Maaike Van Buuren

Esta semana tive o privilégio de ter uma companhia internacional em algumas de minhas aulas. Trata-se da Maaike (pronuncia-se Maica), holandesa que está numa rápida passagem de 5 semanas pelo Brasil.
Uma adolescente super bacana, inteligente e amigável. Pena que ela vai embora já neste sábado. Mas, prometendo voltar em breve afinal, é mais uma que adorou esse povo brasileiro!
Por isso, hoje resolvi postar uma pequena explicação sobre seu país de origem, the Netherlands...ou seria Holland? Explicações abaixo...

More than one name is used to refer to the Netherlands, both in English and in other languages. Some of these names refer to different, but overlapping geographical, linguistic and political areas of the country. This is a common source of confusion for outsiders. In English the country is called 'the Netherlands' (or frequently 'Holland'), while the people and the language are called 'Dutch'. In Dutch the official (and predominant) terms for these are 'Nederland' for the country, 'Nederlanders' for the people and 'Nederlands' for the language, although they are occasionally (colloquially) called 'Holland', 'Hollanders' and 'Hollands' respectively.



Occasionally the the is incorrectly capitalised: 'the Netherlands' is similar to names such as 'the United States' and 'the Federal Republic of Germany', so the 't' should not be capitalised except at the beginning of a sentence.

Maaike, thanks for your help and come back soon!