PLEASE, SEND US YOUR TRANSLATION FROM THIS SENTENCE INTO YOUR LANGUAGE AND DIALECT. You can do it in the “comment” link. THANK YOU!

In the Netherlands the City Council of Rotterdam announced last week that it wants immigrants to speak Dutch on the streets. Last Saturday Rita Verdonk, the Dutch minister of Integration, told party members at a convention of her Liberal Party that she wants to write a similar code for the whole country.

In an analysis of the “Rotterdam code”, the hystorian H. van der Horst says there is always a language you have heard while growing up and a language you deal with the word. This language you spoke as a child, is most of the times, the language of your emotions, likes and dislikes.
It is my idea that should be possible to speak this language also on the streets, so I started a sticker campaing with the sentences:
“speak the language of your heart” and “we speak the language of our hearts”

Here are some translations in other languages and dialects spoken ik the Netherlands

Nijmegen: Spreek de taol van je hert.
Fries:Praat de sprake fan dyn hert./Praat de sprake fan dyn hert.
Midden-Brabant: Sprikt de toal van oew hart.
Maastricht: Spreek de taol vaan d’n hart.
Rotterdam: Spreejk du taaw vajje harret.

Here are some translations in other languages and dialects spoken ik other parts of the world.

French: Parle la langue de ton coeur.
German: Sprich die Sprache deines Herzens.
Cameroon: Hom hom bantem hu!
Romanian: Vorbeşte limba inimii tale
Hungarian: A szived nyelvét beszéld
Spanish: Habla el lenguaje de tu corazón.
Russian: Govori Jazykom svoego serdza.
Nepali: Vitri Man Le Vana
Hindustani (Hindi/Urdu): Dil ki bhaashaa boaloa.
Slovenian: Govori z jezikom svojega srca.
Turkish: Kalbinin dilini konus (s has a this small sign under it which can not be written on this computer)
Welsh: Siarad iaith dy galon
Mandarin-Chinese: Shuo ni xinli de hua ba
Russian:Говори на языке своего сердца!
Urdu: apnay dil key zuban boloo
Punjabi: apnay dil de gal karoo

Comments on the post:

1. February 6th, 2006

Dear people,
I think the stickers are a great way to make the Dutch government realize that they are turning this country in a fishbowl, not allowing anything in the country, including other languages. At the same time, The Netherlands is striving to become one of the most advanced knowledge economies in order to survive the global competition. How foolish.

Therefore I sincerely support your sticker campaign and will certainly refer others to this initative. Please let me know how I (and others) can support you.

PS: Here my translation in Mandarin-Chinese:
Shuo ni xinli de hua ba

and:

2. June 30th, 2006

spreejk du taaw vajje harret
(Rotterdam language, nl)