Uitwaaien: walking into the wind

Transcript

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1. 0:00

   OdileThis is The Long Vowel, season two: outside. I'm Odile Marchetti.

2. 0:06

   TeodorI'm Teodor Halvorsen. Our guest works on the ferry between Den Helder and the island of Texel: Thijmen Oudshoorn. Thijmen, what's the word?

3. 0:16

   ThijmenUitwaaien. Uit is out, and waaien is to blow, like the wind. So, to blow out.

4. 0:22

   OdileThat sounds like a candle.

5. 0:23

   ThijmenA bit, yes. But it's you who goes out. You walk into a strong wind on purpose, to get your head clear.

6. 0:32

   TeodorIt has to be windy?

7. 0:34

   ThijmenIt has to be properly windy. A nice summer walk is not uitwaaien. You want weather that pushes you. Rain sideways is fine. On the dyke, on the beach, you lean into it, and after half an hour your thoughts are blown out of you.

8. 0:51

   OdileWho does it?

9. 0:52

   ThijmenEverybody. After a funeral. After an exam. A family on the second day of Christmas, after too much food: we go uitwaaien on the beach. Children, dogs, grandmothers in big coats.

10. 1:07

    TeodorYou work on a ferry. You must get a lot of it for free.

11. 1:12

    ThijmenEvery day. On the crossing there is always somebody at the back of the deck in the worst wind, holding on with both hands, smiling. Tourists think something is wrong. It's just somebody doing uitwaaien.

12. 1:27

    OdileDo you join them?

13. 1:28

    ThijmenOn a break, yes. Twenty minutes in a northwest wind and whatever the problem was, it's smaller. Not gone. Smaller.

14. 1:38

    TeodorIs there a word like it anywhere else?

15. 1:41

    ThijmenOther countries go for walks, of course. But for us the wind is free, and there is a lot of it. It's the cheapest cure in the Netherlands.

16. 1:51

    OdileThijmen Oudshoorn, thank you.

17. 1:53

    TeodorThat was uitwaaien. Next, a word from Hindi for the fix that should not work.

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