A quick Dutch lesson…
In Dutch, ‘ee’ is said like we would say ‘ay’. So for example, Nee is said like ‘nay’.
Yesterday I dragged Xander into town while I went shopping for fabric to make some liners for the hedgie cage.
The conversation with the sales girl went like this:
Me: Ik wil twee meters fleece kopen, alstublieft! (I would like to buy 2 meters of fleece, please)
Girl: ** Weird look **
Xander stepped in then and took over and explained to the girl what I wanted.
On the way out he explained to me why the girl looked at me so funny.
In Dutch, vlees is said like (hmm trying to think of how to type it in English) … flayse… and it means MEAT.
In Dutch FLEECE is said like FLEECE, the same way we say it in English. Only I didn’t know that and said it making the ‘ay’ sound for ‘ee’.
So what did I actually say to the chick? Yeah, well I guess the title already gave it away.
I would like to buy two meters of meat, please!
No wonder she looked at me like I had two heads… but jeez, how was I supposed to know fleece was said like fleece?! ARGH! How embarassing!
Good gracious! Just what kind of shop did you think you were in Tammy!? Hahaha
haha, that’s funny. I know a tiny bit of Dutch and I got looked at weird sometimes too when I was in Holland, if I pronounced something a little strange.
I can totally relate, the dutch language can be tough Tammy, but hey at least your trying. Wanna see some pics of the new furry ( um ok maybe not so furry) addition.
LOL
Thankfully they didn’t stock meat huh?
Blogmad hit!
greetings from south beach! Just came across your blogs via 25 peeps. You and hubbie are too cute for words!
I went to Holland many years ago … you seem to be doing fine. :-)
Cheers,
M
Heh. That’s funny.
I ordered jus de peche once in Quebec (Peach juice). Being the early AM before a class, I was tired, and it came out sounding like jus de pecheur (Fisher juice).
Ooops.
The joys of learning another language!
So, heheh what did you get in the end ? The Fleece or the Meat ?
Hahahahahahaha! I can SO see this happening… Don’t feel bad… Stuff like that happens to me in other countries as well!
See, this is why I stick with English… because I would get eaten alive trying to speak anything else.
The most horrible accent ever in ANY language belongs to me. Seriously.
Blogmad hit.