Dutch Class

…is my pick from the NRC Handelsblad website for today (see article). Recently I feel like doing it too.

“Toeteren” in this context means honking the car horn. Honking in protest against a proposed raise in fuel tax in the context of rapidly rising diesel prices which will swell the government coffers anyway.

As part of this protest all protesters honked their horn three times today at 11:45. Part of the reason I mention this on Dutch Class is because of the cutesy Dutch colloquialism in the slogan the organisers of this protest came up with.

De maat is vol, de tank is leeg! Toeter voor lagere dieselaccijns!

Literally this translates to: “The measure is full, the tank is empty! Honk for lower fuel tax!”. Now though the meaning is clear enough this isn’t really very natural English and the pun also doesn’t quite work.

Can anyone come up with a better translation?

The NRC Handelsblad today reports that the Dutch Children’s channel Nickelodeon is switching off between 1pm and 5pm to coincide with the national play in the street day organised by Veilig Verkeer Nederland (the Dutch road traffic safety association).

On national play in the street day many streets are closed off to make them safe for children to play in. At the same time many parents will be drawing attention to child (play) safety issues by walking around with placards and handing out leaflets.

Ik houd van fietsen. Ik fiets twee maal per week. Het fietspad is mooi.

Er zijn veel standbeelden op het fietspad. Deze drie standbeelen zijn mijn favoriete standbeelden op het fietspad.

Ik fiets ook in the stad maar het fietpad is het beste. Fietsen verveelt me nooit.

Woordenlijst

In case you would like to print this posting we have made it available to download easily. Just click here: Print the page “Op het fietspad”.

I just tried typing “learn Dutch” and “learning Dutch” as search terms in YouTube. Some of the results are a bit mischievous and they occasionally tend to misrepresent the words they are teaching you to say…

The two girls in this video seem pretty straightforward though. Also the video ends by showing a pair of painted clogs. What more (other than a windmill) could you ask for?

Ik koop mijn vruchten op de markt. Ik geniet van de frisse lucht en van de leuke marktkraampjes. Ik geniet van ook de zon op het plein.

Op de markt koop ik appels, sinasappels, peren, aardbeien, braambessen, en diverse groentes. Ik houd van vruchten en ik houd van groente. Beiden zijn lekker.

Woordenlijst

In case you would like to print this posting we have made it available to download easily. Just click here: Print the page “Waar Koopt U Vruchten ?”.

One Dutch learning site I like a lot is the ‘Dutch word of the day‘ blog. This blog contains some good descriptions of Dutch words and colloquialisms.

Many of these descriptions go well beyond what you would find in the average dictionary and they clearly explain how and in which context these words and expressions are used in every day Dutch.

In this first post I would like to attend the Dutch learners to a recent gem of Dutch TV. You will be able to find it quite easily by searching for “vegan streaker” on YouTube. One example can be found here.

Have a look. See if you can figure out what is going on in this very Dutch tableau.

To help you along the gentleman in the Mickey Mouse sweatshirt who is presenting the show is Paul de Leeuw, the Dutch equivalent of Graham Norton in so far as there is such a thing. The skinnier and skimpily dressed gentleman who, without invitation, runs on stage advertises himself as the Vegan Streaker except of course he isn’t streaking and Paul de Leeuw isn’t having it…