Olga Mecking

In my native Polish, the word for “mother” is matka, which coincidentally (or maybe not so coincidentally) has meanings in other languages.
As I found out, in Hindi, the same word describes an earthen pot used to hold water and dairy products. Consider the symbolism: A matka refreshes, nurtures and comforts. She is life-giving, indispensable. Mothers are often referred to as vessels, first used to carry a child inside of them, then to nourish that child from their own bodies.
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When Chris Schwark, a Texan, decided to follow his wife to Stavanger, Norway, he didn’t expect his international assignment to be so challenging. After all, he’d lived in Perth, Australia before, but this was different. He didn’t speak the language, and it was much harder to find a job in a small place like Stavanger. But moving internationally can be hard for a spouse, no matter how much help and support they have, simply because to them, it seems like all the choices were taken away from th...

The common thinking in many Western European countries such as Germany or the Netherlands is that immigrants don’t integrate—that they refuse to learn the languages dominant to their new hometowns, and turn their neighborhoods into “ghettos” with Turkish and Moroccan businesses. Contributors to mainstream newspapers in the Netherlands question whether Syrian parents teaching their children Arabic could hamper integration; in Denmark, children in certain areas are separated from their parents ...

“This street sign is crooked,” notes Henny Koot, then stoops down to straighten it.
We are in Spoorwijk, a neighbourhood in The Hague. “Spoorwijk is a very special neighbourhood. It’s a green space where children can play safely in the playgrounds, where entrepreneurs from different cultures have set up shop. People care about each other,” explains Koot, who chairs a local community organisation. Spoorwijk may be a caring neighbourhood, but it’s part of Laak, The Hague’s smallest district – a...

Syrian parents in the Netherlands are setting up unofficial weekend schools for their children so that they can learn Arabic.

Olga Mecking is a writer, journalist and translator living in the Netherlands. She has written for The Atlantic, Slate, New York Magazine and elsewhere. The views expressed here are solely the author's. View more opinion articles on CNN.
(CNN)In 2011, writer and editor Kim Brooks had the police called on her -- and ended up pleading guilty to contributing to the delinquency of a minor (to avoid the risk of losing custody of her child) -- because she left her then-4-year-old son in the car for...

In the United States, depending on which state you’re in, you can lose access to welfare for a variety of reasons—not getting a job quickly enough, living with someone with a criminal background, or failing a drug test. In the Netherlands, while people usually don’t lose welfare altogether, they could still be fined—in some cases, for not looking or smelling good enough to be employable. And one Dutch researcher who studied the impact of this policy in its first two years says it’s leading to...

Every year since 1991, in Germany, an independent jury comprised of four linguists, a journalist, and a member of the public chooses the so-called “un-word of the year,” a word, word group, or expression that is considered to be in violation of human rights and democratic principles, discriminates against certain social groups, or is deliberately misleading.
Citizens can send suggestions for consideration up until December. The un-word of the year is chosen in the first half of January after ...

Less pressure to ‘achieve’, multiple languages and cycling everywhere - our kids love it
Several recent reports have found that Dutch teens are among the happiest in the world, and having lived here for almost six years with my family, I have to concur.
When we arrived here, we had no idea how it would unfold: moving abroad with a family and no social support, to a new culture, new language and new country. We thought we would stay for three to five years, travel and have new family experienc...

In the Netherlands, it’s hard not to be impressed, or even overwhelmed, by the sheer number of bicycles in all forms, colors, and sizes. People here see cycling as a normal mode of transportation, not just a weekend leisure activity. The Dutch use their bikes to carry groceries, electronics, and sometimes even furniture. It’s not uncommon to see a parent biking with one child up front, another one in the back, and a third one cycling on his or her own, the parent’s hand on the back for guidan...

By Olga Mecking
The Frisian Islands, also called Wadden Sea Islands, form an archipelago in the North Sea, stretching all the way from the Netherlands to Denmark. They are divided into West, North, and East Frisian Islands. The biggest and most popular West Frisian island is Texel in the Netherlands, while among the North Frisian Islands, Sylt, Germany takes the first spot. The largest of the East Frisian Islands is called Borkum and belongs to Germany.
Because of their unique location, these...

Parents have many reasons for raising their children with multiple languages. Some hope for better career opportunities for their offspring, while others focus on the reported cognitive and intellectual benefits of learning an additional tongue, including better attention skills, improved memory, and a quicker decision-making process. Still others, such as the writer Ben Faccini in Aeon, want to fight against the worldwide dominance of the English language.
Finally, for countless families, mu...

"Does this bread taste the same as it would taste as if a Pole had baked it?" asks Salam Salti. He is wearing a white apron and a baker's cap with his name on it.
Salti is participating in a new Polish campaign called Nasz Chleb Powszedni, or "Our Daily Bread," which aims to inspire tolerance and understanding in Poland by having people from five marginalized groups — gays, Jews, Muslims, refugees and black people — bake and sell bread to customers at the Putka Bakery in Warsaw. The experienc...

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Fynn Schlemminger knew exactly what he wanted to do for his A-levels special project: create a language from scratch. And that’s exactly what he did. The invented language is called Garadálava, and, according to its creator, it is unique. “The premise of creating Garadálava was to make it unlike any spoken language. I came up with a phonology people usually interpret as harsh or pointed, featuring some guttural sounds and a very unmelodious tone,” he explained.
All languages are, to a p...