Dutch and Deutsch

I went to the library this afternoon and checked-out a country profile book about the Netherlands called Holland by Mies Bouhuys. It's pretty dated, copyright 1971, but it's written in English, Dutch and German, so I couldn't resist. Though there are whole pages with text, most is in the form of photo captions, making it a good way to read some Dutch in small doses.

Here's a random example, showing English, Dutch and German...

~Giethoorn is a true water village.

~Giethoorn is een echt waterdorp.

~Giethoorn ist ein echtes 'Wasserdorf'.

It's interesting to be able to compare these three related languages, even if the translation is nearly never as straight-forward as the above.

You Say What I Say

I've been making Slavic vocab lists. When learning languages that share a family (and even those that don't), it's helpful to look for alike words and phrases. That is, instead of thinking in terms of a single language, condense and conquer. ;)