Language barriers and other nasty yet not completely inovercomable issues

Writing in a tongue that is not your native one can be quite a challenge. Especially if your aim is nót to sound like a boring drone. Sad fact is, the extended playful vocabulary and lingual subtleties to create wordsmith-wrought textual masterpieces usually don't come with the text-books.

Good thing is, I never expected this to come easy. And that's why I'm going to practice (an alternative would be to watch all Monty Python episodes until they can be dreamt, but let's keep that plan B for now).
A 'little' warning might be useful here: I will no, and absolutely no doubt at times completely hit beside the plank.

...

Yes, that was a Dutch proverb 'de plank misslaan' (mishitting the plank). It means that one is not 'off' as in 'missing the nail with your hammer', but 'off' as in 'missing the whole piece of wood', probably ending with a very sore toe or a rather flinchy audience.

Okay then, let's start with Lesson One: Expressing emotions!

Interpunction... check! It's mainly the same in both languages. Always nice to have a head start.

Now then, happiness. I have 'yay', 'yaaaaay' annd 'hurray!', although that last one sounds a bit birthday-themed really. Gotta find some more.

Okay, expressions of frustration. I have 'aaargh' (who wouldn't get that), 'blegh', 'bloody hell', 'that darn/wretched/friggin thing/person/weather' and a lot of words that would no doubt not be suitable to type up here. Check, with additional plans to check out an episode of 'Hell's Kitchen' for extra reference. I'm sure that ought to do it.

Now surprise: 'whow', 'holy moly/cow/something else', 'wowzers' (Inspector Gadget, anyone?), the slightly eyebrow-raising worthy 'holy crap batman' (call me Dutch but I've never laid a connection between a costume-clad guy, manure and divinity) and the more civil, Martha Steward-like 'my gosh'. Covered, I guess.

Moving on to expressions in the 'yeah right' category. I've always been impressed by the comedic potential of well-timed 'my foot'; 'suuure' and 'whatever' work fine, and a less elegant 'pffft' will probably convey the message as well.

Closing off with a more advanced expression: the slightly mocking, not-completely-serious kind of happy. Hmm... For me, it's rather easy in Dutch:
- there is the slightly formal and out-of-fashion-for-at-least-a-century 'hoezee'
- we've got 'joeghei', pronounced 'yoogh-hai' which I doubt has ever been used as a non-mocking expression. A bit like -insert sarcastic, deadpan voice- 'I finished all my boring tasks and was told that, because I did that well I was promoted to doing that the whole day for the next month, yoogh-hai'.
- and of course the all-known 'joepiedepoepie', i.e. 'yoopiedepoopie', translation would be somewhere near 'yoohoo the poohoo'. Ah, Dutch is such a refined language.

After some digging, the words 'golly' and 'whoop-tee-doo' came up, but there must be more. Writing down: homework for next lesson. Check.

Next time, Lesson Two: Use of formal language not even remotely near desired context. We hope to see you again... same channel, same time!