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We've narrowed down the nominees to three of our most popular articles over the last year. Vote for your favourite!We editors at Expatica love reading the blogs you expats write, and we get a real kick out of sharing them with the Expatica community. This week, we're celebrating our Blogs & Photos channel and would like to invite you to give our bloggers some special attention.
We've shortlisted the top three blog posts from Expatica Netherlands and would like you, the readers, to vote for your favourite. Read below for the top three posts from the Netherlands published within the last year, then vote for your favourite by CLICKING HERE.
Make sure to voice your opinion before midnight on 10 May 2011. Thanks and we look forward to finding out who your winners are. Now, let's get voting!
Taal tale
‘Spreekt u Nederlands'? Three years ago, when someone posed this question to me, I answered softly ‘een beetje'. Nandini Bedi tells her tale of language and learning Dutch in the Netherlands.
The ultimate ‘inburgering' tool: dog or kid?
Dog expert Laure-Anne Visele carries out a social experiment to find out whether dogs or babies are an advantage when attempting to integrate into the Netherlands. The result is surprising.
Bump and grind in the Netherlands: Two boobs and a blanket
It's count down for American-Irish blogger Traca de Broon whose blog, Bump and Grind, chronicles her dramatic life changes over this year, which includes a divorce, new relationship, first pregnancy, and adjusting to the Dutch healthcare system.
Dear Ms. Bedi,
Being a retired teacher of English myself (having taught for 35 years in a College and encountered first-hand our students’ unbridled linguistic freedom with English!), I found your “Taal Tale” immensely fascinating and pertinent. I remembered the case of a young Nigerian undergraduate who confidently declared at a conference in Jamaica some years ago: "the English I speak is standard to me"!
I was also involuntarily reminded of the Polish Conrad who, it appears was always confused between the use of “will” and “shall” but still confessed that had he not written in English he would not have written at all! Ultimately I suppose it is a creative use of language (any, for that matter) rather than a merely “correct” one that counts! (Remember the epigraph in Eliot’s Hollow Men, “Mista Kurtz – he dead”?!) Many of our Indian writers have so ably demonstrated it and thus enriched the English language through their original use.
I appreciate your concerns with language and culture to achieve total integration.
Best Wishes,
Ragini Ramachandra
Hello Ragini,
Thank you for your comment. It's heartning to hear from an English teacher that creativity with language scores over perfection! Having grown up as an upper class snob with my English speaking background in India, I was happy to see so many more people claim access to it in their own way in recent times. High time too. Here in the Netherlands, we do our best to talk in the language of the land. I think its better to commiunicate with mistakes rather than wait for my perfect Dutch to show up! All my Dutch friends and aquaintances understand me and sometimes we laugh together good heartedly at my clumsiness with the language. Best, Nandini
Dear Ms. Bedi,
Being a retired teacher of English myself (having taught for 35 years in a College and encountered first-hand our students’ unbridled linguistic freedom with English!), I found your “Taal Tale” immensely fascinating and pertinent. I remembered the case of a young Nigerian undergraduate who confidently declared at a conference in Jamaica some years ago: "the English I speak is standard to me"!
I was also involuntarily reminded of the Polish Conrad who, it appears was always confused between the use of “will” and “shall” but still confessed that had he not written in English he would not have written at all! Ultimately I suppose it is a creative use of language (any, for that matter) rather than a merely “correct” one that counts! (Remember the epigraph in Eliot’s Hollow Men, “Mista Kurtz – he dead”?!) Many of our Indian writers have so ably demonstrated it and thus enriched the English language through their original use.
I appreciate your concerns with language and culture to achieve total integration.
Best Wishes,
Ragini Ramachandra
Hello Ragini,
Thank you for your comment. It's heartning to hear from an English teacher that creativity with language scores over perfection! Having grown up as an upper class snob with my English speaking background in India, I was happy to see so many more people claim access to it in their own way in recent times. High time too. Here in the Netherlands, we do our best to talk in the language of the land. I think its better to commiunicate with mistakes rather than wait for my perfect Dutch to show up! All my Dutch friends and aquaintances understand me and sometimes we laugh together good heartedly at my clumsiness with the language. Best, Nandini
A guide to telephone, internet and television along with utility services water, electricity and gas in the Netherlands.
Lost in the Dutch immigration system? Look no further than this guide compiled for our Survival Guide 2012.
Expatica offers a whistle-stop tour of life in the modern Netherlands.
The challenges and benefits of the maternity system in the Netherlands and how it differs to other countries.
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