Lily
- 2004-05-11
I like to thank you all for helping. I don't understand my teacher. He come into the class put the cassette for us to listen and then tell us to read the text. He's very bad in his teaching and we all hate him. Our foreign teacher left because he making a lot of complain about him. We all know that he is jealous of our foreign teacher. He always say that he is better than our foreign teacher, and now he teaches us listening and oral english. He's stupid chinese English Teacher, he is rubbish. Sometime in the class we cannot understand a word he say.
Robin Day B.Sc. M.Sc. B.Ed.
- 2004-05-11
Wilma I would not call it a racial idiom, more directed at nationality. Lily will be happy I found Dutch Bargain or Wet Bargain meaning a deal made over drinks as the Dutch were known as steady drinkers.
Dutch tack I did not find but am wondering about the word tack
It could be horse tack, the tack of sailing or a metal tack or nail.
For more Dutch idiom see:
http://homepages.cwi.nl/~sjoerd/dutch.html
A Dutch Auction goes in reverse from high to lower prices till sold.
By the way, this site says Pennsylvania Dutch are really Deutsch or German.
Wilma
- 2004-05-10
Nice to hear from someone who takes an interest in these racially-based idioms. I hadn't thought about this for a long time, but it has been said that one branch of my family was descended from the Pennsylvania Dutch--some still live in southern Ontario; one came to Manitoba. I grew up in Brandon, Manitoba. My mother still refers to a child who plays a mischievous trick as 'a little Dutchman'. Have we totally confused the original writer?
Robin
- 2004-05-10
Ya, Wilma "Dutch treat" sounds correct. I grew up with the expression said like this: "Lets go Dutch, or Shall we go Dutch?" and I'm eastern Canadian. Koreans misuse the expression and say "Dutch Pay." That's close enough (I listed it in my Korean-English Words article). I've never heard the word "Dutch" as a threat Wilma. New to me. Where did you grow up? There is another expression I recall: "Dutch courage" which is a term for alcohol or courage when drunk. It is a put-down by the English. Dutch and English shipping were in fierce competition for a long time. The English had Hong Kong, Malaya and Singapore (India later) and the Dutch controlled parts of Indonesia (and South African, till they lost it to English agression).
The early Dutch settlers in New York area influenced the later English settlers. The Rip Van Winkle story come from that region as well as the Headless Horseman. American tales. Rip Van Winkle may be based on a true case where a man lost his memory for decades.
Wilma
- 2004-05-09
Your teacher may be making an error concerning the expression 'Dutch treat'. Where I come from (Canada), this means going out on a date for which each person pays his/her own way--ticket, refreshments, whatever. Another expression, 'in Dutch', means 'in trouble', but nothing serious, eg. 'If you don't get your room cleaned today, you'll be in Dutch with your mother!'
Robin
- 2004-05-09
Never heard of dutch idioms like that. Better try a search on the net. The teacher might have twisted the idiom too. That is possible. Is he/she a native speaker?
Can anyone tell me the meaning of "dutch bargain" and "dutch tack".
My English teacher tell me to make a dialogue and I don't understand the meaning. Please give me help.
Thank you.