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by jjallen 536 days ago
I am in Amsterdam right now and yes, I have yet to encounter a Dutch person that doesn’t speak very fluent English.
4 comments

As a Dutchman from outside of Amsterdam (you know, most of us):

Hah!

It's not even that they won't speak Dutch, often they can't! Sometimes you'll be hard-pressed to find someone capable of speaking Dutch in Amsterdam in some shops and restaurants. I've had people look sheepish/annoyed for presuming to use and expect Dutch in my own country.

Exactly that. You'll have a harder time not speaking English than not speaking Dutch.
It's not the norm anywhere outside of Amsterdam I'd say, but indeed, we had a server/waiter(?) in a Greek restaurant in Limburg yesterday who spoke German but not Dutch (who looked like they might be from Greece so I doubt they were simply from Germany). Especially since the pandemic I've been noticing this more. I like the culture mingling, all the better that the Limburgians see foreigners aren't scary and evil, but I'm curious if it's a trend or if I'm just randomly noticing it more
Try a less touristy areas though, or people you don't normally interact with much (who will, conversely, also not have much experience interacting with non-Dutch people). My grandma couldn't say more than yes or no and understand not much more

Working an IT job in a company of ~30 employees, someone joined who didn't speak Dutch. They would always excuse themselves and have lunch in their office¹ because it was very obvious that half the people just didn't really interact with the previously lively conversation anymore and were just biding their time to get back to work. Those who did speak, it worked but it's not as jovial as before. Sure, these people can all hold a presentation about their field of work, or order a sandwich with the correct words in England, but a spontaneous conversation about something random? It's a different set of vocabulary that you need every day, and far from everyone has that

¹ yes, we made clear they shouldn't do that and they should feel invited and part of the team. Many people did interact. And many of us made sure they were, at least, not having lunch alone in their office. Situation unfortunately remained as it was until I left

I speak Dutch fluently (born and raised) and even I have a hard time to speak Dutch with Dutch people. If you don't fit the profile (blond hair/blue eyes) they automatically assume you're a foreigner.
Oh yeah we only allow people to speak poor english in very public functions, like the head of state or the secretary general of NATO.

It helps make the rest of us look good.

I don't have an active memory of hearing either of them speaking poor English. Can't be true.
Clearly a dig at Mark Rutte...