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What Food The Dutch Take On Holiday Posted by Sten on Jul 22, 2019
It’s vakantietijd (holiday time)! Time to get your Caravan (caravan, trailer), get your vakantiekaas (holiday cheese) and off you go to Southern France. But what do you take with you? Ik ga op reis en ik neem mee… You know about traffic games. In the Netherlands, we usually do them in files (traffic jams), and…
How Nouns In Dutch Are Falling Apart Posted by Sten on Jul 15, 2019
Samenstellingen (compounded nouns) are a fun thing in the Dutch language. There are some fun challenges I remember from my childhood where we would make very long samenstellingen that you could basically make endless, even if nonsensical: hottentottententententoonstelling (Hottentot hut exposition) or fietsventieldopjesfabrikantenvereniging (bicycle valve cap factory association). But that is tame in comparison to some made up at this…
Baarle – One of the strangest municipalities on Earth Posted by Sten on Jul 8, 2019
If you dare to look closely at the map of Belgium, you find something weird: There is a little small bit in the north of the country that is surrounded by Dutch land, with no territory connecting it to Belgium! And it gets even more complicated… How did this exclave (or, enclave for the Netherlands)…
Curious Words in Dutch 3: Bellen Posted by Sten on Jul 1, 2019
There are many strange words in a language. Words that are just not used much, words that are pronounced in a weird way… Just words that have something curious about them! And those are the ones we look at in this series. Today, we look at bellen. Previous posts in this series: Curious Words In…
Maarten van der Weijden Swam 3 Days Straight For Cancer Research Posted by Sten on Jun 27, 2019
Friday, June 21, 2019, 5:30 pm. Maarten van der Weijden jumps into water in Leeuwarden. With a steady borstcrawl (front crawl), he makes it in the evening to Sneek, the first stop of the eleven cities he is going to get to. Wait, eleven cities? What was this guy up to? Let’s find out. Swimming the…
This Plan Is Fighting The Heat In The Netherlands Posted by Sten on Jun 25, 2019
The past few days, The Netherlands have seen incredibly high temperatures, reaching almost 40°C (100°F)! Today, it was the hottest June 25 ever recorded in the country. Bridges were kept cool with water for the fear of their metal parts expanding and the bridges no longer opening. The Heat Is On This week is seeing…
Dutch Word of the Month June: Verjaardag Posted by Sten on Jun 17, 2019
In this blog series, we choose a Dutch word of the monthit deeWe may tie the word to current events, or just choose one as we see fit. If you have nominations for Word of the Month, please leave them in the comments, and we will consider them. The Word of the Month of June…