Re: Hello to you all!
| From: | Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, March 4, 2002, 10:28 |
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>Europeans who feel annoyed and tell you're too dumb to speak their
language so don't try anyway : Dutch.
I have not the impression, that this is a typical trait of the Dutch. On
the contrary, in my opinion the Dutch rather suffer from a certain type of
national minority complex. We believe, that our country is small and
insignificant. Why would a Dutch writer win a Nobel prize, would a Dutch
politician become secretary-general of the UNO, would a Dutch movie win an
Oscar...? Why would anyone want to learn our language? Why bother?
It's true, when a foreigner tries his best to say something in Dutch, many
Dutch people would brutally interrupt him and encourage him to continue in
English. I sincerily dislike this habit. But is has nothing to do with
arrogance; it's rather the opposite that is true.
Jan