Do you speak English? Yes, we do! The recent EF English Proficiency Index placed the Netherlands first when comparing the English skills of 100 non-English speaking countries.
“Why is that?” I’m wondering as I look for my native Austria on the list, which only came in at number six, behind a bunch of Scandinavian countries.
Apparently, next to ranking among the tallest people in the world, the Dutch are also better at speaking English than any other non-native country. According to research, between 90% and 93% of Dutchies claim to be able to hold a conversation in English.
How do they do that?
1The Dutch don’t dub
The Dutch are surrounded by the English language from an early age through television. They don’t dub any movies or series. Contrary to other European countries like Spain, Germany, or France, in the Netherlands, you can watch everything on TV in its original language while reading the subtitles in Dutch.
This means that children in the Netherlands have a much more natural approach when it comes to learning and speaking English. It propels them well ahead of their peers in other countries. Although being glued to your TV for hours binge-watching American series can sometimes result in developing a weird ‘murican accent (ya’ll know what I’m talkin’ about).
2A global mindset
This small-sized country with 17 million inhabitants living on 41,543 square kilometres beats many larger economies and ranks number 17 worldwide as far as their GDP is concerned.
Being the business-friendly culture that the Netherlands is, the Dutch have had to master the English language to be able to compete in the global market.
The Dutch East India Company, for example, was founded in 1602 as the first multinational company in the world. Today, many global companies like IKEA or Philips have their European headquarters in the Netherlands.
3Worldwide explorers
The Dutchies’ high rank in English proficiency also results from exploring the globe during their vacations. This nation of former seafarers has adventure in their blood.
Abel Tasman, for example, was the first known explorer from Europe to reach today’s Tasmania and New Zealand in 1642. Sailor Dirk Hartog was the first to land on Australia’s west coast. He’s now honoured with an island named after him (Dirk Hartog Island).
Ever the adventurers, many Dutch students fulfil their dream of studying abroad. They often enrol in a language course, complete an internship, or spend a gap year working as volunteers, while perfecting their knowledge of the English language at the same time.
Last but not least, the Dutch can thank their ancestors for their exceptional ability to speaking English. The Dutch language is part of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, just like English.
This means that the two languages share the same roots and have similar characteristics, making it easier for Dutch speakers to learn English. Dat is goed nieuws! (That is good news!)
Liked this article? Be sure to follow DutchReview on Facebook in order to not miss out on any other good stuff!
Feature Image: 534131/Pixabay
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in January 2017 and was fully updated in February 2021 for your reading pleasure.
There has been a troubling trend with more and more childrens tv shows being dubbed lately. Especially the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon are guilty of this. It annoys me to no end havin to listen to my kid watch dubbed live action shows (somehow it’s nowhere near as annoying with cartoons).
My band has performed at maritime music festivals in the Netherlands. Two years ago I thought it was time to learn Nederlands. I was amazed at how many Dutch words looked or sounded almost identical to English! It was actually confusing at first, thinking that I was remembering incorrectly.
[…] Low costs, good quality of education and of course the fact that both our uni’s as the regular Dutch folk (pretend to) speak superawesome English are the main reason why internationals students and the Netherlands is such a successful […]
Wait, when did they find the Dutch East India Company? I didn’t know it was ever missing!
[…] And here is one on why the Dutch rock at English […]
[…] tell you ‘my English isn’t very good’ but it is. They lie – it is better than you can imagine. What they think ‘isn’t very good’ is like Higher Level language to us. Even the people who […]
Nice blog! Thanks for sharing Alexandra. The Netherlands is a very international country and next to learning English at school, you learn it easily by watching television, or just going into town. Furthermore, there are various English language courses available in the Netherlands.
[…] and want to know why exactly why the Netherlands are the best in English? Well here’s an excellent article on that matter – […]
[…] you just can’t get enough of Holland’s outstanding performances – we also rank as the Number #1 English-speaking country outside of the “Anglophone World” and persistently rank high as one of the happiest people and […]
[…] #5 You couldn’t believe how awesome the Dutch are at speaking English […]
[…] hold a conversation, and that number is likely to be higher today. But again, that’s nothing new. English has been a staple in Holland for […]
[…] in the 3rd year. Depending on the school, subjects like natural science, geography, history and even English are taught, often in the form of across-the-board projects that relate to the children’s everyday lives. The […]
[…] fact, many Dutch people contribute their awesome English skills to the subtitled movies and TV shows from America. For them, learning English became a lot easier […]
Most of them are fluent but far from accurate, same as with the Danes.
The Dutch tend to use Dutch grammar translated to English, which to many might sound as amazing but just a massacre to native ears.
Impersonating, or rather “parroting” Hollywood and American sitcom actors, can hardly be labelled as being “so good at speaking English”, however, the Dutch are “very good at bragging about how brilliant they are at everything; “het kleine land met de grote mond”.
My message has been censured just because I don’t agree with the assertion that “the Dutch are so good at speaking English”, and the fact that you are a very arrogant nation, well you are, first you can’t take criticism, and have no sense of humour, second, no one can teach you anything since you know everything better than anyone, and that obviously is the complex of the megalomaniac “par excellence” which most Dutch people have, you have no notion of “HUMILITY”, you are too self-centred and full of yourselves (Not to say full of something else).
“Het klein land with de grote mond” this what seems to have offended you, you can’t take a joke, can you? “Touché”, I must have touched a raw nerve there…you should land sometimes, otherwise your landing could be painful for you.
You use the word ‘Dutchies’ twice. As a native English-speaker I have to say that the only people I have ever heard use this word are Dutch-speakers – it certainly isn’t normal English. In fact, there isn’t really an everyday colloquialism for ‘Dutch people’, apart from ‘cloggies’ – which is derogatory, an insult. The only people who say ‘cloggies’ are dissatisfied English-speaking (especially British) inhabitants of the Netherlands. Perhaps it will die out when Brexit takes effect!