Speak Dutch!
The media keeps writing that if foreigners do not speak Dutch, they cannot get a job. Nonsense! First of all, 99% of the time this statement is aimed at the large Turkish and Moroccan minorities who have a completely different set of linguistic problems than ‘expats’. Second, in Amsterdam and much less in other cities, Dutch people switch to English, showing off either their English or their Dunglish. Problem is, how can expats and immigrants practice their Dutch if they are constantly answered back in English? This article by Hans Kregten gives an idea of how tough it can be for many expats who are doing their best to actually use their Dutch on the Dutch.
As for myself, after I had been living in the Netherlands for one year, people in Amsterdam stuck to Dutch. I started every sentence with “sorry, I do not speak Dutch yet” and yes, I had learnt some Dutch prior to setting up shop here by way of chatrooms, reading and finding Dutch people in my country of origin. After seven years of living here someone switched to English just yesterday and I was insulted. I asked them why they did that. They said “I heard you had an English accent.” Then I politely replied in Dutch “So do many people, does it matter?” They got shy and said “well, no”. I smiled and said, “so just stick to Dutch.”
March 20th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
Maar dan leren we nóóit Engels 😉
Hopeloos, die Nederlanders. Misschien moeten we van Nederland een oostelijke provincie van Groot-Brittanië van maken: Dunglia.
March 20th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
Van me mag je lekker Frans gaan leren 😉
March 20th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Help! Dan kan jij zeker weer een leuke site gaan maken over Nederlandse botsingen met Frans? Frollandais? Haha, dat is al bijna een reden om het te gaan doen 😉
Nederlander aan de kassa in Frankrijk: ‘Je peux payer avec ma PIN?”
March 20th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Het verschil met Frans zou zijn dat Nederlanders daarvan zelf wel weten dat ze het niet te best spreken. Daarentegen zijn er maar al te veel Nederlanders die van zichzelf vinden dat ze ‘vloeiend’ Engels spreken. Een tragische misvatting.
March 20th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
Correcting every other word of their English should do it.
March 20th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Gratis?
Welcome to Holland!
March 20th, 2006 at 7:56 pm
Echt zielig dat gedoe van Nederland.
Ik volg zelf de lerarenopleiding Engels en spreek de hele dag Engels op school.
Als je straks nergens een buitenlandse taal mag spreken, hoe kun je dan nog
een talenvak leren. Wie weet kunnen we straks een bon verwachten.
Ik wil dit niet laten gebeuren, want dan wordt de kans op Dunglish miniem.
Help!!
March 20th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Van me mag je lekker English spreken, zelfs op straat 😉
March 21st, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Laat Verdonk het niet horen!
March 21st, 2006 at 1:17 pm
Ze zou het vast niet begrijpen 🙂
March 21st, 2006 at 8:46 pm
😉
March 23rd, 2006 at 10:42 am
Normally I don’t nitpick about foreigners making errors in Dutch, but as the subject is trying to learn it…. here I go. You can’t say “Van me mag je lekker Frans gaan leren…”. You moved the “van me” phrase to the beginning of the sentence, to give it emphasis. If you give a phrase with “me” in it emphasis, you should change “me” to “mij”. You can only use “me” in a phrase if it has no particular emphasis.
March 23rd, 2006 at 10:52 am
Thanks for your explanation!
I know I cannot write it properly 🙂
As for nitpicking, the Dutch government denied me the Dutch lessons usually offered to foreigners because I could not prove I was going to stay here for more than a year. I could take writing lessons or I could listen to people like you. I prefer the latter.
April 26th, 2006 at 11:15 am
Nog wat meer ‘nitpicking’: ‘Morrocan’ moet natuurlijk ‘Moroccan’ zijn. Of niet?
En is ‘hairsplitting’ (haarkloverij) ook Dunglish, of bestaat dat echt in het Engels?
April 26th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
Thanks, it got away, I’ll correct it! Hairsplitting is in the Van Dale. I use the expression “splitting hairs” myself.
May 9th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
Wat een leuke site! Ik ben blij dat iemand dat vreselijke Dunglish eindelijk eens aan de kaak stelt. Ik heb op zich niets tegen het gebruik van leenwoorden, maar de opmars van het Dunglish heeft ervoor gezorgd dat veel mensen dit pidgin als correct Engels zijn gaan beschouwen. Vooral het foute gebruik van de tussenstreepjes (Engels: hyphens) is af en toe om gek van te worden.
In Amerika kennen ze het fenomeen ‘Spanglish’ (een kruising tussen Engels en Spaans), maar Dunglish is veel verraderlijker omdat Nederlanders het ook echt in hun Engels verwerken. Spanglish is veel meer verbasterd Engels (lonche = lunch en brequecito = small break, je hoort daar de Engelse klanken in terug) en volgens mij beseffen de Hispanics dat ook wel.
November 24th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
I do speak and write Dutch fluently but have been living in the UK for some time so now my accent is a very strong English one whilst speaking Dutch.
I had the same experience when I moved over.
I was 14 in a Dutch school and even after a year I had perfected the language people still spoke back to me in English
After about 4 years I hated it so I remember one time I went to a restaurant. I ordered some food and the person spoke back in English so I thought enough is enough I spoke English very fast the person went straight back to Dutch
This is what you need to do especially if you can pull off a Scottish voice as even I don’t understand that!
I’m moving back to Amsterdam next year so I’m just going to speak English and work for an English company really don’t want to go through it all again!
September 7th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Good afternoon,
I am a Dutch, A proud dutch, but I cannot speak even a single word, maybe because I always lived too far away from there? But this makes me sad when I have no way to communicate with people back home in the same language they speak, though I am struggling to learn online, reading blogs and other resources
Thank you for reminding me about my country, our language, history and all
Thank you
Katie