My heart always sinks when I see
the orange road sign with the
word omleiding (or occasionally
omlegging) on it. I know that I might
as well abandon the journey there
and then, because there is no hope
of ever getting to the destination.
To those who tend to travel intra-Low Lands met de trein, by train, I
express my deepest sympathies. It
was never exactly smooth sailing,
with vertragingen, delays, more a
rule than an exception (traag means
slow), and treinstellen, carriages,
from before the war.
“Antwerpse zoo verwelkomt
nieuw aardvarken.” The Antwerp
zoo welcomes a new what now?
A new aardvark, a “burrowing,
nocturnal mammal native to
Africa”, according to Wikipedia,
whose family name made its way
from Dutch, via Afrikaans, into
English. “Aarde” means earth or
dirt, and “varken” means pig.
Every now and then, something
happens over the northern border
of which you can’t help taking note.
Like last week’s troonwisseling,
change of the throne, or abdication,
if only for all the glitter and glamour
and the opportunity it gives us to
talk a little bit about the language
of royalty.
And I thought I knew a lot
of languages. But seven kind
of fades in comparison to
20, the number of languages
Timothy Doner, a 17-year-old
New Yorker and something
of an internet sensation, has
taught himself over the past
four years.
Brussels is multilingual, that much
we knew. What we didn’t know, and
until last week could only suspect,
is that it is becoming increasingly
so – to the detriment of both Dutch
and French, the city-state’s two
official languages.
Even if you didn’t know it, last
week’s media was abound with
clues that it was Youth Book Week,
with separate announcements
on dinsdag, Tuesday, woensdag,
Wednesday, and donderdag,
Thursday (note the lack of a capital
letter in the Dutch spelling).
There aren’t many people of whom
I would call myself a fan, but Jeroen
Meus is one of them. “De culinaire
lieveling van heel Vlaanderen,”
according to (his employer) VRT,
the culinary favourite of all of
Flanders. The celebrity chef has
not only saved my life on more
than one occasion when I was
expected to make dinner, he has
also taught me how to make – and
love – stoofvlees met friet, one of
Flanders’ most traditional dishes.
The chances are that when you’re
reading this, you’re sitting in the
sun somewhere high up in the
mountains. That’s assuming,
of course, you’d bring your
favourite newspaper with you on
skivakantie, skiing holiday.
Flanders Today is a 
