May 26, 2004

Welcome on board, Maarten, and look forward for our Dutch and Belgian Typepad and MT launches

Posted at 01:34 in Movable Type, Six Apart, Typepad | | 18 Comments | View blog reactions

Maarten Schenk, the creator of Skynet Blogs, is joining us. Maarten has been visionary in launching one of the earliest and most successful blogging tool in Europe at Skynet, that has now more than 17000 blogs in Belgium (French and Dutch language). Or should I say Flemish ? Maarten has Dutch roots and is a trained linguist so I do not expect there will be much language related issues between Flemish and Dutch :=)

Maarten will prepare and launch Typepad and MT3 in Belgium and The Netherlands, in French and Dutch (and Flemish !), all our team in Europe is happy to welcome him on board.

By the way if there are any Dutch or Flemish people reading this blog, what do you think about the languages/cultural differences ? My opinion is that it is probably like the Walloons and the French, making jokes about it but finally not so many differences, right ?

Team growing, looking interesting... congrats again. (I will stop now with the congrats for new people or it will become my new hobby ;))

Anyway. One thing I have to say about the Wallons and French is that Wallons are more often than not easier to understand. Same actually goes for Flemisch I think. It's a bit cleaner and slower. Maybe that's because both languages in the country they need to remain clearer in their pronounciation.

That's the view from a german having lived in belgium for 8 years. So there you go. That's my feedback ;)

Oliver Thylmann, May 26, 2004 at 08:07

Oliver,

I think you got that correct the Dutch - Flemish relationsship is basically based on that the Dutch assume that the Belgiums (Flemish in the Dutch case) are stupid, and the Flemish think farthing every cent.

Jochem

Jochem Donkers, May 26, 2004 at 09:27

There are a lot of differences between the Dutch and Flemish languages. The same object can have different words. Some words have an unfortunate sexual connotation in one country, but not in the other. But there are also significant differences between the Belgian and Dutch markets. When I launched Weekendhotel.nl for the Netherlands and then Weekendhotel.be a year later for Belgium, I did not realize just how different they would be. My biggest problem in Belgium is satisfying French and Flemish speaking people, so now I have to do a French version of the Belgian site as well. My French is okay, but it takes time to translate everything and at some point I kind of gave up (sorry French-speaking Belgians!). Approaching customers in these markets is also different. You have to be very sensitive to how you talk to them, what approach works, etc. Fortunately I am Filipina so they all forgive my mistakes and I do make a great effort to speak Dutch (with mangled Flemish words here and there) and French. There is a German speaking part of Belgium and there I polish up my German and try not to offend anyone with wrong declensions (you know the der-die-das problem with direct/indirect objects).

Esme de Guzman Vos, May 26, 2004 at 17:56

There are a lot of differences between the Dutch and Flemish languages. The same object can have different words. Some words have an unfortunate sexual connotation in one country, but not in the other. But there are also significant differences between the Belgian and Dutch markets. When I launched Weekendhotel.nl for the Netherlands and then Weekendhotel.be a year later for Belgium, I did not realize just how different they would be. My biggest problem in Belgium is satisfying French and Flemish speaking people, so now I have to do a French version of the Belgian site as well. My French is okay, but it takes time to translate everything and at some point I kind of gave up (sorry French-speaking Belgians!). Approaching customers in these markets is also different. You have to be very sensitive to how you talk to them, what approach works, etc. Fortunately I am Filipina so they all forgive my mistakes and I do make a great effort to speak Dutch (with mangled Flemish words here and there) and French. There is a German speaking part of Belgium and there I polish up my German and try not to offend anyone with wrong declensions (you know the der-die-das problem with direct/indirect objects).

Esme de Guzman Vos, May 26, 2004 at 17:56

Written Flemish and Dutch are -in their standard version- almost the same, regardless of some minor grammatical variations and the obvious differences in word choice in certain fields. The pronunciation however is very different.

But the difference doesn't stop there, even more important is the cultural difference. Just to name one: religion.

When the Spaniards invaded the rebellious Lowlands at the end of the 16th century they only managed to conquer Flanders. An up until today that has deep catholic roots, while the Netherlands have a protestant/calvinist tradition.

Peter Caestecker, May 26, 2004 at 20:42

Written Flemish and Dutch are -in their standard version- almost the same, regardless of some minor grammatical variations and the obvious differences in word choice in certain fields. The pronunciation however is very different.

But the difference doesn't stop there, even more important is the cultural difference. Just to name one: religion.

When the Spaniards invaded the rebellious Lowlands at the end of the 16th century they only managed to conquer Flanders. An up until today that has deep catholic roots, while the Netherlands have a protestant/calvinist tradition.

Peter Caestecker, May 26, 2004 at 20:43

One thing you should take note of: the Flemish (almost) always win the Grand Dutch Spelling Contest (in Dutch: Het Groot Dictee der Nederlandse Taal).

Just so you know.... ;)

Roel, May 29, 2004 at 16:45

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I hope the Dutch and Belgian cooperation will be mutually beneficial :))
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