Thursday, April 15, 2010

Mijn Man Martijn

Today I shall talk about the mysterious Martijn that I speak about so often (I know he's not REALLY mysterious but just play along, it's M week).  He's rather modest and gets embarassed if I brag too much about how marvelous he is, so I'll try to keep my mushy comments to a minimum!

Every now and then I get a comment or e-mail asking what sort of name Martijn is and how you're supposed to pronounce it.  It's a name Dutch people use to make non-native Dutch speakers feel like idiots.  Okay, that isn't entirely true, but unless you are Dutch or have had a tongue transplant from a Dutch person, you are more than likely going to have problems saying my husband's name.  I'm lucky that there wasn't a question on the marriage license application that said "Can you actually pronounce your soon-to-be-spouses name properly?"  It has taken years of practice and I still say it wrong half the time.  There is no English equivalent to how the "ij" is pronounced so I am going to let you listen to this nifty mp3 file of how Martijn says his name and his online nickname which is "Tijntje."  This is an older file and I think he has a far less pronounced Dutch accent when he speaks English now that I've been corrupting him with my American speech for the past 3 years!  Go ahead and click the "play" arrow on the embedded player below (if you're reading this in a reader you'll need to click through to the actual post... sorry). 



Moving on... Martijn is a rather musical fellow.  He plays the bass.  He can play the piano too but he'll usually tell you he can't do it well because he's too out of practice. 

Cute Bass Playing Husband


His first car was a Subaru Mini Jumbo which he lovingly referred to as the "dinky toy."  If my legs weren't long to the point of being ridiculous we might still have that car!

Picture 216


I made him a new bathrobe a couple of years ago and here's him modeling it for all to see. 

robe2


He and Mr. Jummy are good mates.  Mr Jummy is kinda naughty sometimes but I think he learned all of his tricks from Martijn.

Picture 1805


At work, he and his co-workers made an M&M sorting machine so here he is busy doing market research for his project.

Market Research


Over the past few years we've had many misadventures.

There is a miniature Dutch city called Madurodam.  Here's Martijn in Madurodam.

nl-0074


Somewhere in Utah (I THINK Vernal) Martijn had a run in with a mammoth. 

roadtrip 011


Of course, living in The Netherlands, we've been to many mills.  You see lots of photos of the outside, but how many do you see of the inside?

nl-0089


I am hopeful that I din't manage to mortify mijn man (English: my husband) too much with this post! 


*****

I'm participating in Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday! Click the link below to see what other marvelous magical things people have posted about.


Jenny Matlock

19 comments:

Pondside said...

What a good sport your Martijn is! I love the M's that you've had him model!

Anonymous said...

Ah, one of the many mystery Dutch sounds! :) I feel like I'm getting slightly better with the IJ, when I made a bit more effort, but I'm sure any Dutch person would just laugh at my delusion of improvement.

Amanda Lee said...

I'm sure Martijn doesn't mind at all if you mispronounce his name. He probably thinks it's charming. It looks like you and Martijn are having a lot of fun together!

brainella said...

Interesting pronunciation. I'm still going to say "Martin" in my mind, you know that, right? :) Though when he says it, it sound rather exotic. I'd just mangle it.

He makes a very good subject for a post. Very cute M subject!

Noodle said...

I'm with Brainella I will just call him Martin... Cause I just mess up his name major... He is such a fun guy and I'm glad you two found each other even if it means you live half way around the world... I'm excited for this june to see you and tijn...(which I pornouce tin)... We should go go carting and lazer taging and all that fun stuff with nat and liz and of course the boys...

4 Lettre Words said...

I have always pronounced it as "Martin" when reading your post, but then again, I am from Georgia. :o) With that said, I will still pronounce it as "Martin" while reading your posts.

(When you come to visit, I am more than willing to take a lesson!)

Jo said...

even after listening to a several times i still cant reconcile the spelling and pronunciation ...Martijn ... sounds like a wonderful man!

Unknown said...

what a fun M post.....I dont think I could pronounce it right even after three years...I would probably have to give him a nickname like...let me see...like Martin? lol

GardenOfDaisies said...

What a fantastic husband to go pose for your post! Mr Jummy is hilarious! Love that tiny little car! I had a couple of Dutch friends in high school, Marjan, Marjo and Liz. Liz's Mom used to cook dutch food for us... YUM! Hutsput. (I hope I am spelling that right.) One of my nephews was in Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago for one of his university classes. (He is earning a Masters degree in City Planning.)

Connie said...

I loved this post. I couldn't even begin to pronounce Martijn's name with this thick Southern accent of mine. (It's lovely the way he pronounces it!) I could teach you guys a thing or two about dropping r's and g's, though! Ha!
Loved the post!

Steph said...

Mub, It's so fun to hear more about your man. It seems like y'all have such fun times together and a special relationship. I can't remember, did you ever post about how you met?

Wizardress said...

Love this- and you are right- Long before I moved here I had a friend named Martijn who lives in Tilburg, and it took me forever to learn how to pronounce his name.

Having met your Martijn, I can definitely say he's a sweetie and you two are a great match :)

Tam said...

I do not say my husbands name correctly at all according to him...it is Hyun.

Jenna @ Newlyweds said...

What a sweet hubby you have and I will admit I've always just said Martin in my head, but I think they way he says it much better, so exotic!!

Jenny said...

Oh...my. I can see why you were so mesmerized with Mr. M. He seems marvelous.

And fun.

And funny.

And sweet.

And cute.

And I can see why you're taking all those classes.

And I think he is Mighty lucky to have you, too!

I love the mini!

And I loved your post!

And this was a majestic ending to my little journey through Alphabe-Thursday's letter "M"!

Thank you!

A+

Claudya Martinez said...

Even after listening to it various times, I don't think I've got it right. It does not sound like it looks at all.

Christy said...

I listed to him talk at least 5 times and couldn't get it! LOL
It is very apparent that you love your mijn man!

Anita said...

I also do speak my husbands name now and then wrong (?!?!) - so you're forgiven !
And there's a suprise for you in my blog.
Congrats !

Peggy said...

What a fun post. I was just catching up and trying to find something yummy for dinner (you always have yummy things on your site). The picture with the mammoth is in Vernal! BTW, I really like your new site design. I didn't know you were a coder. I especially like your favacon (is that what its called?) I've been working on a website and realizing how much of a coder I am not. Great job!

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