Today’s writing prompt is Graceful.
Ha-ha-ha!
If there’s ever a word that describes what I am not most completely, it’s graceful. I’m the epitome of the proverbial bull in a china shop. More like a stumbling drunk bull in the British Museum’s Asia section. Watch out folks, here she comes. Hide your valuables! Continue reading
Posted in Emigration / Immigration, Language, Psychology, Society, Writing Prompt Responses
Tagged clothing, compliments, emigration, etiquette, grace, graceful, immigration, language, make-up, Opinion, psychology, society, writing prompt
Image: addictinginfo.org
Donald Trump is worried that the mediator in the first presidential debate on Monday will fact-check his statements. That right there should tell you everything you need to know about what he plans to say, but only if you still know what facts are. So let’s explore the language around the issue for a bit. Continue reading
Posted in Language, Media, Society, US Politics
Tagged Donald Trump, facts, language, Opinion, politics, Presidential Election 2016, reality, truth
image: camstockphoto.com
Today’s writing challenge is to tell someone that I’m proud of how proud I am. Continue reading
Tagged humor, language, Opinion, Pat on the Back, poetry, pride, proud, rhyming, writing challenge
image: licoricelemondrops.com
Today’s writing prompt: Time to confess: tell us about a time when you used a word whose meaning you didn’t actually know (or were very wrong about, in retrospect).
Okay, this is embarrassing, but it definitely is the biggest boo-boo I’ve ever made in this regard. Continue reading
I think it’s time for a sequel to my post Rated R, where I literally translated some Dutch swear words and phrases into English. So here are several words I used when I was a kid in the early seventies. They’re not as R-rated as the first post. I found these “retro swear words” on this site. Continue reading
Posted in Language
Tagged Dutch swear words, history, humor, language, Nederland, Netherlands, samenleving, society, taal, translation, vloeken
image: Franz Kafka
Kafka, Marx, Orwell, Sade–no reason why I shouldn’t end up on that list. Here’s what I imagine my contribution to Webster’s to be: Continue reading
Posted in Emigration / Immigration, Language, Lists, Writing Prompt Responses
Tagged DPchallenge, emigration, eponiemen, eponyms, humor, immigration, language, Lists, taal
image: exchange.smarttech.com
My son B has been maturing by leaps and bounds the past couple of months. It’s like he’s having a massive mental growth spurt.
As a result, he is increasingly finding out what it means to be him, and learning how to be more assertive about the boundaries between himself and others. At the same time he’s also expanding his experience to include more and more of the world around him. All this seems to suddenly be happening at a faster pace than ever before. Continue reading
So the Daily Prompt told me to grab the nearest book and find the tenth word, then Google Image that word and write about whatever comes to mind. So I thought, whatever. But then I did it.
Our last visit to the Netherlands was eleven years ago, when B was six and R almost three. That was also the last time I spoke Dutch for any length of time with other adults. Continue reading
Posted in Emigration / Immigration, Language
Tagged Dutch immigrants, emigration, humor, immigration, language
(Photo: farmwars.info)
One thing I’ve learned is the difference between Dutch politeness and Texan politeness.
To A Texan, being polite is not just a matter of saying please and thank you, holding the door open for the person coming behind you, not belching loudly at the dinner table, etc. It also means avoiding embarrassing someone. Continue reading
Posted in Emigration / Immigration, Language, Society
Tagged America, Cultural Differences, culture, embarrassment, emigration, humor, immigration, language, manners, politeness, society, The Netherlands
I opened my oven drawer yesterday, and was immediately reminded of a language misunderstanding I had years ago. Continue reading
In general service in America is much better than in the Netherlands. But there is one aspect of telephone service that really gets me. Continue reading
One thing I will never get used to, even though I do sometimes ask it myself nowadays, is the American question “Are you okay?”. Because it’s per definition asked when someone is clearly not okay.
Okay, read on… Continue reading
My (at the time 2-year-old) son says almost everything in English, but he does understand my Dutch. It does lead to misunderstandings, though, like recently at the zoo. I told him he could give the goat an “aai” (a pat), so he promptly poked the poor beast in the eye. Later, at home, we practiced patting his pet monkey, giving it lots of “aaien,” because the next animal may not be as forgiving as that goat was.
Posted in Emigration / Immigration, Language
Tagged Dutch, emigration, Engels, English, humor, immigration, language, Nederlands, taal, translation, vertaling
Dutch Sayings Continue reading
Tagged colloquialisms, Dutch, expressions, gezegden, humor, language, Lists, Nederlands, Netherlands, sayings, taal, uitdrukkingen
In the late 60s Richard Proenneke built his own cabin in the Alaskan wilderness with only a few simple tools. He spent most of the rest of his life there. Sam Keith fleshed out Proenneke's diary of his first 16 months, when he was making his home by a lake. I love these kinds of books!
An old Oji-Cree healer and her nephew canoe down a river in Canada, away from the world of white people. They both have to come to terms with their past. The woman has lost most of her tribe and the young man is traumatized from his recent experience in the Belgian trenches of World War One. My second book by Boyden. Can't say enough about him.
An incredibly comprehensive history of everything related to slavery in the Southern United States, from the beginning of the colonies to the end of the Civil War. Over 700 pages and I took over 30 pages of notes. I will be sharing over many posts to come!
Hamid's debut novel. I love this author. A young man in Lahore, Pakistan, is the victim of love, drugs, obsession, the class system and his complete lack of self-awareness.
A golem, created in Poland and brought to life on a ship to America, and a jinni who was trapped in a flask a thousand years ago and released in New York -- the most unusual immigrants you'll ever meet.
The only part of her life a Korean woman can control is her body, so she withdraws into it. Harrowing.
Autobiography lightly disguised as a novel about the son of Southern migrants growing up on the streets of Harlem, New York City, in the 1940s and 50s. Written like you're hearing the whole story in a bar. Quite a feat.
The story of a man struggling to make a living in Morocco. No plot, no clearly defined characters, but fascinating in its authenticity.
Pakistani man tells an American about his experience as a college student and employee of an assessment firm in America years ago. Smart, nuanced and pretty darn honest considering the unreliable narrator.
Wow! The answer to the inane platitudes about how all parents love their children and how children should always respect their parents. The protagonist must come to terms with his deeply flawed immigrant parents in order to change himself.
Seven short stories about life during the Kim Il-sung regime, by a writer who still lives and works in North Korea, were smuggled out of the country and translated. Mind-boggling stuff.
A 15-year-old autistic narrator wants to know who killed a neighbor's dog, and ends up much further out of his comfort zone than he planned. Wonderful read!
In politics, education, religion, agriculture, business--it turns out that dumbing down has been here from the start.
Fifty years of Istanbul seen through the eyes of a street vendor who migrates to the city as a young boy. It's also a window into the complicated dance between men and women in Turkey.
Hey, don't laugh, at least I'm trying.
A Norwegian immigrant is cooped up with six other people on a tiny island off the coast of Maine all winter in 1873. A woman in the present researching the Norwegian immigrant is cooped up with three other people on a tiny sailboat. What could possibly go wrong?
A man stuck between two worlds in more ways than one. Fascinating!
Historical novel about early contacts between first nations and the French in Canada. Beautifully written story that doesn't pull any punches. I bought his other two novels right away.
Beautifully written. By my children's favorite English and Creative Writing teacher! It's got rave reviews and we're all very proud of her.
Suki Kim is a Korean-American journalist. She poses as an evangelical Christian posing as an English teacher at a school for the sons of North Korea's elite. Her experience and the information she manages to get via writing assignments are incredible. Definitely a lot more eye-opening that any CNN special.
This. Explains. Everything!!!
Why has Islam not undergone a reformation like Christianity? Why is it so easy for Islamic extremist groups like IS to recruit young muslims? What would it take for Islam in fundamentalist Islamic countries to enter modernity? Does the West have a role to play?
Amazing! A man wanders endlessly through a dreamscape, becoming other people, himself in the past, everything is fluid. Kafkaesque disconnect between people and their different needs.
A multi-layered novel about the history of Libya. A fast read, but one you can repeat and find something new each time.
Twelve Americans go missing in Burma/Myanmar during a tour. Touching and hilarious, but mostly hilarious.
The most unusual murder mystery I've ever read. Incredible writing. It haunted me for days.
The quote on the front mentions that these stories are exhilerating. I couldn't disagree more. They are almost unbearably painful to read, and yet I couldn't put them down. Very well done, apart from the third story, which is written in the second tense. Please let me know if you know of ONE story that works in second tense.
Rants, essays, and diatribes.
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Cogito Ergo Sum
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een amerikaanse schrijft over liefde, ouderschap & volwassen worden in nederland
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Visual Arts from Canada & Around the World
Resident Alien -- Being Dutch in America 