the netherlands, part 2: on dutch, english, etc.

I knew beforehand, of course, that almost everyone in the Netherlands speaks English. Still, I couldn't help but be astounded at just how good their English is. Case in point: there were at least two people that, had I met them randomly in some non-Netherlands environment, I would have thought they were native speakers of English. You just don't find Americans who reach that level of fluency in a foreign language. It's true, of course, that I was mostly exposed to well-educated people, but still.

But it's not just English! My friend, Marike, for instance, speaks Dutch, French (both natively), English, German, and Italian. And she knows Latin. And she marveled at how many languages one of her friends, Thijs (a prize if you pronounce it right), speaks. You do the math.

Even though all but one person that I talked to while I was there spoke English well(the exception was someone's younger brother whose English was still far better than my Dutch), I couldn't help but feel presumptuous and somehow rude in just speaking English with them. There's likely some unproductive guilt going on with that, something along the lines of "I'm a boorish, uneducated American and hate it." And it's certainly not as if there was an alternative... my Dutch is limited to a vocabulary under ten words. But, coupled with my general reluctance to initiate conversations, my hesitance to start discussions with people skyrocketed. Once we got talking, though, all was well.

Anyway, I really like the idea of knowing the language of a place where I'm visiting; you're missing huge chunks of the culture without it. So now, after the fact, I have a desire to learn Dutch. But hey, I'm going to go back at some point, right? So it makes some sense...

Speaking of my Dutch vocabulary, here it is...
ik - I
denk - think
[these two I got from a poster of Descartes hanging in the bathroom; I forget the rest of it]
ben - am
doei - bye
dank U - thank you
dank U wel - thank you very much
dag - have a good day
hallo - [you can figure this one out]
ja - yes

I'm not even sure if all that's right, or if I've spelled any of it the right way.

While we're at it, some of my favorite Dutch idioms:
met de klompen op het ijs komen - (lit. go on the ice with wooden shoes) butt in
op je klompen aanvoelen - (lit. feel it with your clogs) be obvious
je kunt niet over twee sloten tegelijk springen - (lit. you can't jump over two ditches at once) you can't have your cake and eat it too
water naar de zee dragen - (lit. carry water to the sea) do unnecessary work
ga fietsen stelen op de Dam - (lit. go steal bikes at Dam Square) drop dead

And my favorite Dutch idiom...
op een oude fiets moet je het leren (lit. you have to learn it on an old bike) [refers to a boy having his first sexual encounter with an older woman)

(idioms taken from The UnDutchables by Colin White and Laurie Boucke)