Foreigners are unsociable and refuse to venture beyond their own culture and friends

[petergriffin]

Here being Cloggers presumably. But apparently (so it's been claimed here in the past) native Dutch speakers consider foreigners who try mastering and speaking Dutch as insufferably rude and inconsiderate! God alone knows why - you'd think they'd be flattered when foreigners made the effort.

I can confirm that. The only way I get accepted in my effort to speak Dutch is when I pretend to be Belgian. It's not difficult because I live close to the border and the accent is similar.

[norrahe]

I can confirm that. The only way I get accepted in my effort to speak Dutch is when I pretend to be Belgian. It's not difficult because I live close to the border and the accent is similar.

I have no problem speaking Dutch with the locals, sometimes I hit the pronunciation right and often I don't and they sometimes revert to English, I persist in Dutch or simply say "Nederlands is geen probleem met mij" and they happily speak Dutch.

Most of the people locally know I'm learning and seem happy to speak Dutch with me. In fact they are happier that people are making the effort. I've never had anyone refuse to speak Dutch with me at all.

Now the Belgian accent is weird.....

[darmstadt]

You'd be surprised that people think they can get away with not having the native language and get by. In cloggers it is easier as they speak English relatively well and way too many people use that as an excuse for not learning the lingo. It's ok if you live in hamsterjam, but if you live elsewhere then forget about it if you want to get anywhere with the locals.

I would have thought that somewhere like Germany there would be more emphasis on having German. In the Netherlands it's increasingly becoming the case for gigs.

I've been in Germany for 25 years now and I'm ****ed if I can speak the lingo

[petergriffin]

Now the Belgian accent is weird.....

No, it's easy. You say: "Ble-eh be-eh me-eh" instead of "blaai baai maai", you say "water" as in English instead of "vater", pronounce the G without spitting and finish every sentence in " ,he?"

[petergriffin]

I've been in Germany for 25 years now and I'm ****ed if I can speak the lingo

In Germany there's more tolerance for foreign accents. It's ok to speak scheissdeutsch as long as you're understood. Here in Cloggers if you don't speak randstad-nederlands they call you 'Kanker marokkaan'!

[norrahe]

In Germany there's more tolerance for foreign accents. It's ok to speak scheissdeutsch as long as you're understood. Here in Cloggers if you don't speak randstad-nederlands they call you 'Kanker marokkaan'!

Serieuse!

Never had a problem at all. Maybe they are a tad more tolerant here in the midlands?

[darmstadt]

In Germany there's more tolerance for foreign accents. It's ok to speak scheissdeutsch as long as you're understood. Here in Cloggers if you don't speak randstad-nederlands they call you 'Kanker marokkaan'!

Actually I do speak German, just never bothered learning it properly. When I've worked in the Netherlands I've never had any problems with English, primarily because that's the language they expected although I did one project in Amsterdam where they would have conversations in Dutch in front of me and then suddenly realise that I could partially understand them (also my smattering of Afrikaans that I could remember came in handy.)

Wilhelmus van Nassouwe
ben ik, van Duitsen bloed,
den vaderland getrouwe
blijf ik tot in den dood.

oder...

Wilhelmus von Nassawe
bin ich von deutschem blut,
dem vaterland getrawe,
bleib ich bis in den todt,

[redgiant]

Actually I do speak German, just never bothered learning it properly. When I've worked in the Netherlands I've never had any problems with English, primarily because that's the language they expected although I did one project in Amsterdam where they would have conversations in Dutch in front of me and then suddenly realise that I could partially understand them (also my smattering of Afrikaans that I could remember came in handy.)

When I tried my limited Afrikaans (I spent several years near Joberg as a expat nipper and was beaten into learning that damn tongue!) in Amsterdam I was laughed at. Apparently I was informed it's similar to the Austrian German to the rest of Germany - they sound like country bumpkins/farmers Luckily there is no gender to the words in Afrikaans so I don't mess up as much as with my German.

The reporter is not laughing only because he fancies her methinks although he starts to laugh at the end - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCK15ZksgFw

[Zero Liability]

Afrikaans is basically 17th century Dutch with some regional variation added to it, so no wonder it sounds funny to modern Dutch ears. However, you will still get by in Dutch speaking countries with it.

[norrahe]

Afrikaans is basically 17th century Dutch with some regional variation added to it, so no wonder it sounds funny to modern Dutch ears. However, you will still get by in Dutch speaking countries with it.

WHS and you can also get away with speaking old English in Friesland, as the language is quite similar.

I studied old English at uni and never thought it would come in handy with Dutch. A lot of Dutch is very old school in the way questions are asked and often I'll hear something not really understanding it and then realising it sounds pretty similar to old English. I think the only difficulty is the sentence rearrangement and if you have several verbs in one sentence and working out which one or ones are infinitive at the end.
They also have a lot of expressions which are commonly used, so you kinda need those as well.