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33 sayings highlight multilingual The Hague

Since March 5th, the road between Holland Spoor Station and the old city centre of The Hague (also called the “Loper Oude Centrum”) features 33 sayings in various languages that are spoken in The Hague – many of which are taught here at LUCL.

Together with four Leiden students (Cid Swanenvleugel, Ginger Haasbroek, Wei-Wei Lee, and Giulia Mazzola), Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade started this “Spreuk op de Stoep” project in order to highlight the city’s multilingual character. She is also planning to develop an app for local residents and passers-by, with which they will be able to make an interesting walk reading the different sayings.

The collection of sayings can be found engraved in the curbs along the route, in their original language (and script) as well as their Dutch translation. As they are found along the way from the station to the city, the sayings are all about travelling – or the opposite: staying where you are. The first one pedestrians will encounter when leaving Station Holland Spoor is “Kommie doen?”, or “Welcome to The Hague” in the local dialect.

Read more about the project on Facebook.

Ingrid Tieken shows a Polish saying. (Photograph by Angelina Adam for local newspaper Hollands Spoor.)
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