Archive for August, 2014
Rainy Days Make me Want to Bake Posted by Karoly Molina on Aug 27, 2014
Summer seems to be over in the Netherlands. Most days have been bewolkt and the sun only makes short appearances. The temperatures have also cooled down and an umbrella is a must in my purse. These days have brought out the inner bakker in me. Perhaps its because I’ve been drinking more tea to stay…
5W Questions Posted by Karoly Molina on Aug 25, 2014
Asking a question is an important part of communicating. Questions are the means to how we get more information and help us understand our surroundings. This is why learning how to phrase questions in our target language is very important. We can ask for directions, for clarification, for explanation and for reasons. In the U.S…
Lost & Found: A meteorite? Posted by Sten on Aug 23, 2014
What happened? Last Monday night, some burglars seemed to be quite confused. They stole a very important meteoriet (meteorite) from the Dutch sterrenwacht (observatory) and museum Sonnenborgh, which was found in 1925. However, they did not seem to know that the brandkast (safe) they stole contained the 2-inch stone. The museum director Bas Nugteren said they were looking for money…
The G in Groningen is for Gezelligheid Posted by Karoly Molina on Aug 21, 2014
On Sunday, Riccardo and I headed to Groningen. Although it was a very short trip, I was very excited to go to the northern most tip of the Netherlands. It took us almost three hours to get there, and we enjoyed a typical Dutch country scenery of bomen, boerderijen, koeien mixed with regen and wolken…
Inversie – Inversion in Dutch Posted by Sten on Aug 20, 2014
Inversie is used frequently in the Dutch language, and in many situations. What is inversie? Inversie, or inversion in English, means that you switch the verb and the subject in a sentence. For example: hij geeft hem een appel becomes hem geeft hij een appel, or hij kan heel goed praten met mij becomes praten kan hij heel goed met mij. Even though this may be tough, it…
Campaigns in NL 1 – De scholen zijn weer begonnen! Posted by Sten on Aug 19, 2014
This new series of posts, called “Campaigns Made in NL” is about campaigns and advertisements in the Netherlands that are so ingeburgerd (integrated in society) that everybody knows them. Some led to new verbs and other idioms. This week: schools started again! The campaign From now on, street corners are filled with signs, banners are spanned across…
Better than Yes or No Posted by Karoly Molina on Aug 13, 2014
When we speak in our native language, we tend to have a better variety of ways to answer simple yes or no questions. In English, you can use sure, of course, I’d love to, etc. to express yes and absolutely no, no way, I’d rather die, etc. to say no. These varieties help us get…