{"id":70129,"date":"2017-04-24T17:34:20","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T15:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/?p=70129\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:46","slug":"lezersvragen-bijnamen-en-zwembaden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2017\/04\/24\/lezersvragen-bijnamen-en-zwembaden\/","title":{"rendered":"Readers\u2019 questions: student nicknames and academic swimming lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lezersvragen<\/figure>

Chicks and ufjes from Rotterdam<\/h3>

Delft students of mechanical engineering are called fietsenmakers (bike repairers), their colleagues from electrical engineering are <\/em>vonkentrekkers (sparks), Leiden sorority girls are <\/em>kipjes (chicks) while Utrecht\u2019s girls are <\/em>ufjes. But what are Rotterdam students called?<\/em>
\nWies Wapenaar, Rotterdam<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We start off with an academic approach. So, we ask Nicoline van der Sijs, founder of Etymologiebank.nl<\/a> and professor of Historic Linguistics at Radboud University. In general, most nicknames are funny and often slightly patronising, she says. Fine. But she doesn\u2019t know of nicknames for Rotterdam students.<\/p>\n

OK. So more enquiries outside academia. We go to Facebook. We ask current and former members of RSC and Laurentius. We consult Google. Still nothing! Hence: sorry, there are no nicknames for Rotterdam students. Which is odd, because people from Rotterdam love making up names, varying from the Koopgoot<\/em> (shopping gutter) and De Kuip<\/em> (the tub) to Kabouter Buttplug<\/em> (gnome butt plug) and the Hoerenloper<\/em> (whore hopper).<\/p>\n

Apparently we like to use them for architecture rather than for people.<\/p>\n

Swimming lessons on the campus<\/h3>

Why doesn\u2019t EUR\u2019s sports centre have a swimming pool? Twente, Eindhoven, Tilburg, Leiden and Nijmegen universities have one. I want to swim too!<\/em>
\nDaphne Markwat, Spijkenisse<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s easy to answer, says Erasmus Sport director Jon de Ruijter: it\u2019s too expensive. Maintaining a swimming pool costs more money than it generates, so you don\u2019t want to have too many. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve got lots of local municipal swimming pools, so we use those.\u201d For example, water polo club Ragnar trains in the deep water of the Van Maanenbad, while swimmers train in the Oostelijk Zwembad. Students can also swim lengths in those swimming pools for a reduced rate. There are no plans to build a swimming pool at Woudestein. \u201cThis wouldn\u2019t be financially viable. In Rotterdam we\u2019re far too money conscious.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact that other cities have a swimming pool on campus is pure coincidence. \u201cWe already had enough swimming pools here, so it was the other way round for them. In those cities schools have their swimming lessons on campus too.\u201d<\/p>\n

PS We do have a magnificent pond near the pavilion. But it\u2019s not for diving<\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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