We’ve begun this article with extra special Spanish terms of endearment to address your soulmate, partner or other half. That may play a role in the negative experiences you've had, as in 'if you're going to live of our welfare state you'd at least have to learn the language'.Spanish terms of endearment used to address a loved one or partner We have a growing number of right-oriented people in the Netherlands that find foreigners unwelcome (especially if you look like an economic migrant). I unfortunately do think that your mileage may vary based on your ethnic background. However I would dare to say that even though not always people are able to help you in English, most won't begrudge you for asking. From my personal perspective English proficiency is quite acceptable in the Netherlands, but you may have difficulty with this with older people and in rural areas. The fact that you put effort in it is much appreciated.ĭepending on where you are and who you are talking to, your result may vary. If you put the effort into learning a few sentences in the local language, I'd personally be more than willing to help you out in your language to the best of my ability - even if I don't speak your language or you don't speak the local language (or even English). In the other case they'll try asking their question in Dutch and I'll ask if they speak English in order to help and understand them better. In the last case I'll be a bit annoyed and try to help them my best in German and English but mostly try to see if my Turkish colleague can help if he's around.įor the other people they mostly already start talking in English then I'll switch and just help them.

The Turkish people either speak Dutch fine, have someone with them to translate or barely speak Dutch or English and a bit of German. The polish are either immigrants that are (generally, obviously not all of them) cleaners, builders and truckers. There are a lot Turkish people here because they're the family of the original 'gastarbeiders' (quest workers) and my city has a Turkish consulate. But occasionally we get Polish, Turkish and some other international people because the college/university of applied sciences (HBO) here has some international courses. It's in a smaller town so most people are Dutch and/or speak Dutch. So I work part time (next to college/HBO/uni a few hours per week) at a building supplies/ DIY store. I'm not always sure about the thoughts or feelings of other people but I can share my perspective. The most common responses I get are ' of course, sorry!' Or 'well my English isn't great but I'll do my best' (it almost always is great ). So, I figure that covers the bases more or less. At the same time I don't want to assume that people are happy to speak it just because they can. I implemented that because I heard that some people may be offended by asking if they speak English 'because of course I do!'. I am going for something like 'My Dutch isn't great, do you mind if we speak English?' (improvement suggestions for the Dutch welcome!!) But for things like a doctor's visit where I don't want to misunderstand something important I would usually ask 'Mijn Nederlands is niet perfekt - Kunnen we misschien Engels praten?' or something to that effect (sorry my spelling still sucks).

I've been here long enough that I can crash along in Dutch, though people usually switch if I get stuck on something. I'm a Canadian living in the Netherlands.

Leer engels praat