I found Lisa, Amy and Shelley's R&B version of Sinterklaas Kapoentje on youtube. I'm pretty certain all of those black people aren't black people. huh. More authentic?

I saw that days ago, it was godawful, sickened me and made me cringe. There is another video of a little girl that I found that was really sweet, and I am sure I am close, but I would really love it if a Dutch Speaker would check my phoentic spelling. I am having issue with Gooi & U.

I'm pretty certain all of those black people aren't black people
Those aren't black people, those are zwarte piets :)

Oh, and Youtube is the last place I would ever confirm the validity of... anything :)

zwarte piets are a phenomenon I'd rather not try and explain to anyone who isn't Dutch.

I bet if you get really drunk and slur the words together, no one will be able to tell the difference.

You could also try places with higher dutch-to-uh...gaijin ratios. #dutch on irc, for instance. Not all of those people are men masquerading as blond Scandinavian women.

Hey DaBitch! You were one of the people I was hoping would tell me if my phoentics are ok, You and Sveskemus. I thought the zwarte piets were black in the face only because they got dirty coming down the chimney while helping St. Nick.

I don't like Christmas, but I love Sinterklaas so I spend a lot of time at the: saintnicholascenter.org

Stavrogin: I would have sent you an email, but there isn't one in your profile. I would have said I was happy that you took the time to look for a recording (I already had one) and that I wasn't snarking at you, just at that awful video on youtube.

David Sedaris explains Sinterklaas better than anyone, ever.

A rather beautiful young Dutch girl called Anka explained it to me in the pub one night, and I thought she was taking the piss.

No. It was quite lovely, though, the way she explained it.

I wish someone would explain to me how teasing/joking/pulling your leg turned into the phrase: taking the piss. I've seen/heard it in a few British type movies, but it's origin is lost on me as a North American.

getoffmylawn:

when you take the piss out of something or someone, you deflate its importance... you know how someone can be full of piss and vinegar? When you ridicule, you take the piss out of the target.

Taking the mickey and taking the piss are British slang expressions meaning to tease or ridicule. The former can also be shortened as to take the mick.

"Take the mickey" or "taking the micky"[1] is an abbreviated form of the Cockney rhyming slang "take the mickey bliss", meaning 'take the piss' (out of x). E.g. "Stop taking the mickey out of Billy, he's very sensitive and you're upsetting him." Cf. 'take the Michael' and 'extract the Michael'. [1930s]

The term sometimes refers to a form of mockery in which the mocker exaggerates the other person's characteristics; pretending to take on their attitudes, etc., in order to make them look silly. The Internet phenomenon known as a 'troll' is generally someone taking the mickey out of a particular point of view.

An alternate theory of its etymology[2] is that mickey is a contraction of micturition or micturate, meaning urination / urine / urinate i.e. piss, "mickey" being a suitable alternative when, for instance, in the company of those liable to be offended by "piss".

It has also been suggested that "mickey" in this context is an ethnic slur for an Irish person, and to "take the mickey" originally meant to taunt the Irish and parody their accents. "Taking the piss" is more common in Hiberno-English, that is, the dialect of English spoken in Ireland.

Another possibility[citation needed] is that it is from the archaic word mickle, which means 'great'. "Taking the Mick" out of someone = bringing them down to their 'proper' level.

Dutch was my first language, but I haven't really spoken it in years. When I get around relatives who speak it, I pick it up pretty quick though. I have a hard time doing phonetics too. The G in gooi is more like a sound if you're going to spit, but rather than being made in the throat, it's made by the middle of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. That's the best I can explain it. Your JE at the end of the word is more like a -yeh. And, finally the U is oo.

You won't sound like a dork. FWIW, my rendering (native, active speaker):

sinter-clawS kah-poon-chuh
Xoy Waht in muhn sXoon-chuh
Xoy Waht in muhn laar-shuh
dahnk yuh sinter-claw-shuh

Nearly identical, as you see. I'm assuming General American for this (remember that Dutch, generally speaking, is rhotic). I capitalised a few letters to emphasize some (bonus) points:

"S": *all* consonants in final position (at the end of words) are devoiced. "Eb" (ebb) is pronounced "ep", "brood" (bread) is pronounced with the t in "get", etc. This can be a bit daunting for native speakers of English.

"X": as "h" (as in "hello") is used in Dutch as well, simply substituting that is not sufficient. It's a distinct sound, and must be mastered, tricky as it is.

"W": "wat" is not aspirated, unlike English "what". Hold your hand in front of your mouth and pronounce Eng. "cat" and "cookie": the first one is aspirated (accompanied by a burst of air), the second not. Dutch "kat" (cat) would not be aspirated.

Also, I've changed some vowels to "uh" to emphasize that they are schwas. Normally in English you would pronounce them as schwas, too, in unstressed syllables: in "the contrast" it's "KON-truhst" or "KON-trast", but the verb is "to kuhn-TRAHST". So just don't say "cha" as in "dance the cha-cha" and "sha" as in "it goes like sha-la-la".

Finally, "dunk" is fine only when assuming American pronunciation. Hence the "dahnk".

And yeah, you changed the "U" (you-formal) in the last line to "je" (you-informal) which is basically fine, just slightly irreverent toward the venerable old man. :) "U" would be another alien sound to English ears, similar to French "voiture" or German "ueber".

Judging by your transcription, you're going to be just fine.

Happy Sinterklaas!

Yeah, merry Sinterklaasfeest!

What are you gonna do getofmylawn? Are you staying in NL or visiting a Dutch enclave in the US?

Do you have to make anonymous 'surprise' gifts? And write a doggerel poem to go with it?

WOW! GNFTI, You are my hero. I am without words to express how appreciative I am of the time you took to write this up for me.

jouke: Yes, there is a Danish retirement community in my town.

Oh and chuck, you're pretty great too. I guess I could have gone to urban dictionary, but I knew what it meant, just not how the phrase came about, so thanks for filling me in.

Wow, getoffmylawn, how awesome of them to celebrate Dutch festive traditions if they're, you know, Danish.

Not all of the people that live there are from Denmark, a few of the people that live there are from Low Countries that do celebrate it.

Thanks for clearing that up. We get a bit tired of the Dutch=/=Danish thing, you know. :)

Have fun!