Tips for driving across Europe 1235It's really very easy driving on the right hand side. You'll be amazed how easy it is. A few gotchas: 1. It is very easy to forget when leaving petrol stations and car parks. Get...
BrianW
Not really, but since there's no equivalent (that I know of) in English I'll let this one slide. The closest resemblance I can come up is the sound that occurs when you switch from the u to the i in Buick.
Well, from when in Flanders was your Flemish acquaintance? There are huge differences in pronunciation in both the Netherlands and Flanders.
Well, the ones that might think that would usualy be Dutch from provinces of North- and South-Holland. They (I'm generalizing of course) think all Dutch not spoken in those 2 provinces is "bad Dutch". They not only have an atbreastude toward Flemings, but also to Dutch from Noord-Brabant, Dutch-Limburg, Groningen, Friesland, ...)
Road rage bus driver caught on camera! 1239Brimstone Oh absolutely - I like the thinking. Unfortunately, for the general public, you can't demand it - merely encourage it. However, for a "professional" in a service industry, that's...
(And personally, I think all northern Dutch sounds nasty, but so does most of all southern Dutch (Flemish). Limburgs is an exception, it has a nice southern drawl to it. Very relaxed and no phlegm to be found.)
On top of that comes the fact that Flanders (and the Flemish dialects) is actually the older of the 2 cultures. Modern Dutch (which, if the term is used correctly and in its original form - Diets, is not a language but a collection of languages and dialects of the Low Countries) started taking form through the influences of first the Countship of Flanders (now spread out over Zeeuws-Vlaanderen (NL), Oost- & West-Vlaanderen (B) and Nord-Pas de Calais-French Flanders (F)), then the Duchy of Brabant (considered part of the southern Netherlands (the ancient region, not the country, now spread out over the Nl, Flanders and Wallonia) and only then the Countship of Holland (now Noord- and Zuid-Holland). The infleunce of the south (now Flanders, Vlaams-Brabant, Antwerpen, Brussel (in those days still primarily Flemish) and Limburg) and its languages only diminished when the Spanish inquisition forced many Flemish and other southern intellectuals, artists and merchants to flee to the northern provinces (more like city-states, there was no country of the Nl of Belgium). The first writings in what we now call Diets (Dutch - Old Netherlandic) were by Flemings. The first Dutch bibles in the north were mostly translated by southern Nl (Flemings) when they fled the Spanish, so the northern Dutch learned to read using southern texts. The Dutch national anthem is written by a Fleming. The first newspaper as we know it was printed in Antwerp. Many of the northern princes were Flemish. Etc... I'm just saying. There's is no "bad Dutch", since it's not a single language but a collection. We certainly don't scrape out throats like an Arab infant choking on sand, that's typically northern Dutch trait.
spoken in Flanders)
OT: There's only 4 camera speedtraps in Wallonia and about 500 in Flanders.
Yes, I'm Flemish. Round up the usual stereotypes.
