Y: Yakult

"the ~ (m) Milk drink for a healthy intestinal flora" (very roughly translated, my brain isn't really working).

WHY is this in the dictionary? It's a brand name. You don't find 'pepsi' or 'fanta' in the dictionary.

Yakult is apparently Japanese. It's a milk beverage containing probiotics, that's supposed to help improve your intestinal workings so that you don't feel bloated.

I still wonder, though. The fact that the brand name is representing the drink in my Dutch dictionary tells me that there is not really anything else like it. Probably, then, the drink was immediately heavily patented when it was first produced in 1935. On the other hand, I don't know how this works for the rest of the world, but in the Netherlands the patent rights are only applicable for 20 years. So I guess that still doesn't explain it?
I asked my parents and grandparents, who are all conveniently downstairs right now, but the best they came up with is that somebody may have gotten some money for that little trick. (Putting it in the dictionary, that is :'D).Also apparently there ARE non-'official' products like it. The plot thickens...

Any of you got an idea? :').


~Levyathan

X: Xylofoon

Which is, unsurprisingly, a xylophone. Basically it's the first word anyone thinks of when trying to name a word starting with an x. For those of you who don't know the instrument, it's a sort of frame on which are mounted wooden slabs or bars which, when struck with a mallet, produce musical notes. It has a distinct sort of chiming sound.

It's a pretty common kiddies' instrument because it's not very hard to make it produce sound and it's not that easily broken. For children they generally come in all kinds of colors.

W: Wensput

A wishing well. Basically it's a type of well often found in stories. People are desperate in some way and they say their wish out loud while near it and POOF. The wish comes true and they live happily ever after, yadda yadda yadda.

I don't really think there's anyone out there who actually believes in these things, yet it has become common practice to throw a penny into any well or fountain we pass because it might make our dreams come true. What weird idea spawned that, anyway? Why do humans follow the particular superstition that throwing a coin into a man-made body of water might help them become successful in life? What kind of weird people are we to believe that?

Probably it's just the same thing as with most superstitions: we want to believe it, and so we do it to make ourselves feel better. Little harm in that.


~Levyathan

V: Vuurwerk

Because I like fireworks and they're pretty. I used to always light fireworks on new year's eve, ever since my parents allowed me. Before that I just got these kiddies' packages with confetti guns and such. 

Lately, though (the last two years, give or take), I don't really see the need to light fireworks anymore. Anyway, I'm talking about the small fry variety here, rather than the really pretty and colorful exploding rockets and such - they're way too expensive. 

It's just, I don't see the need to throw 200 firecrackers in a single evening (why do they even package them in such crazy quantities, anyway? >,>), nor can I find much enjoyment in standing around in the cold all night long. 

I still love the moment of midnight, though, when the entire sky lights up in color and it's hard to talk because of all the bangs. It just carries this irrevocable connotation of the start of a new year, end of the old one, now GO FORTH AND HUG AND KISS YOUR FAMILY and think about all the things you would ideally change about yourself or your surroundings (which you're never going to actually do anyway) and BE GLAD YOU LIVE TO SEE THIS HAPPY MOMENT. Or something equally dramatic. 

This thing here just did an about-face from fireworks to NYE. Oh well. It's the most obvious association, anyway. 

(I love that expression. About-face. Heh. :'D).

~Levyathan

U: Uurwerk

Literally translated to 'hour work', but it means about the same as clockwork. I love clockwork in all its steampunk-y glory. If you frequent places like deviantart, you've probably come across awesome steampunk timepieces and necklaces and whatnot. I adore clockwork. It gives off a kind of old-time shadiness that mystifies as well as attracts.

It also usually serves to remind me of the ingenuity of man. Someone, at some point in time, figured out that the best way to get a mechanical signal across a space was to fill said space with interlocking cogs and gears. What's most intriguing about that is that this very same deceptively simple method still has its proper place in the contemporary world. We still make mechanical clocks. We may not use them exclusively anymore, but they're still there. Maybe that has something to do with the strange, overly romanticized view I have on such rudimentary mechanisms. It's like a tangible piece of the past.

On the other hand, maybe not.


~Levyathan

T: Tegeltjeswijsheid

Wisdom from a tile. I'm not sure whether that's actually a thing anywhere else than the Netherlands, but maybe we're just weird like that. :'D. Basically, it refers to the kind of inspirational quotes that can often be found on decorative tiles hanging - incidentally - mostly in bathrooms.

Whatever can be found on there, it's generally a cliché. Think the kind of proverbs and sayings that are embarrasing to actually utter because people will just start looking at you like "Really? x'D. Dude, no one actually SAYS that!"

For some reason, though, they become acceptable when put on a tile. Don't ask, I don't even know.

..Although it's still a matter of taste, of course. You'll never ever (or maybe I shouldn't say that too soon but still) find one in my house.

I'm just not that into clichés. :'D.


~Levyathan.

S: Sinterklaas

There is no actual English equivalent for this. It's a Dutch holiday, on December 5th, in which we celebrate the fact that a 300 year old man with a huge beard in a dress riding a white horse across rooftops and having black, curly-haired helpers puts presents in our shoes. 

That's what he looks like, along with his helpers, the 'Black Petes'. 

It's not quite as strange as it sounds, though. 

Or, well, you only really realize how strange it is when you try to explain it to someone who doesn't know about it. 

Basically, in the couple of days before December the 5th, you put your empty shoe in front of the fireplace if you've got one, or anywhere really, and you sing appropriate songs. Then you go to bed, and when you return to your shoe in the morning, there's a present in there for you. Then on the Big Day itself, even more presents are given! It's a kid's dream. 

People say Sinterklaas - or, properly, Saint Nicholas - is actually the original Santa Clause. Most Dutch children do not believe in Santa Clause, although we do celebrate Christmas with presents. I guess we just get doubly lucky.

R: Ridderlijkheid

Chivalry.

Because it's at least a little dead. I don't, however, think it's completely gone. There's still a lot of guys out there who treat women like they're precious little dolls who should not be opening doors for themselves or having to follow after men.

Importantly, I believe mostly women are to blame for killing chivalry. The whole feminist mindset of not wanting to be patronized by the menfolk has driven men to stop doing things like holding doors. It's only logical, really.

As you might have picked up from the overall tone, I personally scoff when people try to be chivalrous. The whole 'women first' thing is kind of useless, in my opinion. Not so much because I'm a convinced feminist - which I'm pretty sure I'm not - but because I think it's bull for guys to have to do things for me because I'm a girl. It's not like I'm too frail to open my own doors, nor like I'm too pure or whatever to be expected to do it.

But yeah, I know a couple of guys who think chivalry is still important in this day and age. It can be kind of wearying, but it's kind of great to know they have such respect for girls. :').


~ Levyathan

Q: Quetzalcoatl

I'm breaking two rules here. First, I'd decided to blog about Dutch words starting with the letters of the alphabet. Quetzalcoatl is not a Dutch word. Thing is, there are no Dutch words starting with 'q' that aren't derived from either Latin or French. Most of those words are exactly the same as their English counterparts, and none of them are particularly exciting to write about.
Second, I was supposed to post this yesterday, but I simply forgot. Therefore you get two consecutive posts from me today, isn't it EXCITING? x'D.

Anyway, since all this horrible stuff happened, I decided I wanted to write about something really cool.

This is my definition of really cool.

It is, unsurprisingly, Quetzalcoatl. In fact, until ten minutes ago, I had no idea what Quetzalcoatl was, but the name has been at the back of my mind for a while now. I wonder how that works, since I didn't even have an 'oh yeah that's what it was' moment when I found out the truth. But I digress.

Wikipedia tells me that Quetzalcoatl is a Mesoamerican god, "related to the gods of the wind, of Venus, of the dawn, of merchants and of arts, crafts and knowledge", according to the Aztecs. They were not the only ones to worship him, though. Many of the Mesoamerican peoples did.

It's name comes from the Nahuatl language and more or less means "feathered serpent". Hence the look. As I said before, IT'S REALLY COOL.

There you go, some more tidbits of random knowledge for you. :'D.


~Levyathan.

P: Patience

No, it's not what you think. The Dutch word for patience is 'geduld'. We use this word, patience - pronounced the French way - for a game that is in English called Solitaire.

I'm assuming, here, that everyone knows this game. It is quite addictive. A lot more so than I would initially have expected. It's horrible, once I start playing I never stop. Or, well, I obviously do, but only with great reluctance. It's like there's this constant urge to complete one more game.

I don't know what that stems from, considering the game itself is pretty simplistic..
I guess I can just be easily amused. :'D.


~Levyathan

O: Overeenkomsten

Similarities. Notably in languages.

At the start of this month, when I was trying to decide on subjects to go with all the letters of the alphabet, the first one I came up with was this one. I'd been pondering something, and while comparing some random things, I struck upon the similarities in words. Now, I don't even mean the way the Dutch 'respectabel' means the exact same thing as the English 'respectable'.

What I mean is, I was thinking of words that have multiple meanings. Like the Dutch word for couch, 'bank', is the same word we use for, well, a bank. With money. Those words have different meanings in different languages, presumably because the use of the word has evolved differently.

But then I started thinking about random words to figure out if that is always the case, and I stumbled upon this little beauty. You see, the word 'oplossing' means 'solution'. But the word solution has two different meanings. It can be the unraveling, and therefore solving, of a problem, or a fluid that contains dissolved solids. The awesome thing is that in Dutch the word 'oplossing' has the exact same two meanings.

Now, this could be purely coincidental, but it makes me wonder whether there is some inherent connection between the two things. I suppose it has to do with the breaking apart of something, like deconstruction of a problem by pondering it and finding the answer, or the deconstruction of a solid by the molecular attraction differences that occur when it is dumped into a liquid.

Or something. :'D.


~Levyathan

N: Nieuwsgierigheid

Curiosity. Best known for killing the cat.

It's such a sad thing, for words to have such dreadful connotations. I weep to think - okay nevermind. Really though, people tend to be curious. It's not always a good thing to be curious. There are some things that should stay secrets, and other things that shouldn't necessarily, but people can be far too nosy for their own good. It's a good thing to be curious, but it's even more of a virtue to be able to keep said curiosity at bay when it is uncalled for. Many a good relationship has seen an untimely end because someone could not keep their nose out of someone else's business. Advice of the day: Be curious, but always be vigilant. x'D.


~Levyathan

M: Mededogen

Also known as mercy. Sorry to say I won't really be talking about that. You see, when I was thinking of this word, it struck me that, while the positive form of the word is 'mededogen', the negative version (merciless) is 'meedogenloos'. Somewhere along the way, we lost the 'd'. This happens with more words, it is in fact quite a common occurrence. When, in olden times, the right Dutch word for leather would've been 'leder', today almost everyone uses the word 'leer'. The meaning hasn't changed.

This is not always the case, however. When we examine the affiliations of the word 'teder' (which is basically tender) we think of tenderly saying something, caressing someone. The other form of the word, 'teer', which should technically mean the same thing, is a lot more associated with 'fragile'; as in, a form of physical or psychological weakness rather than a feeling of emotional 'softness' towards someone.

I just found it really cool when I started thinking about it. :'D.


~Levyathan

L: Liefde

Ah, love. Quite possibly the most obvious choice when discussing a random topic starting with the letter 'L'.

Love can be quite a broad subject, depending almost entirely on one's definition of the term. The words "I love you" are said too often, yet not often enough, as they say. Real love is hard to come by, and people tend to overreact when they like someone, hence the words being said 'too often'. On the other hand, there could be a lot more love in this world.

(Disclaimer: The things I do or do not say in this post about love are mostly derived from observing others. Basically, I have little to no first-hand experience of what I'm talking about here.)

Now, there are different types of love, in different orders of gravity. ('Gravity'. I'm making this sound so... grave. x'D)

The types of love most important to me as a person are familial love, and love shared between friends. I like all of my friends, obviously, but there are only a few I'd say I really love. And even though my family is made up of individuals I'd probably steer clear of in any other situation, I really do love them.

...I'll spare you the sob-story that is my dysfunctional and mostly one-sided relationship with romantic love. :/.

I can only say I hope that love, and it's applicability to me as a person, will evolve and grow with the years, and that I may be open to it when it is ready to come to me. (So poetic. :'D).


~Levyathan

K: Kleinzerigheid

My dictionary tells me this is accurately translated into over-sensitiveness. I'm not quite sure if the implications included with that word are quite what I was going for, but it'll have to do.

Rather than emotional pain and sensitivity, I want to discuss something that happens with physical pain. You see, some people are actually more sensitive to small hurts than to big ones. My sister, when she was younger, used to raise hell if she got a scrape, but if she got more seriously hurt she'd be all calm about it.

It's also observed when a papercut, which is generally not a very large cut, hurts like a bitch, while you can cut yourself while doing something (like working in the garden or whatever) and not notice at all until you see it bleeding.
That's also quite an interesting phenomenon, incidentally. For some reason, injuries tend to hurt more when they look bad. It's almost as if the visual stimulus adds to the experience of pain. Maybe that's actually a true thing, I wouldn't know. I wonder though, if that were the case, it would probably have a purpose that might aid in our survival... but I can't think of a logical reason for it.

What about you guys? Are you over-sensitive?


~Levyathan

J: Jaloezie

Hey, Jealousy.

Ever had a visit from the green-eyed monster? I'll bet you have. Everyone has. Some people are more susceptible to jealousy than others, the same way people differ in music tastes and hair colors. Well, maybe not necessarily hair color, because that's easily modified and you don't change the foundations of your character quite that easily, but I digress.

Jealousy comes in many varieties, and when it's slight and easily controllable it's generally harmless, but it can deal a lot of damage to relationships, because generally a jealous boyfriend or girlfriend is seen as having a lack of faith in the relationship and partner, even though jealousy is a quite natural reaction to have when you feel as if something that is 'yours' in some way is in danger of being taken away from you.

It's really quite an illogical thing, the way people react to jealousy.


~Levyathan

I: Ik-zucht

Which is, according to my dictionary, a legitimate Dutch word for egoism. Who would've thought. (The general Dutch term for egoism is, well, egoisme).

Egoism, I think, is good in moderation. Too selfish is never a good thing, but neither is utter selflessness, generally. It's good to be humble and to respect others, but deferring to others in everything you do and never standing up for yourself can be quite detrimental to your perception of yourself and other people's perception of you. Even if it is meant in a good way, you can hurt others by disregarding your own well-being in favor of others'.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it is good to maintain a balance between giving and taking, between caring for yourself and for others. Sometimes that is easier said than done, though.


~Levyathan

H: Hiernamaals

The afterlife. There are so many different perceptions of it, and there is no way to tell what is or isn't real. It adds a sense of mystery: you'll only know what's to come once your life is over, everything before that point is mere speculation.

I personally don't really know if I believe in an afterlife. I guess I'd quite like to, but the mechanics of such a place always bother me. Namely: Is it another life, from birth to death, like an endless cycle? Is it a sort of paradise in which one can life in peace forever and be happy with all of their dead loved ones?

The second possibility in particular always makes me wonder. How do you appear in such a world? The way you see yourself? The way others see you? In case of the latter, you'd have no actual corporeal form, but I guess that wouldn't be all that strange in context. Or rather, if you appear the way you were in life, what point in your lifetime does your appearance base itself on? Is it what you looked like when you died? Because that would, for many people, not exactly be optimal. How can everyone you love be in the same place with you and everyone they love and everyone all those people love, etc? (Like in Titanic. She'd grown old and had a husband and a child and then she died and in the afterlife she looked the way she did when she was with Jack, and that was who she met in that place. How does that work, logically? Was her husband left alone in there, knowing then that his wife didn't even love him enough to have him be one of the loved ones she had the chance to meet again? How sad is that?) Is nobody actually there, is everything just a figment of memory or imagination?

I always ask myself these questions when faced with the possibility of an afterlife. Maybe that's why I'm not sure I can really believe in it; I tend to want to know how things work before blindly accepting them...

I'm interested in knowing other people's views on the subject. ;).


~Levyathan

G: Geheim

Shh! It's a secret!

Lots of people have secrets, some more heavy than others.

Most people only have small secrets, like guilty pleasures or who they like. The fun thing with secrets is that they disappear the moment they become known. It's actually quite interesting to think about it that way; even if someone learns your secrets, at the same time they don't, because they're not actually secrets anymore. It's one of the very few known concepts that work that way.

I personally only have small, insignificant secrets. I don't even like anyone at the moment!

Although obviously I could be lying, keeping the fact that I have significant secrets a secret!~ Secretception.
Such fun.


~Levyathan

F: Fiets

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike~


One of the things the Netherlands are apparently most famous for (aside from legal weed) is the abundance of bicycles. Here, it is unthinkable that anyone might not own a bicycle. Kids cycle to and from school everyday (unless, like me, they are lazy and make do with public transport), and really anywhere else they need to go that is within reasonable cycling distance. In primary school, we had to pass a 'traffic test', which consisted of a route we had to cycle, with teachers at different points checking whether we were adhering to all the traffic rules that come with cycling. These include but are not limited to sticking out your arm in the direction you're going to turn when at intersections. Nobody does this in practice, generally. The only time I do is when there is a car coming toward me, since I prefer not to get squashed to an early death, and when there's police in the vicinity. But I digress. The fact that such a test is mandatory goes to show that it's assumed everybody owns a bicycle, even at such a 'young' age.

Then again, according to Katie Melua, there are also a lot of bicycles in Beijing. (Oh god make it stop I HATE that song).

I guess it depends on how you look at it. ("Look at what?", you ask? I haven't a clue).


~Levyathan.

E: Eerlijkheid

Honesty. It lasts longest, according to the Dutch proverb. (Is there a comparable English one? I'm not sure).

In advertising, though, that sentiment is no longer one that is oft adhered to. Advertisers forego honesty in favor of pretty lies, all in order to sell, sell, sell. (And, y'know, possibly sell some more).

It's sad, because when real, honest-to-goodness fair trade products manage to make the market, they are generally still quite a bit more expensive than your regular little-Asian-children-in-cramped-factories-produced goods. The truth of the matter is that the products may be honest, but when it comes down to it, today's society is collectively more worried about wallets (and especially their contents) than about little Asian children.

Sadly, the fact that honest products are more expensive means that people only buy them when they are both conscious of their position in this world and unafraid to spend a penny more.

Anyway, it's far easier to sell products with a nice-sounding if slightly exaggerated pitch than it is to actually pay attention - and money! - to make sure the product does what is says on the tin and is produced under fair working conditions.

It's no wonder, really.


~Levyathan.

D: De

Or: "On the subject of articles".
(Articles? Really? Seems a bit strange of a word to indicate 'the' or 'a(n)'. My translator tells me it is so, however).

One of the major problems most foreign people encounter when learning the Dutch language has to do with our articles. You see, we have 'een', which is the same as the English 'a(n)'. Nothing much of an issue there. It starts getting problematic when we get to 'the'. You see, in Dutch, we have two different words for this. It can be indicated by either the word 'de' or 'het'. There is no clear distinction I'm aware of that indicates what to use when, and even natives sometimes have to guess at which to use when we come across words that are utterly unfamiliar to us. On the whole, though, either Dutch people have some sort of born affinity for recognizing which to use when or it's just been hammered into our subconcious from a young age. In short, one of the surefire ways to recognize a foreigner is to pay attention to what articles they use for what words. Apart from the often quite obvious accent, of course.

With a lot of other grammatical distinctions in our language (not for the articles - thank god) that are for whatever reason hazy to most natives - Really guys? They're perfectly clear to me! - it seems that the preferred way to get rid of the problems is to simply renounce the rules concerning them. I am strongly against this. It might have something to do with the fact that I'm one of those people who actually talks with grammatical correctness on a daily basis, but I just don't like the idea of our language being subject to 'dumbing down' simply because our natives can't be bothered to remember whether to use 'dan' or 'als'. It would basically be an incentive to stop caring about what you're saying - not the best solution in any situation.


~Levyathan.

C: Capuchon

If only because it's one of the only words in Dutch starting with 'C' that isn't basically the same as its English counterpart.

Capuchon. For those of you not in the know (which is basically everyone, I'm aware), it means hood.

As in, the awesome, handy dandy piece of cloth most badasses (and not-so-badasses) use to obscure their eyes to give themselves an air of mystery and intrigue. Made even more awesome if connected to a cape or a cloak.

Like I said, there are, on the whole, two main types of people to be observed wearing hoods.
[Warning: the following distinction is mostly made for comical effect, please do not take offense ;)]

Presenting The Badass:

Look at that awesome face. Look at it and bask in its glory.

Presenting The Not-So-Badass:

 BAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Okay, sorry. I was actually gonna give you guys a completely different picture, but it seems I'm somehow incapable of finding a picture of a douchebag wannabe gangster in a hood and I perceived this to be at least 100% funnier. You'll have to excuse me.

Have a nice Tuesday, everyone!


~Levyathan

B: Beleefdheid

Which, for everyone's information, means 'Politeness'.

Because - excuse me for sounding like an old lady - I feel like it's something today's youth could really use an extra helping of.

It's actually really bad how many teenagers think they're all that and feel like they don't have to respect their elders. Most notably, you see this at schools. Now, while I may or may not be somewhat of a stickler for the rules anyway, I can get really annoyed when people in my classes basically lack any form of respect for the teachers. Don't get me wrong, I don't think you should respect a teacher who is either simply a really BAD teacher or who doesn't respect you. I do however think that you should be at least cordial to figures of authority, especially before they've had the chance to prove whether they're going to earn it.
It gives a really bad starting point if you just sort of disrespect teachers before they've had so much as the chance to open their mouths.
But really, even if you've had them for a while, that's no reason for you to start talking to them as if they are your dog or your idiot little brother. I can at times be really embarrassed for the classes I'm in.

Even more poignant, we're watching this movie in French class about a school in France (shocker!), where the students talk to the teachers as if they're talking amongst themselves. They're constantly demanding outrageous things and because it's a whole class full of these troublemakers, the teacher is basically powerless against them. It's really disrespectful and it almost hurts to watch it, it irritates me to no end.


Okay, looking back at this thing, this sounds kind of pretentious and goody-two-shoes. It's not that I'm always super-respectful when talking to adults, but I don't let it get too far out of hand. Don't get me wrong - I scoff at my father too when I'm saying something a bit too colloquially degrading and he's all like "I didn't go to school with you! Respect your elders!", but I do think there is a line that shouldn't in good conscience be crossed.

Not sure if this made any sense... Be sure to tell me if you think differently, and especially why you think this is the case.


Peace out!

~Levyathan

A: Angst

Which is not that depression thing particularly teenagers tend to experience.
It's actually the Dutch word for fear.

Now, there are many forms of fear. There are also many irrational fears that only make sense to the ones they concern. Also, words for fears are not always very logical. Take 'hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia', being the fear of long words. Not very logical at all. "Really, you've got a phobia? Tell me about it." "Well, see, I'm afraid of long words." "Oh, you mean you have hippopotomonstroses-" "AAAAAAGHHHHH!!".

But really, fear is all around us. There are people who are deathly afraid of peanut butter. It happens!

Apart from the strange and often trivial fears of generic objects, though, there are also for example people who can't be in deep water, even while they can swim. I have a bit of this, I think. I dislike being in very deep lakes or the sea because it makes me uncomfortable to think about all the things beneath me that I can't see.

But really, the thing I personally am the most afraid of is time. Time, which just keeps passing and is unshakably determined. You never get it back. You just keep getting older and older and being in worse and worse condition while having fewer and fewer prospects for your future - which, incidentally, gets shorter and shorter - until eventually you die.
I'm also afraid of being trivial. I don't like to think I'll spend my life in this small town, working for some nameless company and never making a difference in the world. I don't understand people who choose to live that way. Like my parents. On the other hand, I can't really say what should be wrong with that. There are so many people on the world nobody has heard of. It's inevitable, and I shouldn't expect to be 'better' than that. In fact, I'm not sure I would want to. I don't really think the life of a celebrity is one I would ever choose for myself.. too little freedom, too much forced socialization. It's not for me.

I guess that's the most annoying thing about fear. Even when you realize it's unfounded and meaningless, that doesn't make it any less potent or real.


~Levyathan