nieuwsbrief Koning Boudewijnstichting

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
June 4, 2002

Henk from Canada and the Netherlands wrote:
>Since I'm a born Dutchman, I did not have too much trouble translating the
>epistle (see earlier message).

Yes...it was wonderful to have your translation...we are lucky to
have a born Dutchman on the SignWriting List!...


>I had to chuckle a bit at the computer program translation, but that was a
>nice effort.

The computer translations are sometimes poor, but I find they are
better than nothing...


>The letter is from Belgium. They are know for often writing
>better Dutch than the people in Holland.

Yes...I found that a little confusing, since the address was from
Brussels, not Ghent, and generally in Brussels they are French
speaking... So the fact that the Foundation, in Brussels, wrote to me
in Flemish, was unique, I thought...Plus I have received French email
from Brussels before too...so a bilingual country must be flexible!
;-)


>King Boudewijn was King of
>Belgium, not Holland. His brother Albert came to the throne after Boudewijn
>died.  Holland presently has Queen Beatrix, the daughter of Queen Juliana,
>who in turn is the daughter of Queen Wilhelmina who reigned in Holland at
>the same time as King  Leopold ( the father of Boudewijn and Albert) did in
>Belgium.  I hope that this is of some interest to the List members.

Oh. I do feel a little embarrassed about my mistake. I had connected
King Boudewijn with the Netherlands in my head - please excuse my
error. Did King Boudewijn speak Flemish? That may be where I got
mixed up...

Yes...the royal family members of the Netherlands are elegant and I
have always enjoyed seeing pictures of Queen Beatrix and her
family...They look a little like the royal family from Denmark - I
know the royal families have inter-married in Europe, so they might
all be cousins!

Thanks once again, everyone...

Val ;-)
..