Sure, I am Always Talkin’ Food, but I teach NT2 (Dutch as a second language) on the side. Mainly to young internationals who came to Amsterdam for or with love and intend to stay. For privacy reasons the names in these columns are fictitious.
It's a part of the Dutch language course that I myself don't see much use for: Dutch sayings and proverbs. In my humble opinion most are rather outdated. Hardly anyone under 50 uses them or knows their meaning.
So why teach them?
‘De baby met het badwater weggooien’? (Throw out the baby with the bathwater: discarding the good with the bad)
‘Met de deur in huis vallen’? (Fall into the house with the door: get straight to the point)
‘Kleine potjes hebben grote oren’? (Little pots have big ears: kids hear everything, so beware what you say)
Ask the average Dutch person what these mean and they will look at you ‘alsof ze water zien branden’. (as if they see water burning: dumbstruck).
What does it add to my students’ active language knowledge to know them? Better spend the precious time on topical issues and terms.
Is what I’m thinking.
My students think very differently, though. They love games and also consider learning proverbs a game. When I ask them at the end of our course about the favourite thing they learned, nearly all come up with a Dutch saying: ‘Iemand blij maken met een dode mus,’ Maria answers with a big smile. (Making someone happy with a dead sparrow)
Few Dutchies will understand this, but my students know that it means promising something good that turns out to be worthless.
Admittedly, guessing what a proverb means, is a good and fun language exercise.
Provided it is done in Dutch.
Finding out what ‘iets onder de knie hebben’ means, is therefore this last lesson’s quest. After a few guesses and prompts, my students understand that it means to master something.
’But where does this saying come from,’ Maria asks.
I haven’t got the faintest.
Leonardo, an urban planner from Puglia, Italy, does have an idea: ‘The Netherlands has always fought against water and looked incessantly for solutions to hold back the water on land,’ he starts explaining in Dutch. ‘Water that reaches above the knee means you cannot wade through it. If you can bring it below the knee, you are in control. You’re the master.’
I believe I see water burning.
Food lingo
Dish - het gerecht
Appetiser - het voorgerecht
Broad bean - de tuinboon
Chicory - de andijvie
Small ears
I like it when a restaurant specialises in a few dishes, or even one dish. In Asia it’s basically the standard, not so in Europe.
Santi e Santini in the Amsterdam Jordaan district specialises in dishes from the very southern Italian province of Puglia. More specific, it specialises in orecchiette (a Puglian pasta type called ‘small ears’ because of their ear-like shape). As an appetiser, the restaurant serves another fave Puglian specialty: fave e cicorie, broad beans puree and chicory.
Santi e Santini, Hazenstraat 64 Amsterdam. Open: Wed-Sat 5 PM-10:30 PM; Sun 12 noon-9:30 PM.