Hehe, I’m married to a Dutch woman. I’m am American of non-European descent, for context.
I speak Gujarati and Spanish and a smidge of Hindi and Japanese, other than English. She speaks Dutch, Danish, German, and English.
When I moved to the Netherlands, I told her “We both know something about languages. I have to say this: speaking Dutch is like speaking German while spitting out your teeth after someone punched you in the mouth.”
She answered back, and I’m paraphrasing, “Tja, het is wel toepasselijk dat “Dutch Directness” het eerste is wat jij onder de knie hebt, jij Amerikaanse betweter.”
“Schat, dat is wel het meest diplomatieke wat ik vandaag had kunnen zeggen, gezien de daden van de VOC in het land van mijn voorouders.”
Hehe, I’m married to a Dutch woman. I’m am American of non-European descent, for context.
I speak Gujarati and Spanish and a smidge of Hindi and Japanese, other than English. She speaks Dutch, Danish, German, and English.
When I moved to the Netherlands, I told her “We both know something about languages. I have to say this: speaking Dutch is like speaking German while spitting out your teeth after someone punched you in the mouth.”
She answered back, and I’m paraphrasing, “Tja, het is wel toepasselijk dat “Dutch Directness” het eerste is wat jij onder de knie hebt, jij Amerikaanse betweter.”
“Schat, dat is wel het meest diplomatieke wat ik vandaag had kunnen zeggen, gezien de daden van de VOC in het land van mijn voorouders.”
“Touché!”
“Jazeker!”