Dutch Class

All you Dutch practicers may want to have a peek at the website for a Dutch secondary school. The school we picked is the one that one of our friends went to: the “Aloysius College” in Den Haag (The Hague). Have a look at the fairly comprehensive website.

For some hard core Dutch practice have a go at reading the school rules. Our friend says that there is a fair chance that the pupils do actually follow these especially as these rules apparently don’t exclude nipping out to the chip shop opposite the school for lunch!

Note golden rule #5 in the list of rules:

“Op school spreken we alleen Nederlands. We vinden het belangrijk dat iedereen elkaar begrijpt, maar dan moeten we elkaar wel kunnen verstaan! Als je het leuk vindt, mag je wel de talen spreken die in de lessen worden geleerd.”

The second sentence is a relatively rare example of a Dutch pun based on the fact that in Dutch the verb for to understand (as in to comprehend facts, ideas and concepts) is begrijpen while the verb verstaan means means to understand in the sense of being able to hear and interpret what the speaker was saying.