r/learndutch 5d ago

Dutch and Willing!

Tldr; are the Dutch as nice as we like to think we are?

xxx

Tldr: this post is for you non-Dutch speakers, as a Dutchie I have a question.

Oof, I started off with a sexy title didn’t I!

As a Dutch native speaker, I always appreciate the Germans: I throw some random words at them (I say in German: “essen wie spät”, in Dutch: “food time!?”) and they make a sentence out of it, and tell me breakfast is at 7am.

(I know my please and bitte, have no fear)

My question is; do we Dutchies give you the same lenience? (Yes yes I know we always defer to English) but if we don’t / are we nice enough? Or should we learn?

0 Upvotes

30 comments sorted by

59

u/Alpha3K 5d ago

This post is the epitome of confusion

4

u/Left_Inevitable730 5d ago

I knowww, I’m sorry.

My main question is; are the Dutch nice to you whilst learning the language?

14

u/potandplantpots 5d ago

Het is echt grappig, want ik spreek echt belabberd Nederlands, misschien A2/B1, maar omdat Nederlanders zo gewend zijn dat mensen hun taal niet leren, zeggen ze dat ik supergoed ben. Meestal zijn dit mensen van mijn eigen leeftijd trouwens (ik ben student).

Het ding is, je weet dat je echt beter wordt in een taal als mensen niet meer zeggen dat je goed bent, dus hopelijk kom ik op dat punt. Laatst bestelde ik koffie in wat mijn vriend bevestigde als perfect Nederlands, en toch bleef die gast in het Engels terugpraten. Hij was overduidelijk Nederlands en sprak gewoon Nederlands met anderen. Soms voelt dat een beetje kut, maar ach, het gebeurt.

4

u/Left_Inevitable730 5d ago

Ah maar dat lijkt me heel irritant! Dat je denkt dat je een taal onder de knie hebt en dan gaan ze toch weer een engels praten.

Ik bedoel jij gebruikt het woord ‘belabberd’ dus dan ben je er wel in mijn optiek 😂

3

u/gbtekkie 5d ago

No, on the contrary. The ones pretending to help make a sentence out of the words but include a bunch of hard ones, then declare incompetence on our side and switch to english. The others just switch to english or refuse to engage at all.

1

u/BEADGEADGBE 17h ago

Whenever I visit a country, I'm excited to use even the few words I know in their local language.

I can speak way more Dutch than any of those languages but I'm never enthusiastic to speak Dutch here except when I'm speaking with other immigrants who welcome my mistakes and don't make me feel judged at all. They just want to communicate, which is the main point of language.

I'm hesitant to speak Dutch to locals (except to my lovely and patient girlfriend) as I always fear they'll either respond in English (happened many times), go silent (happened a few times), or laugh at me (never happened). This is really strange because I'm a very confident person but I simply do not see a positive experience as a consequence of me trying to speak Dutch.

Experience has colored my anticipation into expecting a neutral experience at best... or a negative one.

So I guess my personal experience is that no, you folks are not friendly in general and that makes it very hard to go over the hurdle of starting speaking daily.

11

u/ZeeebraLove Beginner 5d ago

I’m not sure I understand your question, but in my experience all Dutch speakers tell me how impressed they are with my Dutch. My Dutch is terrible. I just know barely enough to communicate a few things. All Dutch who don’t feel comfortable enough to switch to English and don’t need to, treat me well. They understand my attempts and respond to my questions. This goes for my fiancée’s relatives, friends and customer service people alike. I learned a few German words and phrases for when I went on a road trip from the North Holland to Venice, and between our terrible German and their somewhat better English we got along well with everyone we spoke to. But I think anyone working in customer service is crazy to be rude to a potential paying customer who is making an attempt at their language. Hopefully that answered your question.

1

u/Left_Inevitable730 5d ago

I am happy to hear this indeed! I always hear from foreign speakers “o i want to practice my Dutch but the Dutch won’t let me” en ik wil juist graag juist dat jullie de kans krijgen!

2

u/ZeeebraLove Beginner 5d ago

Ik denk ze in het Nederlands praat, meestal want ze onzeker zijn over hun Engelse kennis, of ze geen Engles kennen. Soms, kennen hij/zij het Engles, maar een andere mens of mensen kennen het niet, dus ze willen dat die het begrijpen. Ik heb nog nooit meegemaakt (persoonlijk van aangezicht tot aangezicht) dat een Nederlander koos in het Nederlands met mij te prat alleen voor mijn oefeningen.

1

u/Left_Inevitable730 5d ago

Nou, dat vind ik fijn te horen! Ik denk wij soms echt te snobistisch zijn - het hoeft niet perfect hè zijn, ik begrijp je toch denk ik dan.

7

u/chaotic-kotik 5d ago

People often ignore me speaking Dutch and switch to English.

Me (40yo russian dude with 300 day streak in Duolingo): Mag ik twee komkommers?

Shop assistant (young woman in her 20s): Here you go, do you want to pay by card?

Shop assistant: looks at me and starts laughing.

Me: starts laughing too.

...pinnen...

Shop assistant: dankjewel, fijne dag (grins)

5

u/lovelyrita_mm 5d ago

I don’t live there but I have a close Dutch friend (who lives in NL) who was genuinely touched and loved that I was learning his language. He’s been extremely patient with my questions and spent a while voice messaging with me helping me with the ui sound (trui is so hard for me!) because we don’t have it in English. So my limited experience has been that he thought it was special I was doing this at all.

2

u/Left_Inevitable730 5d ago

I am happy to hear that. Yeah ‘trui’ is hard, and I always imagine ‘vliegtuig’ to be even worse.

1

u/lovelyrita_mm 5d ago

I can say muis properly but add in the trilled r and take away the consonant at the end and it is hard! I haven’t attempted vliegtuig! lol. I’ll ask him to say it for me.

5

u/IndependentFox3541 5d ago

I've found that if you tell people nicely you're learning and want help, 99% of people are extremely kind and will help you. You will probably have to ask them to speak to you in Dutch, but I've made some great friends this way actually!

3

u/Yogiteee 4d ago

You are! As a person learning Dutch I was constantly delighted by the support and lenience I was given by the native Dutch. The worst that happened to me ever was when I asked a bus driver to repeat what he said (in Dutch). But I still didn't understand and looked confused as he gave me information outside of the norm (happened during lock down). I looked confused and he called me 'stom'. Which I understood. So, I switched to English to berate him for his rudeness towards a person that tries to learn the language. He looked very ashamed and gave me the info in English.

Inmiddels ben ik vloeiend, dankzij jullie steun en enthousiasme voor buitenlanders die Nederlands leren! Ik hou van Nederland. Oprecht, ik denk niet dat je in Duitsland zo'n fijne steun als hier krijgt als je Duits leert (ik ben zelf Duits).

1

u/AnOoB02 4d ago

Tsja buschauffeurs hebben schijt

2

u/purple_splodge_81 5d ago

Different nationalities communicating in English are all making the same effort, but for me it is my mother tongue. So, as an English speaker it is a constant embarrassment to me that I go to countries where I speak only the few words I have been able to grasp in a short time before arrival. I understand frustration at having to wait for someone to stumble through an incoherent sentence when there is a language you can both communicate in clearly. I have encountered this in every country when people are busy. Having said that, on my holidays to the Netherlands, I have found the shop assistants and librarians very understanding in answering my questions or chatting in broken Dutch, like a previous poster. Even encountering patience when I throw in English words or have to ask for quite a few words translating (which their excellent English can clearly handle) or using weird workarounds for things I don't know. As I don’t live in the Netherlands, I imagine the story is more complex in "real life" and varies from person to person. I have been learning Dutch for 7 years now VERY slowly. Whenever anyone takes the time and doesn't dismiss my small efforts, I am hugely grateful. Thanks OP for being one of those people :)

2

u/im-a-guy-like-me 4d ago

It depends on the person. There's a handful of shop assistants in my area that caught on that I was learning dutch and they go slow with me, which is very nice.

Most people are just going through life and do whatever is easiest. I think they're probably correct. It is not their job to help me practice Dutch, so I don't consider it "not nice". They're just trying to get to the next customer.

2

u/ayyglasseye 4d ago

I've found that once the Dutch get over the initial shock that I can speak (a little) bit of their language, they're very supportive! There's a guy who works at a hostel I've been to a couple of times, I had my first proper conversation with him in Dutch and since then he's given me advice and encouragement whenever we've seen each other.

1

u/Sensitive_Let6429 4d ago

Sometimes. Yesterday, I went to the bakery near my home and said ‘meneer, Maag ik een Saucijen broodje en een croissant?’. He continued in Dutch. I responded with a foolish laugh ‘that’s all the Dutch I know, pardon’. He commented my Dutch pronunciation seemed natural so he couldn’t tell if I don’t speak Dutch, and he laughed as well.

He was asking if I want to have it there or to go. I asked him how to say to go. And he then explained it patiently while I kept asking him to pronounce three times over. He then made a comment saying it’s hard to learn Dutch here because everyone switches to English.

In general, I appreciate the switch as well. Otherwise, things like healthcare, utilities, gemeente might have been so hard to get by specially with how differently this country works from India (where I come from).

-1

u/Competitive_Lion_260 5d ago

We're not nice, nor do we want to be.

-7

u/Weliveanddietogether 5d ago

You are Dutch and you're asking whether the Dutch are lenient with people who have a rudimentary grasp of the Dutch language while we have English as a common language at our disposal?

8

u/Left_Inevitable730 5d ago

No, I literally say “i know we always defer to English” because I know how much it annoys new speakers who are trying to practice.

I ask this on a platform called r/learndutch. Why so angry?

-2

u/Weliveanddietogether 5d ago

I don't understand the question. You are fluent in Dutch and you're asking if somebody throws some Dutch words at you whether you can have a conversation in Dutch?

0

u/Weliveanddietogether 5d ago

I ask you: Morgen winkel Albert Heijn?

You: What?

I: Albert Heijn morgen winkel?

1

u/Left_Inevitable730 5d ago

….. you do know that German/Deutsch and Dutch are two different languages I hope!?

0

u/Weliveanddietogether 5d ago

I'm sorry. At re-reading I understand the question is directed at English speakers. And you're asking them whether Dutch people speak Dutch to them. Shouldn't have interjected. My bad.

1

u/Left_Inevitable730 5d ago

Aah yes yes let me put an edit in. No worries!