Speak Dutch To Me
Stuart
Stuart is an accident prone Englishman who has been living in the Netherlands since 2001. Even his move to the country was an unintentional accident, the result of replying to a cryptic job advertisement he found one day in a local British magazine. Since then he has learned to love the Dutch (so much so that he married one of them) and now calls the country home. He started the blog Invading Holland in 2006 as a place to share his strange stories of language misunderstandings, cultural confusions and his own accident prone nature.
On the other hand, when you exhaust your Dutch and they insist on speaking Dutch just to be obnoxious … yeah, there’s one store I don’t plan on going in again if at all possible.
Totally, totally, totally agree! Especially if it is followed by rude looks and super fast Dutch with a thousand questions in an attempt to trip you up and prove that you actually don’t know Dutch. *shakes fist at mean Dudok girl*
LMAO, sorry this is too much :’-). I understand your frustration. Even in Dutch it is sometimes, even for a nederlander, difficult to get a tasje….
Alison – Which store have you had that with?
Heather – I sense some past trauma with cafe staff here.
AstridQK – They can be tricky things.
hahaha oh been there! I just don’t care anymore, if they want to speak English I’ll just speak English, they can’t say I didn’t try!
Breigh – I must admit that I do the same :p
So Mr. British with his monocle is shouting at innocent cashiers now? You’re learning how to be Dutch more and more aren’t you? ;-)
I quite like this comic-like format. More would be appreciated, but don’t stop writing regular blogposts! :-)
I thought that Dutch for “bag” was “zakje?” Is it a synonym?
Wezz6400 – Thank you. It’s something I’m thinking about doing more often but I’ll still be keeping up the writing as well so fear not.
French Bean – Although zakje is the far sexy-er word it actually means a bag with out handles were as a bag with handels is a tasje. Not as sexy I agree but grammatically correct in this situation.
Thank goodness for Google translate
I feel your pain! I have given up conveniently since I left NL :)
Okay then. If you don’t like the cashier helping you by speaking your native English I will ask: Spaart u ook zegeltjes? Bonuskaart of airmiles? Wilt u extra geld opnemen? Een tasje kost 35 cent. Houdoe, houdoe, houdoe
(Ja, houdoe) :P
PS. Love the cartoon.. except:
-2.55 for a carton of milk, vla or something? No way!
-Where’s the rolling thing??
-Why are the other characters all white___
– ____and French (bottle of wine and a baguette)???
-What’s up with the cashiers fingers?!?! Three fingers over the counter.. It’s very uncomfortable exluding the thumb and pinkie like that!
((written and hopefully read in good humor))
Ohhhh, okay. That makes sense when I think of the bags used in the fruit and vegetable aisle, particularly for the “champignons.”
I sympathize with Dragonlady. :)
Dragonlady – I might start using it in supermarkets.
Thamarai – that’s a good thing. I think you would get strange looks if you tried to talk Dutch to shop assistants outside Holland :p
Suus – Nee, Ik heb geen zegeltjes. Nee dank u. Ik wil neit extra geld un ik heb alleen 30 cents.
– I took a 50% sticker off another product and put it on the milk. You rumbled me.
– This supermarket uses a moving belt just below the surface (I was lazy).
– I guess this says something about me that I didn’t realize.
– Did you notice my suggestion that the old man and the young woman are going to have a romantic night together?
– She broke her fingers (I only ever draw three fingers).
(All taken in very good humour :)
French Bean – Sometimes when we are in the supermarket I’ll just randomly say to my wife, “I thought it was a bannanaaaaaaaa!”
I always get tripped up by the thirty different ways they ask me if I want a bag. Just when I think I have it covered, they will say something random and I’m left staring and saying huh? Then of course they switch to English and I’m mortified as they were only asking me if I wanted a bloody bag!
But in all seriousness, my experiences have been far more in line with Alison and Heather’s than anything else. Sigh.