• Welcome to SENSE

    Society of English-language professionals in the Netherlands

  • Networking

    Each year SENSE organizes a full programme of professional development activities such as lectures and workshops, as well as several social events.

  • Forum for members

    SENSE maintains an active forum with in-depth knowledge and technical information shared by fellow language professionals.

  • SENSE Blog

    The SENSE blog features regular articles and news written by our dedicated team. Click ‘Publications’ on the menu to access the Blog.

  • Special interest groups

    SIG meetings are get-togethers organized by region or special interest. Click ‘Events’ on the menu to see upcoming meetings.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Home
  • Default
  • Title
  • Date
  • Random

What SENSE is

SENSE is a society for English-language professionals based in the Netherlands. We currently have about 280 members, including technical, style and copy editors, translators, proofreaders, copywriters, interpreters, journalists, teachers, researchers, academics and language/communication consultants. Most of our members either live in or have a professional connection to the Netherlands, but work primarily in English (either full-time or part-time, freelance or in-house).

What SENSE does

SENSE supports its members and the language profession in many ways. The Society:

  • helps language professionals meet the special challenge of working in English in a non-anglophone setting.
  • organizes a full calendar of workshops, webinars and social events for members and non-members alike.
  • hosts an online Forum where members can ask questions and discuss issues.
  • organizes get-togethers called Special Interest Groups (SIGs) to meet, discuss and learn about topics related to the group's interests.
  • operates a mentoring programme in which more experienced members provide guidance to less experienced colleagues.
  • provides a membership database where members can find colleagues and make useful contacts.
  • provides members with useful information and resources in our online Library.
  • maintains an active presence on Facebook (both public and private), LinkedIn (both public and private) and Twitter.
  • engages in advocacy and promotion of standards on behalf of language professionals in the Netherlands
  • encourages communication between societies and institutions involved in language.

History of SENSE

SENSE was founded in 1990 by a small group of English-speaking editors living in the Netherlands. Their objective was to form a society that could deal with the problems of language attrition and linguistic isolation faced by English-speaking language professionals living and working in a non-anglophone country. Since then, SENSE has also attracted many native speakers of Dutch, who bring valuable perspectives on working in the English language industry in the Netherlands.

Read this article to learn how it all began.

Publications

The following resources are available to the public: