September 23, 2012

KAW Architects put women’s shelter out in the open

Filed under: Architecture,General by Branko Collin @ 12:22 pm

De Veilige Veste (‘the Safe Fortress’) in Leeuwarden is an old police station repurposed as a shelter for young women who have become the victims of ‘lover boys’ (young pimps), abuse, human trafficking and the likes.

KAW Architects write: “these girls used to be hidden from view, but modern media hound them. That is why shelter organisation Fier Fryslân came up with the idea of ‘visible but safe’.”

The building will house up to 48 women aged 15 to 23, and still have room for 1600 square metres of office space. Visitors will have to pass four security measures to get in. Fier Fryslân figures these measures will hardly be necessary, as the perpetrators typically don’t want to come out in the open anyway.

If you don’t understand what they say in this video by Omrop Fryslan, don’t worry, neither do we. It is presented in Frisian, although the interviews are in Dutch.

(Link: Inhabitat. Image: KAW Architects)

Tags: , , , ,

June 7, 2012

Diehard elderly Frisian man finishes 240 km bike race

Filed under: Bicycles,Sports by Orangemaster @ 2:28 pm

The Fietselfstedentocht (Eleven Cities Cycling Tour), an annual event which was held last 28 May (on Whit Monday), is a 240 km long ride through 11 different cities in Friesland. This year marked the 100th year anniversary of the event, going strong since 1912.

This Frisian video is about Wiebe Idsinga, this year’s ‘hero’ of the race, and the last person to finish the ride.

Following right behind him is a journalist and a cameraman from Frisian television, mesmerised by his endurance and persistence. They ask him at some point if he’s tired because he’s not sitting up straight but it’s because of his two replacement hips! It reminds me of the Belgian film ‘Le vélo’ (in English, Ghislain Lambert’s Bicycle) where Ghislain is always last in the race but gets the most on air time due to his endurance and persistence.

“At the beginning, they tell him he still has 35 km to go. At the first stoppage, he is told that it’s past midnight and the race is officially over and he won’t have any further support. At the second stoppage, he is told in Dutch that he must stop or he won’t get recognition for what he has done so far, and after that he is driven to the end.

After he gets his medal, he says he’s going to bike home. You can see one of the officials do a facepalm because Idsinga lives some 15 km away. They offer him a ride home.”

(Links: www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com, www.nijsnet.nl)

Tags: ,

April 18, 2012

Donald Duck a big hit in the Frisian language

Filed under: Comics,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 1:50 pm

Created in 1952, the Donald Duck weekly magazine has just been translated into Frisian, the language today’s kids would associate with speed skater Sven Kramer and supermodel Doutzen Kroes. After just three days, Donald Duck is almost sold out, with only 10,000 copies left of the original 40,000, enough to supply one tenth of the Frisian-speaking population. Donald is still speaking Dutch here, but he is doing something typically Frisian: fierljeppen (far-leaping). Frisian, as well as English, German and Dutch, are part of the same language group of West Germanic languages.

As of 27 April, they’ll print more magazines to meet the rising demand, which I would imagine also makes it a collector’s item. Just this year, we had the First ever national advert entirely in Frisian and if cutie pies like Sven and Doutzen speak Frisian, it’s bound to be increasingly trendy.

(Link: www.dehuisaanhuis.nl)

Tags: , , ,

January 12, 2012

First ever national advert entirely in Frisian

Filed under: Automobiles,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 10:26 am

While this coffee advert is mostly in Frisian, with model Doutzen Kroes speaking her native language, the one below claims to be the first ever advert shown on national television that is entirely in Frisian, a language spoken by roughly 400,000 people in the Netherlands. The whole idea of the company saying they speak their client’s language is taken literally, as they cast a real Frisian-speaking employee for this one. He’s not as smooth as his Dutch counterparts, but he’s less plastic fantastic.

The online comments about this advert include, ‘no matter which language it’s still irritating’, ‘Friesland rules!’, ‘Fantastic idea, other dialects too’, ‘stupid Frisians, they should speak Dutch’, ‘keep that crap on Frisian television’ and a whole lot more of good and bad (racist?) comments. In other words, people are talking about it, and that’s good in TV land.

(Link: www.automobielmanagement.nl)

Tags: ,

August 26, 2010

The last of the Frisian students

Filed under: Fashion,Literature,Music by Orangemaster @ 1:18 pm

According to the Volkskrant, only one student has registered to study Frisian this year at the University of Groningen, the only university in the country that offers a Bacherlor’s and Master’s degree in the country’s second official language.

Professor Goffe Jensma said on a local radio show in Groningen that new rules allowing universities to set their own fees for second degrees was at the heart of the problem. Grytsje Nicolaij, who already has a degree as a musicologist, was planning to study Fries on the side to keep up with family and friends who spoke the language better than he did. If the university does not attract more students (how many, we don’t know) before October 1, Grytsje will have to brush up on his Frisian elsewhere.

What does Frisian sound like?

Frisian Duo Twarres had a huge hit with ‘Wêr Bisto’ (‘Live, with a Dutch translation). The girl is the guitarist, the guy is the back up singer and they are childhood friends:

Frisian model Doutzen Kroes (L’Oréal, Victoria’s Secret) promotes her mother tongue:

(Link: volkskrant, via dutchnews)

Tags: , , ,

February 27, 2009

Online market place refuses Frisian adverts

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 9:50 pm

logo

While skiing in Austria recently, the nice inn owner ask me if the Netherlands had other official languages than Dutch. I said yes, and promptly grabbed a copy of the Leeuwarder Courant that just happened to be lying around, a Dutch and Frisian newspaper from Leeuwarden, the capital city of the province of Friesland.

And then this happens. Online market place site Marktplaats.nl (owned by Ebay, by the way) has told the media today that it refuses to place adverts in Frisian.

Their excuse? According to a spokeswoman, the employees cannot check the adverts because they do not speak the language. Fine, so find someone who can, I would think. Obviously, if a company wants to pay good money in these tough times to advertise in one of the country’s official languages, you could make an effort. Problem is the sites says yes to Dutch — and English adverts. Ouch.

The chairman of the Fryske Beweging (Frisian Movement) Jabik van der Bij called their refusal to run Frisian adverts ‘foolishness’ and are thinking of taking Marktplaats to court.

(Link: leeuwardercourant.nl)

Tags: , ,

November 22, 2007

Doutzen Kroes poster girl for Frisian language

Filed under: Fashion,General by Orangemaster @ 10:03 am

kroes1.jpg

Doutzen Kroes, known as a L’Oréal and Victoria’s Secret model, has been asked to use her pretty face to make the Frisian language even more attractive.

The 22-year-old top model will be playing a major role in the campaign ‘Praat mar Frysk’ (roughly, ‘Just speak Frisian’) for the province of Friesland, which will be launched next week in Tytsjerksteradiel, according to news website Wâldnet. Doutzen was asked because she can show that she comes from Friesland and speaks Frisian ‘beautifully’. The goal of the campaign is to make Frisians aware of their language. Only about 2% of the Dutch population speaks it. And then a few years back, there was that nice duo Twarres who scored an international hit with their song ‘Wêr Bisto’, which is in West Frisian (the same Frisian I’m on about, as the Germans and Danish have their varieties).

For the folks who thought Dutch was the only official language of the Netherlands, there is also Frisian as well as the regional languages of Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish.

(Link: reclamewereld.blog.nl)

Tags: , , ,