Wednesday, 26 September 2012

Brussels is a Rosetta Stone of languages

Well, it is for French and Dutch at least!

The beauty of the situation is that I speak French and am learning Dutch in Brussels so even just a walk along the street is a language lesson for me. There are signposts and posters all around the city in both languages, sometimes with a direct translation and other times with a creative translation which gives a sense of the meaning in another language. Below we see a signpost and this tends to be a direct translation which stays faithful to the exact meaning (it has to-it's a sign!). Usually it's adverts which use more ambiguous and poetic translations.


This translated into English means 'Emergency access' but you can take clues about other words from this sign too:

Toegang : access

Hulp : help

Diensten : services

(literally Access (for) Help Services)

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