Adventures in Dutch.

When I went back home to Australia for Christmas, a few of my friends asked what it was like living in a country where I couldn't speak the main language, Dutch. In answering, I was quite taken aback by how difficult it was for me to articulate my language experiences in The Netherlands...but I'm going to try.

The Netherlands is a pretty great place to live if you're a native English speaker. Despite their mother tongue being Dutch, most Dutch people speak English, so it's easy to ask them to switch over for you. And for the most part they're pretty happy to do it, if only to help them practice their (mostly flawless) English.

But there's a downside to this - asking a Dutch person to speak English to me isn't going to help me learn Dutch. This is my only complaint about living here (that and the fact that Dutchies still haven't mastered the art of picking up dog poo). I've been here for almost two years (cumulatively) and I've only just managed to learn how to order a coffee confidently. Considering I was almost conversationally fluent in Spanish after two weeks in Cuba, that is pretty poor form.

Whenever I travel back to London, or any other English-speaking country, I almost always get a piercing headache just going through the airport. At first I thought it was because of tiredness, or stale plane air. But the more it happened, the more I realised that I had a tension headache from being utterly and completely aware of my surroundings.

I didn't realise this until recently, but in The Netherlands, my brain selects when it will comprehend communication. For example, when I'm at the supermarket paying for groceries, it will hear when the cashier says 'bonnetje?', which means 'receipt?', to which I reply, 'nee, dank je wel', or 'ja, graag'. Once the transaction is over, my brain switches off. Likewise, I don't passively eavesdrop in restaurants because what's the point? I'm not going to understand anyway. But when the waiter comes and tells us the specials in Dutch, I automatically ask him/her to 'spreekt engels alstublieft?' because there's no way I can understand what they're saying in Dutch (even though I can read a menu in Dutch - I don't find spoken Dutch to be phonetic at all, even though it apparently is - I think those guttural 'g's' really trip me up).

So when I'm back in London, I suddenly get a headache because I'm completely aware of all the communications happening around me - I can read newspaper headlines, advertisements, eavesdrop on conversations...it's everywhere. In the Netherlands, I think allowed the part of my brain that subconsciously absorbs this indirect communication to atrophy.

Now that I have Dutch flatmates, my Dutch has improved considerably. I read to them in Dutch and I've been taught new words. Most impressively, I've begun to drop some words that don't have English translations into English sentences. Words like 'gezellig' (kind of like 'cozy with friends') and 'bagagedrager' (the bag carrier on the back of a bike). Sometimes I say a word starting with a 'g' and I make that hacking sound that the Dutch do, instead pronouncing it the way it should be. I've been told that I've picked up an impressive Amsterdammer accent when I do attempt to speak Dutch in public.

I'm taking Dutch classes soon, which I'm excited about. It's about time I started taking this language seriously. Tot ziens!