Reply to: Netherlands. Do you have to learn the language to KEEP a contract?

[meridian]

This little gem is nice:

http://www.jobserve.com/SAP-BW-Test-...22346B05.jsjob

"Dutch speakers preferred!

Contact ASAP!

Huntress does not discriminate on the grounds of age, race..."


Are English-only speakers a race?

[snaw]

I tried for a while, but the Dutch twig you're an english speaker and start speaking english at you so they can practice.

And no, I'd say not in Holland, in my experience (Other countries yes).

[saigon triumph]

No need to learn dutch

I have been contracting in the netherlands for nearly 4 years. Although i have actually learnt dutch there is no need to. Basically they all speak really good english unless you are in some little town which i doubt. most of my contract were in english and it opens u p a few more doors if you speak dutch but i only og t a couple of dutch contract towards the end. the rest were for american firms based there where it is an advantage to have good english. i have friend who have been here 5 years and don t speak a word of dutch so don't worry about it. But if you are thinkin of staying longer you should consider it as it is pretty easy to pick up. It is also a germanic language like english so you should pick it up pretty quick.

Veel success

[TykeMerc]

In my opinion it's not essential, but it is good manners and creates a very good impression.

I'm dreadful at languages, but I've found that even my awful attempts have been appreciated or at least provided positive amusement.

[foxbat3000]

Dutch

I once said to the Dutch that they need to get people speaking their language or they'll end up like the Scots speaking English with a strange accent.

[Durbs]

I understand the attitude bit, but logically it doesn't make sense to learn a language when they have already learned it the other side (Dutch to English).

Absolutely not, if you make a small effort to learn a few greetings and phrases, you will be surprised how will this will be received.

I worked in the Netherlands a fair bit and even though i struggled to learn the language to a proper conversational level, the bits i could and did use when conversing with my Dutch colleagues went down very well.

[vetran]

try a little its only polite

Worked for a french company for years.

Learn the greetings, please, thankyou, how are the wife & kids and enough that you can interrupt politely with apparent understanding when they are talking french to their colleague in front of you and purposely ignoring you with typical Gallic arrogance (normally when they want to do something stupid with the project and you told them NO - you know the type) and you will be fine.

After two sentences of you murdering the accent they will swap to English but you will be seen as a great guy for trying.

[Rantor]

I speak fluent French. Studied in France for a year at an IEP as a teenager. Spent first couple of working years working on an IT helpdesk for the French market speaking the language all day.

I'm pretty crap, comedy heavy accent, but I'm fluent.

Thing is if I do a project in France and anything controversial comes up they start to hate on the guy with the accent. I got feedback from one partner company that"I could barely speak the language" which I thought was a tad harsh considering I had just conducted an entire week long technical training class in it.

If you are buying from someone suddenly it is all "Wow, where did you learn such excellent French"... but if you are selling it is "Eh, eh...I can't understand".

I am very envious of those who can get up to unaccented native standard because you really need that to properly speak a language in a competitive business environment.

I think this is a prety standard cultural attitude from the french. I know a (native dutch speaking) belgian bloke who recently got a knockback from a gig in paris because of his 'language skills and he speaks perfect french with no noticeable accent.

My french is ok, probaly not as good as yours, and I get sick of the crap some peole come up with. I'm very often in a situation where I speak better french than the other peson speaks english but, for various reasons, they often insist on continuing in excrutiatingly bad english. If I stick to French they will mostly flip to 300 words a minute dialect'that forces me into rabid glaswegian.

My accent must be weird as I often get frenchies responding to me in dutch when I start in french. Fortunatley, I often speak better dutch than they do so thats not so bad.

[tim123]

Disagree.

Some can some can't

When in Italy we had one girl got to that level in a couple of weeks, it took me (and others) 18 months.

When in Germany I spent 2 years before I gave it up as a bad job.

I just can't learn natural languages

tim

[DieScum]

I speak fluent French. Studied in France for a year at an IEP as a teenager. Spent first couple of working years working on an IT helpdesk for the French market speaking the language all day.

I'm pretty crap, comedy heavy accent, but I'm fluent.

Thing is if I do a project in France and anything controversial comes up they start to hate on the guy with the accent. I got feedback from one partner company that"I could barely speak the language" which I thought was a tad harsh considering I had just conducted an entire week long technical training class in it.

If you are buying from someone suddenly it is all "Wow, where did you learn such excellent French"... but if you are selling it is "Eh, eh...I can't understand".

I am very envious of those who can get up to unaccented native standard because you really need that to properly speak a language in a competitive business environment.

[KentPhilip]

No, that means a thankful field...

oh

see - I am hopeless at der linguo

[sweetandsour]

Danke veld for your answers (that means thanks)

I think you mean to say "Dank u wel".

I only ever learned that to help me out on the few trips to Amsterdam that I have taken.

You should try a bit harder.

[Billy Pilgrim]

Worked in Sweden a while back and the PM of the project thought it was great that I was trying to learn a bit of the lingo (more to better myself than owt else). Speaking it is quite hard but got to the point where he could ask me questions in Swedish and I could answer them in English

End of the day if you can get something like that going it would actually make your time over there more enjoyable IMHO and you'd feel that you are getting something out of it more than your 20 pieces of silver

[Moscow Mule]

Godverdomme.

[DieScum]

You may as well learn the basics. It'll be fun but really I can't see you getting anywhere near business level fluency unless you are a genius.

I speak pub German. I can have chat in german over a few beers but if I had to communicate anything in a business setting I'd be screwed. I've sat in meetings conducted in german and maybe understood about a third of what is going on. To get really fluent would be take a lot and when you speak the lingua franca anyway...

... but definitely get the basics.