Re: CHAT: Need a word for these!

Christophe Grandsire wrote:

> But as usual (and quite annoyingly so :)) ), the Dutch are right:
Not surprisingly, the Dutch do not mind rubbing that fact into the face of
everybody on our planet. That's why our country is such a popular place to
visit. It is also why we think everybody elses system is wrong: the Taliban
are anti-social because they give people no freedom, Americans are
anti-social, because people have so much freedom that they don't care about
other people, the French are stuck up and listen only to themselves, the
English are afraid of changes, Germans.... wel we cannot fogive them that
stupid war 60 years ago, Italians are fascists and opportunists, Africans
are lazy, Asians are indistinguishable (who can see the difference between
one Chinese guy and the next?) and Australians, the one group which did not
get much bad publicity until recently, are cruel isolationists who put young
children in concentration camps.

We are the perfect nation. It's no wonder that we have an average population
density of 420 people per square kilometer... Everybody wants to be like us
and live here!!! Even the French (pun definitely intended) come to live
here!

Or maybe, just maybe, we are self-centered, egocentric, blinkered
know-it-alls with too much self-esteem. Naahhh.... I don't think so :-)

> The method I followed to learn Dutch is based on phonology and vocabulary
> before grammar. Result: after one month of study I can handle already
simple
> situations, and quite a few conversations. And even if I'm not good enough
to
> participate much, I understand nearly everything!
Grammar, in my view, is the icing on the cake of a language. With correctly
pronounced words, most of the meaning of what is spoken is logically
implied. If I give you a few words like "child", "dead", "driver", "car",
"intoxicated" and "to hit", you need no grammar to have a strong idea what I
am talking about. Grammar is only needed to erase possible ambiguities.

Maarten

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