It's raining cats and dogs (just to use the phrase)

While browsing through YouTube videos related to silly cats, I found this one about a… mad Kitty!!!!



And this one is quite funny, too:



(Please don't try this at home with your own kitty!)

And several days ago, I featured a video with a cat that tried to grab something hanging from a fan. It was too funny to be true:



I especially like the cat's moaning…

PS. Today I noticed that the counter on the left indicated that 1,000 visitors had cliked this blog address since 5 November 2007, when I installed this counter. That's quite impressive.

A good reason not to drive

Watch this video and you'll never drive a motorbike:



Drive safely!

In fact, this video was made by YigalGiat, a YouTube of which I've already featured this "funny crash compilation #2" a couple of weeks ago. (Thanks again Waldorf for sending me this!) Let's watch it once more:



And the third video:



It's so weird to laugh of other people's pain…

More are to be shown on this blog. Stay tuned! (And always fasten your seatbelt! ;-))

Christmas Week: Miscellaneous

I'm sorry to say that it's the sixth and last instalment of the Christmas Week on this blog. I hope you enjoyed the videos I had favourited on YouTube; next year I'll do the same — but with different videos, of course!

Here are some goodies that I had forgotten in my favourites:

The song "It feels like Christmas" (from "The Muppet Christmas Carol") applied to Harry Potter…



And, if we follow the same logic, Severus Snape is Ebenezer Scrooge! Watch this video. (Embedding was disabled.)

And oh yeah, I forgot this one: Batman's Christmas Carol, Panique au village style!!!!



Brilliant!

PS. I posted the account of the first day of our trip to Amsterdam.

Christmas Week: "Little Britain"

I know that the Little Britain series had a special two-parts episode made for Christmas, called Little Britain Abroad, with characters traveling to exotic places, such as the Belgian Ardennes (a couple spending their honeymoon in a caravan) or Spain or Disneyworld (Lou and Andy were to go there, but their plane crashed on a desert island…). Unfortunately, the censors of YouTube apparently didn't like the fact that people shared funny stuff, and the episode is now only available through several fragments. The good news is that my account hasn't been suspended (yet!) and I have a scene that has something to do with Christmas. Enjoy!



I look a pillock!

Christmas Week: Mr Bean

This is probably one of my favourite scenes from the whole Mr Bean series with Rowan Atkinson. In this episode Mr Beans goes to Harrods to buy some Christmas stuff. And look what happens when he spots a nativity scene…



Exterminate! Exterminate!

I especially liked the shepherd knocking on the truck as a sign that the driver can go.

Christmas Week: "Home Alone"

Here's another Christmas film I really love: Home Alone, starring Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. (They curiously kind of disappeared from the screens after that…)

Here's the trailer of the director's cut version:

"He's a disturbed child who's searching for a home…"

KEVIN: I made my family disappear… I'm a criminal.

"He takes over their home and plans his vengeance…"

"Now Harry and Marv struggle to regain their house at any cost"

"Christmas kills once a year, when you're… HOME ALONE"

Ok, it was just a spoof. But this is frankly one of the best parodies to be seen on YouTube, along with that freaky, scary Mary Poppins re-cut trailer and Brokeback to the Future.

Admit it'd have been great to have Kevin as an evil creature coming from hell to annoy those poor Harry and Marvin in their idyllic existence, just after moving in a new cosy neighbourhood…

Here's another re-cut trailer:



So silly!

Christmas Week: "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"

The National Lampoon's Christmas Vacations ranks high in my favourite movies. I watch it every 25 December evening. It stars Chevy "Combover" Chase and other actors belonging to the Saturday Night Live show, such as Randy Quaid.

Let's start with the cartoon opening titles:



In this film, Clark Griswold is the head of a small family. He wants to celebrate Christmas with his whole family. First they have to go and cut a tree in the forest… That was quite an adventure, but it's nothing next to what happens after that…



Clark also attached 250 strands of lights to his roof…

… but it didn't work… But wait!



The attic scene:



The saucer sledge scene:



The dinner scene:



Towards the end of the film, Clark is really pissed off (due to the various disasters that happened in his house [including the burning of his Christmas tree and the electrocution of a cat]), but he was mostly frustrated because he hadn't received his bonus money, until…



I hope you enjoyed these fragments and that you might want to watch the whole film.

Christmas Week: "Muppet Christmas Carol"

Welcome to my second theme week, namely the Christmas Week!

I'll devote this week's articles to my favourite videos that have something to do with Christmas. Previously on this blog, I already showed you a tremendous parody of the Jingle Bells lyrics, song by the Joker (aka Mark Hamill) in Batman: the Animated Series…

Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh what fun it is to ride
in a one horse-open sleigh, hey!

Jingle bells, Batman smells
Robin laid an egg
The Batmobile lost a wheel
And the Joker got awayyyyyyyyy!
Crashing through the roof
On a one horse-open tree
Busting out I go
Laughing all the wayyyyyyyyyy! Haahahahahah!

Now it's time for me to talk about one of my top-three Christmas movies: The Muppet Christmas Carol, based on Charles Dickens's Christmas Carol. The film stars Michael Caine to perfectly perform the role of Ebenezer Scrooge. (By the way, in the French version, he's voiced-over by the talented Bernard Dhéran.) It features the Muppets (of course) playing different characters in Dickens's story, e.g. Kermit as Bob Cratchit, and Gonzo the Great to act as Dickens/the narrator — definitely an overt one in this case, as in the book. At the beginning of the movie, he introduces Ebenezer Scrooge…



I LOVE THAT SONG!

I also love this one, "It feels like Christmas".



As a bonus, you can also read a blog entry that I wrote on germ@namur featuring another song that refers to my new nickname… (Martin, you're gonna like it too!)

Shame on Him! Terdecies: John Bolton

Last week I promised I would feature another VIP with a combover…

Let's ask this simple question:

Who's got one of the most ridiculous combovers in the world?

AYE!

The winner is indeed John Bolton. Let's read the beginning of his resumé on Wikipedia:

John Robert Bolton (born November 20, 1948), is an American diplomat in several Republican administrations, who served as the Permanent US Representative to the UN from August 2005 until December 2006, on a recess appointment. He resigned in December 2006, when his recess appointment would have ended.^[1][2]

Bolton is involved with a broad assortment of conservative think tanks and policy institutes, including the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), Project for the New American Century (PNAC), Institute of East-West Dynamics, National Rifle Association, US Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the Council for National Policy (CNP).

Bolton was formerly involved with Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf (CPSG), Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Federalist Society, National Policy Forum, National Advisory Board, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, New Atlantic Initiative, Project on Transitional Democracies, and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Two conclusions can be drawn:

1. He earns a lot of money;
2. It is said that he is a conservative. That must be the reason of sticking to such an old-fashioned hairstyle…

Let's see some other pieces of evidence:



I admit it is dense, so it's not as ugly as most"light" combovers that pretend to hide a bald(ing) skull. This one must be quite heavy – or kind of. It could be confused with a toupée, but we can see that his hair is stiched to his skull. It reminds me of Serge Kubla, who I was telling you about several months ago.

Interlude

Here are two alternate endings, just to give you a little something while I'm writing a full report of our trip to Amsterdam and the Christmas party… (Sorry, but it requires a great amount of time…)

X-Men 1 alternate ending



X-Men 2 alternate ending (with Robocop)

Trip to Amsterdam: Day 3

To be published.

Trip to Amsterdam: Day 2

To be published.

Trip to Amsterdam: Day 1

Today was the D-Day for our trip to Amsterdam. It was the day of our departure, basically. We were to meet at the station in order to take the train to Brussels. There were lots of people in the train, but some of us managed to get a seat, others had to stand throughout the whole trip. We finally arrived in Brussels North Station round 9.45 pm. Our train to Amsterdam was to leave at 10.15 or something like that.

Meanwhile, some of us fetched a drink or something else to eat. (I bought a so-called pain saucisse. Tasty!) Mr Van Mensel found us waiting on the platform. The air was really really cold… Everyone was trying to get a little warmer by keeping their hands in their pockets and covering their heads with scarfs, hoods…

We took the international train to Amsterdam, but we'd have to get off the train in Den Haag (The Hague) in order to see several things in the economic and political capital of the Netherlands. So we arrived there about less than three hours later, meeting Mrs Leijnse in the station. Then we put our cases in some metal device having the form of bank safes, and we walked to the Mauritshuis, i.e. a museum displaying many beautiful pieces of artwork, but also (as kind of cherry on the cake) the famous Meisje met de parel by Johannes Vermeer.

A little bit later, outside, we got to listen to Pitchou and Wilhelm who gave us a historical and political survey of the Binnenhof, i.e. the Parliament of the Netherlands. The air seemed colder and colder, so that we haven't stayed there for long. And before I forgot, please note that we saw our first "Bekende Nederlander":

Mrs Leijnse: "You see that man with a hamster on his head? It's Geert Wilders, a controversial politician"

He was being photographied by someone in front of several parts of the buiding. Approximately a dozen of bodyguards were present to avert any potential threat, due to his radical politican opinions.


After that, we walked to the Couperusmuseum, about Louis Couperus, of whom we'll read three books in the second term. We split the group in two: a group would stay in the museum while the other would go for a walk in the neighbourhood. I was part of the group that stayed inside. Our guide was Ton, a man who is really a Couperus freak. He spoke fluently and cracked up several jokes that nobody understood. That's the reason why Mrs Leijnse let him know that we weren't Flemings, but French-speaking people studying Dutch… He spoke less quickly after that… He told us about "Louwis"'s life and his works. Then we went out for a walk round the block, located in a neighbourhood where many diplomats (cf. CD licence plates) live.


We came back to the museum half an hour later, half frozen. About five minutes later, we headed for the station.

We picked up our cases in the safes and we ran to catch the train to Amsterdam. It was pretty crowded, so that most of us stayed in the transit space between two railroad cars. We arrived in Amsterdam at 6.15 pm approximately. We took the tramway to the Leidseplein, the closest to the Jeugdherberg, a youth hostel in the Middle of the Vondelpark. We installed our headquarters in our room and after that we went downstairs to have a drink and play pool; even M. Van Mensel was part of the fun!





It was only just before one o'clock that I decided to go to my room and sleep.

Christmas Party in Namur

Today we all celebrated Christmas — or, say, kind of — by gathering in the English literature seminar, and we chatted, we drank, we listened to music… it was thus great fun, basically.

I took a lot of pictures tonight, but as I'm leaving for a three-days trip to Amsterdam
tomorrow morning, I don't have the time to upload the pictures. Anyway, I'll do it asap. There are some gems, believe me. Just one quote perhaps:

Mr Romero: Do you want some wine, Simon?
Me: Oh yeah, but just a finger.
Mr Romero: Oh, we hardly know each other!

Silly, as usual… See you soon then!

"The Funny Crash Compilation"

An avid reader — our good friend Martin — posted in the comments a video that made me "laugh out loud"… Check it out:



I can't help feeling myself the pain that these people had when they had their accidents…

I especially liked the passage when the cat tries to catch something hanging from the fan…

I'll post more of them someday…

Shame on Him! Tredecies: Ehud Olmert

I finally decided to search my memory for someone having a combover I hadn't mentioned yet on this blog. Then the face of Ehud Olmert (Prime Minister of Israel) came to my mind… Look at this piece of evidence:


When I first saw him, after his predecessor Ariel Sharon fell in a coma due to I-don't-know-which illness, I immediately spotted his combover. Of course: that's always what I look on a middle-aged or old man.

But since then, as we can see on the picture below (showing the evolution of his hair), Ehud Olmert was wise enough to cut his combover, making him look less silly than before…


Congratulations, Mr Olmert!

Then I wondered which could have been the reasons that led him to make the good choice. Yesterday, I found this interesting open letter to Ehud Olmert published in January 2006 on the Jerusalem Post:

Dear Mr. Olmert,

Your recent TV appearances, albeit in troubled times, have moved me to write to you on a personal matter that has been troubling me about you for sometime.

I too had the misfortune to lose my hair, as is the way with so many Jewish men. I too chose to artfully comb what remained in an attempt to conceal the fact. There were certain angles from which you could view me (usually if you were sitting and I wasn't) where you genuinely couldn't tell that I had lost my hair – or at least, at my most delusional, I could persuade myself thus.

However, the combover years were not happy ones. Sport in particular gave rise to much awkwardness, as it gave my opponents plenty of ammunition with which to unsettle me. I often rose majestically into the air to head a football, and then faced the anxiety of starting the Bobby Charlton rearrangements even before my feet had hit the ground. [Bobby Charlton was one of the stars of England's 1966 World Cup-winning soccer team, who lost his hair at a young age and resorted to ever-more-elaborate combover arrangements in a ludicrously vain effort to conceal the fact; readers of American origin might wish to substitute, say, Rudy Giuliani.]

A gust of wind was also incredibly unwelcome, unmasking me as it did in front of total strangers.

My anguish was put to an end one afternoon, when a colleague at work put his pencil down and said: "I simply cannot sit here a minute longer with your hair looking like that."

He took me by the hand and sat me down in a barber's shop with the simple but life-transforming instruction to the man in charge - "Take it off."

It was interesting that, phoney as the combover had been, and as much I knew in my heart that it fooled no one, it still took my colleague to force the issue. This took place a dozen years ago, and I have often reflected how deeply I am indebted to my now former colleague; how he released me from such tension and awkwardness.

Mr. Olmert, I would like to perform the same role for you. I simply cannot scream "Take it off!" at the TV screen anymore. Believe me, it is a liberating and life-affirming experience. Unafraid of being unmasked, you will have an immediate spring in your step, a key stress release for any politician.

You are going to need a steady nerve and clear thoughts in the difficult days ahead, and I would never be so arrogant as to suggest which political course you might steer for Israel. But on this issue I do feel qualified to weigh in.

Take my advice. Get rid of the lid, and you will be far better placed to negotiate your way through.

The writer, a committed reader of The Jerusalem Post, is the director of a duty-free business based in London.

What we can conclude from all that is that Rudy Giuliani's combing-out [btw, I've just coined this word as a pun to coming-out] cleared the way for a series of men who come to feel that trying to hide their baldness is not only useless, but also pathetic.

PS. I found an American that's a HUGE combover; I'll write about him very soon… A hint? Let's say that he's was until 2006 high-rank diplomat at the United Nations…

Lost in a jungle of… bras

Here's another scene from A Christmassy Ted, the Christmas special episode of Father Ted I was telling you about a couple of days ago. In this video, Father Ted and Dougal get lost in the lingerie section of a supermarket…



Wasn't that funny? I like the The Things They Carried-like, Vietnamish atmosphere…

Note that we saw Kevin McKidd as Father Deegan (a young priest): that was quite a long time before he stars in Rome as Lucius Vorenus.

John McClane fears nobody

Our friend from the Editing Room has come up with two other alternate endings for Die Hard:

It's probably some stock broker got depressed…

And another, this time a crossover with Terminator and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie:

Casey Jones: Ooops!!

Catch 'Em If You Can

In today's Simpsons episode (braodcast on Club RTL) there was a remarkable spoof made on the opening credits of Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can. Let's watch those first:



I find it highly original, and John Williams's music is — as always — tremendous.

Let's now watch the parody, just after I mention that Homer and Marge try to escape from Bart and Lisa because they'd like to be alone just one day.



In one word: wicked!

One, Two, Tree

Here's the introduction of the Christmas special episode (my personal favourite) of the brilliant Britcom Father Ted, with the late Dermot Morgan as Father Ted Crilly. This extract also features Ardal O'Hanlon as Father Dougal McGuire and Frank Kelly as Father Jack Hackett (the grumpy old man).

Father Jack: "A pair of fecking women's knickers!!!!"

S.N.O.T.

What happens if you search for "snot" in YouTube? (I know it's a silly idea, but that's how I am.) Well, you find lots of things like these three videos:



This politician's named John Edwards. I think that many people will not vote for him due to this video…

In the next one, we find out that germs can actually affect the pope (yet I thought he was in the grace of God…):



He says in Polish:

"It will proceed in city of grace (atchoo) (applauses)
As it happens, and ecumenical meaning can have sneeze." (translation by a YouTuber)

And the last one is so outrageous that I'm just gonna link it… (Mr Romero and Martin, is this really outrageous???)

Landscape

Instead of talking about "linguistic landscapes" (cf. the summary in Dutch I posted last Friday), let's enjoy this beautiful painting by Rob Alexander, an illustrator who works for Magic—The Gathering:


It's almost like in this commercial for Joival, the milk brand…

Chessington

Why haven't shown you yet the most-seen of my videos on YouTube? Probably because I never thought of it. So there it is: it's a skecth from the second series of Little Britain, with David Walliams (here as Lou) and Matt Lucas (here as Andy).

In Herby, Andy Pipkin is enjoying is annual bath…

I thought you hated France! I thought you said the French could never been forgiven for surrendering to the German war machine, and collaborating with the occupier by setting up the Vichy Government...

If you have enjoyed this evening's programme, you might like to travel back in time half an hour and watch it again.

--> Brilliant quote! I wish I could do that sometimes!

Andy wanted to go to Chessington World of Adventure (if you didn't understand what Lou mumbles…).

And, believe it or not, the crew actually went to Paris to shoot that scene!!

Walt Disney: Emperor of Dreams

Here's the final version of my blog entry about Walt Disney, which I also posted on germ@namur. Maybe I'm just gonna change a few links, adding silly things (like the spoof on Honey I Shrunk the Kids).

Who has never heard of Walt Disney? This world-famous cartoon director and businessman was born on 5 December 1901 in Chicago, IL. He is an icon in American culture, as will be shown in this blog entry.

Walt Elias Disney started his career as an advertising illustrator, but failing to meet the success he desired, he left his hometown to go to Hollywood. He founded a cartoon production company (known today as the Walt Disney Company), and a couple of years later, his Steamboat Willie made him famous, with its introduction of the character of Mickey Mouse. This film was the first in an endless series of worldwide-successful cartoons such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Bambi, Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland – among many others.

But Disney’s interest lay not only in cartoons, but also in live-action movies: he most notably produced Mary Poppins, starring Julie Andrews. Disney also invested his money and his time in the creation of an amusement park in California, Disleyland. This theme park was designed in such a way that all American families could walk in a fantasy world that would remind everybody of his cartoons, for instance by getting lost in Alice in Wonderland’s labyrinth. As a philanthropist, he decided to create a new university, CalArts (short for California Institute of Arts), in order to promote the creativity of talented people who would probably become prominent in the arts.

Walt Disney died of lung cancer on 15 December 1966 — he was a heavy smoker. An urban legend says that Walt Disney was cryonically frozen, but he was actually cremated. Despite his death, his work was carried on by others, through the Walt Disney Company, which is now owned by his offspring. For example, several other theme parks were built in Florida, Tokyo and Paris. Even a Disney Cruise Line was opened in the Caribbean.

As far as the movie legacy is concerned, the Walt Disney Company went on to make not only many other successful cartoons such as The Beauty and the Beast, but also live-action films among which Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and hybrid forms mixing traditional animation with live action, e.g. Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The latter is the only film featuring characters from Disney and from Warner Bros. in the same frame.



For almost a dozen years, the Walt Disney Company has invested more and more money in computer-animated films, which notably resulted in the two Toy Story films. These were made by the Pixar Animation Studios, which are now owned by Disney. Their most recent released film is Ratatouille.

In conclusion, Walt Disney is considered as an important character in the American, but also world culture, which makes him a legend. His future-oriented empire is one of the most powerful, and it still has many wonderful stories to tell, making us wander in the utmost fantastic universe.



Simon Labate and Quentin Poncelet

Die Harder

What if some genius had the idea of giving a twisted ending to all of the Die Hard movies??

Die Hard I



Die Hard II



Apparently, John McClane rose from the dead:

Die Hard III



Arnie "Governator" Schwarzie killed Zeus!

And this time, will McClane be lucky to get rid of his opponent?

Die Hard IV



Apparently John McClane likes being butchered…

Clarkson is beaten…

Remember my passion for watching Jeremy Clarkson destrying cars? Some talented YouTuber got this brilliant idea: putting together as many movie car crashes as possible. Here's what it looks like:

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



Morality: always fasten your seatbelt when you get into a car!!!

Good guy! I can't figure out how this man had the courage to make such a montage… It probably took him hundreds of hours…

Would someone be nice and count the number of cars that were destroyed??? Think about all the stunt cordinators that have to create such "choregraphies" (I mean by that "stunts", of course). So many crashes, but all of them are completely different…

Public idiot

My mother sent me this video made by a supporter of the Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht… Interesting to see from a linguistic point of view…



What do you think of this? I think he can't even speak French… I don't even know what he's talking about! I hope it won't make bad publicity to Anderlecht…

Wait, I found another video by this guy… Apparently, he does speak French (OK, not a very good one):



Nondidjû! (…) On va vous massacrer !

Even the press (OK, La Meuse is not the best newspaper) heard about it.

It also reminds me of that video where François Duval tries to explain how he crashed his car… Idiot.

"Ventriloquie magazine" (title borrowed from Miam Monster Miam)

Don't have much time to write, so just watch this brilliant ventriloquism sketch featuring Achmed the Terrorist by Jeff Dunham:



ROFL

"Chubby little looser, pathetic little fat man"

David Bowie makes fun of Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) in an episode of the second season of Extras, a Britcom (or "shitcom", as they called it in one episode) I really enjoyed watching this summer:

"Life's a piece of shit when you look at it"

As I'm running out of time to make things I like, I can only post this brilliant bit from the Monty Python's Life of Brian: "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"



Lyrics:

Some things in life are bad,
They can really make you mad,
Other things just make you swear and curse,
When you're chewing life's gristle,
Don't grumble,
Give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best.
And...

Always look on the bright side of life.
[whistle]
Always look on the light side of life.
[whistle]

If life seems jolly rotten,
There's something you've forgotten,
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps,
Don't be silly chumps.
Just purse your lips and whistle.
That's the thing.
And...

Always look on the bright side of life.
[whistle]
Always look on the right side of life,
[whistle]

For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word.
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin.
Give the audience a grin.
Enjoy it. It's your last chance, anyhow.
So,...

Always look on the bright side of death,
[whistle]
Just before you draw your terminal breath.
[whistle]

Life's a piece of shit,
When you look at it.
Life's a laugh and death's a joke it's true.
You'll see it's all a show.
Keep 'em laughing as you go.
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.
And...

Always look on the bright side of life.
Always look on the right side of life.
[whistle]

Always look on the bright side of life!
[whistle]
Always look on the bright side of life!
[whistle]
Always look on the bright side of life!
………

Lando's stroke of luck is beer

Do not read this unless you know Star Wars!

It appears that Billy Dee Williams, who played the character of Lando Calrissian in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, makes commercials for a living — for shooting a film doesn't make him earn a lot of money, apparently… So let's first watch this add first, and then a joke made about it:



And here's the joke:

I'm fed up!

We have a lot of work. Too much work. I thought I would be able to study for my English Proficiency test, but something else came up: I had to write the summary of an article about linguistic landscapes for the Algemene taalwetenschap course… And as it was written in English, I had to translate it into Dutch… Nice! Thank you so much! So there it is:

Samenvatting:
“Linguistic Landscape and Minority Languages”

Auteurs: J. CENOZ & Durk GORTER

1. Inleiding

Meertaligheid kan geanalyseerd worden vanuit het perspectief van het taallandschap (alle talige elementen die men op straat kan vinden, en die een informatieve of symbolische functie hebben). Dit artikel gaat over het verband tussen taallandschap en de sociolinguïstische context. Dit is een vergelijking tussen het gebruik van verschillende talen in het taallandschap van een winkelstraat in Donostia (San Sebastian, in Baskenland) en dat van zo’n straat in Ljouwert-Leeuwarden (Friesland, in Nederland).

2. Achtergrond over de taalgroepen

1. Friesland:

Ongeveer 94% van de bevolking begrijpt het Fries, 74% kan het spreken, 65% kunnen het lezen en 17% kunnen het lezen. De neiging is dat jongeren steeds meer het Nederlands als moedertaal verwerven. Het gebruik van het Fries (officiële taal) is beperkt tot de familie, het werk en de dorpen, maar het werd minder gebruikt in formele contexten (media, wetten…).

2. Baskenland:

Dit gebied ten noorden van Spanje heeft een bevolking van drie miljoen mensen, waaronder 91% zijn Spanjaarden. 22% zijn tweetalig, de rest spreekt alleen Frans of Spaans. In de bestudeerde stad (Donostia) zijn er meer tweetalige mensen: 33%. Het Baskisch is een officiële taal en wordt gepromoot in scholen, maar toch gebruiken slechts 11,9% van de bevolking het Baskisch meer dan het Spaans.

3. Gebruik van het Engels in beide taalgebieden:

Er worden lessen Engels gegeven in scholen. In Friesland scoort de kennis van het Engels zeer hoog: 70%. Integendeel is die kennis minder goed in Baskenland.

3. Onderzoeksvragen

1. Wat is het relatief gebruik van de verschillende talen in…

– Baskenland (Baskisch, Spaans en Engels)?
– Friesland (Fries, Nederlands en Engels)?

2. Hoe zien de twee- en meertalige tekens eruit?

4. Methodologie

– Studie van de corpus van het taallandschap in slechts een straat in Baskenland en een straat in Friesland; elke is 600 meter lang. In totaal werden 975 foto’s genomen, maar 207 verschillende eenheden werden genomen, 104 in Donostia (Baskenland) en 103 in Ljouwert (Friesland).
– De codificatie van de foto’s was moeilijk, dus werd er beslist om een gebouw als “één eenheid van analyse” te nemen. De auteurs namen ook foto’s van piepkleine teksten. Willekeurigheid speelt toch een kleine rol in de codering, maar dit is niet opmerkelijk.
– 16 variabelen werden gebruikt, bv. het soort teken, (het aantal) talen op het teken, top-down tekens vs. bottom-up tekens, enz.
– Beide straten zijn commerciële straten waar de meeste winkels zijn klein (73% in Ljouwert; 78% in Donostia) en dus behoren niet tot een internationale winkelketen.
– Een categorie houdt rekening met graffiti en (niet-)commerciële posters.

5. Resultaten

1. Welke zijn de gebruikte talen?

a) Aantal talen

– Ljouwert: 64% eentalige tekens, 36% tweetalig en 8% drie of meer
– Donostia: 45% eentalige tekens, 37% tweetalig en 19% drie of meer → minder scherpe verschillen

b) Soort talen
In beide taalgebieden is er een niet-dominante taal (Baskisch of Fries) en een dominante taal (Spaans of Nederlands) en het Engels als internationale taal.

– Niet-dominante taal:

• Fries: slechts 3% op z’n eentje, 2% op Fries-Nederlandse tekens en geen op meertalige tekens → Het is een bewijs van de kleine plaats van de geschreven taal in de maatschappij, want het Fries is meestal een gesproken taal.
• Baskisch: 12% eentalig, 50% tweetalig (alle combinaties van het Fries met een/twee andere taal/talen → Het Baskisch is wel minder gesproken, maar belangrijker als geschreven taal.

⇒ Grote verschillen tussen de twee steden

– Dominante taal:

• Nederlands: aanwezig op 97% van de tekens, waarvan 53% eentalig → Nederlands is de dominante taal in de taallandschap van Ljouwert
• Spaans: meest courante taal in Donostia (82% van alle tekens, waarvan 36% eentalige tekens)

⇒ Kleinere verschillen

– Engels: klein percentage voor eentalige tekens, maar meer in combinatie met andere talen (37% in Ljouwert en 28% in Donostia).

Conclusie: Nederlands en Spaans zijn de dominante talen en dit is weerspiegeld door het taallandschap. Baskisch is een minderheidstaal, maar is toch redelijk aanwezig; dit is niet het geval van het Fries. Engels is belangrijker dan andere vreemde talen.

2. Wat zijn de eigenschappen van twee- en meertalige tekens?
a) Eerste taal op het teken

– Ljouwert: meestal Nederlands (77%), dan Engels (20%), dan Fries (2%)
– Donostia: meestal Spaans (67%), dan Baskisch (28%), dan Engels (5%)
→ Groot verschil qua de niet-dominante taal en het Engels

b) Grootte van de tekst van de taal

– Ljouwert: in de meeste gevallen (47%) is de dominante taal groter geschreven ⇔ 3% voor het Fries
– Donostia: in 58% van de helft van de gevallen is het Spaans groter geschreven, maar toch 14% voor het Baskisch

c) Lettertype

– Ljouwert: de meeste tekens (94%) dragen verschillende lettertypes
– Donostia: tamelijk gewoon (22%) om dezelfde lettertype te gebruiken

d) Kwantiteit van informatie

– Ljouwert: meer informatie in het Nederlands (72%), weinig complete herhalingen (6%)
– Donostia: meer complete herhalingen (15%)

e) Vertalingen

– Ljouwert: meestal weinig vertalingen (89%) en wat ambiguïteit (11%: het Fries lijkt op het Nederlands), wegens een “hetzij-hetzij”-beleid (de teksten verschijnen of in het Nederlands of in het Fries), maar als niet alle mensen het Fries kunnen lezen, de meeste documenten zijn in het Nederlands geschreven.
– Donostia: meer vertalingen (66%) wegens het beleid van de toegankelijkheid van alle documenten in beide talen.

6. Conclusie

– Orde van dominantie van de talen in het taallandschap:

• Ljouwert: Nederlands – Engels – Fries
• Donostia: Spaans – Baskisch – Engels

– Overeenkomsten tussen de twee steden:

• Dominante taal is meer aanwezig qua lettertypegrootte
• Dominante taal komt als eerste op meertalige tekens
• Dominante taal geeft meer informatie

– Verschillen tussen de twee steden:

• Gebruik van de niet-dominante taal op tekens (meer in het Baskisch wegens taalbeschermingsbeleid)
• Vertalingen meestal in Donostia, heel weinig in Ljouwert
• Meer in het Baskisch geschreven tekens dan in het Fries
→ Bewijs van het verschil tussen de taalbeleiden en het werkelijke effect daarvan in Baskenland.

– Spreiding van het Engels:

• Engels als communicatietaal en als prestigieuze en moderne taal
• Gebruik van Engels is prominenter in Ljouwert dan in Donostia, maar daar is het toch niet marginaal (28%)
→ Misschien toont het dat het Frans geleidelijk vervangen door het Engels is in zuidelijke steden.

– Taallandschap heet een informatieve en symbolische functie:

• Informatief: het weerspiegelt de relatieve macht van de verschillende landen
• Symbolisch: het gebruik van een taal om het identiteitsgevoel te benadrukken.

Quite boring, don't you think?

300

This entry is the 300th I wrote for this blog. That's quite a number, don't you think. It obviously make me think of the movie, 300, which I haven't seen yet. Perhaps in another life. Meanwhile, we can enjoy thatguywiththeglasses' parody in 5 seconds:



And this one (which I've perhaps already displayed before):



Here are two videos I found a month ago but I was keeping just for the sake of this 300th blog entry. The first one is a video about the Top 100 quotes in the (English-speaking) movie history.



However, I'm surprised that "I am your father" wasn't in this Top 100…

The second is a marvellous montage of bits of films where a character says a number; here we have the complete count from 100 to 1.



I told you it was brilliant! Thumbs up!

"When this baby hits 88 miles an hour, you're gonna see some serious shit!"

"One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them. One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."
[By the way, here's the original version (in the so-called Black Speech of Mordor) of that quote in the book: "Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul." I think it just sounds great.]

Trip to Bonn

Today we (first-year students studying German and second-year students studying German as an additional language) went on a one-day trip to Bonn, in Germany.

I had to wake up at 5.50 am to have breakfast and then go to Namur on my moped, and meanwhile filling the fuel tank. We all had to be there at 7.20 pm, and we left round 7.35. We were using a coach, for taking the train would have been less useful. Our group sat at the back, just because it's kind of cooler.

We chatted a little, then we listened to music while working on Konnex, our beloved Dutch vocabulary book… (Do you see what it means: we cannot even fully enjoy such a school trip!! Always something to do! I hate it!)

On the way, we drove by our (Anne-Sophie, Marie and me) homeland, le pays de Herve and several kilometres further we entered Germany. We arrived in Bonn at about 10.15.

Then we walked to Der Haus der Geschichte (House of History), a huge museum that brings you back to 1945 and shows you the evolution of the German society from then onwards. There were many historical documents and pictures, but also very collectible items, such as Kennedy's speech in Berlin in which he said "Ich bin ein Berliner", originally written "Ish been ein Bear-lee-ner" on his notes…

After that, the coach took us closer to the city centre, and we had about an hour to get some food and discover the city on ourselves. Some of us went directly to our meeting point (the Münster, a cathedral) and we bought sausages on the Christmas market (Weihnachtsmarkt): that was delicious!

Round 2 pm we started a short sightseeing of the city centre, with a local French teacher as guide. She took this picture of our group in front of the statue of Beethoven.


And precisely we walked to that house where he was born.


We also went to the Town Hall, an impressive building. Unfortunately, we couldn't visit it because a ceremony was taking place.


Then we had another hour to spend on ourselves in Bonn. We went once more on the Christmas market, buying several things. We also went to a T-Mobile shop, for there were actual brand-new iPhones to be seen!!! A girl was appointed to answer all questions from customers, so I started mumbling some words to say that we were from Belgium and that it was the first time that we got to see the iPhone. But apparently my German was terrible and she said we could speak English. So that's what we did. She showed us all the abilities of that brilliant smart phone. It's a shame that it's not yet available in Belgium… (Of course, it doesn't mean I would buy it: I hardly ever use my mobile, and it's rather expensive.)

A bit later we walked back to the couch and we left Bonn round 4.30. We were planning to study the rest of Konnex on the way back, but M. Bertrand (our teacher) came and sat with us and talked with us about the real German saunas, nudity and about many other things…

We arrived in Namur at 7.15 pm. We were all exhausted, but this day had been great fun for all of us!

Martine's a naughty girl!

My mother sent me these twisted covers of Martine books. Actually, a website allowed you to do so by displaying the original covers, and you could change the title very simply. But the publishing house, Casterman, didn't really liked that and asked the webmasters to close their website. It was good advertisement, though!

"Martine is a Jehovah's witness"

"Martine discovers Playboy"

"Martine thinks of commiting suicide"

"Martine buys a freezer"

(I hope you got the visual joke)

"Martine and Condoleeza invade Iraq"

"Martine's gonna do it with Jean-Claude Dus"

"Fuck! I forgot to take the pill!"

"Martine doesn't master the YMCA yet"

Manny's great deeds

Remember I told you once about that wonderful series called Black Books, starring Bill Bailey? I found a really good fragment from season 1. In this one, Manny is stuck in the book shop…



And this one when he finds out he can play the piano…



I can play!!

The Netherlands finally discover vanity plates…

As I have a weird interest in number plates, I often visit a Dutch website (nummerplaat.com) in order to keep an eye on the codes that are being given out by the RDW (Rijksdienst Wegverkeer).

By the way, they started the 11-ZX-XX series on Wednesday or Thursday.This means that the code consists of two digits — except for "00" – followed by Z and another letter, followed by another set of two letters. And as I'm sure you don't give a damn about it, let me just waste a few words to add that the letters A, C, E, I, M, O, Q, U and W are not used.

My point was just to show you this piece of news that I found on that very website:

DEN HAAG - Automobilisten moeten kunnen kiezen voor een kentekenplaat met een eigen tekst. VVD-Tweede Kamerlid Paul de Krom gaat dat bij de behandeling van de begroting van Verkeer en Waterstaat voorstellen aan minister Camiel Eurlings.

De Krom heeft dat maandag gezegd in het NOS Journaal. Hij kwam op het idee tijdens een bezoek aan de Verenigde Staten, waar automoblisten al langer een eigen tekst mogen voeren op hun nummerbord, bijvoorbeeld hun naam. Dat komt omdat de kentekenplaat daar aan de persoon is gekoppeld en niet aan het voertuig, zoals in ons land.

Het lijkt de De Krom gewoon een leuk idee om met een eigen tekst op de nummerplaat rond te rijden in een tijd waarin we "bijna niks meer mogen van het kabinet".

It basically means that Paul de Krom discovered vanity plates. Come on! You see them everywhere in American movies! Isn't one of the most famous examples the OUTATIME plate on the DeLorean time machine in Back to the Future? Or we can assume that he discovered how much money could be raised from such vanity plates…

At least, this gives me the opportunity to show you some my collection of Belgian vanity plates, started in July.

I saw this Ferrari in Middelkerke, just on the parking lot near the Casino. It is the only Belgian vanity plate I saw that has three times zero on it. (Normally, "000" is forbidden, except on plates that have the "111.X.1" type or the "1.X.111" type. But three times the letter "O" is accepted on vanity oldtimer plates: I once saw OOO-911.) Let me just add that this number plate cost its owner €874.

I saw this one in Brussels on 21 July. It was on a limo waiting for some VIP next to the Cathedral. It cost €624.

Talking of VIPs, there are two of a series owned by a limo-renting company. (See above and below.) Each of them cost €624.

I guess this one belongs to a French-speaking person named Dominique, for "dom" means "idiot" in Dutch… Or perhaps he/she works for Domo. (Cost: €624.)

A very low serial number, but too new to be an original from 1953 or even a duplicate. This one was seen close to the Flemish Parliament. (Cost: €874.)

This one also cost €874.

Idem.

I saw this one on a brand-new Audi R8 kind of prototype driven by a journalist who had borrowed from the Audi Company, hence the plate. This one was made in 1999. By the way, Audi owns a number of AUD plates, ranging from AUD-100 to AUD-125.