Heddwen Newton - English & Dutch

Even at, like, organisational psychology? I just feel like all the professors at organisational psychology should have their own cooperation all figured out ;-D

Random question

I often hear from friends in academia that there is lots of departmental drama: people refusing to work together, splitting up into camps, pressures on junior staff etc.

Is that mostly a humanities thing?

Do the social sciences, who study this kind of stuff, manage to avoid this?

Hoe zeg je "een wassen neus" in het Engels? - Hoe zeg je in het Engels “Een wassen neus” is een uitdrukking die ik zelf nooit gebruik, en online bronnen geven verschillende definities, dus ik moest even goed bekijken wat het in het Nederlands precies betekent, voordat ik...

"A wax nose" is used in Dutch to refer to something, often a law or agreement, that is worthless, because it can so easily be shaped into something else.

Searching for a good illustration, I could only find plastic noses. But those can't be reshaped! So my 5-year-old and I got creative.

Oh, dit lied kende ik niet, wat mooi!
In mijn werk heb ik het normaalgesproken altijd consequent over "Nederlandstalig", omdat het Belgisch Nederlands voor mij absoluut meedoet. In dit geval heb ik mijn statistiek van het Meertens Instituut gehaald, en dat zijn dan dus echt Nederlandse dames.

Screenshot of email text: Hello Heddwen, Thankyouwell for your snell antword. Your webside is so veryshrikking good..😉😉😉 Dank, leuke website, ! Ontzettend leuk en goed initiatief. (no) Joke Translation: Hello Heddwen, thank you very much for your fast answer. Your website is so terribly good. Thanks, great website! Very fun and good initiative. (no) Joke.

Yesterday I got an email from a Joke. She was thanking me for writing an article on my website in which I answered her question (hence the slightly over-the-top compliments).

She had a different solution for her email sign-off. I love it!

(4/4)

Most just sign their name and assume that the reader is intelligent enough to understand that people in other countries might have names that look like an English word without being that English word.

(3/x)

Women called Joke (Jokes) have various ways of presenting themselves to English speakers. Some go back to Johanna, or call themselves Jo, some have an explanation of the pronunciation in their email sign-off.

(2/x)

One Dutch name that surprises English speakers is “Joke”.

It isn’t pronounced the way you think, but as “yoak-uh” (or [joːkə] if you can read IPA).

Short for Johanna, it was very popular in its day, and very many Dutch women have this name. Most of them are aged between 60 and 80.

(1/x)

Hoe zeg je "een kat in het nauw maakt rare sprongen" in het Engels? - Hoe zeg je in het Engels Op de Berlinale van 2026 werd Mees Peijnenburg, regisseur van de Nederlandstalige film “A Family”, na de vertoning van de film door het publiek bevraagd. Volgens Het Parool kwam hij toen even niet op ...

Interestingly, in Dutch, "a cornered cat will act crazy" (literally "will jump strangely"), whereas in English, cornered animals fight back, as in "to act like a cornered rat".

When you are under stress, do you act crazy or fight back? I think Dutch speakers might have a point with this one!

Haha! Toen ik nog docent op een middelbare school was deed ik altijd in de eerste les "de drie wetten van Newton": Alleen in het Engels praten, vinger opsteken als je me nodig hebt, en écht alleen in het Engels praten.

Screengrab from Reddit: All Olympic 500m speedskate medallists have the same name -- "from the woods" Picture of three athletes holding medals Short Track Speed Skating Men's 500m Victory Ceremony CAN - Steven Dubois NED - Melle van 't Wout NED - Jens van 't Wout

The two Dutchmen are brothers, so it's not very strange that they have the same name, but this is still a fun coincidence!

(From Reddit r/Etymology)

Speelzand is wel degelijk een ander soort zand dan bouwzand of strandzand, kan ik als moeder vertellen. Ronder van vorm, geen scherpe deeltjes, en "plakt" beter voor zandkastelen.

Interessant! Ik ben echt zo benieuwd naar de vakbekwaamheidstoets voor bv BA in de komende jaren - een scriptie heeft als toets echt weinig waarde meer.

If you are doing, or thinking of starting, a project about language that will (also) teach 'regular folks' about language, you should apply for this grant! Apart from some money, it will also give you publicity and a wider network.

A truth like a cow 🐮, It's a random edition! 🎲 English and the Dutch #37

I was a bit ill last weekend, so I made it easy on myself: the theme this month is ‘no theme’ 😉

It did give me the chance to dig up some of my favourite fun facts that don’t really fit into any easy category!

Leuk! Ik ben erbij!

A typical Dutch winter scene in Delft 🙂

Belgian PM’s cat Maximus is social media star with ‘subliminal political message’ Maximus Textoris Pulcher, an official resident at Rue de la Loi 16, shows a warmer side of Bart De Wever

The Belgian prime minister's cat is popular on social media, and on The Guardian's homepage - and he speaks Dutch!

I'm right there with you. However, it is such a joy to see Flanders coming up top in anything that I decided to include the news anyway! (And with flawed methodology or not - the idea that Flanders would do much better than Wallonia in this respect does ring very true.)

English and the Dutch Newsletter #36 About Labubu, Flanders being better than everyone else, and feeling people on the tooth

Labubu is Dutch! (not really) Flemish people speak the best non-native English in the world (yes, really), and the Dutch language has a whole lot of proverbs about teeth.

All that and more in my latest newsletter :-)

In de slaapkamer zat haar lieveling reeds op ’t bed te wachten. „Ja hoor, m’n snollebolletje… ’t vrouwtje komt bij je hoor! Gaan we saampjes lekker slaapjes doen jaaaa??” „Mau-au-auwwww!” In the bedroom her darling was already sitting on the bed, waiting. “Yes, all right, my little sweetie… mummy’s coming to you now! Shall we go and have a nice little sleep together, yes?” “Miaow-ow-owwww!” https://nha.courant.nu/issue/NHC/1924-08-30/edition/null/page/9?query=%22jaaaa%22

Did a quick search - here's 30 August 2024, with an example of w-lengthening for good measure.

Perfectly normal in Dutch, where vowel lengthening to two vowels is part of the language, so adding a few more feels natural. Certainly pre internet. No can be "neeeeeee" and yes can be "jaaaaaaa" for example.

Sinterklaas is one word :-) I noticed the similarity as an English-speaking child growing up in the Netherlands, and was always so confused, because to me, they were very seperate people! (They both brought me presents, though! My mother told me they were brothers :-)

What was the original language?

Aaaah, thank you!

Ack! My browser isn't showing those emojis. Could you take a screenshot? I'm so curious!

Dutch: We write the date like this. Anything else is wrong. 10-12-2025 German: We write the date like this. Anything else is wrong. 10.12.2025 English: Whatever. 10 December 2025 10.12.2025 Dec. 10, 2025 10-12-2025 10/12/2025 12.10.2025 December 10, 2025 12/10/2025 12-10-2025 10/Dec/2025 10 Dec. 2025 englishandthedutch.substack.com

Date formats always confuse my English students. So I made a helpful slide.

Gewoon 'dochmatisch'. Maar ik denk dat ik toch dacht dat het Nederlands van het Engels kwam.

I didn't know that, that's brilliant!

I read Asterix in Dutch, and the dog had his French name "Idefix". Turns out this is a pun on "idée fixe", making "Dogmatix" a brilliant translation!

So now I'm wondering if my reasoning was my own, or if I perhaps once knew about "Dogmatix" but just forgot...

I thought the word "dogmatic" was a combination of "dog" and "automatic". Like a persistent and not very clever dog who is following a certain idea like an unstoppable robot.

I just looked it up. It comes from the word "dogma".

OMG, of course it does. 🤦‍♀️😂