Silimarities
Japan is famous for the squalid living conditions and tiny box aparthei.. I mean, "apartments" in the big city. It's a tiny country with a huge population. In fact, in the ranking of population densities, it is...32nd? Really? Only 339 per square kilometre? Wow. Holland is 25th, although 18.4% of that so-called land, is actually water. So either, Dutch people are fresh-water mermaids, or the population density is much higher than the 395 /sqkm.
So Dutch people also live in tiny box apartments. I am staying at my Opa's house, which I remembered to be a miserable and cramped human-cage, which, after Japan, I have no problem with anymore. So, Opa picked me up from the airport, and we went home. My god! This place is vast. It was so large, I couldn't see the end of the hallway over the horizon. I wanted to yodel to test out the echo. You need a compass and bushman to find the kitchen.
Wow. So maybe the small apartments isn't a similarity between the two countries.
One thing that hasn't changed is that people try to practice their English with me. This was my biggest peeve in Japan, where many people would see me and refuse to speak Japanese, preferring to use their hopeless English. I looked forward to going to somewhere where no-one presumes I don't speak the local language. I look Dutch enough, and I speak Dutch relatively well. On the surface, I seem to blend in. No-one suspects that I am secretly Japanese.
However, the other day, I went to an information centre at a train station. I asked the kindly lady: "waar is het University visitor's centre?"
She replied, "Go outside, and go left."
Hmm... She was onto me. The lady at the visitor's centre knew too. But how?
Admittedly, I have a childishly limited produceable vocabulary, which leaves me to search for certain words, or if I can't find it, I will talk around it. My Dutch is far from perfect, but my real problem is that my English is perfect.
Apparently 70% of the Dutch population have a working knowledge of English, and there are many English words they use as if it were nothing. For example, "Visitor's" and "Centre". They hear proper pronunciation and know something is amiss. I hope they don't presume I am American or English. I have a plan to try and balance it out, while at the same time, being patronising and slightly insulting without them knowing it.
Next time, I am going to put on my best caricature of a Dutch accent, and ask for the "Fishitorsh Shenterr". They won't suspect a thing. It is time to teach those mermaids a lesson.
Also, today I have a few photos to illustrate the similarities. This is a set of two photos. Discuss and argue amongst each other which you think is from Japan, and which is from Holland. Enjoy!
2 comments:
The first sky picture is definitely Japan, and the second one has to be Holland.
I can just tell jeej shings.
Wow, bang on. It was a tricky one, but you read it like a book. The first one was taken a couple of years back at the beach in Toyama bay during/after a storm. I took the photo because it looked like such a typical Dutch sky, like you would see on one of those ridiculously large paintings of boats- you know the sort.
The blue sky was just a mistake by the Dutch weatherman when he accidentally forgot to put clouds over the sky. He promised me it wouldn't happen again.
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