Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: FRUIT (05/26/22)
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TITLE: Suriname Fruit | Previous Challenge Entry
By Corinne Smelker
06/02/22 -
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Eight-year-old me quickly responded, “Potato.”
Mrs Stolz smiled. “Now in Dutch it is ‘aardappel’.”
My eyes drew together in a frown, and I shook my head vigorously. “That can’t be right,” I said.
“Why not?”
“Well, it sounds like you said ‘apple’ and a potato is not an apple!”
Mrs Stolz laughed. “In a way you are right, a potato is not an apple, but if you block your nose and eat a raw potato it tastes just like an apple.”
I was not convinced. “So, what was the first part of the word, ‘art’?”
“No, it’s a long a, and a hard d – aard. It means earth. If we translate the word directly into English, it is ‘earth apple’.”
For some reason that delighted me, and I laughed heartily.
“But apple is apple in Dutch, right?” I asked.
“Yes, but it is spelled ‘a-p-p-e-l’.”
What is ‘pine’ in Dutch?
“That is pijn. It is pronounced ‘pin’, but it has a j between the i and the n.”
I rolled my eyes. I was getting used to the language, but the spelling was killing me!
“So let me guess, a pineapple is ‘pijnappel’, right?” I was triumphant at putting the two thoughts together.
“Not quite,” Mrs Stolz laughed. “In Dutch we call a pineapple ‘ananas’, pronounced ‘anna-nas’.”
“What the heck?”
“Ok, two more and then we are done for the day. Here we have a strawberry. In Dutch it is an ‘aardbei’. Because they grow low to the ground, we use the word ‘aard’ which as we just discovered means earth. And finally, I have here a raspberry which is called…”
I interrupted, “It’s something-bei right? If aard is earth, then bei is berry.”
“No. I’m sorry, great guess, but actually a raspberry is ‘framboos’.”
“It makes no sense,” I couldn’t keep the exasperation out of my voice.
“Learning a new language is hard,” Mrs Stolz empathized. “When I was learning English, I had to remember that ‘b-o-w’ and ‘b-o-u-g-h’ were pronounced the same but meant different things, but even more that ‘b-o-w’ could be pronounced two different ways and mean something different!”
Later that day my mother and I walked to the open-air market near our new home to pick up ingredients for that night’s dinner. As we wended our way through the stalls, I suddenly realised I was understanding the vendors’ shouts – some were selling potatoes, others apples and tucked away in the corner stood a stall overflowing with strawberries. Shyly I tried my rudimentary Dutch skills by asking for some ‘aardbei’ and the woman’s face lit up, even though I stumbled over almost every word.
As we made our way home, mom tucked my arm under hers. “Cath, I am so proud of you. Just three weeks in Suriname and you’re sounding like a native. As the old saying goes, ‘you’re reaping the fruit of your labour.’ Get it, ‘fruit’?”
I laughed, “lame joke mom.” Inwardly though, I was thrilled. Moving to a new country and learning a new language wasn’t easy, but honestly? I was loving it!
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