So confused...

Well.. no mail again today.. feeling a bit anxious BUT I have booked my flights so this quote better arrive before we leave for Norwich!

Yesterday I was talking to another person who moves back to Holland after spending YEARS here in Scotland.. she said that in her new job she got only a tiny small remark in her review about her grammar in Dutch and the way she builds sentences. Couldn't believe that... but it was true..according to her she now feels that she isn't very good in 2 languages.

Scary!

Because I have noticed.. that my melody has changed..you know how in English the melody changes dramatically when you ask a question? Somehow the melody is so different from the Dutch way of asking a question that I heard myself how strange I sound when talking Dutch. Only the first few days thank goodness but I see people look at me a bit like 'oh look how she tries to be interesting'. Since in Holland you are never allowed to be or do anything that is not normal in a 'be normal that is crazy enough' sort of fashion.

Mind you.. I always felt that the Dutch 'normal' was considered to be totally over the top compared to the British normal :-)

Anyway, today again I noticed how screwed up I am....

Made a list of days of the week since I wanted to plan what sort of clothes I need to take since I am going first to Norwich where I have to be sort of sporty since we are going to do 'green' things (like exploring islands in a boat and things) and then I am going to Holland where I have to visit the notary and want to look sort of presentable.

So... there I had my list of days. In Dutch.

Then behind the first day I noticed I filled in the activity of the days in English :-)

Quite funny actually.. I have become more English than I realised.

I remember so well when I first started to live here that I got so frustrated with reading magazines and books (after I ran out of Dutch ones) because there were so many words that I didn't know and it stopped my flow. Also English television was hard to follow, always had to ramp the sound right up before I could understand what they were saying.

And now.. last time I was in Holland I found the subtitling REALLY weird and quite irritating since they don't always translate properly :-)

When in Holland I keep on throwing English words into the equation because I am not patient enough to find them in Dutch in my mind.

And suddenly I realised.. hang about.. soon I will be living in Holland which should help with talking and writing proper Dutch again because I will read Dutch papers, books, magazines, listen to TV but at the same time I will still work for an English department and converse with my colleagues and of course my English lover.

Poor poor brain....now.. 2 things can happen.. I will either become totally fluent again in both languages or totally screwed up in both.

Answers on a postcard :-D