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Game of Thrones and Language Development Posted by Sten on Apr 14, 2014
I bet you have heard of Game of Thrones – the HBO Series that became so popular. I am again and again stunned by the great performance of the actors in it. And their accents. It is interesting that in certain American series all actors speak another accent, mostly the English one. That is also…
April Fools!!! – But why? Posted by Sten on Apr 1, 2014
Op 1 april verloor Alva zijn bril – with this phrase, the watergeuzen made fun of general Alva of Spain when they took his city Den Briel (therefore zijn bril) on April 1, 1572. Watergeuzen are what you could call “Water Beggars”. “Water”, because they came by their ships in the North Sea. They basically were Dutch civilians fighting…
Grondwet Festival – 200 years Posted by Sten on Mar 30, 2014
Yesterday, it was the Grondwet Festival (The (Dutch) Constitution Festival), because on March 29, it existed exactly 200 years. In 1814, 474 vooraanstaande Nederlanders (prominent Dutch citizens) were invited for the Vergadering der Notabelen (Congress of Notables) where they were to accept the draft for the Grondwet. After singing the Wilhelmus, the Dutch National Anthem, they voted in favor with an overwhelming majority of…
Indispensible – treinen! Posted by Sten on Mar 23, 2014
I think it is time for me to clear some things up about traveling in Dutch treinen (trains, singular trein). In everyday speech, the Dutch also introduced the verb treinen (literally ‘training’) to describe traveling by train. So just the word treinen can mean trains or ‘training’/traveling by train. To describe how treinen usually…
An important day in the Netherlands – time to go vote! Posted by Sten on Mar 19, 2014
Today, March 19, the gemeenteraadsverkiezingen (municipal, or local elections) are held in the Netherlands. They are more important than ever this year, because the gemeenten(municipalities) have more competencies than ever. For example, now they also take on the gezondheidszorg (health care), which is a big issue for the Dutch. However, the kiezersopkomst (voter turn-out) is likely to…
The Big Advantage Of Dutch Students – Only Dutch? Posted by Sten on Feb 26, 2014
Last year in June, the European Commission sued the Netherlands for its policy on the OV Chipkaart. If you wondered, OV stands for Openbaar Vervoer (Public Transportation). The Netherlands have agreed to the Verdrag van Maastricht (The Maastricht Treaty, or Treaty on the European Union (TEU)) of 1992. In this Treaty, which is binding, the Netherlands is obliged to remove barriers…
Was minister Plasterk ousted for his words about the NSA? Posted by Sten on Feb 13, 2014
The NSA is present in the media today more than ever – in both senses. This also hit the Netherlands. In October last year, the agency was alleged through information provided by Edward Snowden of tapping metadata (so information about which phone calls which phone) of 1.8 million telefoontjes (phone calls). As well as in other countries, the…