Netherlands: Mini Bieb

There is a mini library in our neighbourhood where children can borrow and share books. When I first noticed it, I was beyond excited, because:

1. The actual library in our town temporarily closed its doors, like all other institutions.
2. It could be an easy way to expand our family's Dutch.
3. It was there! And filled with books! Without being locked or chained to anything!! And day after day, the books and the box remained there, without disappearing into thin air. Amazing.

Before we started reading, the books obviously went though a hefty decontamination and sanitation process, but it was well worth the effort. Even more so, since the only exposure my toddler was getting to the local language, was via Dutch programs and movies. And the odd radio / TV background noises when my husband and I were trying to get the latest on the "mondkapje tekorten" and other related corona crises.

At first, I tried to pronounce the words from the books in the proper Dutch manner: "Ik ben ook groot" was pronounced as

".. ouk grout", but after each sentence a confused look would cross my toddler's face and he would ask: "Wat is grout? Wat is ouk?"

So I rapidly dropped (what I perceived to be) the correct Dutch pronunciation and switched to a proper Nederkaans / Afri-dutch articulation: "Ik ben" (Dutch) "ook groot" (Afrikaans), à la the Dutch variation of Eliza Doolittle.

The word "nu" (now) created confusion from the start, because it sounded exactly like "nie" in Afrikaans, which means "not".

Confused? You're not the only one.

"Ik ben nu groot" therefore sounded like "I am not big" to an Afrikaans toddler, instead of "I am NOW big".

There was therefore a definite possibility that my toddler understood whatever story plot we had read, to be the opposite of what had actually happened. A big pirate could have easily been mistaken for a pirate which was, well, not big. I therefore patiently explained that not big is "niet groot" but now big is "nu groot".

The pirate was in fact big. "Nu groot".

The frown on his brow deepened and a few perplexed seconds passed.

"Wat is nie?"

I have heard before that Dutch is a mix of German and English, and I'm starting to understand why: Words with beautiful descriptive names in Afrikaans, simply become the English version in Dutch.

Pirates, giraffes and penguins are "piraten", "giraffes" and "pinguïns" in Dutch.

Easy perhaps, except that my toddler knows these words as "seerowers", "kameelperde" and "pikkewyne".

I therefore try to, perhaps more for my own understanding, explain the Dutch words in Afrikaans by referring to the English words.

As you can now clearly comprehend, a simple sentence like "Ik ben nu een grote piraat" can take a very, very long time to explain.

But it's wonderful and fun to read in Dutch, and we're loving it.

Now that we had clarified and agreed on the book's title, we will be starting on the first sentence tomorrow.

Netherlands: Snowflakes

When we decided to break the news to our toddler that we will be moving to the Netherlands, we showed him pictures and videos of the place which will become our new home. We told him about colourful tulip fields, windmills and big rounds of yellow cheese. Rivers, canals and bicycles with baskets. The fact that his friends at playschool will no longer be able to whisper in awe that "your mom is the tallEST!" because in the Netherlands, I will just be one of the many tall moms in his class.

And somewhere in-between we might have mentioned that during very cold winters there is a small likelihood that it could possibly snow, although this year we will miss the coldest winter period and will therefore only encounter snow in a year's time, if we're lucky.

Of course, the only thing he remembered was: Netherlands = Snow!
As soon as he set foot in the country, he started asking about the snow: Where is it? When will we see it? What does it look like? Where is it!!? This, while we were still inside Schipol airport.
And as we neared the airport parking lot: Is it outside? Is is white? I can feel it is very cold here! Where is the snow!!!

He even woke up the first two mornings here, claiming that he dreamt about the snow and running to the window to see if he could catch a glimpse of anything white. Alas, at a chilly 7 degrees Celsius it was much too warm for snow in March.

But! This past weekend we encountered an exceptionally chilly day, compared to the sunny ones of the preceding weeks. The real feel temperature was -2 °C and, as we stepped outside for a walk, we came to the sudden realisation that we were the only people on the street. For a brief second we panicked, wondering if we had missed the new corona rules and were no longer allowed our daily “frisse neus”. But just then a group of toddlers skipped past us for playtime in the park and we breathed a sigh of relief at having avoided a(nother) potential fine.

As I looked at the group of children, I couldn’t decide which I found more surprising:
The fact that the social distancing rules don’t (yet) apply to children here. Or the fact the group of 4-year olds are not partaking in said social distancing, seemingly unsupervised. It seemed like they had just stumbled out of the bushes lining the park and were now running around freely. Once I get the opportunity to go out and actually meet other moms, I would love to ask them about their playtime rules. From what I have observed, it might be a short conversation.

Luckily my toddler was oblivious to my thoughts and stares that day in the park and still follow our (very long list of) rules when in public (which have become even longer due to the current virus situation).

And then it happened. It started snowing!

Ok, technically it was raining lightly and the wind kind of turned the bigger droplets into whitish icicles. But to us, being South African and having experienced 35 °C weather only weeks before, it definitely counted as snow. And so, my husband and I started cheering excitedly and pointed out the individual snow / ice flakes to our toddler. Which he of course missed completely, because frustratingly it would melt before he could see it. But that didn’t dampen our moods as we hurried home to phone the whole family back in South Africa. Because it was snowing!

As with a proper snow day, we stayed inside, watched movies, baked cookies, sent "snow" videos to our family and got all excited about the gusts of snowflakes blowing past our window. With "we" I mean my husband and I. My toddler had long since lost interest in the apparent snow which he could not see.

Here’s my best snowflake picture:

Do you see the white spec in the top right-hand corner?

No?
Neither could my toddler.