Saturday, 14 January 2006
Some changes
Friends, I'm sorry for not maintaning this blog for some time. Seems like some people have 'bad agenda' about my blog. Hence I'm disabling some features and put more restriction. Sorry for the incovenience for the genuine ones.
Friday, 30 December 2005
muisjes or hagelslag
When I was young, I always put 'hagelslag' on my bread. By that time, mom told me that its name is 'muisjes' -- that's the Dutch word (Don't mixed up with meisjes; muis = mouse, notice the similarity between hagelslag and excrement of mice). I noticed that in the package there was the word 'hagelslag' as well, but I thought it was the English word.
Once I was curious about the Indonesian word for 'muisjes' and found 'coklat roti' -- but nobody seems to use this term.
When I was in NL, I learnt that the thing that I know as 'muisjes' is called 'hagelslag' by the Dutch and 'muisjes' is a different thing! Once I met a Dutch girl who insisted that Dutch is the only creature on earth to use hagelslag on their bread -- well, me as well!
Now back in my home country, I looked around and see several packages of hagelslag. Here are some that I saw: muisjes, hagelslag, mesis, meises.
The question is: where is the missing link? If we learnt 'muisjes' from the Dutch, why did we call 'hagelslag' as 'muisjes'? Isn't it easier to pronounce 'hagelslag' than 'muisjes'?
Once I was curious about the Indonesian word for 'muisjes' and found 'coklat roti' -- but nobody seems to use this term.
When I was in NL, I learnt that the thing that I know as 'muisjes' is called 'hagelslag' by the Dutch and 'muisjes' is a different thing! Once I met a Dutch girl who insisted that Dutch is the only creature on earth to use hagelslag on their bread -- well, me as well!
Now back in my home country, I looked around and see several packages of hagelslag. Here are some that I saw: muisjes, hagelslag, mesis, meises.
The question is: where is the missing link? If we learnt 'muisjes' from the Dutch, why did we call 'hagelslag' as 'muisjes'? Isn't it easier to pronounce 'hagelslag' than 'muisjes'?
Monday, 26 December 2005
Merry Christmas
We wish you a merry Christmas
We wish you a merry Christmas
We wish you a merry Christmas
And a happy new year!
We wish you a merry Christmas
We wish you a merry Christmas
And a happy new year!
Thursday, 15 December 2005
Addressing Others
Suppose A and B come from different culture. How should one address the other?
I think several things matter:
1. What language do they use?
For example, when the term mevrouw is used, it's fine with me, but I would object to be called Mrs.
2. The best, of course, is to get to an agreement which satisfies both parties (polder model, mufakat).
3. But if agreement is not reached, what next?
Personally, I think if A should respect who B is and call him/her by how B wants to be address, not by how A wants to address him/her; and vice versa. Just as we do not change our friends' names according to what we want them to be, we should respect how others want to be called.
Do not change me into someone I'm not! There is no use of enforcing a certain culture.
I think several things matter:
1. What language do they use?
For example, when the term mevrouw is used, it's fine with me, but I would object to be called Mrs.
2. The best, of course, is to get to an agreement which satisfies both parties (polder model, mufakat).
3. But if agreement is not reached, what next?
Personally, I think if A should respect who B is and call him/her by how B wants to be address, not by how A wants to address him/her; and vice versa. Just as we do not change our friends' names according to what we want them to be, we should respect how others want to be called.
Do not change me into someone I'm not! There is no use of enforcing a certain culture.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
