Brushing up My Language Skills

I've recently taken up doing crossword puzzles again. I've always loved doing crosswords, a passion no doubt insired by my Mum who is a crossword fiend and still is rarely undefeated. We've passed many an hour bandying clues backwards and forwards, filling in puzzles at home, on holiday, or wherever we happened to be.

At university when I shared a house with friends there was a friendly competitiveness to see who could finish the New Zealand Herald crossword first. While Sudoku can be fun to pass the time I'm really a word fan; I love that light-bulb moment when you suddenly find the one missing word that makes the whole puzzle fall together.

However since moving to Holland I haven't often indulged my penchant for puzzles, mainly due to a lack of English language ones in the stores. Take my word for it; as a native English speaker, doing crosswords in Dutch sucks almost as much as playing Dutch Scrabble. Just what are you supposed to do with all those w's and v's?

However I've been digging out puzzle books left over from Singapore lately in an effort to sharpen up my English a bit. Being editor of an English language magazine demands a certain proficiency in the language and lately I've had the feeling my vocabularly has reverted to that of an 8 year old.

It doesn't help that hubby speaks such good English; whenever he's home he will be in the middle of saying something then suddenly demand; what's the English word for fakkeloptocht, or gemeentebestuursleden, or grondwerktuigkundige. And he means RIGHT NOW, as in this second so he can drop it into the conversation. It's almost impossible to suddenly come up with the exact word or phrase on the spot and my feeble attempts have so often been met with snorts of derision that over the years my standard response has become "dunno". And I'm supposed to be the wordy one.

Lately I have the feeling that having to speak a different language most of the time is taking it's toll on my English. At work I have moments where I'm staring blankly at the screen trying to figures out a better alternative to a word I'm over-using in an article. My pet hate is 'increasingly'. As in: it's increasingly obviously that my language difficulties are becoming increasingly apparent to an increasingly large number of readers. See what I mean?

And now the kids have started. "Mum, what's the Dutch word for a Hun? What are hunnenbedden in English? And are the two related? Why are Egyptian and Egyptisch spelt differently?? And if February in English is spelt februari in Dutch, why is a leap year a schrikkeljaar and how do you spell it?"

Honestly, it's starting to do my head in. A while ago when Carl discovered the singular of boobies was boob he thought it was hysterical. He and Niels ran around the house for days springing out of doorways and surprising each other with yells of "you're a BOOB!" followed by shrieks of laughter. Hopefully the neighbours won't understand what that was all about.