Who knows how to speak Dutch besides, well, the Dutch? Students at a University in Poland, apparently!
That’s right — students of Dutch studies may have “halved” in the NL over the last decade, but meanwhile, programmes in Eastern European countries (including Poland, Hungary, and Romania) are overflowing with young people keen to learn the guttural language.
In fact, The University of Wrocław in Poland says they sometimes have 250 Bachelor’s and Master’s students participating in their Dutch studies programme, de Volkskrant reports.
That’s even more than the average 200 students studying Dutch in the NL!
Knowing Dutch could be a cash grab 💸
So what has possessed the youth of Eastern Europe to learn Dutch, a dialect used by a mere 25 million people worldwide?
Apparently, the Dutch language’s newfound popularity has a lot of its basis in economic promise.
READ MORE | How to learn Dutch: the ultimate guide (by people who learned!)
Considering how rare Nederlands is compared to, say, English or German, many students hope to work for well-paying multinationals that continuously recruit Dutch speakers.
A survey among Budapest’s Eötvös Loránd University graduates revealed that every student in Dutch studies had landed a job by the end of the summer. 👀
The Dutch language is… “very nice”? 😳
Even so, plenty of the undergraduates don’t appear to be just money-hungry…
One first-year student says their passion for Van Gogh’s work is what drove them to study the Dutch artist’s mother tongue. Others reference the fact that they have relatives who live in the Netherlands.
READ MORE | 5 Dutch idioms that are just too bizarre when translated
Several of the students interviewed by de Volkskrant have even managed to find beauty and charm in the taal (language) that sounds as tough as nails. 😮
A Budapest-based student describes the Dutch word for umbrella (which is paraplu) as “very nice” and French-sounding, while an undergraduate in Wrocław admires how “logical” the Dutch word regering (government) is.
Still, we can all agree that the word “grachtenrondvaart” (canal cruise) is indeed “impossible to pronounce”. 🤷♀️
Do you believe more people abroad should study Dutch? Share your thoughts in the comments below!