Comments on: English 1, Dutch 0

By: Natashka

Natashka — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:10:24 +0000

1. Who is us?
2. Translation is usually not in their job decription. If they could translate, they’d probably have a better job

By: Edwinek

Edwinek — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 13:59:27 +0000

We could of course start by always asking shop staff to translate all their signs for us. Again and again.

By: Larry

Larry — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 16:45:02 +0000

It’s both masochistic and stupid. Masochistically stupid, stupidly masochistic. No other country so willingly forsakes its own language for another (and gets it wrong so often in doing so) and discourages outsiders who want to learn (’Why would you want to? It’s so difficult!’).

By: rob

rob — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 10:50:58 +0000

It’s not masochistic, it’s stupid.

By: Natashka

Natashka — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 16:02:24 +0000

Ah yes, those were the days. It’s changed a lot since.

I got beaten up at school by anglophones when I was young because my father spoke French. And I was beaten up at school for having a mother who couldn’t speak French properly by francophones. Nobody gets first prize from me for taking the high road

But Dutch scoiety disrespects its own language and that’s just masochistic.

By: Larry

Larry — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 15:42:54 +0000

And not just against English signs. I recall there was a bookstore in Montreal that stocked books in French, English and Spanish, so they had a sign outside saying ‘Librairie – Bookstore – Librería’ in letters of equal size. They would get handwritten notes under their door saying ‘Change your sign or we’ll change it for you. Loi 101.’

Funny how it’s still *Bill* 101 in English, as if it never became law.

By: Natashka

Natashka — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 08:26:43 +0000

The province of Québec in Canada has some heavy duty laws that have been an issue for decades now. Just start by trying to understand “Bill 101″ and you will find out about the laws against English signs.

By: Tjaard

Tjaard — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 08:05:46 +0000

I recall that the French had laws against this…

By: Larry

Larry — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 16:19:16 +0000

Seen this?

http://bieslog.vpro.nl/programma/bieslog/news.jsp?news=27960013

The irony is that ‘tattoo’ (in the military sense) actually comes from ‘taptoe’!

By: Larry

Larry — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 16:12:00 +0000

In het weekend lekker shoppen met de kids, fun toch?

Seriously, I don’t see the situation getting any better unless the Dutch develop some kind of pride in their language they way the Icelanders do (just to give an example).