Feb 21: International Mother Language Day

On the 17th of November, 1999, UNESCO decided to internationally acknowledge the Language Movement Day in Bangladesh as the International Mother Language Day... A day which I want to commemorate by writing a blog-post in every language I can speak reasonably fluent and maybe one that I pretend not to speak reasonably-ish.

So... in order of appearance (and fluency): Nederlands (Flemish is not a language! West-Flemish is by some standards, not so by others), english (He-Jinefied ^_^), Français (unlike what you would expect the standard version, not the the Belgian one), Esperanto and 한국말 (Korean - the South-Korean variety, garnished with lots of mistakes and served on a platter of simplified grammar).

Disclaimer: My Français is ancient, as in I have used it too long ago and my grammar sucks, especially all the femine, masculine... comes with being transgender I think - gender, even grammatical gender, just doesn't follow any pre-established patterns. So read it and deal, or don't! either way if you can't handle it, just shove it, kay.


Dus begin ik met Nederlands, gezien vandaag de Internationale Moedertaaldag is, is het vanzelfsprekend dat Nederlands effe gedag komt zeggen. Moet ik wel toegeven dat ik me soms afvraag wat er bedoeld wordt met native language of mother tongue - moedertaal... Nederlands is noch de taal van de moeder die ik niet heb, of native? inheems? whatever... het klinkt in ieder geval niet juist gezien Koreaans die quote eer unquote heeft, terwijl mijn Koreaans eerder een poging tot Koreaans is. Mijn Nederlands aan de andere kant komt niet zo natuurlijk meer, wanneer men een taal niet spreekt... echter toch wel wat schaamte, engels de massa moordenaar der talen poogt ook hier een slachtoffer op te eisen (effe de schuld op de engelse taal afschuiven.)

But then again I don't mourn that much about the little loss I've had in the Dutch department, I can still fluently converse and write in it, fully understand it, make fun of the fact that the Flemish speak better Dutch than the Dutch, etc. And I must admit, Dutch isn't the most beautiful language around, that honor goes to obscure tongues such as Gaeilge and Cymraeg, Euskara, Diné bizaad, etc. Then again my over-use of english isn't all that good and well - and definitely not beautiful, english's value lies in the fact that it is the Jack the Ripper among languages, just so much material is published in english, so many speak it either as first language or second - to the extent that those native english speakers in this world bathe in linguistic arrogance and monoglottism... in fact, let me go back and edit all the capital letters from english, just to annoy those native english speaking monoglots among you.

Mais tres belle est la Français, vraiement. C'est comme le Merovingian a dit, est-ce que vous vous rapellez le film Matrix Reloaded?

I have sampled every language, French is my favourite - fantastic language, especially to curse with. Nom de Dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperies de connards d'enculé de ta mère. It's like wiping your ass with silk, I love it.

Vraiement c'est juste, nom de Dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperies de connards d'enculé de ta mère! Mais je pense que je jamais utiliserai de la soie comme papier cul. Une langue tres belle pour injurier, fulminer, mais aussi faire l'amour, même le mot pour fuck est plaisant: baiser...

Sed la problemo kun la franca lingvo estas, kun aliaj belaj lingvoj mi pensas, ke tiu estas malfacila. Do mi prenis multajn tempojn por lerni ĝin... La plej facila lingvo por lerni estis Esperanto laŭ mi, mi lernis la gramatikon dum nur kelkaj semajnoj. Por paroli ĝin flue me bezonis unu jaron, sed post du monatoj mi jam povis interparoli kun alia geesperantistoj per la interreto. Ankaŭ mi amas la junulara movado de esperanto, sed mi ne scias se la ideo de Fin Venko estas bona por diverseco de lingvon... Ekde mi timas ke esperanto fariĝi kiel angla se ĝi uzantos tutmonde. Tamen, nun mi studantas esperanton ĉar mi amas ĉi tiun lingvon flekseblan.

그렇지만 한국말은 아주 어려워요, 아마 너무 어려워요. 저는 진짜 진짜 이말 잘 할 수 있고 싶어요. 그러나 4년간 한국말을 공부했지만 아직 잘 못해요. 여즈음에는 한국에서 살고 있는데 한국말로 정말 조금만 말하니까 영어를 가르쳐요. 그리고 한국에 에스페란토를 할 수 있는 사람을 많이 있어서 에스페란토도 더 해요.