The World's Rudest Nation is...

Surprise, surprise... France, according to travel site Skyscanner who recently ran a poll. Here is the top ten. 

1. French 19.2%
2. Russian 16.6%
3. British 10.4%
4. German 9.9%
5. Chinese 4.3%
6. American 3.3%
7. Spanish 3.1%
8. Italian 2.3%
9. Polish 2.2%
10. Turkish 2.1%

I have to say, most Frenchmen and women I've met outside of France don't match this description. They've actually been some of the least pretentious people. The French in Paris weren't the most polite, but I find most big city dwellers are assholes, no matter the country. It's stressful living with noise and congestion 24/7.

Interesting that the Dutch aren't in the top ten, given "rudeness" is supposed to be a characteristic and that the British and Americans are 3rd and 6th respectively when we value manners. Apparently the rest of the world sees us differently. Tatiana Danilova, Russian Market Manager for Skyscanner commented: “Russians can be more direct when talking, which may be misconstrued as being rude. However, this is more a difference in culture than genuine rudeness. The Russian language is not as polite as English, so when Russians translate directly from Russian to English, it can sound rude to an English speaker even if they don’t mean it to." 

You could replace Russian with Dutch or most other languages and that quote would be true. Although, at least here kids use the phrase, "Mag ik...?" for May I when asking for something. Spanish tends to be imperative base with no word like "maar" at the end to soften the barked order.

As for the most polite nations, they are: Brazilians, those from the Caribbean islands and Filipinos. I'd have to add Thais, too, as long as you don't give them a noogie.

Book Review - A Couple of Dutch Authors, one old, one new

Nescio means "I don't know" in Latin and was the pen name for Dutch author J.H.F. Grönloh (1882-1961), whose writings were recently translated into English for the first time under the title Amsterdam Stories.

A contemporary of Jame Joyce, Grönloh was not a writer by profession, rather he earned a comfortable living as the hard driving director of Holland-Bombay Trading Company. In fact, it wasn't until after a nervous breakdown in 1929, that he took public ownership of his few published works.

The conflict between our youthful artistic desires and the need for respectability as we become adults is a recurring theme throughout his stories. The first entitled, "The Freeloader," stars Japi whose personal motto is I am nothing and I do nothing. He slacks and mooches off his friends who find him both irritating and inspiring. He disappears to Friesland and comes back with not a story but a mystery. He is, alas, not immune to life's demands. I don't want to give too much away and spoil the ending.

His group of friends are collectively referred to as "The Little Titans" in the second story and can be found throughout the collection. They are a group of bohemians, who as youths do, wail against the bourgeoisie and bemoan the lack of a revolution, while searching for answers to existential questions, as they walk the Dutch countryside and streets of Amsterdam.

One of the group has enough talent to earn a living as an artist, while the narrator is a struggling writer and the others end up surrendering to society and getting jobs. The artist, Bavink, stars in the shortest story called "Out Along the IJ." He and a friend rent an old cabin along a river, losing themselves in art and nature, oblivious to the nude ex-girlfriend washing dishes to the amazement of the local children, until their money and credit run out. The final story, "Isola Dei" looks at loss during the Nazi occupation, finding salvation in memories and the sunrise while riding a bike to Eindhoven.


Lost Paradise: A Novel is a book by contemporary Dutch author Cees Nooteboom. The premise is simple enough. The narrator picks two random strangers (One is a sensual woman on a plane to Berlin. The other, a weary man on a train platform) and interweaves their story. In many writers' hands this could be a sprawling epic, but this Dutch great manages to write a compact, lyrical book about angels, totems and life, that takes us from Brazil to Australia to Germany and of course, Holland. Cees Nooteboom is a master at conveying so much with a simple sentence and I would be remiss if I didn't comment on the seamless translation done by Susan Massotty. I'm really surprised Cees Nooteboom hasn't garnered more international press, because this book, at least, ranks up there with some of today's bests, defying comparison. I look forward to reading more of his work.

The Benefits of Bilingualism

There was a recent article in the NY Times about bilingualism and studies showing people who speak multiple languages tend to be smarter and better able to withstand the onset of dementia during old age. Even what was once considered a negative, linguistic interference, is now a positive because it forces the brain to work harder to solve the problem, giving it strength. As for those of us who will never be bilingual, "there is reason to believe that [these benefits] may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life."

I know in California, there has been a push to offer dual immersion programs in a variety of languages after a period of English only being the law of the state. Yet, in the Netherlands, apparently, the recommendation is to speak only one language at home, although when I visited the government Dutch well baby clinic, the doctor suggested I speak to our daughter in English while my wife use Spanish which was what we had been doing because she was worried the alien would end up talking like this:



Neither of us being Dutch speakers hasn't impacted our progeny from learning the local language. She's attended daycare three times a week since she was one and the teachers say that she has no problem in communicating with them or the other toddlers. In fact right now, she serves as our de facto translator when people talk to us on the street. The only negative, if you can call it that, is that the cheeky monkey wields her languages as a weapon. When she's angry with my wife and I, she uses Dutch to tell us off while at school she'll use Spanish because she knows her teachers speak English.

The one issue I'd take with the radio Netherlands article cited above is this.

Misconception 1. It is better to teach a child a second language at as young an age as possible.

It is true that it is good to start early, says Sharon Unsworth. “But there is no critical age, like four years old for instance, which is thought to be too late to learn a second language.”

She stresses that learning a second language depends greatly on the number of hours a child is exposed to the second language. The more a child hears, reads or uses a certain language, the better they pick it up - at whatever age.

Research has shown a child's ability to form or distinguish between certain sounds ie. phonemic awareness usually ends, neurologically speaking, before age two. So the sooner you get your tyke exposed to the language the better.

Spring was here, then it was gone

Up until the middle of last week the weather was really delightful -- sunny and warm with the flowers starting to bloom. But it looks like winter is making a come back and temperatures are supposed to drop to freezing. Hopefully the frost won't play havoc with my garden. The good news is the Alkmaar Cheese Market starts this Friday for anyone interested. Remember it's only in the morning and you can read more about it here. Finally, we're off to London for Easter. Here's some comedy for the holy week.