive, the method is meant for class discussions and the elaborate e-learning will cost you more than 40 hours. A waste of time after the Delft method!
Though the audio-cd of Wegwijzer is outdated and superfluous, the text of the book is up-to-date. It’t the most concise KNM book I know, all you need is in it. After the Delft method the book takes 30 hours to read – as a Suitcase talen student reports.
Delft method and KNM: KNM preparation strategy after the Delft method
Shortly before you reach level A2, open oefenen examens KNM and do the first mock exam. At the end, click Afsluiten. Click Score and check your answers. Score 1 van 1 means that your answer is correct. Then, checking your answers one by one, do analyze which your weak topics are. Order your book and read the chapters on the topics you don’t know well enough.
Do the second mock exam. Too many mistakes? Analyze once again, read again, do some of the mock exams in the book. You can redo the examens KNM , but probably you ‘ll remember your answers. Try some more mock exams, you can find them by googling. Beware: KNS is the A1 version of KNM, don’t use it!
Exam training Civic Integration Exam
In January 2021, Suitcase talen offers the last exam training Civic Integration Exam A2. After that, the A2 training will be adjusted to the 2022 Civic Integration Exam at level B1. It includes the language parts Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing – with personal feedback on your speaking and writing.
Find more details scrolling down to the course descripton in Courses
Do you feel a need for personal feedback and help for the most difficult part of the Civic Integration Exam, ONA? A Suitcase talen ONA training is under construction – it will be available per February 14th 2022.
Use Contact for more information!