[marieke]

Originally Posted by Kimberly

As a dutchie, I feel I should pitch in here. I think the main reason why Dutch people tend to speak their languages quite well is because of the following:

First of all, we are offered a lot of English programs on tv. And, unlike for example France, Spain, Italy and Germany, English programs are not dubbed in the Netherlands. As a result we are exposed to the English language on a daily basis...Secondly, there aren't many people that speak Dutch. We are a tiny country surrounded by a lot of larger countries so it's only natural for us to want to learn other people's languages, instead of expecting them to learn ours. In highschool we are taught english, dutch, german and french. Spanish is also becoming more and more popular...

Some people love the fact that Dutchies speak English well, others hate it. Many of my international friends get very frustrated because they never get to practice their Dutch. Whenever they're in a store and try to speak Dutch to a clerk, the clerk will switch to English as soon as they realise Dutch is not this person's native tongue. I'm sure the clerk is just trying to be nice but I imagine it can be quite frustrating for those trying to learn the language....

In addition to this. In the Netherlands we have 27 different dialects and another language (frysian). So people who are raised in other cities usually speak a dialect and the Dutch Standard language. Which teaches children/people from early on that if you speak more than just your dialect your world becomes larger. And 27 dialects on 17 million people is quite a lot.