Spreek je Nederlands?

Many years ago, about a year after I arrived here, I met a Dutch friend's Grandmother. A doughty eighty year old, thin as wire, who had rescued her husband from German soldiers and raised their sons alone after his death. She was smart and fierce with her grandsons, concerned with their success and well-being.

She asked me if I spoke Dutch "Spreek je Nederlands?" when I said no, she responded in flawless English with a very light accent "Well that's all right because I speak English".

About four years ago she died, but I've been thinking of her in light of Minister Verdonk's latest announcement that we should all speak Dutch, and only Dutch, in the streets. Here's an article in English on the subject.

The Minister proposes this as part of enforcing Dutch norms and values on immigrants. Yet she herself lists 'non-discrimination' as a Dutch value. According to Expatica.com 'She plans to sit down with experts to see "what's important, what the Dutch identity is". '

The Dutch reaction to this announcement is amazement. Even the politicians haven't been able to resist pointing out how ridiculous this is, they spent the following day peppering their debate with foreign terms.

Most people, foreigners and Dutch alike, see this proposal as prejudiced and unworkable. Many have made the easy comparison other regimes that have introduced language controls; Nazi Germany, Franco's Spain, colonising America/Australia/New Zealand etc. It's hardly a list of the honoured and admired.

In Amsterdam, a city where roughly half the population is either born outside the Netherlands or who has a parent born outside the Netherlands, you can hear 10 or 20 languages in a day: the shuffling silibants of Polish, the rolling staccato of an African dialect, the gutteral mystery of Turkish, ubiquitous English, the heat of Spanish, a whisper of French. And occasionally there's a conversation in Dutch. For me it's part of the charm of the city, and there certainly aren't enough police in the land to enforce such legislation as Minister Verdonk is currently considering.

But, just in case it is passed, I've enrolled in a course in the Frisian Language. Goemoarn Rita.