{"id":5793,"date":"2018-09-05T18:00:30","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T18:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=5793"},"modified":"2018-09-05T18:00:30","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T18:00:30","slug":"5-useful-dutch-phrases-to-stand-up-for-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/5-useful-dutch-phrases-to-stand-up-for-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Useful Dutch Phrases to Stand Up for Yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve all gone through the awful experience of someone being rude to us, and for some reason, we choke up on what to say. Later on, we torture ourselves with all we could have said. When you live (or visit) in a foreign language, these episodes can be more common. What do you say to the rude person who just pushed you on the train? How do you tell the store clerk her comment is out of line? What is the best way to tell your friends or colleagues that you don’t appreciate their bad jokes?<\/p>\n

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Photo taken by Mindaugas Danys found on Flickr.com with license CC BY 2.0<\/p><\/div>\n

The following list is just to give you an idea of what you can say. There will be differences in tone and personality and you can make them your own. You can also enhance them with some swear words from this post<\/a>\u00a0and this post<\/a>.\u00a0 From experience, I find that having these phrases in the back of your mind will allow you to stand up for yourself as well as to put your Dutch to good use!<\/p>\n

Kom op, man! Doe normaal!<\/h3>\n

Doe normaal<\/em> is one of the Dutch phrases I enjoy most. This is certainly a polite way to tell someone their behavior is rude…so not normal. You can also just say the\u00a0doe normaal<\/em> or stress how not normal this is by saying\u00a0dit is echt niet normaal!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Bemoei je met je eigen zaken!<\/h3>\n

This statement is also not so rude and literally means “mind your own business.” While the meaning might be nicer, remember that most of the time, these things are all about attitude and tone.<\/p>\n

Hou je kop!<\/h3>\n

Another way to express yourself is to say\u00a0hou je\u00a0kop\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0hou je bek.\u00a0<\/em>This is something like “shut your mouth” although the first version literally refers to one’s head.\u00a0Bek<\/em> means beak. This is less polite than the previous version and gets your point across.<\/p>\n

Rot op! or Pleur Op!<\/h3>\n

A degree worse than the previous two would be\u00a0rot op<\/em> or\u00a0pleur op<\/em>. Rot<\/em> literally means to rot, but in this context is equivalent to “go fuck yourself.”\u00a0Pleur<\/em> is stronger than rot. There is a famous instance of Premier Rutte using this term in an interview, and this caused an uproar. Other politicians argued that he could have expressed himself in another way, but Rutte did not retract his comments. I do not want to get into the debate of whether he was right or wrong to use the word (if you are interested, check the original interview here<\/a> and a debate on the\u00a0tweede kamer<\/em> here<\/a>). What I did find that is very useful for this post is several ways to say\u00a0pleur\u00a0op<\/em> and good replacements for this phrase all given to us by the good people at the\u00a0tweede kamer!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n