Illustration Henk van Ruitenbeek
My first encounter with this was at Schiphol Airport when I got into a conversation with a certain Dutch lady. I asked her if she spoke English and she said: ‘Yes but my vocablioliloliloli…’ She was trying to tell me her vocabulary was limited. She got it right on the third try but pronounced it very slowly.
I thought this was just a quirk of this lady’s until I had the same experience with one of my corridor mates in Dijkgraaf. He was telling me how nice Spanish people sound when they talk, and he made that same sound. He said: ‘I like how Spanish people talk, especially in their restaurants. Their pronublioliloliloli…’ He then corrected himself, now stating very slowly that he liked Spanish p-r-o-n-u-n-c-i-a-t-i-o-n.
My impression was confirmed once again in one of my classes when the lecturer made that same sound when trying to pronounce ‘extravagant’. I know people from other countries all have their own way of speaking English, but this is so typical of Dutch people. Now that I am dating a Dutch girl, I am getting used to it. She once said ‘delibliolilolili’ when trying to pronounce ‘delivery’.
Eugene Gakpo Alhassan, Master’s student of Environmental Science, from Ghana
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NL: Tongbrekers
Op Schiphol raakte Eugene Gakpo Alhassan uit Ghana aan de praat met een Nederlandse vrouw. Ze vertelde hem dat ze wel Engels sprak, maar dat haar ‘vocablioliloliloli…’ niet zo groot was. Later hoorde hij een Nederlandse huisgenoot hetzelfde blioliloliloli-geluid maken toen hij over een moeilijk Engels woord struikelde. En een docent deed het een keer tijdens college. Inmiddels begint Eugene aan dat gekke Nederlandse gebrabbel te wennen. ‘Mijn Nederlandse vriendin zei een keer “delibliolilolili” toen ze “delivery” probeerde te zeggen.’