Every Dutchman
has a bicycle
KaDO
Dutch and
Doublé Dutch
Rabobank Nederland's cycle shed
bicycles.
that the bicycle could be pro-
pelled by the feet. In 1864
came the pedals, although
these were fixed to the front
wheel. Chain drive, as still in
use today, has been in exist-
ence since 1880. The bicycle
was further perfected in 1888
by an Irish veterinary surgeon's
invention of pneumatic tyres.
Thirty per cent of Dutch people
go to work by bicycle every day.
And virtually all school children
and students travel by bike. In
summer, a great many people
even go on cycling holidays,
complete with bag and bag-
gage. There are very small bicy
cles for children on the market.
The Dutch buy around one mil-
lion new bicycies annually. Al-
most ninety per cent of these
are purchased from a special-
ized dealer - commonly known
Utrecht has space for around 300
as 'the cycle repairer'. A typi-
cally Dutch occupation, most
likely. According to Dutch iaw,
bicycles have to comply with
many rules. The most amusing
one concerns the beil. It must
be audible within a range of
twenty metres.
More and more people are turn
ing to the bicycle instead of the
car for travelling short distances.
Particularly in towns, you reach
your destination much faster if
you travel on your two-wheeler.
In relation to the surface area,
the Netherlands has the
largest number of kilometres of
specially constructed cycle
paths in the world: around
17,000 kilometres.
A Dutchman cannot do without
his bicycle. Nor could Rabo
bank in the past. Every day in-
spectors travelled by train to all
Issue 6/April 6, 1990 band
The Netherlands has four-
teen and a half million inhabit-
ants and also some fourteen
and a half million bicycles. So
everyone in the Netherlands,
including babies and elderly
people, has an average of one
bicycle and spends about
US$50 on it per year. A good
bicycle costs around US$350.
Some people even have two.
One for going to work and do-
ing the shopping and one for
making trips in their leisure
time.
The history of the bicycle is still
fairly short. It is not a Dutch in
vention, but a European one.
lts development began in 1816
with a dandy horse devised by
a German. In 1840, a Scot
thought up a lever system so
In former days an Inspector from
head office on his way to the iocai
banks to inspect the books.
Queen Beatrix is also often seen
on her bicycle.
corners of the Netherlands to
inspect the books of the local
banks. In order to get from one
viilage to the other, these
gentlemen took their bicycles
along with them in the train.
Every day, the railway staff
would hang a new label on the
handlebars. The old label was
then pulled off, but the string
stayed on. That was a status
symbol for the inspectors. The
more strings they had, the
more important they were. On
one occasion, the office staff
cutthe strings off one of the bi
cycles as a joke. When that
was discovered, the inspector
nearly exploded. Money and
other securities also used to
be carried between the vari-
ous offices by bicycle. Rob-
beries were still evidently un-
known in those days.
Open the dictionary at
'Dutch' and you will find a list of
terms preceded by this little
word. The meanings are certain-
ly not positive, as Marijke Brou
wers of Rabobank Nederland
discovered. She works in the
translation department and is,
among other things, respon-
sible for the translation of the
articles for Raboband Interna
tional.
Marijke Brouwers is responsible for the transla
tion of Raboband International.
Why is it that the word 'Dutch'
has such a negative and dispar-
aging connotation in English?
That most probably originates
from the wars between the Eng
lish and the Dutch in the seven-
teenth century, when the two na-
tions mainly fought out their
problems at sea. That is the
source of terms such as a
'Dutchman's anchor', which
means: anythingthat, especially
if needed, has been left at
home. The expression 'Dutch
man's Cape' also comes from
the world of navigation. It stands
for 'imaginary land
on the horizon'.
Many expressions
have to do with the
supposed drinking
habits of Dutch sea-
men in those days.
For example 'Dutch
feast' means: an oc
casion when the
host gets drunk be-
fore his guests;
'Dutch headache'
means drunkenness
or a hangover and
'Dutch courage' is
the faise courage of a drunken
man. In the course of time, the
adjective 'Dutch' has been add-
ed to more sayings with a nega
tive connotation. A few examples:
'Dutch comfort', which implies
that things cannot be worse;
'Dutch bargain', which is an un
fair and unprofitabie deal and
'l'm a Dutchman if I do', which in-
dicates a strong refusal. During
the Anglo-Dutch rivalry the name
was synonymous with all that
was despicable and when a man
said 'I would rather be a Dutch
man than do what you ask me',
he was using the strongest poss-
ible terms of refusal...
Dutch was obviously a lan-
guage which sounded very
strange to the English. They
couldn't understand it at all.
Hence the expression 'Doublé
Dutch' for anything which is akin
to gibberish. A humorous variant
for linguistic dexterity is: 'to talk
doublé Dutch backwards on a
Sunday'.
An expression such as 'Dutch
treat', which means entertain
ment or a meal at which each
person pays for himself, does
not have a negative meaning for
the Dutch themselves. This is, in
fact, still the custom in the
Netherlands today. The totai
amount on the bill is divided by
the number of people present
and everyone pays their share.
This does not happen, of course,
when someone explicitly invites
guests, but it does when friends
or colleagues go out together.
After much searching, Marijke
also found an expression which
was first heard only seven years
ago: 'Dutch roll'. This is a com-
bined roll and yaw in an aircraft.
It behaves like a drunken sailor.
This phrase, noted in 1983 as
modern airline pilot's jargon,
shows how unforgiving of
their historie enemies English—
speakers can be...
Fortunately, the word 'Dutch' is
aiso used as an ordinary adjec
tive to indicate that something
comes from the Netherlands:
'Dutch cheese', for example.
Marijke hopes that a 'Dutch
bank', and particularly a 'Dutch
Rabobank', does not have a
negative but a very positive
meaning everywhere in the world.
