This week my latest book Nederlands is zooo makkelijk | Dutch is sooo easy will hit the Dutch and Belgian bookstores.
A collection of around 50 columns that originated on this very Substack page, with the first one published in June 2022.
Substack was so to speak barren land in the Netherlands then, while now it is filled with shiny high rises all around.
But in a small outpost of the platform you still find my humble abode, that I gladly share with people of 44 different nationalities (and counting) from all over the world.
For years I had only written and talked to audiences about food and food trends, using the name Talkin’ Food, when suddenly I felt I had said and written it all.
No more Talkin’ Food for me.
Since writing is who I am, I started a quest for a new subject, while all the time it was staring me right in the face.
Teaching Dutch as a second language to people from all over the world has brought me much joy and many insights. It broadened letterlijk my horizon. All the precious moments during night class begged to be shared and preserved in some way.
So I opened a Substack account, when hardly anyone in the Netherlands had even heard of it yet, and with no clue whatsoever where this would take me.
Certainly not that it would lead me to publish my fifth book—the first that is not about food trends.
But here it is.
Unique about the book is the fact that, unlike this page, it is written in two languages (EN/NL), which makes it accessible to students of Dutch as a second language (NT2), Dutch-born and foreign language speakers alike.
The main characters in these tales come to Amsterdam from Uzbekistan to Colombia for all sorts of reasons. They have one thing in common: they want to speak Dutch like the Dutch. Make jokes. Help their (future) children with homework. And chat with Dutch friends in de kroeg.
They come to me and I write about my adventures with them.*
This results in sometimes touching, often hilarious, but always engaging stories about learning the language and culture of my country, drawing on the unexpected insights of them, my students.
Why do the Dutch always say, ‘act normal!’? And what is the very first app non-natives download on their smartphones when entering the country (even before Tinder)?
Count on me to spill the tea, topped with some indispensable Dutch lingo.
Nederlands is zoo makkelijk | Dutch is sooo easy: the Dutch language and culture through the eyes of non-native speakers. And for Dutch natives, a fresh look at their own language and customs.
* I am a writer, not a court clerk. Any resemblance to real persons living or dead is letterlijk purely coincidental.
Marjan Ippel, Nederlands is zooo makkelijk | Dutch is sooo easy, Talkin’ Lingo, ISBN 9789491086021, € 19,50 (only in the Netherlands and Belgium).
Order the book here, or ask for it at your local Dutch/Belgian bookstore.
Indispensable lingo
Letterlijk - literally: literally. Currently the most abused word by the Dutch Gen Z, akin to the abuse of ‘like’ in English
De kroeg/het café - bar/pub/café
Doe normaal - act normal
