Posts Tagged ‘expat life’
Dutch PhD defences
Posted by: clare on: January 7, 2012
In my final weeks before leaving Eindhoven, I finally managed to attend a Dutch doctoral defence. As a Brit, this was a really interesting cultural experience. For us, the PhD process concludes with a viva (from the Latin for ‘live’), a closed-door examination where a couple of examiners grill you for an indeterminate amount of [...]
On learning Dutch: accent, apostrophes, and the effect on my English
Posted by: clare on: October 23, 2011
I’m about halfway through an intermediate Dutch course: it’s hard work, but very helpful. I’m finally at the point where I am sometimes brave enough to speak in Dutch with my officemate, despite my limited vocabulary and shameful pronunciation. I finally realised a month ago (after two separate people remarked on it) that I’ve been speaking [...]
Why Dutch is hard to learn
Posted by: clare on: September 27, 2011
As exemplified by a conversation in a cafe yesterday: Myself: Heb jij een menukaart? Waitress: Of course, how many do you want? …
A tale of two languages
Posted by: clare on: September 23, 2011
On news in a Dutch university with a big expat community The Cursor is the TU/e’s internal newsletter. After a summer break, it just relaunched with the new academic year. Of course, I’m living in the Netherlands: Dutch is the main language, and naturally the Cursor is mostly in Dutch. Last year, it included an [...]
