Just call him Sir Bob

Bob Bird (16K JPG)

Well, OK, so the Dutch don't use the honorific 'Sir,' and have no equivalent for the term. Nonetheless, on Sunday afternoon, October 5, Bob Bird, dressed in a sweatshirt and pants, stood in shock in front of 70 or so surprised friends in an old dairy barn near Cottage Grove, Wisconsin as he was granted the title "Ridder in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau" (literally translated: "Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau") on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Beatrix by the Consul-General of The Netherlands from Chicago.

The royal honor was conferred for Bob's "exceptional contributions to the promotion of Dutch language and culture in the United States and at the University of Wisconsin" during the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Nederlands-Vlaamse Club (Dutch/Flemish Club) of Madison. Bob had been involved in a weekend-long symposium and celebration marking the anniversary when the surprise ceremony took place.

Bob took it upon himself to champion Dutch language and culture after becoming smitten with the country and its people while on a Fulbright fellowship in Amsterdam in 1950. At UW-Madison alone he assisted in establishing Netherlandic studies, housed in the Department of German; has taught informal Dutch classes for scholars doing research in Holland; has co-authored two elementary Dutch readers for English-speaking people; and has helped to form the Nederlands-Vlaamse Club, a collegial amalgamation of town, gown, students from Holland and English-speakers interested in things Dutch.

In addition to Dutch, Bob is proficient in Japanese, and has studied German and French. "When I came to Madison as a graduate student in 1947, I took my meals at the Deutsches Haus and Maison Française to gain fluency in those languages," he says.

However, he says that Dutch contains particularly fascinating idiosyncrasies. "Linguistically it's about halfway between English and German, but it has all sorts of pitfalls for unsuspecting beginners. It's easy to learn a little Dutch, but it takes a lifetime to master the intricacies of the grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and intonation."

So fluent is Bob's Dutch that native speakers often mistake him for one of their own, says Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor, associate professor of German who teaches Dutch classes. "He delights in trying out the many idiomatic expressions in which Dutch is so rich," she says.

Bob is full of examples of that richness. "'Wie zijn billen brandt moet op de blaren zitten,' which means, 'He who burns his bottom must sit on the blisters.' In other words, you have to take the consequences for your mistakes," he says.

According to Taylor, Bob's textbooks alone have gone a long way in making the public at large more aware of Dutch language and culture. The first text was published 40 years ago. "Until then, there had been a dearth of teaching materials for Dutch," she says.

UW-Madison began offering formal courses in Dutch in 1984. Today, about 100 students enroll in one of the six or so courses the German department offers every year.

"Dutch is a must for any student studying the history of art, the history of science, Indonesian history, philosophy and several agricultural sciences," Bob says. Even without the scholarly applications, he says that Dutch would be useful for just about anyone to know, given our global economy. "There are 16 million people who speak Dutch in the Netherlands, and another 7 million in Belgium. Then there is Afrikaans, which is close enough to Dutch that Afrikaans and Dutch are mutually understandable," he says.

"The key to understanding another culture is definitely through the language," Bob says. "America needs people who can interact with others in all languages, from Arabic to Zulu. There is no such thing as an unimportant language.

"Learning a language is hard work — make no mistake about that. But the rewards are very great. All sorts of doors open up. Even if your linguistic skills are limited, people will appreciate your efforts, and become more friendly and helpful. And if you make a few mistakes, everyone will get a kick out of it — and you will learn something."