Going to Holland, should I learn Dutch?

Show all answers

VINCE

It would be nice to learn a little Dutch just to show you appreciate their culture.. You don't need to learn Dutch to communicate with the populace. They all seem to be quite adept at English. I ran into a young lady that spoke 8 languages perfectly. She was just adding Japanese and Russian. Her English was as good as mine. No accent at all. If you are going to school in Holland, You would need Dutch if it's not an all English speaking.school. You had better find out if the classes are all in English. Outside of the classroom, English will be understood everywhere. The people were great to me and my wife everywhere we traveled. You should have a wonderful time.

Devizzle

I would recommend learning dutch. But there will be a lot of people that will probably know English, not that the English is completely perfect but Hey, better then other countries where they don't speak it at all. Most likely you will be fine regardless if you don't learn Dutch.

Orla C

The Dutch are extremely versatile, and the ability to learn and use languages is only one of the many things they have mastered.

If you are just visiting, you don't need to worry, English is spoken everywhere in hotels, restaurants, etc. But it is always appreciated if you learn a few words of the local language, like 'please' and 'thank you', and also 'do you speak English', because not everyone is really good at English.

If you are planning on staying to work, however, Dutch lessons are widely available.

Its better to learn dutch to understand them if they dnt knw how to speak english but ofcourse many people know how to speak english because it is a universal language :D

Have Fun in Holland
hehe

David P

I love the Netherlands, what a beautiful place.

I just came from there, I don't know a word of Dutch and I didn't meet a single person who didn't speak English. I am truly amazed that everyone speaks English there. Even the foreigners who moved there from somewhere else speak their native language, Dutch, and English. Anyway, when you're there you can generally just speak english and no one with blink an eye, I didn't even know the basics such as being able to ask whether someone speaks english because it wasn't necessary.

All of this goes for the big cities. If you do travel to the smaller towns (and they're absolutely beautiful, I strongly recommend it), you'll encounter plenty of people who don't speak english. But you'll still have no real problem navigating on english.

Enjoy!

pat z

Many people in The Netherlands speak English and are very eager to show you how well they do.
Are you going to school in Dutch?
You'll probably pick up words and phrases in daily life once you get there.
My husband is Dutch (although we met in North America and met speaking English). I speak quite a bit of Dutch -- his family nagged at me for years to learn it -- and now, with my American accent, I am a constant source of "entertainment" for that same family.(I have never commented on or corrected their heavily accented English!) I hope you don't have a similar experience of linguistic "snobbery".

Vidarra

I'll start off by teaching you a cute world: ♥Knuffelen.

It means: cuddle

or How about biertje? (beer-cha)

Only kidding..

But Yes-Learn Nederlands!
I am from AZ and going to school in Holland right now. I chose to study abroad for 6 months. I think that its def. worthwhile to learn Dutch and you will feel more cultured during your stay.

I learned flemmish (very close, from Belgie) from my Dad who was born and raised in Belgium. When I moved here however I found some of his terms to be "old school" and I picked up slang from my friends over here. It is important to have a basic knowledge of things to say in stores or restaurants though if you get flustered, you can always use english, almost everyone knows a little bit.

I won't write a novel but feel free to email me if you have any questions. I am in exam weeks and going home in 3,after 6months living my little Dutch life.. What an experience!

heather.gray@ymail.com.

PS. you will find a lot of German spoken! There are many German students here--I live with 4 in fact.

♫ ...Hey Godverdomde Engel™

Depends on your age, if you're a teenager between the ages of 12-16, it's most likely that your peers' English is poor. But if you're in your twenties, it'll be quite easy, practically everyone of that age group speaks English.

I'd say learn Dutch, it's a great language and learning a new language is always good.

Maybe???

In highschool all Dutch students must study Dutch, English, French and German. And, in college or university this is reduced to 3 languages(the combination varies with each institution, some even teach Latin or Spanish).

ελα ρε

it would be nice to learn the basics, but its definitely not necessary

you'll find out that the erasmus students will either speak their native tongue or english. and most dutch peeople speak some english

if you are going to study in the north of holland, a decent sized population speak Frisian there but less than a million people speak it

Kimi Lega~

well their are teenagers who speak english but their are also a lot who dont...lots of teenagers also dont really care about learning english...I live in the netherlands by the way and most kids in my school cant speak proper english and they would appreciate it if you would just know a tiny bit of it since their are a lot of foreigners here who dont speak the language at all which is very annoying....

Germanlove

omg yes! the dutch language is a mix of english and german and i kno both so it was really easy for me to understand but some words are beyond me! lol but everybody i met there spoke excellent english and they almost sound american! so don't stress!

randall_nd

Not to worry, they also speak English in the Netherlands.

katzeyez

Nope. Only the elders do not speak English. Today most students begin English lessons in grade school. One reason for this is that the official language of the EU is English.

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: