Dunglish or Steenkolen Engels (Coal English)

Louis van Gaal brought this phenomenon to my attention again. Being the current manager at Manchester United he put Dunglish in the news again and knowing him he doesn't care one bit about it. *laughs*

I'll give you some examples of his statements (he also makes the common mistake of literal translation from Dutch to English).

1. That's another cook. (It should be 'a whole new ball game' but he uses the Dutch expression: 'Dat is andere koek')
2. It's a question of time before ... (I think he meant 'Time will tell')
3. We are running after the facts. (Dutch expression: 'Achter de feiten aan lopen')
4. It's again the same song. (Dutch: 'Het is altijd hetzelfde liedje')

I think many English reporters would have frowned upon the statements this football coach made. But us Dutch and the Dutch TV think it is hilarious.

Wrong, but I think it is cute.

The term Dunglish or Coal English goes back to the early twentieth century when Dutch port workers used a rudimentary form of English to communicate with the personnel of the English coal ships.

Errors occur in pronunciation, word order and the meaning of words. Former Dutch Prime Minister Dries van Agt once said 'I can stand my little man' (Dutch meaning: 'Ik kan mijn mannetje staan' but he was supposed to use 'I can stand up for myself'). Best one ever is politician Frits Bolkenstein who referred to economic prospects as 'golden showers', unaware that the term has sexual connotation.

Where would they put the leash?

Some other forms of incorrect meaning of words:

• The Dutch verb solliciteren means to apply for a job, which can lead to an embarrassing situation if someone claims they have come to solicit.
• During the Second World War, Churchill said to former prime-minister Gerbrandy while the two were standing on a balcony: 'Spring is in the air'. Gerbrandy's response was: 'Why should I?' Gerbrandy thought Churchill told him: 'Spring 'ns in de lucht', which translates into English as 'jump into the air'.

End tenk joe toe!

The day that satire took a heavy blow...

I always saw satire as a form of thinking critically about politics, science, war and religion. Why should we follow authorities without questioning why. 

When our government says we need to go to war, should we just accept their decision or instead voice out that we do not want any more war.

Yesterday's cowardly attack in Paris by some sad individuals in an attempt to shut us up, will not reach their goal. Satire doesn't let itself be silenced. Just like extremists, new and old cartoonists will rise against this injustice. 

What worries me the most is the general attitude this attack will develop. I've seen it already on Facebook and on several news-websites. Because these murderers claimed they acted in the name of the prophet Mohammed, does not mean they represent him or the Islam. Most Muslim condemn this type of violence. But still blame is put on the whole community by a lot of people. They verbally attack them on Social Media while they are not responsible for the massacre. Twelve people lost their lives yesterday, ten of those died for something they stood for. Heck the two officers believed in their duty of protecting civilians. We should not dishonour their deaths by feeding and fuelling more hate. 

I won't stop writing critically about my beliefs and thoughts. I am against war and oppression, but also against injustice by our government. Satire isn't only directed towards the Islam, Catholicism gets the brunt of it too same as politicians and other influential people of the world. It makes us think and question what happens in the world:

- Why do we allow Israel get away with bombing Palestinian children?

- Murders in the name of religion, should we just let this continue?

- Outrageous price of healthcare, everyone should get the best care not only ones that can afford it.

- Monopoly position of companies, and their greed.

- Wretched working conditions in factories, why should we turn a blind eye?

- Abuse by the Catholic Church, the victims need to be supported and not silenced.

These are some of the issues that deserve to be criticised, and if it is done in the form of satire it will make people aware that we had enough, we do not want any more of this.

7-1-2015 will always be the day that satire took a heavy blow but will not be the day that satire ended. 

These images are not my property.  

2015 is finally here!

2014 was a year full of trials and tribulations for me. Celebrating a year living abroad, switching jobs, finding out that sharing a home with someone is more challenging that I expected and all the drama it spiralled in.

Sometimes it made my old self-defence system kick in and that was running away. Just quitting. But I love my job that I have at the moment, I like most of my co-workers at my contract, why would I give it up?

I have a strong sense of justice and I can't stand bullies. When I expressed my feelings on injustice, people became very nasty to me and I just wanted to give up but I felt like I was doing the right thing.

So I am going to make a painting with this inspiring quotation of Winston Churchill:

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

I will hang this up in my new house to remind me that whatever I stood up for was the right thing.

Sometimes people ask me why I pick a fight that ends up in a lot of drama and has me losing sleep over it. At the end of the day I can still look at myself in the mirror and feel like I did nothing wrong.

Truth is that there are some people who enjoy making fun of others misery, sometimes just doing it to avoid looking at their own faults. Heck I even have faults, I am sloppy and lazy at doing some chores and I tend to spend too much money on my hobbies. 

But now it is time to focus on the new year. A new chance to do things differently. I never made any resolutions because I felt it be too pointless of an excuse to do things differently while I should have started doing them differently in the old year lol.

But setting new goals is better because they can be more long term and easier to talk about.

I miss taking photos with my dolls and I now live in a country with the best scenery so what is keeping me from doing so.

I was hoping to be able to bring at least one of my BJD's with me, that is why I brought my suitcase but I ended up receiving so many gifts from my family lol. I hope I can still fit her in my suitcase or I will need to take her apart and ship her to Belfast. If I bring Dasha that will mean I need to bring her wardrobe too...orz that will be a pain lol. This girl has more clothes than I do.

Living in Belfast and Ireland has already made me more active. But after two hikes on terrible shoes I decided to get real hiking shoes to save me a lot of pain and blisters. Paired with my National Trust card it will take me to some of Ireland's most beautiful places. That reminds me I took some photos of a walks I did in October and November and I still haven't uploaded them or blogged about it. And there we reached another goal I have set for myself: more blogging with reviews and fun stuff. I like writing but when I am depressed or upset I cannot put something decent on paper.

So the new goals I've set up for myself:

• Being more active with my dolls: customising, photography, sewing.
• Posting a review or blog every two weeks. 
• More hiking, on my own pace because I never hiked before and I don't want to kill myself lol.
• Moar artsy fartsy stuff. I am bursting with ideas and I need to get it out.

Yup. I am the guy in red. :P