I envy people who got to grow up with multiple active languages. I feel I was robbed of 2 languages I should have learned as a child Yiddish and Russian. The only phrase I ever heard clearly in either of them was "Say it in Russian/Yiddish, the children are listening."

@Absinthe You just reached the limits of my dutch... but i shall respond with "Goed, jij ook?"

@freemo Well, other than the joke from the movie, and "Gif me ein glas sheri" we have both reached the limits.

You have seen "Prelude to a Kiss"?

@freemo it was a cute movie, in a weird sci-fi sort of way

@Absinthe I like sci-fi :) sounds like an attempt to get girly girls and nerdy men to go to the same movie together :)

@freemo the premise is that on their wedding day this "crazy old man" shows up and wants to kiss the bride, and when he does they switch souls. So the rest of the movie is as you can guess trying to get back to the right people in the right bodies, but old, near death, dude is preferring being in cute healthy girl body, and no one will believe crazy old dude body that he is Meg Ryan. ... But the Dutch language gag is funny.

@Absinthe lol Sounds like every movie ever written. Still id watch it for shits and giggles once.

@freemo ::Puts on Teacher Hat::

The phrase she knows is "Je hoeft elle erg witte tanden" - it means "You have very white teeth." (Perhaps a very useful phrase in NL, though I am not sure where it would come in handy.

The new line that he teaches her to say is "om je beter me up te eten" which she practices in the most adorable way and when she is back in her body, she finally says it and asks what it means.... "The better to eat you up!" <- perhaps an equally useful phrase in NL, YMMV, but feel free to give either of them a try and let me know how it works. :)
I thought it was hilarious, especially as a dragged out running gag.

@freemo you're welcome. That is a real fun site, quite the rabbit hole, you can click around and see them all in all kinds of languages, kind of a modern rosetta stone :)

@freemo When looking at languages I don't know anything about I like to start here (is the dutch version) :

The two I start with are:
Deze meneer betaalt alles
(I got to successfully use the italian/femine version of this phrase and impressed my mother in law by having the waiter hand her the check instead of me)
AND
Mijn luchtkussenboot zit vol paling
(I only wish I had learned this one, for the crazy guy that kept coming to our table at the cafe. The waitress told us to just ignore him because he is crazy. This would have been the best response of all)

The rest are equally useful or even more so.
omniglot.com/language/phrases/

Sign in to participate in the conversation
Qoto Mastodon

QOTO: Question Others to Teach Ourselves
An inclusive, Academic Freedom, instance
All cultures welcome.
Hate speech and harassment strictly forbidden.