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Comment by chanandler_bong | Hacker News Reader

"German volunteers learning Dutch who’d drunk enough vodka to achieve a blood alcohol level of 0.04 per cent (approximately equivalent to just under a pint of beer for a 70kg male) were rated by independent Dutch speakers as speaking the language more proficiently during a short-test"

Based on my limited exposure to Dutch, this sounds about right; drunken German.

Edit: "Als vliegen achter vliegen vliegen, vliegen vliegen vliegensvlug."

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We generally say if you shout Dutch it sounds German (especially if you do it in a certain way). So I guess the reverse also holds true somewhat. Though I think in general people who've had a drink or two speak more 'fluently' in foreign languages. Mostly because they don't think too much about what they're trying to say.

Also translation: "If flies fly behind flies, flies fly flight speed" (in general the translation for vliegensvlug is 'as fast as lightning' which isn't really accurate and I suppose a better translation is "a bird's flight(speed)" than lightning)

As soon as a word has three (or more) meanings you can suddenly create silly long sentences with one word in dutch:

Als in bergen bergen bergen bergen, dan bergen bergen bergen in bergen.

If mountains hide mountains in bergen (a place name) then mountains hide mountains in bergen.

And similarly:

Als zeven zeven zeven zeven, dan zeven zeven zeven zeven

If seven sieves sieve sieves, then seven sieves sieve sieves. (this one works surprisingly well in english too)

This is true of all languages. The biggest barrier to learning a language is fear of embarrassment.

This has probably to do with the inhibition factor that many but not all learners of a foreign language have.

No, "Als achter vliegen vliegen vliegen, vliegen vliegen vliegensvlug."

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