Instead, I’ve decided to follow the advice of Flemish cartoonist Zaza, whose work you may have seen and admired in daily newspaper De Standaard.

“Dit jaar géén goede voornemens,” says an unwashed man in slacks, holding on to what seems to be an empty beer bottle. This year, no new year’s resolutions. (In Dutch, accents on vowels like in géén don’t indicate a change in pronunciation, but rather a hike in emphasis.)

“Dat is een goed voornemen,” replies his wife. That’s a good resolution. The joke, of course, is funnier in Dutch, where een goed voornemen literally means “a good resolution” but is also used as “new year’s resolution”.

De weg naar de hel is geplaveid met goede voornemens, according to an old, very cynical proverb. The way to hell is paved with good intentions. Or: You may have the intentions of a saint, but you may still end up in hell.

But we’re not all cynics, and some of us may have made some very honest and well-meaning promises to ourselves. Chances are they include one of the following:
Stoppen met roken. A classic. Quit smoking.
Meer sporten. To do more sports. Or: Meer aan sport doen.
Vaker koken. To cook more often. (vaak = often; vaker = more often)
Beter Nederlands leren spreken. You can translate that yourself. No prize involved.
Or, one for me if I made them: Meer lezen. To read more.

Zich voornemen is a verb and means, you got it, something like to intend. I say “something like” because it is a reflexive verb, something we have a lot of in Dutch. It means that the action of the subject – the one doing it – reflects on itself and makes for a more personal connotation.

Ik neem me voor te stoppen met roken, means more than just: “I intend to stop smoking”. It means something like: “I hereby promise myself to stop smoking”.

Ah, the subtleties of a foreign language.

On a lighter note: the holidays are over, and I’d hate to run out of things to blather about. What else would you read on Sunday afternoons? So, please: let me know your beef, your flirts and your misunderstandings with the Dutch language. You know what? Make it a new year’s resolution.