Anyone that comes to the Netherlands and says they don’t need to learn the Dutch language because everyone here speaks such brilliant English has forgotten something: voice activated shopping lists.
Put simply the Jumbo supermarket app doesn’t operate in English so if you want your shopping delivered you’d better enrol in those Dutch lessons.
But even then your problems are not over. Even for those of us who have tried to gain a decent command of the local language over the course of seventeen years the Jumbo app remains a hurdle.
This morning, whilst spreading jam on the boys’ snacks for school, I realised that the jam was op. Well and truly op. I had sticky fingers and wasn’t finished making the school lunches so I asked Siri to open the Jumbo app (Jumbo with a J sound and not the Dutch Y sound because my Siri doesn’t do Dutch well) and pressed the microphone button so I could add jam to my shopping list……..
Here’s how it went.
The last word? Jam? That was courtesy of my eight year old. In between his and his brother’s hysterical laughter he shouted jam.
The Dutch language. The struggle is real folks.
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