never prouder to be dutch

on the way to and from work, i have to cross a rather large bridge. on the bellerive-sur-allier side of said bridge, i cross the street.

there is often a bit of traffic on this stretch of road, and sometimes it makes the crossing more treacherous than at other times.

the other day, as i approach the crossing in question, i see a nice older lady (with a frightening leopard print coat) trying to get across the street. she succeeds in calming traffic before i get to the crosswalk, and so i simply follow behind her.

reaching the other side, i say to her (in french, of course), “this crossing can be a real pain, can’t it.”

“yes, they need to install a red light for the pedestrians.”

“yeah... with a button and the whole works.” (i floundered a bit on the word button in this context, which i believe lead to her next comment...)

“are you from holland?”

???

i must say i take that as a compliment.

i’ve not met an overwhelming number of dutch in my day (and how many of them were actually from holland i can’t say, but that’s irrelevant), but all of them... yes, i believe i can say, without exception, ALL of them have spoken impeccable english -- nearly flawless and with hardly any accent. and they usually speak 3 or 4 other languages too (if not more... i knew a chap who claimed 15 or so). i don’t know what they feed their children, but... i’ve heard it attributed to the fact that all of the cartoons (and i assume other television programs) that are broadcast are done so in the language they were produced in. and honestly, how big of a broadcasting (especially film...) industry can the netherlands have? not to mention that are SO many people that speak dutch. it’s kinda like how all swedes, norwegians, fins, danes and icelanders (?) speak english too.

so, yeah... it made a nice little swell in my ego that day.