‘Your English is better than my Dutch’

Abstract

I asked the current BJOG Editor-in-Chief, Khalid Khan, why he had followed and then unfollowed me on Twitter. He replied: ‘Half of your Tweets I don't understand, since they are in Dutch’. In the mid 90s I was a PhD student at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam. At that time we submitted three paper copies of manuscripts in large A4 envelopes. From the format of the journal's return envelope you could guess the outcome: a small envelope was a letter of rejection with reviewers’ comments; a large envelope was a positive reply. The Green Journal (Obstetrics and Gynecology) had a green envelope, Fertility and Sterility had a red envelope, and BJOG had blue. Although not a formal acceptance, you knew that when the editor had edited your manuscript with his pen, you were safe. My first BJOG submission was in 1996. I had performed an economic analysis comparing salpingostomy with salpingectomy for ectopic pregnancy (BJOG 1997;104:834–9). The BJOG response was a big envelope – hurray! John Grant, the Editor-in-Chief, had edited the manuscript. After some encouraging initial statements in the accompanying letter, John announced, ‘Since I do not speak a word of Dutch, I admire your capacity to write English. However, …’ He had completely rewritten my paper. The red of his pen was the dominant colour on the white paper manuscript with black print that I had submitted. Since then, I have continued to submit my work to BJOG, resulting in over 60 publications, each time with fewer and fewer comments on the language (probably indicative of the proficiency in English of the PhD students that I work with). We are making progress! When I promised Khalid to Tweet in English only, he followed me again with his first Tweet to me stating ‘Your English is better than my Dutch’. It reminded me of my first BJOG paper nearly 20 years ago. Chief Editors may change, but somethings don't change. The unaltered fact is that the BJOG Editor-in-Chief cannot value Dutch poetry, even when he is skating with his son. My institute has been paid for lectures and consultancy for Pharmaceutical companies. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.