Archive for October, 2011
Ik Hou van Holland – I Love Holland Posted by heather on Oct 27, 2011
Ik hou van Holland (I love Holland) – whenever I hear or see that phrase it makes me think of the Dutch game show with the same name. The show, hosted by Linda de Mol, is on the tv channel RTL4 and tests “famous” Dutch people on their knowledge of the Netherlands. Two teams, lead…
How to Pronounce Diphthongs and Vowel Combinations in Dutch Posted by heather on Oct 26, 2011
If you want to make yourself understood in a foreign language or really sound like a native speaker, then spending some time practising pronunciation is going to be a key factor for you. In Dutch many of the sounds are quite similar to their English counterparts, although not all, and it is in the diphthongs…
Dat ik altijd huiswerk heb Posted by Elena on Oct 25, 2011
I continue to think that music is a good way of starting to understand a language. It takes work, but parsing the lines to a simple song can be a fun way to get into some new, perhaps offbeat, vocabulary. Sometimes songs are a good window into nonsense words, or idiomatic facets of language that…
Water Taxi: Fun Transport in Rotterdam Posted by heather on Oct 23, 2011
This weekend I had my first opportunity to ride on the water taxi in Rotterdam. I had seen these blue boats with yellow roofs buzzing across the water plenty of times but had never ridden on one myself. It was fantastic! Not only was it loads of fun but it was really convenient as well. …
My Favourite Word in Dutch Posted by heather on Oct 15, 2011
Everyone has a favourite word in the foreign language that they are learning. For some people it is the first word that they learned. For others it is that one word that makes you laugh each and every time you hear it or it is the word that you struggled over and over to learn. …
Meneer Kaktus: Do you get it?? Posted by Elena on Oct 13, 2011
When I was younger, and my family moved from the Netherlands to the US, my Dutch grandmother often sent me VHS tapes of my favorite Dutch television shows so that I could watch them in New York. Those of you who were children in the Netherlands between 1986 and 1993 will remember Meneer Kaktus, a…
Get Dragged into the Action of the Netherlands Film Festival Posted by heather on Oct 4, 2011
The Netherlands Film Festival 2011, a yearly event that allows the public and the industry to come together and concentrate on Dutch cinema, has just recently come to a close. I haven’t seen the figures for 2011 yet but in 2010, 382 films were screened, 154,000 people attended and 3 million people viewed the online…