One of my resolutions this year is to read a novel, cover-to-cover, in Dutch. I’m not much for watching TV, so this seems to be the best way to bring my language skills up to the next level. I decided to go with an American author that was translated into Dutch so that I would be familiar with the writing style and wouldn’t get tripped up by cultural differences in the approach to storytelling. I ended up paying dearly for the translation services-- the book cost a whopping 19 euros, but so far I have been very pleased with the results. With my trusty Dutch dictionary by my side, I am steadily working my way through the novel and learning all kinds of new words.
Dutch is not known for its brevity. They have a tendency to slam a bunch of different words into a single, monstrous linguistic amalgamation. It can be quite intimidating when you first encounter words like tweedehogewardwaarstraat, which is the name of a street (imagine putting that on every envelope you send) or stakingsverbodovereenkomst (non strike agreement). Then there are plenty of irrationally spelled words like angstschreeuwen (scream of terror) with its mind numbing eight consonants in a row! I dare you to use that word in a conversation without spitting on someone!
However, I’ve also been discovering some gems of words that cram a mouthful of meaning into a tight little package. My favorite so far – tevergeef. The meaning is simple enough – without success. But its usage is really compact, assisted by its placement in the sentence. You can simply say ‘Ik was tevergeef op zoek naar iets’, which would roughly translate into ‘I was looking for something but wasn’t able to find it.’ It's funny how I've hung onto that word and filed it away for just the right circumstance. Whenever I use it for the first time, whoever I'm speaking with is going to think I'm a nut because I'll be smiling ear-to-ear at having remembered the word and used it properly (I hope).
Its always the little things that keep life interesting and I’ve gotta say, as someone who barely paid attention to French classes in high school (or any classes for that matter) and then pissed away a great immersion opportunity for Spanish in college, I’m really enjoying learning a second language. It’s giving me a whole new perspective on how the world works.
