Dunglish

What is an ‘OV-chipkaart’ (public transport pass with a chip in it)? Inspired by Hong Kong, it’s not in use yet, except in Rotterdam, but I haven’t seen one there yet and I’m there often. There’s also the ‘invisible link’: shove two sentences together and figure out what you need (answer: a ’strippenkaart’ or ’strip tickets’) because that’s the info they left out of the translation.

Allow me to demonstrate the experience of figuring this out when you don’t get the Dutch:

“This ticket vending machine is for travellers with a *%?&$. Please use the red vending machines.”

What if my Dutch friend lent me their pass and I need to top it up? What if I work in the Netherlands and I have one, but have just been here two months and can barely order a beer? What’s going to happen in 2007 when everyone will need a*%?&$ to get around? Someone stop me!

(Photo: Piet)

I’m not on vacation, I’m just very busy because other people are away. Here are some previous Dunglish posts for those who may have missed these classics.

Original post and comments

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!

As if trying to find parking in any Dutch city wasn’t difficult enough, why not bastardize the name of businesses responsible for parking maintenance to make people feel even worse? Off street parkeren? Are they allergic to ‘parkeergarage’ (parking garage) up in Groningen where this was taken? Parking is not cool, but it really doesn’t deserve to sound idiotic in two languages.

(Photo: Kees)