Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
speaking your new language. In any case, though, when you do at least one lesson a day,
you'll soon notice a dramatic change in your comfort level.
“
Goedenavond,
sweetheart. I'm home!” Hannah set her bags down as she closed the door
to the apartment behind her. It had now been three weeks since she and Mark had begun
to plan their trip to the Netherlands. Hannah was still enjoying the fact that she could now
greet her husband with the Dutch version of “good evening.”
“
Goedenavond,
baby,” Mark replied as he appeared from the kitchen, making sure to make
his “g
”
sound like an “h” coming from the back of his throat. The sounds of Dutch were
hard to make sometimes, but he was getting better at them. Practicing every day on the
way to and from work was making a big difference. “You're home earlier than I expected.
Didn't you have your women's group class tonight?”
“It was cancelled, and to be honest, I was glad. There's so much going on right now, I
could use the extra evening just to relax. How was your day?”
“
Heel goed
,” Mark replied with a smile, knowing Hannah would giggle at hearing him
saying “very good” in Dutch. “Here, let me help you with your things.” Mark took the
bags from Hannah's feet and started to bring them into the bedroom, where she could sort
them out later
.
“
Dank u wel, meneer!
” Hannah called in after him. “Thank you very much, sir,” was prob-
ably a little formal for her to say to her husband, but it was what she had learned so far,
and it felt good to say. Today had been Jan de Groot's last day in town, and he had highly
praised Hannah's new skill. According to Jan, Hannah's pronunciation was excellent, and
he had no trouble understanding her
.
But what Hannah was happiest about was how Mark had taken to learning Dutch himself.
Hannah had studied Spanish in college, so she had some background in languages. But
Mark had only barely managed to fake his way through high school Latin, and things had
gotten worse since then. He hadn't studied languages at all in college, and it had been a
challenge getting him to even try learning Dutch now. But he had been a good sport about
