Writing a letter in Dutch Posted by Transparent Language on Feb 20, 2009
Even in this current computer age, lot’s of letters are still written on paper… Either handwritten or printed. Professional letters, personal letters… letters all over the world still manage to find their way. So, I would like to give you a little information on what to pay attention to when writing a letter in Dutch…
Accents again Posted by Transparent Language on Feb 15, 2009
First of all, thank you readers for your comments… haha, as you noticed my English isn’t exactly flawless, but I will try to keep the mistakes at a minimum! The one big problem I seem to be having writing the blog, is to come up with potentially interesting stories… because I’m native Dutch, I find…
Omdat and doordat Posted by Transparent Language on Feb 5, 2009
In Dutch we have two words we can use in a sentence, to explain something, or give a reason. Two words that both mean ‘because’. These two words are not synonyms, they are both used in different cases. The best way to explain this, is by giving a few small examples. Okay, a really simple…
Swimming lessons Posted by Transparent Language on Jan 25, 2009
Today, a topic about ‘zwemles’ (swimming lessons) in the Netherlands and why it’s so important. The Netherlands is one of the countries with the highest percentage of people who can swim. Since years and years and years, parents bring their young children to swimming lessons so they can learn how to swim. What I can…
Feeling the language Posted by Transparent Language on Jan 15, 2009
Like every other language, in Dutch you can say the same thing in many different ways. None is necessarily wrong (unless you break all grammar and spelling rules of course) but one or a few are always better. With this topic, I’m hoping to encourage you to think outside the box. Think past all the…
To have forgotten times two. Posted by Transparent Language on Jan 10, 2009
You might think to yourself… What a strange title! To have forgotten times two? What could/ should you expect of a topic with that kind of title? Well, this morning I remembered a fall out I once had with a former colleague of mine. To explain, I will tell you something about the work I…
Pregnancy and child birth Posted by Transparent Language on Jan 5, 2009
I just realized there’s a topic I would really like to discuss. I’ve seen countless movies and TV shows in which a pregnant woman goes into labor, is driven to a hospital at break neck speed (think ‘Nine months’) and delivers the baby in just an hour later or so. And the delivering mother of…