Can it, or can it not?
In this instalment I would like to write about making Dutch sentences out of English words.
When you learn a foreign language, it is not easy to quickly master the grammar. A lot of Denglish (English spoken by the Dutch) is caused by the fact that the Dutch tend to translate their thoughts into English word for word. Like: That can well and this is not to do. In reality they are talking Dutch, but they are replacing the Dutch words by English ones. Sometimes this is quite possible, but often this is not completely right and more often even downright wrong. I will give you some examples of the latter, including what should have been said:
- You are not good snick! (Instead of: You’re off your rocker!)
- I can see it totally in front of me (I can imagine it perfectly)
- Let’s go on step (Let’s go out)
- I have you through (I’m on to you)
- With that all that does not play (That isn’t an issue here)
- Just say it out of your head (Just speak at lib. Or: Just improvise)
- I will leave it by this (I’ll leave it at that)
- So can it not longer (Things can’t go on like this)
- We are a whole end (We’re well on our way)
- Good so! (Alright!)
So do the Dutch really speak such good English? Forget it but! Because both languages are close relatives of each other, Dutch people quickly grab the Dutch grammatics if they speak English. Like: make it a little or: it is me what. So: can it, or can it not?
woensdag 24 december 2008, 16:37 uur
Dear Mr. Rijkers:
Having had similar experiences trying to translate English literally into Spanish (I call it “Spanglish), I thought you might enjoy reading my essay below. Feel free to use it on your “Denglish” site if you find it appropriate.
Sorry to submit it this way, but I could not find other links or e-mail addresses.
Ik spreek Nederlands ook (maar niet zo goed meer), en vertaal artikels Nederlands-Engels–ook van de Handelsblad.
I am retired U.S. Air Force officer who loves to write (and translate).
Sincerely,
(Mr.) Dorian de Wind
Austin, Texas
WHAT LANGUAGE DO YOU DREAM IN?
It doesn’t happen that often any more, but there are still times when my English-born wife gently—sometimes not so gently—awakens me in the middle of the night to tell me that I have been talking in my sleep again in Spanish.
Invariably, she will ask me in the morning what I was talking about. Invariably, my answer is that I don’t remember, which most of the time is the truth. Needless to say, at my age of 68 she need not worry—not even about my dreams.
Dreaming in Spanish is sadly one of the last remaining vestiges that Spanish was once my native language, my mother tongue. Just as sad, the last time I was truly fluent in any language was 58 years ago, when I was 10 years.
That is not to say that I am not proficient in English or in other languages. It is just that I am shamefully rusty at my native language; that I am no longer fluent in my first acquired language, Dutch; and that if you listen closely and read carefully, you will detect a slight accent in my spoken English or may notice some unusual constructs in my writings.
Some will say that this is a small price to pay for speaking several languages. Perhaps. But, when it comes to languages I feel like an orphan. Let me explain.
When I was 10, living in my native Ecuador, I spoke Spanish with the fluency that any 10-year-old has in his or her mother tongue. Spanish was the only language I spoke, with the exception of a couple of English and Dutch words I picked up from my Dutch father.
These were words and phrases the meaning of which I did not necessarily know at the tine, such as “Such is life,” which my father mused when he got into a philosophical mood, or the Dutch “verdomme!” (damn!) on other less philosophical occasions.
It was at that young age that we moved to Curaçao, in the Netherlands Antilles. Living in a Dutch “company town” and attending a Dutch school, my sister and I became fluent in Dutch in less than a year.
After four years of “total immersion” in Dutch, and after picking up some “choice” words in the local Papiamento (a delightful language derived mainly from Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, and West African languages), our family moved to the Netherlands, where I finished high school.
By then, my acquired Dutch was already better than my native Spanish. Since Dutch is hardly a universal language, Dutch high school students receive two to four years of solid education in English, German, French and/or Spanish. Having two languages under my belt and with four years of studying other languages, the reader will ask, what is the problem? Well, I am not finished yet.
After graduating from high school, I immigrated to the United States and joined the U.S. Air Force a year later. The military must have been desperate for new recruits, because my English at the time was, at best, “broken.” Amazingly, and much to my delight, my first assignment was as an “airborne radio operator,” flying radar patrol missions over the North Atlantic. One of my most important tasks was to communicate, by voice radio, essential military and flight information to ground-based units. Since the ground radio operators could barely understand my thick accent, I soon became the best Morse code radio operator in the U.S. Air Force!
Because I virtually stopped learning Spanish at the tender age of 10, my Spanish vocabulary does not include adult—“X-rated”—verbiage. This made for some very awkward situations during my early years in the military, when I gravitated to groups of Latino troops and could not understand half of their very “folkloric” conversations.
Today, I find that this particular folkloric gap in my Spanish is no longer such a big problem, but I am still paying for having lost command of the Spanish language. For example, when I am at a loss for a word in Spanish, I often resort to “Hispanicizing” an English word. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t.
During my last trip to Ecuador, I had to laugh aloud when I read in a local newspaper that an American Airlines flight had been forced to make an emergency landing in Miami with 25 Ecuadoreans on board “con intoxicación.”
When I showed my relatives the headlines and explained that I visualized the pilot requesting an emergency landing because he had 25 drunken Ecuadoreans on board, it was their turn to laugh.
They explained to me that the Ecuadoreans were not intoxicated, but rather suffered from food poisoning. When I then told them that I was “muy embarazado” for my poor Spanish, they did not know whether to laugh or to cry at the news that I was very pregnant—especially since they had always considered me to be quite an upright, male member of the family.
Nevertheless, my orphan days in language land may be coming to an end. One of the most promising signs that English may be finally becoming my new “mother tongue” is that I now think that I think in English—except for when I “lose it” in stress situations and blurt out to my grandson “¡Cuidado!” (Watch out!) or my PG-13 “¡Caramba!” and everyone stares at me.
Now, if I just could stop speaking Spanish in my sleep
woensdag 24 december 2008, 16:48 uur
Once again, you undermine the whole point of your blog by NOT WRITING IDIOMATIC ENGLISH. English speakers do NOT say “Just speak at [sic] lib.” It’s “speaking Dutch,” not “talking Dutch.” And “grammatics” is not a word. Good lord. Get a grip here.
vrijdag 26 december 2008, 02:36 uur
I am from Suriname and the dutch we learned in Suriname was certainly not the dutch spoken in Amsterdam. Now after living 25 years in Canada and the USA I am also re-learning english from my children.
donderdag 8 januari 2009, 04:55 uur
I fully agree with JDS (second comment above ) who speaks about “writing idiomatic English”
It s maybe a selffulfilling prophecy ,but constantly reading so called “proper English in for example your favourite newspaper can help you getting used to,shaping, your new daily spoken language.
The writing press can have an example role there
I do also recognize the fact that thinking in your new language and no longer thinking in your previous language can help you a lot like mr Dorian de Windt said.
donderdag 8 januari 2009, 09:45 uur
The saddest thing about all the NRC so-called blogs is that the bloggers themselves never respond to any of the posts. Do they even read them? or more importantly, should we bother to make these comments simply for ourselves.
Mr. Rijken will continue to make fun of his fellow Dutch and their idiotic rather than idiomatic English, while littering his blog posts with that same rather odd English he seems to despise. And he will continue to call it Denglish, rather than the far better Dunglish – Du(tch-E)nglish.
I say leave him to it. He seems happy enough with himself.
maandag 12 januari 2009, 18:05 uur
JDS you should just chill out for a second. I think that mr rijkens has a very entertaining blog. Recently I have heard an interview in which he was very amusing! JDS you take this blog way to serious. It is almost as if you fell on your behindhead
vrijdag 16 januari 2009, 12:42 uur
Dutch people could really improve their irritating English pronunciation by 1) not saying such a thick “S” it sounds like “sh” and 2) not saying an “F” sound when “v” is intended. 3) getting the vowel in “up” right it’s a neutral sound not a rounded sound, not like a German o with umlaut.
This is not rocket science is it?
woensdag 28 januari 2009, 15:46 uur
hen, do you speak more than one language?
and do you speak them both perfectly?
people will always have an accent when they learn another language, deal with it!
You cannot blame the dutch for having an accent when
speaking english.
It’s not like native english speakers do not
have an accent when they speak dutch.
vrijdag 30 januari 2009, 08:03 uur
Hen, good grief, I have lived in Australia for almost 50 years – speak English almost exclusively, and still have a Dutch accent. But. I have you all through, you are holding me for mad aren’t you?
woensdag 4 februari 2009, 20:39 uur
Great site, glad I found it, love your books. Ignore the critics, a native Dutch speaker is bound to make mistakes and a native English speaker runs the risk of his limitations in Dutch being criticized. I think your analysis “the Dutch tend to translate their thoughts into English word for word”, as you say is absolutely correct. The “good” thing is they claim it English/Denglish – I write Dinglish, it’s more phonetic)as their own – the “bad” thing is they don’t realize how often they sound silly rather than funny – at least to native English speakers.
dinsdag 10 februari 2009, 16:44 uur
I am an American and am living in The Netherlands now for the past 12 years. A few years ago during a visit with family back in the US my mother commented that she was glad to have me “home” but I sure did speak funny. Needless to say that has stuck with me. Mixing Dutch and English with non-native English speakers has its consequences but I have no plan to leave this great little country.
zaterdag 14 februari 2009, 22:21 uur
Christopher Davies said:
Wednesday 4 February 2009, 20:39
Great site, glad I found it, love your books. Ignore the critics, a native Dutch speaker is bound to make mistakes and a native English speaker runs the risk of his limitations in Dutch being criticized.
Spot on. Great site, and yes, English speakers are bound to make mistakes in any foreign language as well. How about “Ich bin ein Berliner”, meaning “I’m a custard Doughnut” instead of Ich bin Berliner.
zondag 15 februari 2009, 18:54 uur
My girlfriend is Dutch and I’m italian and we commonly use English…but sometimes (not so often, thank God) we don’t understand each other because she speaks denglish and me italish :0 LOL
btw I have to point out how i speak italian, english, french, spanish and a little bit of dutch (in a funny way, but still i do it)+ latin
My english collegues just speak english…that’s it. Some of them, despite they live in Amsterdam since a while, they don’t speak a word of dutch.
dinsdag 7 april 2009, 10:58 uur
Whenever I hear most dutch people (most) speak English I 1st cringe and 2nd move to a place where their conversation becomes inaudible to me. This can be annoying trying to watch the NOS news when for example JP (minister president – head of state) speaks. I constantly have to try to avoid hearing anything he utters. Same goes for correspondents abroad. I liked P Fortuijn, however I would have been extremely embarrassed if he had become minister president with such an abhorrent command of English.
Most nuances used in English are completely lost on 98% of Dutch people, sarcasm aswel.
woensdag 8 april 2009, 13:18 uur
I agree with M Kraak. Having lived in the Netherlands for 36 years I am still amazed how many Dutch think they speak and can write good English. I work for a large Dutch engineering consultants and my world at work is Dutch. I am often asked by colleagues, these are mainly HBOers and WOers ,would I quickly check something they had written in English. Inevitably it ends up that I have to do the translation. Now I say please give the piece in Dutch it is much quicker.
By the way great site and I have enjoyed reading all the articles and comments.
zaterdag 11 april 2009, 22:14 uur
First of all, what an interesting website and article.
Mr Rijkens, I think you are wrong to disparage Denglish. As a native speaker of English-English, I am constantly reminded that there is little world-wide accepted idiomatic English. Irish-English, Canadian-English, Australian-English, Jamaican-English all contain rather charming local idioms and phrases that identify the user to one geography or another.
Does it matter? Not at all.
I would hate to think of my language as a rigid, codified and exclusive. A language needs to have both local variation and ‘room for manoeuvre’ to survive. I would rather hear new phrases and words (even if they are slightly confusing), coming into the language than expend huge effort to keep them out as another European language seems to do.
English is a dynamic and diversified language, as I constantly reminded when I travel to other parts of my own country, which is it’s strength and resilience.
As my German father-in-law observed “English is easy to speak badly, dificult to speak well, impossible to speak perfectly.”
I am also acutely aware that I have no more than six words of Dutch, whereas you have a rather greater grasp of my language.
Regards
David Roberts
donderdag 23 april 2009, 18:55 uur
I speak Polish as my first language and sentences translated directly from Polish to English tend to sound even funnier because we have latin-based grammar, which means that Poles often have trouble putting words in a correct order.
Example (from my trip to Italy, Polish guide trying to explain in English that Italians make a lot of gestures when they talk): Italian people use a lot of hands….
maandag 11 mei 2009, 16:08 uur
But seriously. I hate to brag & tend not to talk about it with my dutch peoplez but my English is so very American (tinge of southern drawl) that 100% of Americans simply assume my nationality (they’re wrong). When I was younger I watched lots of US TV series like A-Team, knight rider, battlestar galactica, Dallas, dynasty etc. Getting to about puberty I started not noticing missing subtitles (the sentence is correct).
Dreaming in English started during my extended stay in the US. Now I dream in the language of the country the dream takes place in (just 2).
Bilingual dreaming??? I guess so!
For what it’s worth, it is useful knowing several languages because through the ages languages have intermingled so I can derive from several languages to come to a best guess of what a word in for example Spanish would be.
For me: Dutch/English/French/German/Spanish.
*Not related to language quirks but funny anywho, the meteorologist for NOS news stated right after a story about mastodonts & woolly rhinos last week that extinctions are only temporary. I could not believe he did not apologise or correct this stance.
donderdag 10 september 2009, 06:07 uur
Having lived in New Zealand for quite some time now, overheard a Dutch man talking Denglish to his friends. One sentence that really caught my attention was
“That is not normal more.”
I thought it was brilliant.
Cheers
Anita
woensdag 2 december 2009, 21:52 uur
And I nearly shat myself laughing watching some poker game on TV, when an excessively exuberant player (Hevad Khan) was told “Do normal, man!” by a typically burly Dutch player. The expression is a common dutch colloquialism mostly used in Noord-Holland : “Doe normaal, man!”, particularly pleasing to the ear when done with an Amsterdam accent.
donderdag 31 december 2009, 20:24 uur
I did a little song in “Denglish”, “The yellow from egg”, by Son of a Beach. Maybe you have fun with it!
http://www.myspace.com/hilmarschoenewolf
donderdag 23 december 2010, 13:18 uur
ah..there’s the monkey coming out of the sleeve