Explaining away Dunglish and getting tangled up

Many Dutch people make fun of the sensation seeking De Telegraaf newspaper because of the quality of its reporting, as compared to other Dutch newspapers. In an attempt to teach its audience something, this article tries to pass off Dunglish as proper English and makes a mess of it. I was so happy to read that Dutch people noticed it too. Journalists are supposed to check their facts and their references.
The mistake was simple “where abouts do you live?” and not “about”. Not a huge deal, but it should ideally be “where are you currently staying/residing?”. The article not only mucks up the English, but the comments also point out that the Dutch explanation is wrong as well.
And then it gets worse because “where abouts do you live?” does not mean the same thing as “where are you currently staying?”, which is the point the author tried to make in the first place. The author assumes that living and staying somewhere mean the same thing, which could even explain why Rasmussen might have got it wrong. And ‘to add more salt on the snail’ as they say in Dutch, the explanation of whereabouts is wrong as well.
Tags: De Telegraaf, newspaper article, Rasmussen
January 4th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Hum, this thing got me so confused that I have to stop now and look for my (ongeveer?) whereabouts.
January 8th, 2008 at 9:19 am
To put salt on a snail; to add salt to a snail?
Just a thought 😉
January 8th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Not to a live one 🙂
January 9th, 2008 at 8:36 am
If you add too much salt to a snail you could end up being an ant f*cker.
January 14th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Oh, don’t blame Bart Veldkamp, he’s Belgian. 😉
January 16th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
And to add a little salt on another snail: Rasmussen may be an athlete, he is not an atleet. In Dutch this is someone who takes part in athletics.
January 18th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
‘to add more salt on the snail’ is niet alleen Dunglish, maar ook een contaminatie van ‘op alle slakken zout leggen’ en ‘meer zout in de wond strooien’. Dat laatste zal Natashka bedoeld hebben. ‘To straw more salt in the wound’ lijkt me de correcte Dunglish uitdrukking.
January 18th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Goed gezien 🙂
May 24th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Bart Veldkamp is not a journalist, so that might give him some credit. Still, the editor could have paid more attention.