Natural polyglot that I am, fluent in French, German and Polish, competent in Spanish and Italian, with holiday Arabic, Twi, Geordie and three words of an obscure language from the higher Atlas mountains which is written in hieroglyphs, I have however met my match with Phlegmish. I am told it is basically Dutch with more spitting and hoiking. Occasionally Phlegmish is very similar to English -- for instance, “thank you” in Phlegmish is “Dank U”. Occasionally it isn’t: the Phlegmish for sweetshop is “snoepgoedwinkel”. Which I think is pronounced Rumpelstiltskin.
Sometimes the place names are self explanatory. There is a square in Antwerp called Oude Vaart Plats – and in summer you will see the oude vaarts sitting on the terrace of a café, sipping their half en half. But I never know where to look when I go through a certain Brussels metro station (contain yourselves, please).
However, now I have finished my German refresher, I am thinking about taking up Flemish properly. Pardon me while I clear my throat ...
12 comments:
i have, on more than one occasion heard dutch being described as "flemish, only they speak as if they have a mouth full of crisps".
flemish is much more fun than dutch.
I have to go through Wet Twat every day - oh the joy of living in Bruxelles. I know exactly where to look, down, so many people on and off changing lines - sorry mother fooker, I'm not moving ;-)
veel geluk ermee (:
persistence is key - the more you attempt to speak flemish, the less they will be inclined to speak to you in it, and the more they will complain that nobody makes an effort to do so...
before i am spat upon, i should add that i am a phlegm fan
Pah! I did think about learning Flemish instead of French. I think I could get my mouth round the words better. Then I realised working and living in the South it wouldn't serve me. Much.
Z, try to say Teffeh (Apple in Algerian) with a mouthful of couscous! An old childhood trick!
Daphnée, yo soy très impressioné by your polyglotismo! But why German?
And I bet you can swear in Kabyle!
oh cream, i can do those gutteral sounds, but sans bouche-pleine, or whatever.
i used to get off at 'wet twat' (oh, ha ha) for YEARS, but for the past 18 months have decided that the stop before was nearer the new office ...
change subject quick.
hercé, i hear you man! i tried calling electrabel for 3 days in a row but kept getting told to call back later as all the lines were occupied. so on the fourth day i thought merde to this, and called the flemish line to electrabel, asked, in flemish, if they spoke english or frog and of course! they speaky english.
the lovely person solved my problem like this: very quickly - and with a charming, eeengleeeesh accent. i tried - that person did better.
i can't decide which is worse - electrabel or belgacom!
currently belgacom are threatening to cut off the adsl line, not because i haven't paid for it but because it is not my name on the bill and they need to get permission from my lovely girlfriend (she has not been at home on any of the occasions they have called). now i admit freely that she takes the majority of the decisions chez nous, but the internet, that is me. belgacom won't listen to my explanations about how the chores are divvied up domestically. in any language ):
Oude vartes gave me a much needed chuckle. Ta! And now mycomment has been rejected. Bah!
I've also been thinking about taking up Flemish properly because it is as useful as French here in Belgium but it is such an unattractive language, finding motivation is rather hard.
Daphne, would that be on Saturday mornings as well? Meantime, have a look here, and don't contain yourselves anymore, download the logiciel and start refreshing, spitting and getting... all wet! That logiciel is highly recommended, I refreshed my nederlands thanks to it and sucessfully passed an exam at selor last year. Now I ought to go for a higher level, if only I wasn't that phlegmish about it...
Ik hou van het Vlaamse taal.
Not very romantic, but i mean it from the heart.
marianne, ik ook - or summat like that, not that i can really speak the language at all ....
Hey, who're you calling Oude? I'm only thirty.nine.teen.
Post a Comment