Dunglish

The “Toys for sale” sign is stating the obvious. Why is this sign in English? Why was the tagline left in Dutch? Why market to Dutch children in a foreign language? Why make yet another crass joke by mistake? Don’t tell me that’s a subliminal message aimed at the parents!

“Eating house” is perfect English, but for some reason, it makes many people laugh. I confess, it made me laugh as well. First, it is considered as a direct translation of “eethuis” and second, it is probably the only cafe in the Netherlands that uses the words “eating house” instead of, well, cafe.

(Photo: Aukje from aukje.net)

This cafe in downtown Rotterdam is now closed. I still wonder if the cafe’s name had something to do with it. The word “show” is pronounced as in English, but the word “pain”, referring to “bread” in French, should be pronounced in French.

“The lunchroom with Mediterranean style”. Ouch!

The line-up at this Amsterdam “chip” stand is still legendary.

(Photo: Yuri)

Dunglish is what happens when Dutch gets mixed with English. It is mostly spoken by the Dutch and Flemish (Belgium), but also by Dutch speakers who have been abroad too long, or by English speakers whose English is going Dutch.

More to come, I promise!