Taal vitaal

This means: Essential Language. I told you in my last post that I picked up a book about potatoes when last in the Photoshop centre. It was not the only one I took home. How about this? I was very surprised to see it and thought about Jan and Arancha who live in the land of this language. In fact, Dutch is Jan's sixth language.

Don't ask me how he does it. He goes to lessons once a week provided by his company and said it is not hard to learn. He added that it is close to German. When I looked at this book I had to agree. When I visit friends in the Netherlands I am able to understand what they are talking about although I can't speak the language. The sounds made are close to German.

Let's just look at the first chapter in the book. It is about meeting/greeting people. The title is Dag! In German this is Tag as in Guten Tag. Then we find, Goedmorgen = Guten Morgen/ Goedemiddag = Guten Mittag/ Goedenavond = Guten Abend/ Goedenacht = Guten Nacht.

When we move to the very basic we find the verb zijn. In German this is sein. Say both out loud and they sound almost the same. We then find ik ben/ German = ich bin, je/jij bent and this is a mixture of English you + German bist. 3rd person singular is a great mix of English and German. Look at this: hij/ze/zij/het + is. This sounds like English he/she/it plus is. Moving to plural we find the same mix: we/wij zijn = we sind(are), jullie zijn = you sind(are), ze/zij zijn = they sind(are).

I think I'll find a Dutch/Netherland for beginner course. It certainly looks easier than Spanish! I'll explore the course book tomorrow and learn more when I am traveling to Hönow to visit Oldie H for coffee and cakes. I still have his netbook. He doesn't know what to so with it and neither do I !