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Why do Dutch and Scandinavians speak English so well?
'"Take this Quote from President Eisenhower for example: “May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion”
or this one from Edward R. Murrow" “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.”" Wow.
<<As you know, the Dutch are fantastic English speakers - English is virtually a second Language in their country anyway, and when I said that to British ears Dutch comes across as being harsh and guttural I was stating a fact...it plainly does, but no way is that demeaning or degrading the Dutch Language at all...you were being a wee bit sensitive there! >>
Maybe, but you make the mistake of assuming that the Dutch give a shit about whether the harshness of their language offends ignorant foreigners. What next? You will be claiming that they speak English because it hurts their throats to speak Dutch! Lol! And the stereotype was that Americans were the stupid ones!
There's nothing to discuss. They get English TV, and so they are used to it. Hence the huge difference between the English of the Dutch and the Germans who don't get English language TV. No mystery!
-There's nothing to discuss. They get English TV, and so they are used to it. Hence the huge difference between the English of the Dutch and the Germans who don't get English language TV. No mystery! -
Yup. When I lived in Germany, I hated everything being dubbed, from Santa Barbara soap opera to sitcoms like the Nanny. It was awful...
Europe swings to the right in the EU Parliamentary Elections.....the Left wing parties trounced more or less across the board, and in the UK the extreme right wing British National Party gains two seats - one in Lancashire and the other in Yorkshire, areas with high concentrations of non-white ethnic groups, mostly Asians. Sadly the BNP bars all membership to non-white people in practice.....they claim that to be not the case, but I defy anyone with a non-white face to apply to become a fully paid up member of the british National Party.
The UK ruling Labour Party has seen a huge decline in support in these European elections, and for the first time since 1918 the Conservatives have become the dominant party in Wales, formerly a stronghold for the Labour party. In South Eastern, Eastern and South Western England the Conservatives now rule the roost, so to speak, and Labour is in meltdown. Scotland and Northern Ireland will decalre their results today. The flatness of the Netherlands is in sharp contrast to the terrain we are familar with back home up there in Scotland....there is no part of Scotland you can call really flat, unlike much of Eastern England and East Anglia which very much resembles the Netherlands....in the Fen country of Eastern England - South Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and West Norfolk - you can virtually see a molehill on the horizon, and with huge fields of multi-coloured tulips, windmills and dykes and canals all over the place....you'd think you were in the Netherlands instead of England. In fact, the area of South Lincolnshire, table top flat, is officially called Holland.
Thank goodness for the BNP! I am so happy today! A great day for Europe!
«Damian London SW15 Sun Jun 07, 2009 1:15 pm GMT
Anyway, listen to some musical Dutch and you can make your own minds up whether or not it sounds a wee bit harsh to a native English speaker, although having said that I have to admit that some British regional accents are pretty dreich - not naming any specifically here except to say that Scouse and Glaswegian spring to mind here. I liked the shot of the Alkmaar cheese market I mentioned earlier in the YT clip, but I must say that one of the other shots looks suspiciously like the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin! Someone please enlighten me here....is it that building shown really in the Netherlands? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x8nUlrMyr0&NR=1» At 1:07 is the Brandenburger Tor. Apparently it's Dutch cheese advertised in Germany for Germans.
<<you can make your own minds up whether or not it sounds a wee bit harsh to a native English speaker>>
It does sound a bit guttural, but not nearly as bad as Hebrew.
Hey people!
I'd like to react to something you guys were talking about. Apparently Damian in Edinburgh and several others were discussing the contents of a Youtube clip called Bristolian News... I am Daan van Stiphout, and I am one of it's creators:P It's funny how you were discussing if me and my friend were either Scandinavian, German or Dutch... I hereby confirm that all of us are Dutch. I'd like to add that that we weren't anywhere near Amsterdam (Not all of the Netherlands is our bloody overrated capital!), we filmed it in a Bristol store in Tilburg, in one the southern provinces called Brabant. I just thought I'd reply to all this, it's funny to have people from all over the world talk about an insignificant student project... it's one step toward fame:P
Hello, Daan.....or should I address you by your title? Who dubbed you btw?
Thanks for all the information after all this time....I thought it was funny....I'm referring to your YT clip and not your info...I know where Tilburg is, btw. I went through the real Bristol today...well, passing through the city's northern outskirts really on my way back to London from an assignment in Chepstow, just over the Severn Estuary Bridge on the Welsh side.....England is on the other....on this side. Please explain to me just why your chain of stores in the Netherlands has the same name as an English city? If you want to pronounce the name Bristol the same way as the native Bristolians do then you will have to say something like "Bristow" from what I've been able to make out after listening to some of them talking about their home city. It's weird really - they seem to omit voicing the L when it really is at the end of a word, but tack it on when it doesn't and when word ends with a vowel! They don't take pics with a camera they take them with a cameral. I hope you and your mates enjoy your fame.
it's one step toward fame:P
Why would you want fame? Not me. Money, yes. Fame , not so much. When everyone knows you, there is no peace.
I could not find the Bristolian News but I did find...
Terry's Bristolian language lessons http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhgUeY1BExk Is this really worth listening to?
I have found this advert which is pretty wierd.
Bristol - Switching Heads - NL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr8Jjiw6w2Q 'Bristol: change instantly from head to toe' |