Sure, I am Always Talkin’ Food, but I teach NT2 (Dutch as a second language) on the side. Mainly to young foreigners who came to Amsterdam for or with love and intend to stay. For privacy reasons the names in these columns are fictitious.
Dutch natives who speak their mother tongue with non-natives will find that the latter occasionally talk Dutch more correctly than they do.
Not only because few natives articulate as carefully, but also in terms of grammar.
Foreigners who have taken several Dutch language courses are familiar with grammatical phenomena that many a Dutchie has never heard of.
Plusquamperfectum, anyone?
Now, Dutch people apply most of the grammar just fine, simply because they grew up with the rules unconsciously from birth.
Trial and error and all.
But there are rules that many seldom adhere to. And I’m not talking about the -d's and -t's at the end of conjugated verbs, which even university students of Dutch do not know how to use correctly in their papers.
I am talking about, for instance, het glas champagne dat ik drink met Oud en Nieuw (the glass of champagne I drink on New Year’s Eve), as opposed to alles wat ik eet op het kerstdiner (all I eat at the Christmas dinner).
Dat versus wat. Definite versus indefinite.
It took my students a while to get this right, but now the dat and wat rule holds no secrets for them anymore.
As a rule, my most studious student Anvar from Uzbekistan approaches me before the start of each class with a language issue from his daily life in a Dutch office.
Tonight is no exception.
He shows me a screenshot of a commercial ad proclaiming: “Alles dat je nodig hebt!” (all you need!)
He is confused: ‘Surely it's alles wat?’
That’s correct. Such is the official rule, for sure.
‘Good of you, Anvar!’ I compliment him.
’Then why?’ he wants to know.
I answer with a Dutch saying: ’Je zal de Nederlanders de kost moeten geven die deze regel niet kennen.’ Which pretty much translates as: If you had to feed all Dutch people who don’t know this rule, you would need a whole lot of food.
This throws Anvar into an existential crisis.
’I study hard to speak Dutch as correctly as possible, because I want to be as Dutch as possible,’ he states. ‘But in fact, if I ever really want to sound like you lot, I have to make grammatical mistakes.’
He ponders.
‘How will I know which?’
Food lingo
Glass of champagne - het glas champagne
Scrambled eggs - het roerei
Oeuf mayo - het eitje-mayo
Mushroom - de paddenstoel
Alles wat je nodig hebt…
Monday morning Noordermarkt flea market on a crisp summer /autumn /winter /spring day. Make no mistake, it’s the best way to start a fresh week. Particularly sitting at the spotless white table linen from the pavement patio of Libertine Petit Café. People-watching while drinking your morning coffee. Or, on a festive occasion, while you feast on mushroom toast, scrambled eggs and - of course - oeufs mayo.
All you need…
Libertine Petit Café, Noordermarkt 4 Amsterdam. Check their website for opening hours.