Saturday, January 23, 2010

Slim Bekeken

This past week Keith and I have begun the process of integrating ourselves into Dutch culture. We have decided, however, to do it American style. First of all, we're learning Dutch, by watching the commercials in between shitty American television programs. Apparently the Dutch love Steven Segal. Anyway, so far so good. We've learned several cognates and many useful expressions like the one in the title, "slim bekeken." Literally, I guess it translates, "smart views", but there's probably a more idiomatic translation. We plan to interject it often into our conversations. Also, "punt enel" we have discovered refers to ".nl", the Dutch domain-name. So at this rate, we should be almost fluent in another thirty years.
We have also been ingratiating ourselves with the Dutch people. Today we did our regular Saturday marketing at our favorite grocery store: JUMBO. This time we entered the store through the entrance rather than the exit as we have each previous time, so already the learning curve is impressive. For the past two weeks we've been eating only frozen vegetables due to our rather limited cooking apparatuses. I couldn't take it any longer, so today I filled up the basket with some fresh vegetables and fruit, along with other food that we chose based on the pictures on the box. The store was packed, it was almost like being back at the Food Coop, but for a moment there was a break in the line at the checkout. We were able to walk right up to a cashier without waiting. Almost immediately, however, a line formed behind me. We unloaded our groceries on the belt and the cashier began to scan our items through. When she got to the fresh vegetables she stopped, saying something in Dutch that we couldn't understand. It turns out that you have to weigh all the produce and print out stickers with the price per kilogram before getting in line. By now there were about five people behind us in line. So I stood there sheepishly as the checkout line came to a screeching halt, while Keith took our produce back to weigh it. What is remarkable is that during the wait, not even a single customer so much as gave me an exasperated look. At the Food Coop there would have been bloodshed. After a few minutes, Keith returned with the produce properly stickered and we packed up our stuff and left. As we were leaving the store we had to work our way through a crowd. Keith, of course, elbowed his way through, like he does. Out of our way! We're walking here! Oh kind and patient Dutch people, we have so much to teach you.

3 comments:

  1. Hahaha! As soon as I read about the produce, I knew that was going to happen. I may be able to help out with some pro-tips and Dutch idioms, having spent a few years in Belgium.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's also amazing how trusting they are isn't it? Weigh your Brussel sprouts, print the sticker, then throw another handful in...who's to know? We see it in most aspects of Dutch life - they just expect you to do the right thing and most people do. Now, standing in an orderly line is another story, especially at an open air market where there is no formal line...then it's a free-for-all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can remember looking up 'puntenel' in the dictionary and being disappointed it wasn't there before the penny finally dropped.

    ReplyDelete