Is it true that Dutch people would talk to you back in English although you can speak Dutch? Well, i've been learning Dutch for about one month and I plan to visit my cousin who lives in Brussels next

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Is it true that Dutch people would talk to you back in English although you can speak Dutch? Well, i've been learning Dutch for about one month and I plan to visit my cousin who lives in Brussels next year, (and maybe visit also Holland), during my short experience on dutch I've heard a lot of comments about the fact that Dutch people speak english in a good level and they prefer to speak in english with foreigners, is that true? Is it worth learning Dutch by the way? I'm a big fan of Holland and Belgium and its artits such as Jan van Eyck so I will be very disappointed if someone starts to speak in English with me even though I can (actually I will) speak Dutch in Holland

19 déc. 2016 04:25

Commentaires · 19

Hi, I can tell you from my own experience (16 years in The Netherlands) that most Dutch people will speak to you in English even if make an effort to speak their own language. They don't mean to rude but it's a habit that is deeply engrained in them. The best option is to pretend that you don't speak a word of English. Or just be stubborn and insist on speaking Dutch to them even if they switch to English. Veel succes!

19 décembre 2016

I' not Dutch but there is only one solution. You have to learn how to explain in Dutch that unfortunately, except for Dutch and you native language, you don't speak any other languages.

19 décembre 2016

In my experience, I will speak the language that is the easiest in terms of keeping the conversation going. I remember from when I was trying to learn Spanish in Spain, that I would always switch back to English whenever I would get stuck in a conversation or if there would be awkward silences.

I guess the same goes for when you speak Dutch in the Netherlands. I reckon a lot of people will find it really interesting that you learn Dutch, but if you wouldn't speak it well enough to keep a conversation going, yes, then I would definitely switch back to English.

Nobody means to be rude, but you know, people very much dislike awkward conversations :)

19 décembre 2016

I am Dutch myself. I think Dutch people talk English with foreigners because we can. It is a language we learn at school, it's the second language for most people. So if someone isn't able to speak Dutch quite well, we'll start to talk English to comfort the other. I guess. But if you are in The Netherlands (not Holland, that's only a part of The Netherlands) or the northern part of Belgium (beacuse the southern part speaks French) and you want to practise your Dutch, just say so! We like it when others try to speak our language, we really do! It just doens'nt happen that often, we are not used to it. That's why they automatically will start talking English :)

19 décembre 2016

I have lived in Belgium and The Netherlands, I didn't have many people speaking to me in English (most assumed i was from Suriname, since I'm a brown guy speaking Dutch lol), but when they did speak English to me, i just continued speaking Dutch, and they switched back to Dutch :)

26 août 2017

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Lucas

Compétences linguistiques

Anglais, Français, Allemand, Portugais

Langue étudiée

Anglais, Français, Allemand

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