tut, tut, jij moet er gewoon wat meer tijd insteken jongen!!
Ik ga vanaf nu elke dag meer nederlands met jou praten....
What's that? You want a Scooby snack?
Just kidding. I know what you said.
I found your blog while in search of information about the Netherlands. I am part Dutch and very curious to learn the language. I hope you don't mind if I continue to read your blog, I'm finding it very entertaining & insightful!
Kind regards,
Alisha
Alisha - Of course not. Everyone is welcome 
After four years I can tell the time properly, but I still ask for appointment times in 24 hour clock terminology to avoid confusion.
The alphabet is difficult. If I need to spell anything out I use the phonetic alphabet. It's well worth learning and everyone knows it. Look here and scroll down for the Dutch ones:
http://www.bckelk.uklinux.net/ph.../
phon.full.html
*History lesson instead of Dutch* just out of curiosity, do you realise what 'neighboring country' means to Dutch??? *You might like to rectify that* As tough as it is to pronounce a 'harde g' to non Dutch that's how tough it is to Dutch to pronounce the 'neighboring country' and not because it starts with 'een harde g' so the situation you're describing is probably very unlikely to happen *grin* It's like the English/French type of thing... ya know...
But Stu, at least you're trying. The fast majority of your country lot can't be bothered and end up talking s l o w e r or LOUDER as if we have something with our hearing.
So, well done.
Ash - Thanks. That web site will come in handy
Tess - You mean the Germans? What about the other counties you share boarder with?
Elle - T H A N K Y O U V E R Y M U C H
Belgium is beautiful! I was wondering: do you ever get annoyed by Dutch trying to correct you? Or when they start to speak English (as soon as they hear the accent) while you want them to speak Dutch (so you will learn)? My partner had a problem with that.
I'm not moving to Holland until March, en ik praat al Nederlands, what does that say about me
I've just been using it to eavesdrop on Dutch tourists over here.
Tess: I have that problem in Amsterdam, it's okay in Rotterdam though. Except at Shoarma-places, I've never managed to order those in Dutch
I was raised with the language (the daughter of recent Dutch immigrants to Canada), so I greatly admire your skill in learning a pretty awkward language.
Mattias: perhaps it's them Amsterdammers then... because it happened while we were living there [and I was one of them]
Could be, it wouldn't explain the Shoarmas though.
Or it could be the millions of tourists every year pretending to know how to order beer in A'dam.
But shoarma isn't a Dutch word... and most shoarma places are run by non Dutch
Yes! "A little bit." I love it. I always have to hold back a laugh, because I know that the conversation that is about to take place will be extremely complex, and they'll have no problem following. Who teaches them to say "a little"? Hilarious.
I love it when I'm shopping with the Quebecoise (which is to say females from Quebec) that I live with and they just blast out the F word, and all the anglophones stare in shocked shockingness. Then I'm left to remind the girls that we're not actually supposed to use that word when referring to avocados. But they never learn...
I'm lost now. I didn't know they had their own proper language on continental Holland. On my name that I should have known better.
Cheers,
Oh yes and it makes it easier to order' tekila' and follow snottish combersations ...
Cheers
Shoarma = Egyptian meat (preferably lamb)
bland Things = Febo, boerenkool, stampot, hutspot.
Nice things, Stoofpeeren, gehaktbal (if well made, goulash kroket, Varkenshaas and babi pangang (yes it is Dutch you won't find it anywhere in China )
Can Stu make most prostitutes in the red light district blush?? :P
Tess - Actually when they start to speak English it feels like a get out of jail free card. Although it is true that that might be why I have not had enough practice.
But nothing can be as strange as the time an Albert Hijn girl told me she did not like my English accent when I spoke Dutch.
Mattias - Have you just learnt Dutch or did you already know it?
BlondebutBright - A lot of Dutch people I know learnt English from the A-Team so they properly learnt it from there.
Ash - Is it just when shopping for avocados that they use the F word?
Harry-P - Until I moved here I was not sure how much English they spoke.
Jean-P - I think another way to put it is it makes it more 'dangerous' to order tequila.
Tenakalaz - Fabo = Some thing to only eat when you are very drunk on the way back from the pub.
ChickyBabe - Do you really want to know or are you just trying to get me to talk dirty to you? :p
I have infact met a dutch person who didn't speak a word of English. However... he was about 100 and this was in the deepest darkest depths of scheveningen *shudder*
PS shoarmas are YUMMMMMMMYYY. There was a great restaurant near us when i lived in blankenburgstraat in The Hague. I forget its name but it was the best Egyptian place in the world. Everytime we went we had "shoarma kip". :-D wow the mere mention of shoarma brings back memories of my childhood
It seems to me you're worrying too much. When I first came here (16 years ago) I went to evening classes to learn the language, but it didn't take and I stopped going. But over the next 15 years Dutch sort of soaked in and eventually I found I could both understand and speak it - not brilliantly, but well enough. And the fact remains that 99% of these people speak English anyway. Give it time, it'll come.
I cheated and went to University in Holland....
Marycub - I will really miss good shoarmas if I ever move to another country. Just thinking about them is making me hungry :p
Nick - That's how I've been learning so far.
Mattias - Did you write the answers on your arm too :p
I have always wanted to learn dutch. Care to teach me red?
I'm just worried I'm going to run out of arm, my new job has promised to only speak Dutch to me.
Rose - I can teach you everything you need to know to ask Dutch people if they speak English :p
Mattias - You could always use the fake arm sling and eye patch trick as Chevy Chase does in the movie 'Spies Like Us.'
I tried to learn Spanish once but I found the language utterly frustrating. They write as they pronounce, but that rule is not always as evident as implicit, which lends itself to terrible, terrible confusion. Related languages are similar.
And I learned not to laugh at people who talk slow in foreign tongues because my mom once told me 'it could very well happen to you.'
For whatever the reason 'my Dutch sucks.'
I should be learning Chinese!!
Cheers,
For me it was the other way around, I had to learn English when I went to an American High School when I was 13. It was pretty scary to attend classes and not have a clue what they're about, so I know how you feel.
Veel succes met het leren van Nederlands!!!
Emiel
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Veel succes van Nederlands!
I'm a translator and I don't know any Dutch. Please let me know if you know of any interested people who may want to partner up.
I bring it here because evidently some people in this comment section have their spirits high on languages.
Thank you in advance,
Emiel - That must have been worse. At least I'm lucky that I can always ask someone to tell me what something means in English.
Hi Stuart,
[thanks for your reply earlier, just got home, will send you email later]. About the AH girl, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! I reckon she must have finished her O Levels and found herself a nice comfy job at the till so she could spend the rest of her miserable life slagging off customers.
How did you react????
To Tenakalaz can I be a smarty-pants? Babi Pangang is actually Indonesian, I should know because I'm half Indonesian half Dutch... I could send you my authentic family heirloom recipe if you are willing to pay? You'll be lucky coz you could buy all the ingredients over there. I'm stuck in London, can't find things and have friends send it over from NL to UK
Tess - I was so surprised by it that I didn't really know what to say.
I never saw here there again. Maybe she got fired for annoying too many customers.
Tess - Arrrrrgh, curses..... you win this time smarty pants. But my trivia will overpower yours eventually.. woohahahahahaha (raises hand to sky mockingly)
*puts on her cowboy boots and starts moving sideways in a straight line to the sound of Elvis; 'Just Call Me Lonesome' [at the top]*
hehehe. Damn cowboy boots, and then elvis as lemon juice..for that extra sting.
oh the pain.
Noooo. You can't mix The King and line dancing.
How's that then? *works for me...*
"Ash - Is it just when shopping for avocados that they use the F word?"
No, it's for every object. If it's an object, it will be proceeded by the F word!
when asked something in flemish (because the belgians don't speak dutch and the dutch don't speak flemish, we don't want to upset the two sets of people) i end up asking 'spreekt u engels of frans' ? so my flemish is extremely advanced as you can see.
i can also give directions, providing on whether or not i know where they want to go to.
Hey Stuart,
As i said on bloggertalk, love the blog!
I feel your pain though with regards to learning dutch...Im learning shorthand, and im having the exact same problems you are! and Shorthands in English! lol
Keep up the good work!
Joe
Tess - *shakes head*
Aisling - Must make conversations interesting.
Zoe - I wonder if there is a Dutch/Flemish version of, "you say potato. I say patato."
Joe - Thanks. I hope things get easier.
I tried to learned French with audiobooks once. This is before my French test at uni, right.
Well, at the test, I brought the recorded answers on my ipod, right. I told the professor I was just listening to the Broncos game. Well, I got cought.
Besides the embarrassment, for the rest of my career in language I had to make it up to that professor and could never erase my blush from my memory since that moment.
That is why I remained at school. Making it up for cheating, I would guess...
Thanks for sharing and letting us do our part, Stu.
Cheers,
*sighs, kicks off boots, walks over to record player and swaps the King for ELO*
hehehe, ELO... giving your age away tess!!!!
Tried to /learn/ French I mean _
*Don't hate me for it, I was young, and never cheated in the same manner ever again.
Cheers,
Tenakalaz: I'm proud to be a fossil... :9 and fyi I'm certainly not trying to hide anything tsk, you see... in the olden days...
Tenakalaz: I'm proud to be a fossil... :9 and fyi I'm certainly not trying to hide anything tsk, you see... in the olden days...
I almost asked, "What's a ELO?" before I looked it up on line.
Oh come on guys... ELO stands for eliminated landed object, do I really need to explain?
It's only since learning Dutch (sorry Zoe, Flemish), that I realised why the English commentators always had so much difficulty with Ruud Gullit's last name (and in the end, none of them got it right). It's like how people pronounce Vincent Van Gogh. Some say Goff, some Goh, but if they were getting it right, it just sounds like you are clearing your throat.
Oh folklore, my dear subject at uni
I'll spare the tale
Cheers,
stu..... I hang my head for you.......
did you live in a sound proof room with a violin filter ??
I feel for you. Really I do. The first time I went to Mexico I was totally lost because mexican spanish is different than Spain spanish.
Although, when the residents claim to only know a little english, they actually did only know a sentence or 2.
Keep your head up.
Gkee. Now, it's about learning AND remembering your lesson, baby.
Cheers,
Tess - Yes :p I didn't follow music much during my teenage years.
Alan - I've never heard an American pronounce Vincent Van Gogh right either :p
PaulGuise - What was the sentence they usually knew?
Bibi - I'm not sure I understand your comment.
Oh nuthn' baby
Cheers,
Bibi - A lot of the time your comments are quite random and seem like spam. I also get the impression that you have been commenting under several other names since the writing style and way of signing off are always the same.
Isn't that so? I guess it's not amusing any longer if it ever was.
I'll stick to one or two different names if you don't like it.
Cheers,
Bihi - My issue was more with the random spam like nature that most of your comments seem to take.
Right baby. I'm not pushing Viagra or porn though so it might not have been me at all instances. But I'm still keeping my keyboard and mouse safely quiet now.
Cheers,
Hablas inglés
Parlate inglese
Vous parlez anglais
Sprichst du Englisch
Você fala o inglês
Inclusief zal doen u spreekt engels
Сделайте Вы говорите на английском языке
Gjør De taler engelsk
Oh geez, don't remind me Stu! I feel like this ten times a day. a real dunce!
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