I spent some time in Belgium recently. It struck me that I stood out there as being from Not Here. I like to travel a little more incognito (despite the fact that Americans are received so well as the polite and quiet tourists that we are), so I thought it would be worth figuring out how I could go more native next time around.
I think I've nailed down a couple of things about the natives that made me stand out: eyeglasses and language.
Eyeglasses: Everyone seemed to wear the same type of glasses: narrow, rectangular frames.
Language: Being American, I'm restricted by U.S. law from knowing any languages besides English, but I took note of the types of sounds and syllables they use here. Here are some samples:
- "keivoos" (very bad),
- "keimottig" (very ugly)
- "Grote Markt" (haven't a clue what this means)
- "sneeuwwit" (Snow White)
and of course who could forget:
- "Wie got er mee ne frit steken?" (want to go get some fries with me?).
Also, when I went to a restaurant there, the waiter asked me to "Please shit down". Then my friend swore that a shop lady finished a transaction by telling him nicely "Bling blang". Clearly, faking this language will take some work, but I think it's worth the effort.
Here is my proposed disguise for any future trips to this area:
8 comments:
is it that easy to disguise ourself as Belgian? :)
btw what's those word mean in dutch?
Grote markt translated litterly into English means 'Grand market' but i think 'town square' is the closest real translation. In most of the major city's in Belgium we have a open space (these days mostly surrounded by pubs) where in the old days the weekly market would be set up. Hence the name 'Grote markt'. Now we just go there to get a drink. :-)
Anyway, i enjoyed the talk you and Romain had at the conference. And didn't mind it being in English.
Altough i would have loved it if you did it in dutch...
'vuile rijke cliënten'
Thanks for the translation, although I have to admit I love the way the words read regardless of what they actually mean.
Sorry for my English presentation constraint. I have a feeling your English is way better than my Dutch will ever be (you've seen my attempts so far on this blog; I think I have a ways to go). But maybe I can at least get some Belgian eyeglasses for next year...
Actually, etymologically "Great Market" would be the closest translation ("Grote" and "Great" actually resemble eachother) with "great" only in the meaning of "big".
And given this obvious display of Belgium/Dutch eloquence you will often find a church near the market called "Grote Kerk" (yes, you guessed it "Big Church").
Actually, what was most noticeable in the Grote Markt was not the Grote Kerk, but rather the Grote Frit ("Great fries") and the Grote Beer ("Great Beer"). Nobody was paying much attention to the church or the market...
"Wie got er mee ne frit steken?" by the way is typical Belgium-Dutch. We (Dutch people) don't do steken, we do eten. And then there is the 'ne', which how you'd pronounce it I guess. In any case, that's not how you'd write it. The correct (written) version would be:
"Wie gaat er mee een frietje steken?" (Belgium-Dutch) and
"Wie gaat er mee een frietje eten?"
Anyway, on to the positive side of things: I think you've pretty learned about every sentence you need to know to find your way around Belgium! I hope you enjoyed.
p.s. I hope I haven't triggered the life-lasting Dutch-Belgium war on your blog (we say Belgians are stupid, they say we are cheeseheads).
Well, we, French people, say Belgian are stupid and don't even think about Dutch people. Believe me, we are way nastier than you guys :)
Hey Alef 'ne friet steken' is actually what they say over here, Chet got that one right. You pronounce it with a suppresed U i think 'nu' (i don't know phonetic writing sorry). Anyway Chet didn't just settle for the regular Flemish, he took the next step and learned the Antwerp accent. We don't say 'keivoos' in the rest of the country, but we understand what they mean.
And Romain, don't get me started about the French speaking part of Belgium :-)
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