Bon Journal

Running in Dutch

The weather has never been the same on Saturday mornings when I go running in Laren. Today the wind was strong. Last week, it drizzled. The week before last, it snowed.

Every time I go running, I listen to other runners talk in Dutch, alienating me from their culture and forcing me to withdraw into my inner world. I never bother to speak Dutch because I don't know where to begin. Today, I tried for the first time.

"Hoe gaat het?" pronounced like "who hat het" - How are you?

"Heel goed!" prounced like "heel hood" - Very good.

"Ik hou er niet van om te laat te komen." pronounced like "ik how err neat van ohm tuh laht tuh come en" I don't like to arrive late. I had repeated this over and over again on Wednesday for I was determined never to be late again.

We ran for an hour. Towards the end of the seven kilometre run, I started to complain:

"Mijn linker achterwerk is niet goed." My left butt is no good. I wanted to say it was hurting, but my vocabulary was limited.

The coach's wife showed me what was wrong.

"Ren niet op je tenen, want je krijgt problemen." I was running on my toes, and of course, my butt will hurt!

I was concentrating so hard on speaking Dutch that I forgot about my posture completely.

"Zijn we er bijna?" Are we almost there yet?

13 March 2004 Saturday

Run for your life in Laren

Dutch language class

Learning Dutch

Dutch immersion course