Into the Neverlands

When in Rome... as they say. Got my bike, trying to murmur alstublieft wherever I turn and when I’m not sure whether the bike track becomes one way I follow the person in front of me. Sometimes this results in quite a few detours, but this is how I begin my life in the Neverlands: stupidly smiling to the questions I do not understand in the shop and constantly navigating myself: look left look right look left look right. It can be quite hard after spending three and a half years in Ireland where it was mainly right left and jaywalking as the roads in central Dublin are mainly one way. Jaywalking in Utrecht? Forget it! You’ll get knocked down, most probably by a bike. By the way, what happens when a cyclists crashes into another colleague during the rush hour on one of the main junctions? That was a nasty thought that crossed my mind as I was watching the caravan of bikes moving steadily along the streets of Utrecht today.

In terms of language problems, despite the fact that everybody speaks English here I feel terribly uncomfortable not knowing Dutch and I can’t help but think about Dublin.

After googling yesterday for a while trying to find other blogs about the Neverlands (a few of the discoveries are on your left hand site) I realized that every single of them seems to be mentioning the pivotal question: to learn or not to learn. Majority of them I have to say are in favour of learning, with a few very educational ones, i.e. Dutch word of the day. A similar blog in Lithuanian and Polish in particular is desperately needed in Ireland. While the expats are thinking about the necessity of learning the Dutch, the tragedy of many Eastern Europeans and much of misunderstanding happening between them and the Irish is that they do not even question the necessity to learn English but in the meantime whinge about the Irish round the clock.

Now the problem when you agree that you need to learn the Dutch, is how… ☺

Bookmark this post: