I never intended Lupey Loops to be multi-lingual, but participation by bloggers from all over the world is the beautiful nature of the blogosphere.This week I must thank Belgian blogger Anne Vandekerckhove from Anne's Crochet Palace blog who loves her cats and loves to crochet toy cats and cat toys amongst many other amazing things.
She has nominated me for another Liebster Award which is very kind
–thank you Anne!
I don't think one is supposed to receive more than one Liebster Award, but this nomination is from Belgium where the first languages are Flemish, Dutch and French and then I think everyone learns English in school too. Consequently, Anne's Liebster questions are in Dutch too.
My Dutch language skills are very rusty - I rarely hear conversational Dutch and don't get to use it much in my everyday life. I never had formal learning of Dutch grammar etc. only what I heard as I was growing up in my extended family who hail from the Netherlands. It's been 35 years since I visited Holland so I am keen to do whatever I can to hang onto the Dutch language that I have left.
Blog reading has helped a lot, particularly reading everybody's comments. Catching up on the modern slang is interesting too. It is fascinating that Dutch is often a very formal language compared to Australian, especially in the written word, yet the written word on blogs is quite the opposite - very informal and friendly.
These are the cultural aspects that one cannot learn from books, but only from experience and immersing oneself in the country and the culture.
I wonder whether I will ever get to fulfil my dream of taking my children to the Netherlands to show them where their ancestors came from and to hear the music of the Dutch language.
Every language has its own 'music'. Even within English dialects, the Australian language has a very different 'melody' to British English and American English. It wasn't obvious to me until I began listening to podcasts from different parts of the world. While we can all understand each other's variations of English, there is a special comfort to hear one's own accent and the familiar rise and fall of the 'music' in each sentence.
ANYWAY! I was getting distracted from the main point of this post and that is:
Even if I am only supposed to accept one Liebster Award, I am going to accept Anne's nomination anyway because it is a great opportunity to challenge myself and scrub up on my Dutch by answering her Dutch questions with Dutch answers (and if you are worried that you won't understand my Liebster answers, I will provide an Australian translation afterwards).
I hope that Anne and her Liebster followers will help to correct my spelling and grammar which I anticipate will need a lot of work.
Please, Anne, will you do that for me?
<Jodie asks with a polite and friendly but desperately pleading smile!>
It will take a bit of work to prepare my Dutch Liebster answers so it might take a little while before I post them and collate a new list of Liebster-deserving blogs.
That's all for now because I have to dash off and buy a new Dutch dictionary!
Keep smiling! xxx
Links
Anne's Crochet Palace, blog [Belgium]: http://annescrochetpalace.blogspot.com.au
Anne's Crochet Palace, "Genomineerd voor de Liebtser Award" ("Nominated for the Liebster Award"), blog entry [Dutch], 16 March 2015: http://annescrochetpalace.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/genomineerd-voor-de-liebser-award.html
Explains the Liebster Award in Dutch.
De Liebster Award in het Nederlandse taal verklaren.
Lupey Loops, "Liebster Blog Award", blog entry [Australian], 21 November 2014: http://lupeyloops.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/liebster-blog-award.html
Explains the Liebster Award in English.
De Liebster Award in het Engels verklaren.
Congrats for this award even if there's this langage barrier.So see you soon for your answers ... Have a nice day !
ReplyDeleteThank you Géraldine! I will do my best to get through that barrier this year. :-)
DeleteMy English isn’t perfect either. Sow I don’t care that you make mistakes. You don’t have a lot of people in other country’s, who tries to speak Dutch.
ReplyDeleteThat’s the reason I waited to nominate you because I wasn’t sure you could speak Dutch, but you answered on my blog in Dutch. So that was enough for me.
Thank you Anne! It takes a lot of time and effort but I am sure it will become easier with practice. As long as we can make ourselves understood, that is the main aim.
DeleteDank je wel Anne! Het heeft veel tijd en poging nodig maar ik ben seker dat het makkelijker zal zijn als ik zich oefenen.
So there you go - a very complex sentence and I have no idea if I have the grammar correct! Let me know if it makes no sense at all. hehehe
Maar dan kan jy ook Afrikaans verstaan... ;-)
ReplyDeleteJa, dat is waar. I was surprised at how easy it was to understand when I first came across it and it is interesting to read the differences between Afrikaans and Dutch whether it be in spelling or usage. I suppose it is like Australian English differs from the British English - we colonials in the southern hemisphere have our own versions! ;-)
DeleteCongrats on your award. x
ReplyDeleteThank you Suzy, and thank you also for saying hello. It's nice to see you here. :-)
DeleteIf anyone deserves two, it is you!
ReplyDeleteAw! You are making me blush, Mary-Anne! :-)
DeleteThat is fantastic! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cheryl, but now I have to re-tune my brain properly and answer all those questions in Dutch! hehehe Gotta revitalise the skills somehow! ;-) Plus, how many blogs do we miss out on because of a language difference? It is convenient to know another language, even if it is a bit scratchy at the moment. I hope this message finds you happy and well. xxx
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