October 21, 2025 • 43 mins
Join us as David Durham shares essential Dutch phrases that will help you navigate the Netherlands with confidence. Learn how speaking a few key words can enhance your experiences, connect you with locals, and make your travels smoother and more enjoyable.
Think Dutch is only for Amsterdam? We open the map with David Durham to show how far Dutch actually travels—across the Netherlands, Flanders in Belgium, Aruba and Sint Maarten, and Suriname—and why a few phrases can turn strangers into allies. We start with the essentials you’ll say every day: dag for hello and goodbye, formal and informal thank‑yous, and the subtle shift from u to jij that earns instant respect. Then we build your toolkit for trains, airports, hotels, and restaurants so you can ask clearly, pay gracefully, and leave on a warm note.
We get practical fast. You’ll learn how to ask Waar is… for the WC, het station, de bushalte, and het restaurant, how to order koffie met melk and thee like a local, and how to request de rekening alstublieft without fumbling. We cover apologies and honesty with Het spijt me and Ik spreek geen Nederlands, plus the simple I don’t understand: Ik versta het niet. Numbers one to ten click into place, and you’ll know when to use tot ziens versus a friendly doei. Along the way, David breaks down de vs het articles, sheds light on Flemish and Afrikaans connections, and shares cultural cues—like always greeting staff on entry and exit—that open doors.
For language nerds and nervous first‑timers alike, we tuck in an eye‑opening detour on English history that explains why Dutch often feels familiar to our ears. This mix of clarity, culture, and ready‑to‑use phrases is designed for real travel: short lines, quick wins, and better moments with people you meet. If your next trip includes bikes, canals, or stroopwafels, this guide will help you move with confidence and kindness.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This transcript was automatically created and has not be read or edited by our team. Hi,I'm Alexa and I'm .
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Rory.
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And together we are the ROAMies.
We are married to each other.
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Right?, We are a touring musical duo.
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And our music has taken us to all kinds of places all
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And we hope to facilitate your busy lifestyle
and feed your inner travel bug.
Hi everyone.
Thank you for joining us foranother episode in our Learning
Language for Travel series.
We are excited today to againhave David Durham.
David is based in Nashville andhe is a language genius.
(00:46):
We're gonna dive in today withthe language of Dutch.
So we're gonna learn Dutch fortravel.
David, before we dive in, tellus just quickly a few of the
ways people can connect withyou.
You have tours, you have youteach language.
What kind of things do youoffer in your life?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Things I offer in my life.
Love, enjoy, peace, patience,happiness, and then and a little
bit of eccentricity.
Speaker (01:14):
Yes, enjoy.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So the the way to connect with all the lives I
lead is uh at daviddurham.org.
Speaker (01:25):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
And there you will find my blog posts uh at the
blog tab.
You'll find my podcasts on thepodcast tab.
Speaker (01:35):
Yay.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Uh and then there's a language tab, and that will
take you to World to the WiseAcademy.
So my company with my wife iscalled World to the Wise.
And World to the Wise Academyoffers self-study video-based
language courses, specificallyFrench and Spanish.
Speaker (01:55):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Now, these started off as for high school students
because I used to teach on thehigh school level.
And so students, especiallyhomeschoolers, for example, can
actually take those for creditbecause they're full-year
courses.
Speaker (02:09):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
But also it's for adults who just want to learn
the language.
And you guys, to be honest, areinspiring me to go back and do
some more work for people whojust want to learn little
snippets or just get a basicunderstanding.
And so that's a whole to-dolist that's ahead of me.
(02:30):
And then another tab on the onthe website is tours.
And we have World to the WiseCultural Tours, where we lead
small groups of no more than 20people to different parts of the
world, primarily Europe,because that's our home away
from home where we've spent manyyears.
And we've also started awell-worn path to New Zealand,
(02:53):
uh, where our our dear friendsNeil and Jill co-host our groups
in New Zealand, and those arejust incredible experiences.
If you're willing to fly to theother side of the world, it is
so well worth it.
It's just an unforgettableexperience.
So that's my my life in anutshell at this moment.
(03:14):
Most of that is on hold becauseI'm recovering from back
surgery.
But the whole point of thatsurgery is to be able to
continue what I do for many moreyears.
Speaker (03:23):
Love it.
Yes.
Well, thank you for joining usas you're recovering.
And we really, reallyappreciate it.
You are inspiring people totravel.
And, you know, you mentioned inthe previous episode how
knowing a language enriched yourexperience.
And so, you know, we we've kindof started this whole series
with the premise of hey, how canwe be respectful and also make
(03:45):
it easier as a traveler to justget around and do some basic
things.
But, you know, you pointed outyour personal enjoyment of the
experience because you knew thelanguage, it just made it that
much more enriching.
It's just really fun to kind ofadd this element to your travel
experience.
So thank you for helping uskind of open that door and start
(04:05):
taking some baby steps to getthere.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Well, you talk about open doors.
Uh we don't have time to, Idon't know how many episodes we
could fill with stories ofbridges being built to people
that otherwise might not bebuilt at all just because of
what you just said.
So, yeah, it's big.
It's very big.
Huge.
Speaker (04:25):
Yes.
Well, let's dive into Dutch.
Now, where are we going to useDutch?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
That's a great question.
In Deutschland?
Nope.
Nope.
So let's let's clear up someconf let's clear up some
confusion at the beginning,okay?
So Dutch is the language spokenin the Netherlands, otherwise
known as Holland.
Deutsch is the German word forGerman.
(04:53):
And Deutschland is the Germanword for Germany.
Now, Americans might say, sowhat about Pennsylvania Dutch?
Do they speak Dutch in in uhPennsylvania?
Well, that is a big, bigmisnomer.
And I wish I could talk towhoever started that.
(05:13):
They are they have long sincethey've long since passed,
whoever they are.
But Pennsylvania Dutch is notDutch at all.
It is German.
Actually, a an uh what we whatwe say, a descendant of German,
a perversion of German, if youlike.
(05:34):
Uh so Pennsylvania Dutch is notDutch, but we're talking about
the Dutch that is spoken bymillions of people, over 15
million people in that smallcountry of the Netherlands.
But it is also spoken in partsof the Caribbean on the island
of St.
Martin.
Half of the island is Frenchspeaking, the other half is
(05:57):
Dutch.
In Aruba, they speak Dutch.
There is, let's see, Surinameat the tip, northern tip of
South America, also Dutchspeaking, because that those
places were colonized by theDutch.
So millions of speak peoplespeak Dutch.
So we might also need to saythat when you travel to the
(06:17):
Netherlands, you'll find that alot of people speak English.
But let us not let that keep usfrom learning a few phrases
that will, what we were saying,build some bridges.
They will appreciate theeffort.
Yep.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
And just as an aside, if you happen to be in South
Africa and know a few Dutchwords, you can try those Dutch
words, and the Afrikaners willlikely completely understand
what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
I am so glad you brought that up.
I have South African friends,and we have such a fun time.
I speaking in Dutch and themspeaking in Afrikaans, and we
can carry on a basicconversation.
Isn't that something?
Speaker (06:57):
Um, because that is, of course, also Afrikaans is also
derived from Dutch, from theFlemish, just as you mentioned
earlier, the country with Frenchand Dutch.
We have Belgium, that's Frenchand Flemish.
That's exactly right.
And it's right next door to theNetherlands.
And so I'm assuming then thatFlemish is kind of to Dutch what
(07:19):
is like American to Scottishkind of thing.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I could maybe even more similar.
Flemish is basically Dutch.
What they learn in school iscalled Algemeen Bischof
Nederlands, which is the Dutchword for Dutch.
But there are some differencesbetween Flemish spoken in
Belgium, a few differences ofvocabulary, but primarily the
(07:44):
accent.
Speaker (07:51):
So more German and it's approach.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
But it's made but it's pretty much the same
language.
Thank you for that reminder,yeah.
Speaker (08:00):
Not the most popular language in the world, but
you're gonna get some use out ofit when you learn what you're
gonna learn today.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
That's right.
And the Netherlands is such aninteresting country to visit.
I highly recommend it.
And I have to say, this one isalso very close to my heart and
my wife's because of our threesons, our two older sons were
born in Amsterdam, the capitalof the Netherlands.
And as a matter of fact, wehave plans to take them with
(08:27):
their families next summer tovisit their birthplace for the
first time in their adult lives.
They were young when we movedaway.
Speaker (08:34):
What?
So that's gonna be amazing.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Wow.
Yeah, very cool.
So you want to dive in?
Speaker (08:42):
Let's dive in.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
The most common greeting in Dutch is dach.
That's D-A-G.
So you need to get used to someguttural sounds.
Speaker (08:55):
The singer in me is cringing already, David.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Well, did you learn some German arias?
Speaker (09:02):
I did, I did, yes.
I had to take diction and learnsome German.
Yeah.
Those arias, yes.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, those are apparently not your fondest
memories.
unknown (09:15):
They weren't.
Speaker (09:16):
It was all right.
But yeah.
But I don't think I like Ithink when I learned it though,
I mean, I think you make a pointthat if I'm trying to sing it,
I'm not so but maybe if I'mspeaking it, I feel like I'm
damaging my throat or right.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Well, I get it.
So so I'll give you anoverdose, and you will never
want to you'll never want tolearn the language again.
I'll cure you from that.
Um so every language has tonguetwisters, right?
Yeah.
And for people who want topractice that, uh, I say, well,
just learn this.
Ah is a completely nonsensicalphrase.
(09:52):
It's like seashell.
She sells seashells on theseashore.
It means 888 gas stoves.
Anyway.
Let us move on to the work athand.
Moving on.
Dach dach means hello andgoodbye.
(10:12):
So just like ciao in Italian,dah means hello.
If you heard my difference inpronunciation, that's goodbye.
So if you want to make a moreformal hello, you can put the
word good in front of it becausedach means day.
(10:33):
So you can say chude dach.
So a g, in case you hadn'tfigured out, is h.
So whether it's on thebeginning, in the middle, or at
the end of a word, it's chudedach.
Good day.
So let's talk about goodmorning.
Huda morchen.
(10:55):
Don't worry, not every word hasthe guttural sound in it.
But good does.
I promise.
Good does.
So kuda midach is goodafternoon.
(11:15):
Middach means midday,literally, but midach means
afternoon.
Huda midach.
Good evening.
Huda avant.
Or a lot of times they put thean N in the middle.
Hudenavund.
And good night is only used foryour when you're actually
(11:35):
wishing them a good night'ssleep, or when you're separ uh
parting from someone at the endof the evening, Huda Nacht.
Nacht, same as German Nacht, asyou might remember.
So Huda Nacht, good night.
So another way to say goodbye,besides dach, is totzien.
(11:59):
And that's that's uh sometimesassuming that you'll see them
again.
It's like Al Vidazin in uhGerman or Au revoir in French.
So Tot Zins means until.
Zins, Z-I-E-N-S, kind of meansseeing, until the seeing.
(12:22):
Until we see each other again.
Tot ziens.
So there there was no nasal inthat, right?
I mean not nasal, guttural.
Totzin.
So a little break.
So how do we say please?
Alstublieft.
Alstublieft.
And uh I can't break that downliterally what it means, but
(12:45):
it's sort sort of a little bitlike if you please.
Alstubt.
And thank you.
Dunkuvel.
Now you might think that oldsound, isn't that a little bit
American or English?
O isn't it dunkel?
Well, in Belgium, yes.
(13:07):
But in the Netherlands, we saythe the old sound, that kind of
a lazier old, like we do inEnglish with table.
So dancuvel means thank youvery much.
Duncuvel.
You will also hear a moreinformal thank you, which I
(13:31):
would recommend not using in ashop if you don't know somebody,
but if you uh are on good termswith somebody, if there's you
if there's a rapport that's beenbuilt, you say bedunked.
Bedunked.
And so you hear the same asGerman dunke, right?
So the verb duncan in bothGerman and Dutch means to thank.
(13:57):
So yes, Dutch is a Germaniclanguage, and Americans might
not realize how many Germaniclanguages there are besides
German.
You've also got theScandinavian languages that are
very Germanic, Swedish,Norwegian, Danish, and Icelandic
are all Germanic languages.
(14:19):
And so if you've learned someGerman, then you will understand
quite a number of bits andpieces of other Germanic
languages.
Have you guys experienced that?
Oh, yeah.
Speaker (14:34):
Our um one of our musicians has, you know, who was
fluent in German.
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah.
Well, even hearing thelanguages spoken, being familiar
with German, you can hear itpieces, bits and pieces here and
there.
And if you don't know they'reassociated, you think that's
right.
Am I like hearing what I thinkI'm hearing?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah.
I sometimes enjoy watchingScandinavian shows in the
original language with Englishsubtitles, just so I can pick up
on those.
It's so much fun.
And that is for you know, forsome of us, it's fun.
For us freaks, it's fun.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
That's right.
Yeah, you got it.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
So thank you is dunky vel.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Hey, quick question for you in relation to that.
So, as an English speaker, itsounds like thank you well.
So, is there an occasion whereyou would say it without the
Vell?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yes.
Yes, good question.
You can't just say dunku.
Okay.
Speaker (15:36):
And is that a little more casual or a little more not
not rude, but like if you leaveoff the vowel part?
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Uh with acquaintances?
Uh yes.
Right.
I I I think I would say thatyou would hear that more often
if you're saying no, thank you.
Okay.
And no is n no is nay.
So if you want to say no, thankyou, you could say n cu.
(16:04):
Yep.
Now, we should pause here andand say that just like all the
other languages that we'vetalked about, with when you've
had me on, there is a differencebetween formal and familiar.
Speaker (16:20):
Right, right.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
And what I'm teaching you is formal because that's
assuming that most of the peopleyou're in contact with are
strangers.
Speaker (16:28):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
If if you're a visitor, right now, I will say
here the the informal way ofsaying thank you is dunky.
It's a very simple, very subtledifference.
Dunk is formal because is theformal for you.
And yeah is the informal.
(16:52):
So you could say dunkyvel toyour friends and acquaintances.
Dunkel is for uh is formal.
And bedunct, another uh thingthat I find interesting is that
they have adopted the Englishword sorry, and it is it is a
(17:13):
completely legitimate Dutch wordnow.
I can't I can't tell you whenthat happened, but the way to
say excuse me or I'm sorry issorry.
Wow, sorry, love it.
Yeah.
Sorry, can you tell me wherethe train station is?
Or for example.
So how about do you speakEnglish?
(17:37):
Once again, we're gonna use theformal here.
Spreight angles.
Spreight angles.
So you hear that that word forEnglish, Engels?
Um it's a little bit similar tothe word for angels.
(18:00):
Yeah.
Being in a native English, sothe word for right.
The word for English is Engels.
Most um most languages, namesfor languages in Dutch, now that
I think of an end and an S,French is Franz, German is
doubt, Spanish is spans, butEnglish is Engels.
(18:24):
Sprecht u Engels ne.
Ne.
Now, there's another way to sayI'm sorry, and this would be
the the perfect context.
No, I'm sorry, I don't speakEnglish.
Het spait me.
Het spight me.
(18:44):
And that literally means it umit pains me.
Speaker (18:50):
Ah it sounds like in spite of myself, you know, like
that's oh yeah, yeah.
Like well, in spite of, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Uh-huh.
I hadn't thought of that.
But just like uh uh in German,the word for uh the expression
for I'm sorry is estut mirror,which means it does me pain or
suffering.
unknown (19:12):
Yeah.
Speaker (19:13):
Which, if you haven't heard our learn German episode,
go back and listen to that.
He breaks that down for usthere too.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yep.
Uh I hope I said es tut mirleid on the German one.
I'm pretty sure you did.
Oh, good, good, good, good.
So, do you speak English?
Spricht Engels?
Ne, het spijt me.
Now you don't have to learnthat unless you're saying, I'm
sorry, I don't speak Dutch.
And then, you know what?
That's a good thing to learn,isn't it?
Speaker (19:40):
It is a good thing to learn.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
It pains me that I don't speak.
Because it's more inform Yeah,it's more important for you to
acknowledge that you don't speakthan for them to acknowledge
they don't speak yours.
Speaker (19:54):
Right, right.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
This is a general rule across the board, right?
No matter where you are.
So het spijt me ik is I spreekspeak.
There's that guttural g.
Uh Nederlands.
(20:16):
So the the Dutch word for Dutchis Nederlands.
Now, where does that come from?
We we should have said this atthe beginning.
The name of the country isNederland.
Nederland, which means, whatwould you guess?
(20:36):
Low country.
We talk about the low countriesbeing uh the Netherlands,
Belgium, and Luxembourg.
But the name Nederland byitself means low country, low
land.
Nederland.
And so the name of thelanguage, you just add an S to
the end of that, like we weresaying.
So ik, I spreak, speak, no,Nederlands.
(21:04):
I speak no Dutch.
Ik spreek geen Nederlands.
Het spijt me, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Would it would it be would it be easier for someone
to say no Nederland?
I'm sorry, you know, instead oflike I don't speak.
Is there a shorter way thatsomeone could remember a simple
way to say?
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Yeah, you could just say, you could just say geen.
You couldn't say ne Nederlands.
I mean, of course you could,but they and they would
understand.
No.
But the abbreviated way to sayI don't speak any German, they
most often word it, I speak noGerman.
Okay.
As in uh like there is no norestroom here.
(21:45):
It's the same kind ofstructure.
So chain Nederlands.
No English.
Gein Nederlands, no Dutch.
Okay.
I don't understand ik verstaniet.
I understand not.
(22:06):
So just a little parenthesishere.
Did you guys know that Englishis also a Germanic language?
Yes.
Speaker (22:15):
Makes sense.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
So English is a unique language in that it is a
uh a blend of Germanic and Latinroots.
Speaker (22:25):
Yeah, those romance languages we were talking about
on the previous episode.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Exactly.
And if you look, if you justyou know, in the old days we
used to have books that werecalled dictionaries.
And if you take uh an Englishdictionary and say a Dutch
dictionary, the Englishdictionary would be much
thicker.
Why is that?
In other words, why doesEnglish have such a bigger
(22:51):
vocabulary than most otherEuropean languages?
That is due to a single eventin the year 1066 when William
the Conqueror, who was fromNormandy, as in Northwest
France, French-speaking, eventhough he was descended from the
(23:11):
Vikings, he had begun to speakFrench, and he took his
French-speaking forces andfought the battle of Hastings
against King Harold, the Saxonking, the Anglo-Saxon king, and
defeated them, set up his court,and for the next hundred years,
(23:32):
the English court wasFrench-speaking.
Yeah.
And so French had a way ofworking its way into the
population.
And so today, in modernEnglish, 40% of our language
comes to us from French by wayof the Normans.
So that's why in uh sorry, I'mkind of getting on my t-shirt,
(23:58):
putting on my t-shirt.
Speaker (24:00):
Yeah, we love it.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
That's why in English there are often two ways to say
the same thing.
And if you look at it, one willeasily be a Germanic way and
the other way will be a Latinway.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
I love history, so all that's really.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
I love it too.
I mean, there's a reason foreverything.
unknown (24:18):
Yeah.
Speaker (24:18):
Right.
It makes our language makesense, like why some things are
so similar in the Romancelanguage and why some things are
so similar when we hear Germanor Dutch.
So exactly.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
And if you study the 20th century history any England
following any of the Englishhistory following like the royal
family, you think, why do theykeep marrying people from the
German world and the Frenchworld?
Why is it they don't seem tolike they come they seem they're
always in conflict and at war,but they're always marrying each
other from you know into theroyal family, which I always
thought was really strange, butit makes completely sense if you
(24:50):
know the history that far back.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah, and it also has to do with power, right?
Absolutely.
But that's but that's the kindof relationship.
That's right.
Yeah.
So anyway, let's see what elsewould be handy for us to know in
Dutch.
Speaker (25:07):
I always like to know where is, or where can I find
shopping, restaurant, bathroom.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Yes, yes, okay.
So the Dutch word for where isvar.
So the W has a V sound.
It's W A A R var.
Var is where is?
You can hear the similarity.
So the station, as in the trainstation, het stadion.
(25:34):
Het station.
Where is the airport?
Var is de Luchthafen.
And Luchthafen literally meansairport.
Lucht meaning airhafen meaningport.
As in Haven, by the way.
Luchthafen.
(25:54):
Var is de Luchthafen.
Where is the airport?
Var is het hotel.
The hotel.
Where is the bus stop?
Varis de Bushalte.
Bus halte.
Halt.
Var is de bus halte.
(26:14):
What's that?
Halt?
Stop?
That's right.
Exactly.
Var is de apoteek.
You want to guess what that is?
Yeah.
Like the apte.
The apothecary.
The apocalypse.
Speaker (26:31):
Yeah, the apocalypse.
Apothecary.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yeah, the apothecary, the pharmacy.
That's those are the two wordsfor the in Dutch.
unknown (26:50):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
And no, they cannot be used interchangeably.
So unfortunately, you have tomemorize the gender of each
word, just like you do in allthe other languages we've talked
about, right?
So if anyone listening to thisdecides to get serious about
studying one of these languages,here's a pro tip.
(27:12):
When you learn a noun, learnits gender from the get-go.
Yeah.
That will save you a lot ofheartache.
Speaker (27:21):
Right.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Seems like such a trivial thing for us English
speakers because we can'trelate.
We only have we only have the.
Speaker (27:29):
And David, just along that note, do you feel like with
all of the languages that youknow, I'm sure there's
exceptions all over, but whatfor the majority, would you say
that since like chair ismasculine in French, it turns
out it's also masculine inPortuguese and Dutch and German
(27:51):
and Spanish.
And you know, are like are mostnouns the same gender across
languages in your experience?
Speaker 1 (27:59):
We could only wish.
Speaker (28:02):
So no.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
I mean, yes, there is a lot of among romance
languages, there is a lot ofconsistency, but just when you
think it's they're all the same,you find an exception.
Speaker (28:18):
Sure.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
But it's easier to learn the exceptions.
Let's be honest.
I mean, I will say that thereare more exceptions.
So yeah, between from French toSpanish to Italian to
Portuguese, I would say by andlarge, most of the nouns have
the same gender, with with someexceptions.
Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker (28:37):
Thanks.
So so that could leap over intoDutch even though it's more
Germanic, or do you think prettymuch?
Speaker 1 (28:43):
No.
In Dutch and German.
No, sorry.
Nope, nope, it's not the same.
Dutch is different from German.
In Dutch, you've got it's not amatter of masculine and
feminine.
You have a matter of onegeneric and one that's called
neuter, N-E-U-T-E-R, whichGerman does have.
But in Dutch, you've just gottwo definite articles, D, D-E,
(29:07):
and Het, H-E-T.
And um it's hard to explain whythere is a difference.
In fact, nobody really knowsbecause uh only the real real
nerds understand the history oflanguage and its evolution,
which I have never really gotinto, but is also interesting.
(29:30):
But in Dutch we just have deand het.
And like I said earlier, youhave to just remember which one
of those goes with the givennoun.
So you have de luchthafen, theuh the airport, but het hotel,
the the hotel.
M I will say most words thatcome from other languages like
(29:51):
hotel are neuter, and so theyhave H E T in front of them.
But we could get further intothe weeds with that, but I think
we Maybe move on.
Speaker (30:02):
Keeping it simple.
Keeping it simple.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
So how about introductions?
My name is.
What is your name?
Ich hate daffid.
My name is David.
That does not mean I hateDavid.
Like that sounds like.
Speaker (30:21):
We don't either.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
No self-loathing.
So the verb hate means to benamed and so, or to be called.
So ich hate means I am namedDavid.
Ick hate daffid.
Who hate ooh?
What is your name?
Now that's formal.
Remember, ooh is the is theformal word for you.
I'm going to teach you how tosay the informal here, because
(30:47):
as you make friends, you willfind that the Dutch move very
easily to the informal,especially if you're of the same
age or younger.
If they're of the same age oryounger.
So how do you ask someone inthat case their name?
You say who who hate yeah.
Now that has a vowel sound thatis a little bit unique to
(31:10):
Dutch.
It's not I and it's not a, it'sin between.
Who hates yeah what is yourname?
So nice to meet you.
Anchnaam.
Anchenam.
And that that means pleasant,basically.
(31:34):
It's like it's pleasant to meetyou, just like uh it's a
pleasure to meet you, we havesaid in in a number of the
languages.
Nice.
Um, how are you?
In uh just like in German, howdoes it go with you?
How goes it with you?
That's how it's structured inDutch as well.
Who is spelled H-O-E.
(31:55):
The O E doesn't say O, it'spronounced O.
So who gaat that means goes,G-A-A-T.
Who gaat het?
That's it.
Who gaat het?
You want to try that?
Who gaat het?
Speaker (32:15):
Who hat het?
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Oh fantastis.
Fantastis.
Heel goed, Alexa.
Who heel goed means very good.
Speaker (32:29):
So do I say danke here?
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Yeah.
Speaker (32:32):
Okay.
Danke.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Well, you'd say dankjewel.
Or dank you.
Uh-huh.
Or bedanct.
So if I if you say who got itto me, how's it going?
I say goed dankye.
Or goed dank you.
And you and you, or en yay,familiar.
(32:56):
And yay.
So you've noticed probably thatthere are two words for ye uh
for you in the informal.
If you're saying thank you,it's dunk you.
But if you're speaking to themand saying you as a subject,
it's yay.
Oh, a little bit too detailed,huh?
How about some numbers?
(33:17):
This is gonna remind you of theGerman episode if you've if
you've listened to it.
Ain Twe T W E E Twe Dree Vier,Fijal sound again.
(33:40):
Five zeven, acht, negen, so youhear a mixture of English and
German in there, don't you?
Speaker (34:00):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Een, twee, three, vier, five, sech, zeven, acht,
negen, tien.
And a hundred is hundred.
Hundred.
Nice.
Speaker (34:15):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
So how about help?
Help.
It's a single letterdifference.
H-U-L-P instead of H E L P.
Help! Nice.
Speaker (34:31):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
So you're saying who how late is it?
And that's what time is it?
Speaker (34:38):
And what about like where is, maybe like where's a
restaurant and the bathroom andall of that?
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Oh yeah.
We um we talked about where is,but we left off, we left off a
couple things, like you say,restaurant, bathroom, bathroom.
Forget the toilet.
So you know the the Britishsometimes say the WC, which we
Americans, not even America, noteven all Americans understand
what that means.
(35:04):
It's water closet, right?
So the WC, that's the mostcommon way to say the bathroom
or the toilet.
Var is de vese.
Var is de vese.
Now, the word for restaurant,this is an example of foreign
(35:25):
words.
The word restaurant comes fromFrench, restaurant, and they say
var is het restaurant.
Var is het restaurant.
And they just kind of sometimesput that nasal on there trying
to be French.
Varis et restaurant.
So Varis de Vesse.
(35:46):
Anything else, Alexa, that wewould want to find?
Speaker (35:50):
Well, we're gonna want to when we get there, we're
gonna ask for water, tea, andcoffee.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Oh, of course.
And coffee all stuffed.
Or just coffee all to believed.
Tay also bleed.
Tay also bleed.
Coffee met milk.
(36:18):
What in the heck does thatmean?
Yes.
Coffee with milk.
So they don't uh speak ofhaving coffee with cream because
in the Netherlands they havewhat they call coffee milk.
Coffee milk.
Coffee milk.
Um and it's really similar towhat we call evaporated milk,
(36:44):
and that's what they put intheir coffee.
Speaker (36:47):
Uh so you can like it?
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Well, I'm not a coffee drinker.
I can't stand coffee.
Speaker (36:53):
Okay.
So, but people you know, didthey like it?
Like when Americans come visit.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Yeah, I would say it's a bit of an acquired taste
for most coffee drinkers, butyeah, I don't remember hearing
any uh anyone complaining aboutit.
Speaker (37:08):
And would they ask for milk or this kind of evaporated
milk?
Are can you do you know ifthere are options?
Speaker 1 (37:17):
It's either with or with or without coffee milk.
Speaker (37:20):
Okay.
So they're gonna go into thistype of milk.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah, and so if you ask for a coffee in a
restaurant, they will bring youa couple of little pods of
coffee milk automatically.
And you just put it in if youlike if you want to or not.
Speaker (37:38):
Makes sense.
All right.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Cool coffee vatr spelled exactly the same way as
English water, just that that Wis a v.
Vatr.
Vatr, coffee te melok.
It is milk, it milk is spelledM-E-L-K, but they sometimes put
a little tiny syllable inbetween there and say melok
(38:01):
coffee melok or coffee met milk.
How much does it cost?
Who fail cost hit?
Who fail how much cost hit andthe bill, please?
De reckoning.
That's awesome.
(38:23):
The reckoning, baby.
Speaker (38:25):
Reckoning exactly.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
I couldn't wait for you to hear that because I knew
you would pick on that pick upon that immediately.
So a reckoning literally meansaccounting of, right?
You're tallying something up.
So the reckoning all to blieft.
Remember the word for please.
The reckoning alstublieft,don't you v.
Always use the um the formal uhin a restaurant.
(38:53):
So um what else, guys?
In the others, we've talkedabout I'm lost, Ich ben
verloren, which sounds like I'mforlorn.
Yeah, right?
Yeah, that's good.
That's a winner.
Exactly.
(39:13):
I've been verloren.
Ich ben verloren.
I think we've kind of made madethe rounds.
What do you guys think?
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Well, I want to I have a question for you, and
this is not the money the water,it's just I'm curious.
So when we were there, firststarted traveling there years
ago, I remember someone teachingus the phrase, and I'm probably
going to butcher it because Inever learned Dutch, but who is
het met yaw?
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Oh, okay.
That's another way of saying,and probably an easier way now
that you mention it, of saying,How how are you?
Who is het is how is it withyou.
Okay.
So that's very good, Rory.
How uh who is het met yaou?
And if you say that fast, whois it met Yao?
Speaker 2 (39:57):
And then the the simple way when we were in a
group because we were doingFlavo, the big festival, they
also thought who is hetmetyulior something like that.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Okay, who is it who is it met Yuli?
Uh that's J-U-L-L-I-E.
That means you plural, youguys.
Right.
Okay.
Who is it, Met Yuli?
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker (40:18):
Now the VU is formal you and the plural you is that
case with Dutch here with thisYuli.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
No.
Speaker (40:28):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Yuli is actually informal, but uh in a context
like the Flavo Festival, it's amusic festival, it's very
relaxed, informal.
You would absolutely use Yuli,uh the informal you guys, uh in
that context.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Who is it mit Yao is to asingle person?
Who is it mit Yuli is uh howare you guys doing?
(40:51):
Yeah, some reason those stuckin my brain.
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker (40:57):
Now what about yes and no?
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Ya and nay.
Ya and nay.
Speaker (41:04):
All right, and then hello and goodbye.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Or just dach.
And remember, dach is alsogoodbye.
Now, if you're if you reallybecome friends with somebody, or
it's it's very familiar betweenyou, you will hear them say
other things like uh like doh ordo yeah, and those are other
(41:33):
ways to say ciao, very, veryfamiliar.
So dach is more formal.
You're going you're leaving astore.
Always, by the way, always saygoodbye on your way out.
In most of these countries,it's most polite to say hello
when you go in, whether anyoneanswers you or not, and goodbye
(41:56):
on your way out, uh, as a matterof politeness.
So dah, that's the most formal.
But between friends, you'llhear them say doh.
So do or doh with a uh gutteron the end, or doy.
And they sometimes they say itreally high pitched.
It's really funny, it's reallycute.
(42:18):
Yeah, we've heard that one agood bit.
Speaker (42:20):
It's good.
Well, on that note, we will saydo we and uh thank you so much
for teaching us some Dutch fortravel.
We just really appreciate allof your time and effort in
teaching us these things, and wewill see you again on our next
episode where we're gonna learnanother language for travel.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
Yeah, and don't forget to check out a socials.
That's right, davidderham.orgis the website, and then on
Facebook, World to the Wise, andon and I'm heading to to uh
towards consolidating mybusiness accounts on Instagram,
so that will eventually be justbe world to the wise as well.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
In case you're not reading that clearly.
Yeah, play on words.
Speaker (43:10):
We'll put that on the show notes so you guys can
reference that and hop on overthere and check out all he has
to offer.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
Awesome.
Thank you, bro.
Great being with you guys.
Thank you.
Speaker (43:19):
See y'all on in the next one.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
Doo.
Speaker (43:25):
We hope we've inspired you this episode.
So join us next time.
Please subscribe to, rate, andshare our podcast with your
friends.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Or, you know, whomever.
Speaker (43:34):
And please like and follow us on Instagram, YouTube,
and Facebook.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
We are also on X and on all social platforms.
We are at The Roamies.
That's T H O.
R-O-A-M.
And our main hub is ourwebsite.
Speaker (43:48):
At www.theroamies.com.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
That's right, that's D H E.
Speaker (43:53):
R O A M.
We'll be there until next time.
Yeah, thanks for listening.
Bye.
This transcript was automatically created and has not be read or edited by our team. Hi,I'm Alexa and I'm .
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Rory.
Speaker (00:02):
And together we are the ROAMies.
We are married to each other.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Right?, We are a touring musical duo.
Speaker (00:11):
And our music has taken us to all kinds of places all
around the world and keeps usalways on the go.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
So we hope you enjoy our stories and adventures while
running around working to keepall your plates spinning.
Speaker (00:22):
And we hope to facilitate your busy lifestyle
and feed your inner travel bug.
Hi everyone.
Thank you for joining us foranother episode in our Learning
Language for Travel series.
We are excited today to againhave David Durham.
David is based in Nashville andhe is a language genius.
(00:46):
We're gonna dive in today withthe language of Dutch.
So we're gonna learn Dutch fortravel.
David, before we dive in, tellus just quickly a few of the
ways people can connect withyou.
You have tours, you have youteach language.
What kind of things do youoffer in your life?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Things I offer in my life.
Love, enjoy, peace, patience,happiness, and then and a little
bit of eccentricity.
Speaker (01:14):
Yes, enjoy.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So the the way to connect with all the lives I
lead is uh at daviddurham.org.
Speaker (01:25):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
And there you will find my blog posts uh at the
blog tab.
You'll find my podcasts on thepodcast tab.
Speaker (01:35):
Yay.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Uh and then there's a language tab, and that will
take you to World to the WiseAcademy.
So my company with my wife iscalled World to the Wise.
And World to the Wise Academyoffers self-study video-based
language courses, specificallyFrench and Spanish.
Speaker (01:55):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Now, these started off as for high school students
because I used to teach on thehigh school level.
And so students, especiallyhomeschoolers, for example, can
actually take those for creditbecause they're full-year
courses.
Speaker (02:09):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
But also it's for adults who just want to learn
the language.
And you guys, to be honest, areinspiring me to go back and do
some more work for people whojust want to learn little
snippets or just get a basicunderstanding.
And so that's a whole to-dolist that's ahead of me.
(02:30):
And then another tab on the onthe website is tours.
And we have World to the WiseCultural Tours, where we lead
small groups of no more than 20people to different parts of the
world, primarily Europe,because that's our home away
from home where we've spent manyyears.
And we've also started awell-worn path to New Zealand,
(02:53):
uh, where our our dear friendsNeil and Jill co-host our groups
in New Zealand, and those arejust incredible experiences.
If you're willing to fly to theother side of the world, it is
so well worth it.
It's just an unforgettableexperience.
So that's my my life in anutshell at this moment.
(03:14):
Most of that is on hold becauseI'm recovering from back
surgery.
But the whole point of thatsurgery is to be able to
continue what I do for many moreyears.
Speaker (03:23):
Love it.
Yes.
Well, thank you for joining usas you're recovering.
And we really, reallyappreciate it.
You are inspiring people totravel.
And, you know, you mentioned inthe previous episode how
knowing a language enriched yourexperience.
And so, you know, we we've kindof started this whole series
with the premise of hey, how canwe be respectful and also make
(03:45):
it easier as a traveler to justget around and do some basic
things.
But, you know, you pointed outyour personal enjoyment of the
experience because you knew thelanguage, it just made it that
much more enriching.
It's just really fun to kind ofadd this element to your travel
experience.
So thank you for helping uskind of open that door and start
(04:05):
taking some baby steps to getthere.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Well, you talk about open doors.
Uh we don't have time to, Idon't know how many episodes we
could fill with stories ofbridges being built to people
that otherwise might not bebuilt at all just because of
what you just said.
So, yeah, it's big.
It's very big.
Huge.
Speaker (04:25):
Yes.
Well, let's dive into Dutch.
Now, where are we going to useDutch?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
That's a great question.
In Deutschland?
Nope.
Nope.
So let's let's clear up someconf let's clear up some
confusion at the beginning,okay?
So Dutch is the language spokenin the Netherlands, otherwise
known as Holland.
Deutsch is the German word forGerman.
(04:53):
And Deutschland is the Germanword for Germany.
Now, Americans might say, sowhat about Pennsylvania Dutch?
Do they speak Dutch in in uhPennsylvania?
Well, that is a big, bigmisnomer.
And I wish I could talk towhoever started that.
(05:13):
They are they have long sincethey've long since passed,
whoever they are.
But Pennsylvania Dutch is notDutch at all.
It is German.
Actually, a an uh what we whatwe say, a descendant of German,
a perversion of German, if youlike.
(05:34):
Uh so Pennsylvania Dutch is notDutch, but we're talking about
the Dutch that is spoken bymillions of people, over 15
million people in that smallcountry of the Netherlands.
But it is also spoken in partsof the Caribbean on the island
of St.
Martin.
Half of the island is Frenchspeaking, the other half is
(05:57):
Dutch.
In Aruba, they speak Dutch.
There is, let's see, Surinameat the tip, northern tip of
South America, also Dutchspeaking, because that those
places were colonized by theDutch.
So millions of speak peoplespeak Dutch.
So we might also need to saythat when you travel to the
(06:17):
Netherlands, you'll find that alot of people speak English.
But let us not let that keep usfrom learning a few phrases
that will, what we were saying,build some bridges.
They will appreciate theeffort.
Yep.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
And just as an aside, if you happen to be in South
Africa and know a few Dutchwords, you can try those Dutch
words, and the Afrikaners willlikely completely understand
what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
I am so glad you brought that up.
I have South African friends,and we have such a fun time.
I speaking in Dutch and themspeaking in Afrikaans, and we
can carry on a basicconversation.
Isn't that something?
Speaker (06:57):
Um, because that is, of course, also Afrikaans is also
derived from Dutch, from theFlemish, just as you mentioned
earlier, the country with Frenchand Dutch.
We have Belgium, that's Frenchand Flemish.
That's exactly right.
And it's right next door to theNetherlands.
And so I'm assuming then thatFlemish is kind of to Dutch what
(07:19):
is like American to Scottishkind of thing.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I could maybe even more similar.
Flemish is basically Dutch.
What they learn in school iscalled Algemeen Bischof
Nederlands, which is the Dutchword for Dutch.
But there are some differencesbetween Flemish spoken in
Belgium, a few differences ofvocabulary, but primarily the
(07:44):
accent.
Speaker (07:51):
So more German and it's approach.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
But it's made but it's pretty much the same
language.
Thank you for that reminder,yeah.
Speaker (08:00):
Not the most popular language in the world, but
you're gonna get some use out ofit when you learn what you're
gonna learn today.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
That's right.
And the Netherlands is such aninteresting country to visit.
I highly recommend it.
And I have to say, this one isalso very close to my heart and
my wife's because of our threesons, our two older sons were
born in Amsterdam, the capitalof the Netherlands.
And as a matter of fact, wehave plans to take them with
(08:27):
their families next summer tovisit their birthplace for the
first time in their adult lives.
They were young when we movedaway.
Speaker (08:34):
What?
So that's gonna be amazing.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Wow.
Yeah, very cool.
So you want to dive in?
Speaker (08:42):
Let's dive in.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
The most common greeting in Dutch is dach.
That's D-A-G.
So you need to get used to someguttural sounds.
Speaker (08:55):
The singer in me is cringing already, David.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Well, did you learn some German arias?
Speaker (09:02):
I did, I did, yes.
I had to take diction and learnsome German.
Yeah.
Those arias, yes.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, those are apparently not your fondest
memories.
unknown (09:15):
They weren't.
Speaker (09:16):
It was all right.
But yeah.
But I don't think I like Ithink when I learned it though,
I mean, I think you make a pointthat if I'm trying to sing it,
I'm not so but maybe if I'mspeaking it, I feel like I'm
damaging my throat or right.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Well, I get it.
So so I'll give you anoverdose, and you will never
want to you'll never want tolearn the language again.
I'll cure you from that.
Um so every language has tonguetwisters, right?
Yeah.
And for people who want topractice that, uh, I say, well,
just learn this.
Ah is a completely nonsensicalphrase.
(09:52):
It's like seashell.
She sells seashells on theseashore.
It means 888 gas stoves.
Anyway.
Let us move on to the work athand.
Moving on.
Dach dach means hello andgoodbye.
(10:12):
So just like ciao in Italian,dah means hello.
If you heard my difference inpronunciation, that's goodbye.
So if you want to make a moreformal hello, you can put the
word good in front of it becausedach means day.
(10:33):
So you can say chude dach.
So a g, in case you hadn'tfigured out, is h.
So whether it's on thebeginning, in the middle, or at
the end of a word, it's chudedach.
Good day.
So let's talk about goodmorning.
Huda morchen.
(10:55):
Don't worry, not every word hasthe guttural sound in it.
But good does.
I promise.
Good does.
So kuda midach is goodafternoon.
(11:15):
Middach means midday,literally, but midach means
afternoon.
Huda midach.
Good evening.
Huda avant.
Or a lot of times they put thean N in the middle.
Hudenavund.
And good night is only used foryour when you're actually
(11:35):
wishing them a good night'ssleep, or when you're separ uh
parting from someone at the endof the evening, Huda Nacht.
Nacht, same as German Nacht, asyou might remember.
So Huda Nacht, good night.
So another way to say goodbye,besides dach, is totzien.
(11:59):
And that's that's uh sometimesassuming that you'll see them
again.
It's like Al Vidazin in uhGerman or Au revoir in French.
So Tot Zins means until.
Zins, Z-I-E-N-S, kind of meansseeing, until the seeing.
(12:22):
Until we see each other again.
Tot ziens.
So there there was no nasal inthat, right?
I mean not nasal, guttural.
Totzin.
So a little break.
So how do we say please?
Alstublieft.
Alstublieft.
And uh I can't break that downliterally what it means, but
(12:45):
it's sort sort of a little bitlike if you please.
Alstubt.
And thank you.
Dunkuvel.
Now you might think that oldsound, isn't that a little bit
American or English?
O isn't it dunkel?
Well, in Belgium, yes.
(13:07):
But in the Netherlands, we saythe the old sound, that kind of
a lazier old, like we do inEnglish with table.
So dancuvel means thank youvery much.
Duncuvel.
You will also hear a moreinformal thank you, which I
(13:31):
would recommend not using in ashop if you don't know somebody,
but if you uh are on good termswith somebody, if there's you
if there's a rapport that's beenbuilt, you say bedunked.
Bedunked.
And so you hear the same asGerman dunke, right?
So the verb duncan in bothGerman and Dutch means to thank.
(13:57):
So yes, Dutch is a Germaniclanguage, and Americans might
not realize how many Germaniclanguages there are besides
German.
You've also got theScandinavian languages that are
very Germanic, Swedish,Norwegian, Danish, and Icelandic
are all Germanic languages.
(14:19):
And so if you've learned someGerman, then you will understand
quite a number of bits andpieces of other Germanic
languages.
Have you guys experienced that?
Oh, yeah.
Speaker (14:34):
Our um one of our musicians has, you know, who was
fluent in German.
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah.
Well, even hearing thelanguages spoken, being familiar
with German, you can hear itpieces, bits and pieces here and
there.
And if you don't know they'reassociated, you think that's
right.
Am I like hearing what I thinkI'm hearing?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah.
I sometimes enjoy watchingScandinavian shows in the
original language with Englishsubtitles, just so I can pick up
on those.
It's so much fun.
And that is for you know, forsome of us, it's fun.
For us freaks, it's fun.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
That's right.
Yeah, you got it.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
So thank you is dunky vel.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Hey, quick question for you in relation to that.
So, as an English speaker, itsounds like thank you well.
So, is there an occasion whereyou would say it without the
Vell?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yes.
Yes, good question.
You can't just say dunku.
Okay.
Speaker (15:36):
And is that a little more casual or a little more not
not rude, but like if you leaveoff the vowel part?
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Uh with acquaintances?
Uh yes.
Right.
I I I think I would say thatyou would hear that more often
if you're saying no, thank you.
Okay.
And no is n no is nay.
So if you want to say no, thankyou, you could say n cu.
(16:04):
Yep.
Now, we should pause here andand say that just like all the
other languages that we'vetalked about, with when you've
had me on, there is a differencebetween formal and familiar.
Speaker (16:20):
Right, right.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
And what I'm teaching you is formal because that's
assuming that most of the peopleyou're in contact with are
strangers.
Speaker (16:28):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
If if you're a visitor, right now, I will say
here the the informal way ofsaying thank you is dunky.
It's a very simple, very subtledifference.
Dunk is formal because is theformal for you.
And yeah is the informal.
(16:52):
So you could say dunkyvel toyour friends and acquaintances.
Dunkel is for uh is formal.
And bedunct, another uh thingthat I find interesting is that
they have adopted the Englishword sorry, and it is it is a
(17:13):
completely legitimate Dutch wordnow.
I can't I can't tell you whenthat happened, but the way to
say excuse me or I'm sorry issorry.
Wow, sorry, love it.
Yeah.
Sorry, can you tell me wherethe train station is?
Or for example.
So how about do you speakEnglish?
(17:37):
Once again, we're gonna use theformal here.
Spreight angles.
Spreight angles.
So you hear that that word forEnglish, Engels?
Um it's a little bit similar tothe word for angels.
(18:00):
Yeah.
Being in a native English, sothe word for right.
The word for English is Engels.
Most um most languages, namesfor languages in Dutch, now that
I think of an end and an S,French is Franz, German is
doubt, Spanish is spans, butEnglish is Engels.
(18:24):
Sprecht u Engels ne.
Ne.
Now, there's another way to sayI'm sorry, and this would be
the the perfect context.
No, I'm sorry, I don't speakEnglish.
Het spait me.
Het spight me.
(18:44):
And that literally means it umit pains me.
Speaker (18:50):
Ah it sounds like in spite of myself, you know, like
that's oh yeah, yeah.
Like well, in spite of, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Uh-huh.
I hadn't thought of that.
But just like uh uh in German,the word for uh the expression
for I'm sorry is estut mirror,which means it does me pain or
suffering.
unknown (19:12):
Yeah.
Speaker (19:13):
Which, if you haven't heard our learn German episode,
go back and listen to that.
He breaks that down for usthere too.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yep.
Uh I hope I said es tut mirleid on the German one.
I'm pretty sure you did.
Oh, good, good, good, good.
So, do you speak English?
Spricht Engels?
Ne, het spijt me.
Now you don't have to learnthat unless you're saying, I'm
sorry, I don't speak Dutch.
And then, you know what?
That's a good thing to learn,isn't it?
Speaker (19:40):
It is a good thing to learn.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
It pains me that I don't speak.
Because it's more inform Yeah,it's more important for you to
acknowledge that you don't speakthan for them to acknowledge
they don't speak yours.
Speaker (19:54):
Right, right.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
This is a general rule across the board, right?
No matter where you are.
So het spijt me ik is I spreekspeak.
There's that guttural g.
Uh Nederlands.
(20:16):
So the the Dutch word for Dutchis Nederlands.
Now, where does that come from?
We we should have said this atthe beginning.
The name of the country isNederland.
Nederland, which means, whatwould you guess?
(20:36):
Low country.
We talk about the low countriesbeing uh the Netherlands,
Belgium, and Luxembourg.
But the name Nederland byitself means low country, low
land.
Nederland.
And so the name of thelanguage, you just add an S to
the end of that, like we weresaying.
So ik, I spreak, speak, no,Nederlands.
(21:04):
I speak no Dutch.
Ik spreek geen Nederlands.
Het spijt me, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Would it would it be would it be easier for someone
to say no Nederland?
I'm sorry, you know, instead oflike I don't speak.
Is there a shorter way thatsomeone could remember a simple
way to say?
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Yeah, you could just say, you could just say geen.
You couldn't say ne Nederlands.
I mean, of course you could,but they and they would
understand.
No.
But the abbreviated way to sayI don't speak any German, they
most often word it, I speak noGerman.
Okay.
As in uh like there is no norestroom here.
(21:45):
It's the same kind ofstructure.
So chain Nederlands.
No English.
Gein Nederlands, no Dutch.
Okay.
I don't understand ik verstaniet.
I understand not.
(22:06):
So just a little parenthesishere.
Did you guys know that Englishis also a Germanic language?
Yes.
Speaker (22:15):
Makes sense.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
So English is a unique language in that it is a
uh a blend of Germanic and Latinroots.
Speaker (22:25):
Yeah, those romance languages we were talking about
on the previous episode.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Exactly.
And if you look, if you justyou know, in the old days we
used to have books that werecalled dictionaries.
And if you take uh an Englishdictionary and say a Dutch
dictionary, the Englishdictionary would be much
thicker.
Why is that?
In other words, why doesEnglish have such a bigger
(22:51):
vocabulary than most otherEuropean languages?
That is due to a single eventin the year 1066 when William
the Conqueror, who was fromNormandy, as in Northwest
France, French-speaking, eventhough he was descended from the
(23:11):
Vikings, he had begun to speakFrench, and he took his
French-speaking forces andfought the battle of Hastings
against King Harold, the Saxonking, the Anglo-Saxon king, and
defeated them, set up his court,and for the next hundred years,
(23:32):
the English court wasFrench-speaking.
Yeah.
And so French had a way ofworking its way into the
population.
And so today, in modernEnglish, 40% of our language
comes to us from French by wayof the Normans.
So that's why in uh sorry, I'mkind of getting on my t-shirt,
(23:58):
putting on my t-shirt.
Speaker (24:00):
Yeah, we love it.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
That's why in English there are often two ways to say
the same thing.
And if you look at it, one willeasily be a Germanic way and
the other way will be a Latinway.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
I love history, so all that's really.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
I love it too.
I mean, there's a reason foreverything.
unknown (24:18):
Yeah.
Speaker (24:18):
Right.
It makes our language makesense, like why some things are
so similar in the Romancelanguage and why some things are
so similar when we hear Germanor Dutch.
So exactly.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
And if you study the 20th century history any England
following any of the Englishhistory following like the royal
family, you think, why do theykeep marrying people from the
German world and the Frenchworld?
Why is it they don't seem tolike they come they seem they're
always in conflict and at war,but they're always marrying each
other from you know into theroyal family, which I always
thought was really strange, butit makes completely sense if you
(24:50):
know the history that far back.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah, and it also has to do with power, right?
Absolutely.
But that's but that's the kindof relationship.
That's right.
Yeah.
So anyway, let's see what elsewould be handy for us to know in
Dutch.
Speaker (25:07):
I always like to know where is, or where can I find
shopping, restaurant, bathroom.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Yes, yes, okay.
So the Dutch word for where isvar.
So the W has a V sound.
It's W A A R var.
Var is where is?
You can hear the similarity.
So the station, as in the trainstation, het stadion.
(25:34):
Het station.
Where is the airport?
Var is de Luchthafen.
And Luchthafen literally meansairport.
Lucht meaning airhafen meaningport.
As in Haven, by the way.
Luchthafen.
(25:54):
Var is de Luchthafen.
Where is the airport?
Var is het hotel.
The hotel.
Where is the bus stop?
Varis de Bushalte.
Bus halte.
Halt.
Var is de bus halte.
(26:14):
What's that?
Halt?
Stop?
That's right.
Exactly.
Var is de apoteek.
You want to guess what that is?
Yeah.
Like the apte.
The apothecary.
The apocalypse.
Speaker (26:31):
Yeah, the apocalypse.
Apothecary.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yeah, the apothecary, the pharmacy.
That's those are the two wordsfor the in Dutch.
unknown (26:50):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
And no, they cannot be used interchangeably.
So unfortunately, you have tomemorize the gender of each
word, just like you do in allthe other languages we've talked
about, right?
So if anyone listening to thisdecides to get serious about
studying one of these languages,here's a pro tip.
(27:12):
When you learn a noun, learnits gender from the get-go.
Yeah.
That will save you a lot ofheartache.
Speaker (27:21):
Right.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Seems like such a trivial thing for us English
speakers because we can'trelate.
We only have we only have the.
Speaker (27:29):
And David, just along that note, do you feel like with
all of the languages that youknow, I'm sure there's
exceptions all over, but whatfor the majority, would you say
that since like chair ismasculine in French, it turns
out it's also masculine inPortuguese and Dutch and German
(27:51):
and Spanish.
And you know, are like are mostnouns the same gender across
languages in your experience?
Speaker 1 (27:59):
We could only wish.
Speaker (28:02):
So no.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
I mean, yes, there is a lot of among romance
languages, there is a lot ofconsistency, but just when you
think it's they're all the same,you find an exception.
Speaker (28:18):
Sure.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
But it's easier to learn the exceptions.
Let's be honest.
I mean, I will say that thereare more exceptions.
So yeah, between from French toSpanish to Italian to
Portuguese, I would say by andlarge, most of the nouns have
the same gender, with with someexceptions.
Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker (28:37):
Thanks.
So so that could leap over intoDutch even though it's more
Germanic, or do you think prettymuch?
Speaker 1 (28:43):
No.
In Dutch and German.
No, sorry.
Nope, nope, it's not the same.
Dutch is different from German.
In Dutch, you've got it's not amatter of masculine and
feminine.
You have a matter of onegeneric and one that's called
neuter, N-E-U-T-E-R, whichGerman does have.
But in Dutch, you've just gottwo definite articles, D, D-E,
(29:07):
and Het, H-E-T.
And um it's hard to explain whythere is a difference.
In fact, nobody really knowsbecause uh only the real real
nerds understand the history oflanguage and its evolution,
which I have never really gotinto, but is also interesting.
(29:30):
But in Dutch we just have deand het.
And like I said earlier, youhave to just remember which one
of those goes with the givennoun.
So you have de luchthafen, theuh the airport, but het hotel,
the the hotel.
M I will say most words thatcome from other languages like
(29:51):
hotel are neuter, and so theyhave H E T in front of them.
But we could get further intothe weeds with that, but I think
we Maybe move on.
Speaker (30:02):
Keeping it simple.
Keeping it simple.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
So how about introductions?
My name is.
What is your name?
Ich hate daffid.
My name is David.
That does not mean I hateDavid.
Like that sounds like.
Speaker (30:21):
We don't either.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
No self-loathing.
So the verb hate means to benamed and so, or to be called.
So ich hate means I am namedDavid.
Ick hate daffid.
Who hate ooh?
What is your name?
Now that's formal.
Remember, ooh is the is theformal word for you.
I'm going to teach you how tosay the informal here, because
(30:47):
as you make friends, you willfind that the Dutch move very
easily to the informal,especially if you're of the same
age or younger.
If they're of the same age oryounger.
So how do you ask someone inthat case their name?
You say who who hate yeah.
Now that has a vowel sound thatis a little bit unique to
(31:10):
Dutch.
It's not I and it's not a, it'sin between.
Who hates yeah what is yourname?
So nice to meet you.
Anchnaam.
Anchenam.
And that that means pleasant,basically.
(31:34):
It's like it's pleasant to meetyou, just like uh it's a
pleasure to meet you, we havesaid in in a number of the
languages.
Nice.
Um, how are you?
In uh just like in German, howdoes it go with you?
How goes it with you?
That's how it's structured inDutch as well.
Who is spelled H-O-E.
(31:55):
The O E doesn't say O, it'spronounced O.
So who gaat that means goes,G-A-A-T.
Who gaat het?
That's it.
Who gaat het?
You want to try that?
Who gaat het?
Speaker (32:15):
Who hat het?
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Oh fantastis.
Fantastis.
Heel goed, Alexa.
Who heel goed means very good.
Speaker (32:29):
So do I say danke here?
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Yeah.
Speaker (32:32):
Okay.
Danke.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Well, you'd say dankjewel.
Or dank you.
Uh-huh.
Or bedanct.
So if I if you say who got itto me, how's it going?
I say goed dankye.
Or goed dank you.
And you and you, or en yay,familiar.
(32:56):
And yay.
So you've noticed probably thatthere are two words for ye uh
for you in the informal.
If you're saying thank you,it's dunk you.
But if you're speaking to themand saying you as a subject,
it's yay.
Oh, a little bit too detailed,huh?
How about some numbers?
(33:17):
This is gonna remind you of theGerman episode if you've if
you've listened to it.
Ain Twe T W E E Twe Dree Vier,Fijal sound again.
(33:40):
Five zeven, acht, negen, so youhear a mixture of English and
German in there, don't you?
Speaker (34:00):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Een, twee, three, vier, five, sech, zeven, acht,
negen, tien.
And a hundred is hundred.
Hundred.
Nice.
Speaker (34:15):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
So how about help?
Help.
It's a single letterdifference.
H-U-L-P instead of H E L P.
Help! Nice.
Speaker (34:31):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
So you're saying who how late is it?
And that's what time is it?
Speaker (34:38):
And what about like where is, maybe like where's a
restaurant and the bathroom andall of that?
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Oh yeah.
We um we talked about where is,but we left off, we left off a
couple things, like you say,restaurant, bathroom, bathroom.
Forget the toilet.
So you know the the Britishsometimes say the WC, which we
Americans, not even America, noteven all Americans understand
what that means.
(35:04):
It's water closet, right?
So the WC, that's the mostcommon way to say the bathroom
or the toilet.
Var is de vese.
Var is de vese.
Now, the word for restaurant,this is an example of foreign
(35:25):
words.
The word restaurant comes fromFrench, restaurant, and they say
var is het restaurant.
Var is het restaurant.
And they just kind of sometimesput that nasal on there trying
to be French.
Varis et restaurant.
So Varis de Vesse.
(35:46):
Anything else, Alexa, that wewould want to find?
Speaker (35:50):
Well, we're gonna want to when we get there, we're
gonna ask for water, tea, andcoffee.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Oh, of course.
And coffee all stuffed.
Or just coffee all to believed.
Tay also bleed.
Tay also bleed.
Coffee met milk.
(36:18):
What in the heck does thatmean?
Yes.
Coffee with milk.
So they don't uh speak ofhaving coffee with cream because
in the Netherlands they havewhat they call coffee milk.
Coffee milk.
Coffee milk.
Um and it's really similar towhat we call evaporated milk,
(36:44):
and that's what they put intheir coffee.
Speaker (36:47):
Uh so you can like it?
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Well, I'm not a coffee drinker.
I can't stand coffee.
Speaker (36:53):
Okay.
So, but people you know, didthey like it?
Like when Americans come visit.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Yeah, I would say it's a bit of an acquired taste
for most coffee drinkers, butyeah, I don't remember hearing
any uh anyone complaining aboutit.
Speaker (37:08):
And would they ask for milk or this kind of evaporated
milk?
Are can you do you know ifthere are options?
Speaker 1 (37:17):
It's either with or with or without coffee milk.
Speaker (37:20):
Okay.
So they're gonna go into thistype of milk.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah, and so if you ask for a coffee in a
restaurant, they will bring youa couple of little pods of
coffee milk automatically.
And you just put it in if youlike if you want to or not.
Speaker (37:38):
Makes sense.
All right.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Cool coffee vatr spelled exactly the same way as
English water, just that that Wis a v.
Vatr.
Vatr, coffee te melok.
It is milk, it milk is spelledM-E-L-K, but they sometimes put
a little tiny syllable inbetween there and say melok
(38:01):
coffee melok or coffee met milk.
How much does it cost?
Who fail cost hit?
Who fail how much cost hit andthe bill, please?
De reckoning.
That's awesome.
(38:23):
The reckoning, baby.
Speaker (38:25):
Reckoning exactly.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
I couldn't wait for you to hear that because I knew
you would pick on that pick upon that immediately.
So a reckoning literally meansaccounting of, right?
You're tallying something up.
So the reckoning all to blieft.
Remember the word for please.
The reckoning alstublieft,don't you v.
Always use the um the formal uhin a restaurant.
(38:53):
So um what else, guys?
In the others, we've talkedabout I'm lost, Ich ben
verloren, which sounds like I'mforlorn.
Yeah, right?
Yeah, that's good.
That's a winner.
Exactly.
(39:13):
I've been verloren.
Ich ben verloren.
I think we've kind of made madethe rounds.
What do you guys think?
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Well, I want to I have a question for you, and
this is not the money the water,it's just I'm curious.
So when we were there, firststarted traveling there years
ago, I remember someone teachingus the phrase, and I'm probably
going to butcher it because Inever learned Dutch, but who is
het met yaw?
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Oh, okay.
That's another way of saying,and probably an easier way now
that you mention it, of saying,How how are you?
Who is het is how is it withyou.
Okay.
So that's very good, Rory.
How uh who is het met yaou?
And if you say that fast, whois it met Yao?
Speaker 2 (39:57):
And then the the simple way when we were in a
group because we were doingFlavo, the big festival, they
also thought who is hetmetyulior something like that.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Okay, who is it who is it met Yuli?
Uh that's J-U-L-L-I-E.
That means you plural, youguys.
Right.
Okay.
Who is it, Met Yuli?
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker (40:18):
Now the VU is formal you and the plural you is that
case with Dutch here with thisYuli.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
No.
Speaker (40:28):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Yuli is actually informal, but uh in a context
like the Flavo Festival, it's amusic festival, it's very
relaxed, informal.
You would absolutely use Yuli,uh the informal you guys, uh in
that context.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Who is it mit Yao is to asingle person?
Who is it mit Yuli is uh howare you guys doing?
(40:51):
Yeah, some reason those stuckin my brain.
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker (40:57):
Now what about yes and no?
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Ya and nay.
Ya and nay.
Speaker (41:04):
All right, and then hello and goodbye.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Or just dach.
And remember, dach is alsogoodbye.
Now, if you're if you reallybecome friends with somebody, or
it's it's very familiar betweenyou, you will hear them say
other things like uh like doh ordo yeah, and those are other
(41:33):
ways to say ciao, very, veryfamiliar.
So dach is more formal.
You're going you're leaving astore.
Always, by the way, always saygoodbye on your way out.
In most of these countries,it's most polite to say hello
when you go in, whether anyoneanswers you or not, and goodbye
(41:56):
on your way out, uh, as a matterof politeness.
So dah, that's the most formal.
But between friends, you'llhear them say doh.
So do or doh with a uh gutteron the end, or doy.
And they sometimes they say itreally high pitched.
It's really funny, it's reallycute.
(42:18):
Yeah, we've heard that one agood bit.
Speaker (42:20):
It's good.
Well, on that note, we will saydo we and uh thank you so much
for teaching us some Dutch fortravel.
We just really appreciate allof your time and effort in
teaching us these things, and wewill see you again on our next
episode where we're gonna learnanother language for travel.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
Yeah, and don't forget to check out a socials.
That's right, davidderham.orgis the website, and then on
Facebook, World to the Wise, andon and I'm heading to to uh
towards consolidating mybusiness accounts on Instagram,
so that will eventually be justbe world to the wise as well.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
In case you're not reading that clearly.
Yeah, play on words.
Speaker (43:10):
We'll put that on the show notes so you guys can
reference that and hop on overthere and check out all he has
to offer.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
Awesome.
Thank you, bro.
Great being with you guys.
Thank you.
Speaker (43:19):
See y'all on in the next one.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
Doo.
Speaker (43:25):
We hope we've inspired you this episode.
So join us next time.
Please subscribe to, rate, andshare our podcast with your
friends.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Or, you know, whomever.
Speaker (43:34):
And please like and follow us on Instagram, YouTube,
and Facebook.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
We are also on X and on all social platforms.
We are at The Roamies.
That's T H O.
R-O-A-M.
And our main hub is ourwebsite.
Speaker (43:48):
At www.theroamies.com.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
That's right, that's D H E.
Speaker (43:53):
R O A M.
We'll be there until next time.
Yeah, thanks for listening.
Bye.
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