Donald Duck

Dutch children subscribe to the weekly Donald Duck comic book. This isn't really an option — you just subscribe to the DD, and that's about all there is to it. Some of the stories come from American Disney, some seem to be written and drawn in Holland. Most of the stories feature Donald and his family and friends, but other Disney characters also appear (especially Chip and Dale, and the Big Bad Wolf and his nephew Wolfie). Except for Donald himself, most of the characters have different names in the Dutch comics: Daisy is Katrien, for example, Uncle Scrooge is Oom Dagobert, and Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie are Kwik, Kwek and Kwak.

Wben I moved to Amsterdam in 1979, I started buying the DD every week. Because the stories were (a) simple and (b) illustrated, I was able to understand most of what was going on, and Lydia helped me with the occasional words that needed translation. And, before too much time went by, I found myself understanding and then speaking enough Dutch to get along surprisingly well. I actually wrote a letter to the editor, thanking Uncle Donald for the language lessons — and, to my delighted surprise, they published it! In fact, that was — to the best of my knowledge — my first Dutch-language publication.

Now if only I could lose my dratted "quack"cent....