Most internationals in the Netherlands have gone through this experience. You’ve been practising your Dutch and gathering the courage to use it in a public setting.
You walk up to a stranger and finally use the sentences you’ve been practising over and over again in your head.
The person you’ve approached takes one look at you and… immediately switches to English. 🙃
What is it?
Dutch people are notorious for switching to English if they detect that you’re not a native Dutch speaker, even when you’re actually speaking the language with them at that moment.
An example of a Dutch person switching to English may look something like this:
International: Goedemiddag! Mag ik een cappuccino met havermelk? (Good afternoon! May I have a cappuccino with oat milk?)
Dutch person: Do you want whipped cream with that?
International: 🤦🏻♀️
Why do they do it?
The Netherlands boasts the highest non-native proficiency in English in the world, so it makes sense that they feel very comfortable using it.
READ MORE | Do I need to speak Dutch to work in the Netherlands?
However, we still don’t understand why they switch to English when someone is trying their best to practice their Dutch.
It’s a bit gek (crazy) if you think about it.
Why is it quirky?
In a lot of other countries, people are delighted when one makes an effort to speak their language, and they try to help you out along the way.
Also, a lot of other countries may not know how to speak English as well so you are forced to learn the language anyway.
However, in the Netherlands, you can get by most of the time with only English and everything is fine.
But it’d still be nice if Dutch people tried to let us attempt to speak their language from time to time. 😭
Should you join in?
Uh…we think maybe not on this one! If you happen to speak Dutch very well and someone else is speaking to you in that language, stick to that!
@miracle.babyyyy you are english #nederlandsetiktok #dutchtok #learningdutch #steenkolenengels #multiculti #expatsinthenetherlands ♬ original sound – miracle.babyy
Switching to English when someone is making an effort can be really disappointing for someone who’s trying to learn a new language.
READ MORE | The top 16 free ways to learn Dutch
If someone does appear to be struggling, you can always speak Dutch slower or use easier words.
Or if it’s really not working, then you can switch to English. But try to give us a chance, would ya? 🥺
What do you think of this Dutch quirk? Have you experienced it? Tell us in the comments below!
Maybe they want to practice English with expats
I think it has to do with the Dutch feeling of “ showing off” more than trying to make the English speaker comfortable ( I am Dutch by birth and lived there till age 34. Since then live in the US). It is not a nice trait. And strangely enough they never did do with my US husband when we were together ( during 2012-2017 we lived back in the Netherlands). So it was not yo make him comfortable, because that would have been, since initially he did not speak Dutch
Very interesting, coming from a United States native. I came across this article by accident, and I think it might’ve been a divine intervention as I’ve been trying to decide a country to possibly move to to get the heck out of the US! Lol and it seems like a great option, as besides England and Scotland, and Canada, or parts of it, I was worried about not speaking the language and being more stressed about having to learn a new language, as being in a foreign land that you’ve never been to before is stressful enough…. I wonder why this is so. Here in the US obviously we speak English and a lot of the older generation get very angry at immigrants who come over and don’t even attempt to learn the English language, but at the moment Spanish is possibly dominating, as being unemployed for some time and at this time 90 % that’s a job in this area Austin Texas, require you to be fluent in Spanish. Not no little bit or be able to get by, but to be fluent in Spanish…z…. It’s become very frustrating as I took six years of Spanish and my stepmom was Cuban and I understand it very well, but cannot respond very quickly and I’m not fluent, and I’m too honest to lie and say I’m fluent and then get hired and then struggle with assisting customers, etc. …. I’m not sure if this is because all the areas that I’ve lived in seem to be have a large Spanish-speaking population like New York City, Miami, and California, and now Texas. …. But it’s literally almost a necessity to speak Spanish in the United States at this point…. And I’m on the fence with how I feel about that because I’m very open minded and liberal and democratic and want the immigrants to be welcomed and feel comfortable here, however,…. It is negatively impacting my life personally with this situation. … of course it’s not their fault but it’s just interesting…. And the Netherlands are people not very patriotic or proud to be from the Netherlands? …
it’s just odd that they would speak English. Want to speak English before speaking Dutch … and I’m wondering if that has to do with other countries views of the United States being a better country to live in or just better than the country that they’re in….. like I wonder if the educational systems and parents are purposely teaching the children English in hopes that they will move to the United States for a better life or be at least be able to communicate in English because they think it’s more like important language to be able to communicate with customers? I don’t even know I’m so stumped with what to think about that like literally no other countries are like that. They they speak their native language and they’re very proud of it and they look down upon visitors from the United States and if you speak, English must get annoyed. In France in Italy, I experienced that …. I wanted to hide that I was American and I just didn’t talk because they looked at me nasty or they were just disgusted like stupid Americans lolWas not eligible for so many jobs because they required you to be fluent in Spanish … like a absolute requirement to be fluent… at first, I was anchor as I did take Spanish for six years in school and I understand it pretty well, as I grew up in South Florida where is a large Cuban population… actually the city I grew up in Haz completely changed and they used to be predominantly Caucasian, maybe 20% Cuban, 5% African-American, and maybe 5% all other nationalities, including Puerto Rican, Dominican, Asian of any sort… I can literally remember the faces of every Asian person that attended my middle school as there was probably only four or five in the whole middle school sixth grade through eighth grade. And maybe 6 African-American children in the whole entire middle school… and it has literally completely changed to little Havana and it’s I guess predominantly Cuban people that move their way up from Miami… moving back after being away for six years and I tried to get a job in the mall and in 1999 already I was experiencing prejudice for the first time, as all of the jobs in the mall had you had to be fluent in Spanish… that’s insane, as I have all the qualifications experience, etc., but I was not completely fluent and I was honest and they didn’t hire me and I had to end up lying and saying that I was to get the position and then and pray that’s because everyone else in the store spoke Spanish I would never be alone and I can just direct them to another employee lol.. I spoke enough to get by and read people with Ola Como estas… and then pretended to understand what they were saying to me in Spanish, and direct them into the store towards the other employee who I would trick into taking care of them or answering them…. I got away with not speaking Spanish for not letting anyone know for a good seven months…… and by that time, my boss already loved me and wouldn’t fire me lol
To make it clear: this is not so much just with foreigners. Generations of people (including mine) grew up with English everywhere from the moment we were born. Trust me, we switch to English between ourselves as well if the topic demands it. You won’t believe the amount of times we either use English expressions, or sentences…
I am also guilty of switching to English, even when I am trying to make an effort not to. My gf was trying to learn Dutch, and I found it very hard to not switch. So, it’s not an intentional thing to show off (as Karen suggests), it is just so easy to do, that it comes as second nature….
It’s kind of comical if the non-native speaker stays in Dutch after the Dutch person switches to English. Two people are both speaking their non-native language to each other, both refusing to back down.
Yes, I have experienced. I’m Dutch by birth but grew up mainly in Australia. When I go back to Nederland I start in my attempt at Dutch but the answer is in English.
Yes we do this, and I understand this is annoying. But it has nothing to do with showing off skills. This switching comes naturally, since we hear English all around us from the day we are born.. Music, television, commercials: we don’t dubb, just subtitel. English is very much mixed in our daily speech, our reading and even in expressing ourselves. So if we ‘sense’ that someone is foreign, we automatically ‘switch’. And yes, with the intent to ease the conversation for *both* of us. 😉.
So on behalf of the Dutch: sorry for annoying you! We’ll try to be patiënt with you, and thanks for returning this favor 😉👍🏻😁