Dunglish

OK, it could be worse, but the big bad Dutch phone company has every resource imaginable at its disposal to crank out proper English for tourists at the Netherlands’ Schiphol Airport. We’ve talked about this before, big corporations not understanding the difference between adverbs and adjectives, as they are written the same way in Dutch.

Nevertheless, this is sloppy and there’s no excuse this time.

Suggestions:
– Getting online is simple and easy!
– Get online simply and easily!

And the rest: That nasty Dutch habit of writing 3,- (no hyphens in English, it’s totally useless, just € 3 will do, we know there are no cents) and then the twisted sentence afterwards with no cause and effect, known as the ‘missing link’). It should read ‘To purchase time online with your credit card, just click the top button’.

Shame on you, expensive monopolistic Dutch phone company!

(Photo: Jeroen)

Yes, we know exactly what the poor ATM is trying to say and yes the ABN AMRO bank usually has a very colourful and well written four-language “this machine is out of order” message, which appeared later on that day. However, this must have been something special and so I caught just in time. For the record, it should be “temporarily” (adverb) and not “temporary” (adjective).

What surprises me is that this message appeared on an ATM in the district of Slotervaart in Amsterdam where about 60% of the residents are of foreign origin, many of which are quite old and either cannot read at all or do not function in Dutch, let alone English. The proof that there are senior citizens just around the corner is confirmed by an actual phone booth, most of which were removed throughout the country except in places with a high concentration of elderly people.

Of course, they get the message, so to speak, but I’m still surprised it was in some sort of English.

So for my Dutch friends who keep telling me they don’t know and myself, an adverb is a “bijwoord” and and adjective is a “bijvoeglijk naamwoord”.