LL-L "Events" 2008.09.23 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

===========================================
L O W L A N D S - L - 23 September 2008 - Volume 06
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please set the encoding mode to Unicode (UTF-8).
If viewing this in a web browser, please click on
the html toggle at the bottom of the archived page
and switch your browser's character encoding to Unicode.
===========================================


From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Events"

Beste Jonny (et al),

You wrote:

> *Luc schreev:*
>
> Too bad that Northern Germany was left out of the picture.
>
> What should be bad if any Dutch/Flemish people make a good fiesta, with
> everybody invited to take part? A party within the extended family -
guests
> are welcomed (as far as I understood the publication) - is something
> different than a mega-party(*) of the whole, big 'Flachland'. To name it
> 'Flachlandfest' implies for me: "Flachländer aller Länder, kommt und
> vereinigt Euch (beim Feiern)!"

Rest assured, I'm all for such a party, it's not bad at all: quite the
contrary. Whoever puts the Lowlands,or part of them on the agenda, gets my
undivided attention, and if Berlin was not that far, I would surely attend
some of the events. May still do it!

When I wrote "too bad", I meant: maybe, maybe, maybe it could have become an
even better festival, if only Northern Germany would have been included as
well. I fully understand though that practical limitations have hindered
this, and just like Sander Van de Moortel, one of the organizers, writes, in
any case you will always have to draw the line somewhere. It's his party and
of course he is fully entitled to focus on whoever or whatever he deems
interesting.

On the other hand, if you look at the grand scheme of things: this is
happening in Berlin. The capital of Germany. It was twenty years ago today
*s*...errr...no: almost twenty years: when the Wall came tumbling down.
Thanks to cross-boundary thinking (and action), this city managed to
flourish and regain its status as capital of all Germany. Five Eastern
Bundesländer formally joined the new Federal Republic. In short, Berlin's
own recent  proliferation/"renaissance" was borne out of cross-boundary
thinking itself!
Therefore, the city could/should have set an example by applying that very
same liberal spirit to this cultural event, maybe something along the lines
of "Eine neue Wende im Flachland: Nun auch im Westen!" *s*...in Berlinerisch
of course...or even better, in Flämingplatt:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fl%C3%A4ming

Sander also wrote:

> To give you an example: recently I was not chosen for a job in Berlin
> because I could not convince them that I was a native speaker Dutch ("How
> can you speak Dutch if you're Belgian, you speak Flemish at best...").

Completely befuddled there...what a shame. Wonder what "überlanguage" the
interviewer was speaking.

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20080923/39cbf2c1/attachment.htm>