What is a Dutch primary-school “strafhok”?
Tekenen in de klas en strafhok vol leerlingen
A2 Dutch listening practice · Dutch · Picked for people who know a little
A strafhok (“punishment cubicle”) is a corner of a Dutch primary-school classroom set aside for kids who’ve broken a rule. The word stacks straf (punishment) and hok (cubicle, animal pen), and the literal translation is comic: Dutch uses hok for a chicken coop too. Strafhokken vary by school: some are an actual small partitioned area, some are just a desk facing the wall, some are the hallway outside. The system is on its way out, but it lingers.
In this clip, a Dutch class draws portraits of each other while the meester manages kids in the strafhok. The rest are on task: “Jullie mogen iemand uit de klas uitkiezen en die ga je dan zo goed mogelijk natekenen.”
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How common in written Dutch
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Harder words in this video
These words are harder than A2. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-NL 2014 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In Dutch primary-school content and discipline-policy writing (Het Klokhuis, Schooltv, De Volkskrant)
- ▸In Dutch teacher-life YouTube and TikTok (Meester Tim, De Luizenmoeder, Toren C)
- ▸In Dutch parenting writing about behavior management at school (Kek Mama, Ouders van Nu, J/M Ouders)
- ▸In Dutch educational reform debates about positive discipline (NRC, Trouw, Onderwijsinspectie)