Orange, Orange Everywhere.

As you probably know, the national colour of the Netherlands is orange. Orange is omnipresent at the moment since it's a week until the King's Day. Apparently the entire country goes crazy for a day (or a bit more, if you count the pre-King's Day parties on April 26th) and I already dread next Monday. I'm not particularily excited about this occassion: it's not my king, not my country and in general I avoid big congregations of people.

In case you doubt the omnipresence of orange, here is a selection of what it on offer in Dutch supermarkets. From donoughts through burgers to potatoes, everything is oranje. You open the frisge and oranje jumps onto your face.

 

Of course, apart from these bizzare orange food items, there are of course banners, wigs, trumpets, flags and whatever elseon sale, everything still in orange. I bet by Monday I'll be sick of all this orange. Until then I'll try to devise a plan how to avoid this craze, since I have no intention to participate. My home will be a safe haven with movies, tea, snacks and peace and quiet to keep us away from the orange.

Doing it the Dutch way.

Year abroad is an excellent opportunity to make some anthropological observations. These observations even have a linguistic twist in them.

It appears that the Dutch do not have a phrase 'excuse me' (or sorry for that matter), in their vocabulary. After four years on a Small Island, a placed filled with these phrases to the brim, it was, and still is quite frankly, a rather shocking experience.

So if you want to go through a narrow passage which is obstructed by an unfortunate fellow human being, and if you want to do it the Dutch way, make sure you follow either of these two procedures:

1) mute option: approach the unfortunate fellow human being and stand next to him, very close. Crucially, don't make any sounds whatsoever. Just stand very close to the unfortunate human being and look rather absent-minded.

2) vocal option: if you would rather use your voice strings, embark on the task as in option 1: approach the unfortunate fellow human being and stand next to him, very close. This time, however, you are allowed to make a sound: 'aaaaa' or some similar expression of unidentified emotions. Absent-minded look also welcomed here.

After following either of the procedures, stand there hoping that the person obstructing your way can read your mind even when he cannot see you since he has his back turned to you and is engaged in some intellectually demanding activity which makes it impossible to him to register slight air disturbances when another person approaches. 

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On a more serious note, this is actually bloody annoying. Don't people know how to use their mouth? I've conducted an experiment this evening: I was washing the dishes when a girl came in and grabbed a kettle. She then stood right next to me with a kettle, but haven't said a word. So I carried on my washing up, silently making bets with myself as to how long she would stand so uncomfortably close to me. Nothing changed for a while, and I started feeling rather weird with her by my side, so I asked whether she wanted to fill up her kettle. What a stupid question to be directed at a person standing with a kettle in her hand next to the sink! But I had no choice! How else could I remedy this situation when she would not use her words? I really don't get it, maybe the Dutch really read each others mind?

A little bit of anthropology.

It's interesting how the way people use language shows their attitudes to others. I came across a phrase 'going Dutch' (on this see below) before I came to Netherlands and since then read a bit around the topics, making some interesting findings.

In Paxman's book to which I referred in one of the earlier posts, he talks about the animosity between the English and the French reflected in the phrases used by the two nations. So for instance the English would use a term 'French kiss' to describe, objectively, bizarre (though undoubtedly pleasurable) practice of sticking one' tongue to another person's mouth. Or 'French disease' to refer to syphilis. Obscene drawings were called 'French postcards', whereas prostitutes were referred to as 'French Consular Guard'. Not to forget excusing swearing by  saying 'pardon my French'.  The French, however, didn't fail to counter this with expressions such as le vice anglais (flagellation), avoir les anglais (menstruation), filer à l'anglaise (equivalent for 'taking French leave') and damné comme un Anglais.

With regard to the Dutch, the English also devised a few phrases, dating from the time when the Dutch became England's main trading rivals. There's 'Dutch courage' that I've just learnt, meaning getting courage from intoxication with alcohol. And of course 'double Dutch' as a hard to understand language, gibberish in short. There is also another one, 'going Dutch' (with variations such like 'Dutch date' and 'Dutch treat'), a practice of paying for yourself in a restaurant for instance, which probably reveals the perception of the Dutch as rather stingy people.

Language is such an interesting topic that I sometimes wish I had studied linguistics to have time to dig into it more. I remember the when I took Latin classes in high school I as really excited to find out the origin of some Polish words. And now I could learn about the sociological background of it. It's fantastic to do something else than law every now and then. For the sake of retaining sanity.

I love how I actually have time now to write posts like this, which do require some research etc.