Amsterdam Day 112: Adventures in Learning New Languages

I am slowly trying to learn new vocabulary to add to my very limited Dutch. Up to this point I have had a hard time distinguishing between the H wound and the G sound. But I had an experience that forever helped me learn. The H makes a sound like the H in hi. The G to my American brain sounds like a very guttural H where you try to get flem out of your throat. I don't think that I am really exaggerating there much. To a Dutch person, those sounds are very different. 

So here I was practicing a scripture in Dutch to help get my pronunciation right. The scripture is about the Holy Ghost. In Dutch, holy is heilige. Well apparently my H was a lot more guttural like a G than it was supposed to be. On olde gentlemen was helping with my pronunciation and smilingly said that I need to make sure to use the H sound instead of the G sound. He wouldn't tell me why, but I was very happy for the help. And that is how I will remember the H sound verses G guttural sound. 

Oh yea, in case you were wondering, I was talking about a horny ghost instead of the Holy Ghost. That is embarrassing in church.