The Mach Was challenge this time around is to do something with languages. I love the topic but have not had time to get around to doing anything about it yet. And now the deadline is here, and all I can think of is this post I wrote some 4 years ago about being bilingual Dutch and English. Some would say I’m trilingual because I’m quite fluent in German as well, but my German has deteriorated over the years so I just call myself ‘virtually trilingual’ now.
Anyway, I realize it’s cheap to just repost something old but I was just starting out wth blogging when I wrote that and most people who come here now will not have read this before. Also, every word I wrote then still holds true today, right up to that writing project that I mention and still haven’t started! Reposting this is a great reminder of that project I had thought up then and I think this may now finally motivate me to take some time to interview my mother before I can’t anymore. I should at least start somewhere so I won’t have regrets later.
Happy reading, if you choose to do so!
… or almost trilingual, is that you don’t speak or write any one language perfectly!
I am Dutch, my first language was Dutch but, as I lived abroad during my childhood, I went to an English school starting at the age of 4. I’m not sure if I was already speaking English by then or whether I learned it when I was there. All I know is that my whole life I remember always being able to speak Dutch and English. The first language I could read and write in was English. We spoke Dutch at home and although I did get some Dutch lessons as a child it wasn’t until I was 16 and moved to The Netherlands that I actually started writing and reading Dutch on any regular basis.
When I was 10 we moved to Germany. My older brothers and sisters continued their education…
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