Dutch-Belgian border with about a hundred students, I learned what student life meant through many liters of beer. My initiator was a third year student named Chaim. In the evening I sat with him and a handful of drunken youths around a campfire. Chaim talked about the incompetence of a specific teacher. “Every time I have lessons from him,” said Chaim, “I think: what a huge deus.” My brain shorted out as I was mentally timed back to a past decade, and to a classroom 70 kilometers away. Chaim…” I started my sentence. “Yes, Vincent?” my initiator replied, taking a swig from his Jupiler. “Perhaps you come from Papendrecht?” An ear to ear grin crossed his face. “No, not from Papendrecht, but from a neighboring village, from Alblasserdam. Why do Whatsapp Number List you ask that? And more importantly: how do you know which region I come from?” 'Deus', that was my answer. Language = identity Language is identity, just like dialect and accent. These linguistic elements create recognition, and thanks to that recognition. They inspire confidence: "Hey, that person speaks like me, so he's like me." My student days are now ten years behind me. My experience with Chaim and the word 'deus' now makes me realize that that one silly word – strange but true – was part of Whatsapp Number List his and my identity on a microscopic level (and probably of dozens of young people from Papendrecht and the surrounding area). Also read: Dutch vs