Originally uploaded by Constance Wiebrands.
M got home yesterday to discover a very-pleased-with-himself Paco, who had discovered that there was LOTS to play with in the bin.
Archive for September, 2007
This weekend’s Dutch language lesson could potentially be our last one - we will have completed Dutch Beginners’ Two, but there is no guarantee that Dutch Beginners’ Three will be taught, unless enough people sign up. I’ve really enjoyed learning the language, and finding the similarities and differences between Dutch and German and English.
Last time we were at M’s parents it was fun to ask for kruidenthee (herbal tea) instead of gewone thee (regular tea), which led on to a discussion about koffie verkeerd (lit. “wrong coffee”, a latte) and all sorts of other topics. I love the myriad ways languages describe things - and I love how things sometimes seem strange and then become so natural, as you learn more. I’m the sort of person who likes to ponder the Dutch concept gezellig (1. enjoyable, pleasant, sociable, companionable 2. pleasant, comfortable, cosy) and compare it with the German gemütlich (comfortable, pleasant, cosy) and who wonders why the word mooi now seems, well, so apt in so many situations. (Our new New Routledge Dutch Dictionary defines mooi as 1. beautiful 2. good-looking, handsome, pretty 3. lovely, beautiful 4. smart 5. good, excellent 6. good, fine, nice, handsome 7. good, nice.) The initial g sound in Dutch, best described as a voiced ch (as in loch, not as in chat), is no longer completely weird to me - although I’m still at the point where I sometimes stumble over it - as is the case with all the vowel sounds that don’t exist in English. I also love the challenge of becoming fluent in a language. I’d love to get to the point where I can have a simple conversation with my in-laws and other extended family - I’ll have to keep working on it.
It has been challenging learning Dutch because it is definitely a less-known language and it can be a bit difficult to get reference and other materials for it. For German, for instance, there is a lot of material available in the bookshops. And finding classes can be challenging too. I wish it were possible to visit a Dutch-speaking community without having to fly thousands of kilometres. If you were a learner of Cantonese, for example, you could immerse yourself in the sounds just by going to yum cha on a Sunday morning in Perth’s Chinatown, as Daisann McLane has managed to do in New York City (originally via her blog).
*I want to learn Dutch!
… to the New York Times, which has stopped charging for parts of its site:
The Times said the project had met expectations, drawing 227,000 paying subscribers — out of 787,000 over all — and generating about $10 million a year in revenue.
“But our projections for growth on that paid subscriber base were low, compared to the growth of online advertising,†said Vivian L. Schiller, senior vice president and general manager of the site, NYTimes.com.
What changed, The Times said, was that many more readers started coming to the site from search engines and links on other sites instead of coming directly to NYTimes.com. These indirect readers, unable to get access to articles behind the pay wall and less likely to pay subscription fees than the more loyal direct users, were seen as opportunities for more page views and increased advertising revenue.
“What wasn’t anticipated was the explosion in how much of our traffic would be generated by Google, by Yahoo and some others,†Ms. Schiller said.
The Times’s site has about 13 million unique visitors each month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, far more than any other newspaper site. Ms. Schiller would not say how much increased Web traffic the paper expects by eliminating the charges, or how much additional ad revenue the move was expected to generate.
I will actually be reading the Times a lot more now (and must remember to click on some ads from time to time, to justify their largesse).
Now if only the Singapore Straits Times would follow the Times’ example…
In other news, Podcamp is coming to Perth! (This is the first time I feel like my vote actually made a difference 
)
