Do Dutch hate being articulate in Dutch?

I think the Dutch are rather childish about their language. To a certain extent they find it an embarresment, but I think they view Dutch language life in the Netherlands as an exclusive little club they do not want inflitrated by foreigners - this all comes down to how under the veneer of liberal tolerance how xenophobic the Dutch really are.

They view Dutch as being "their" language, and if you are not Dutch they don't consider you to have any place to learn it, and thus speak English to you, as that is the language you must speak to foreigners. If you speak to them in Dutch, they get agitated and annoyed and insist on speaking English. This is essentially because they are xenophobic.

This xenohpobia is also present in the Dutch language as a whole, there is absolutely no difference between Dutch spoken in Belgium and Dutch spoken in the Netherlands, yet some of them actually consider it to be a completely different language. This just goes to show how xenophobic Dutch speakers are even towards people with slightly different accents or pronouncation, so get a foreigner speaking Dutch as this is magnified x1000.

One thing I can't understand is this Easterns banging on about how hard-working and intelligent they are, and yet their countries are backward shitholes of people who appear very lazy.

Do these Eastern Europeans HONESTLY believe that the UK has never had any problems? The UK over the years has had many problems and endured many things, yet we have over-come these and built a resonably strong society - if you Eastern Europeans are of such superior work ethic and intelligence surely it should be fucking easy for you to build your own country?

Personally I think you aren't particularly bright people, and rather bitter.

For fucks sake, wrong thread.

You should calm down. Or maybe are you drunk? It's 10:14 am in Britain but I guess you already took a few pints like it's usual among English people.

I have no objections to Dutch people wanting to practise their English but I don't like this idea of them refusing to speak Dutch because the foreigner isn't pronouncing it correctly or has a funny accent. Does every Dutch person speak perfectly clear English, French or German?

Besides, if they respond to a Dutch question in English, surely they must have understood the other person perfectly well, otherwise how could they formulate a reply?

<<I have no objections to Dutch people wanting to practise their English but I don't like this idea of them refusing to speak Dutch because the foreigner isn't pronouncing it correctly or has a funny accent. Does every Dutch person speak perfectly clear English, French or German?

Besides, if they respond to a Dutch question in English, surely they must have understood the other person perfectly well, otherwise how could they formulate a reply? >>



But that's an easy problem to fix. All you need to do is concoct a bit of liberal propaganda about "tolerance of bad pronunciation" and slip it in amongst all the messages of Climate Change, Tolerance, Gay Adoption, Euthanasia and they will be encouraging you to speak Dutch in no time.

Best strategy of all, get Bill O'Reilly to criticise them for it and they will be avoiding English like the plague to prove how tolerant they are.

But one of the main reasons that they hate being in articulate is so that they can say one of those most cherished phrases, the golden phrases that every Dutch person just YEARNS to nonchalantly let slip off the tongue.

"I speak English better than Dutch!"
"My English is making me forget how to speak Dutch!"
"I keep making mistakes in Dutch because I'm so used to English!"
"Oh man, I'm so out of practice in Dutch!"

Yes, many times have I heard it first hand. They always say it so nonchalantly, as though it were a joke, no big deal, but you can see by the gleam in their eyes that it is the one and only reason for the conversation. You can smell their lifelong, all-encompassing desire to be native English speakers devouring them from the inside. Oh, they can't hide it, no matter how hard they try. It's painfully clear what they're at, in spite of their nonchalance. Like an awkward man in a conversation with a beautiful woman who nonchalantly slips in a mention of her husband or children, as though he were interested in them per se. But really, we all know he just wants to fuck her.

I wonder if it's possible for a native English speaker to seduce a Dutch woman by speaking Dutch to her.

Probably not.

Dank u wel, rep. Thanks so much. I added this to my favs.

<<This xenohpobia is also present in the Dutch language as a whole, there is absolutely no difference between Dutch spoken in Belgium and Dutch spoken in the Netherlands, yet some of them actually consider it to be a completely different language.>>

A minority indeed does, but this is out of ignorance and shallow-mindedness. There are indeed minor differences, very minor. What DOES suck is that many non-Dutch speakers then automatically assume Flemish is a different language, just because a marginal minority claims it.

I just hope Dutch in the Netherlands can hopefully die out and be replaced with English so we don't have to ever discuss the Dutch again.

<<
A minority indeed does, but this is out of ignorance and shallow-mindedness. There are indeed minor differences, very minor. What DOES suck is that many non-Dutch speakers then automatically assume Flemish is a different language, just because a marginal minority claims it.>> Well,there are Limburgish and Platdiets languages in the Netherlands/Belgium and Low Saxon language in the Netherlands.

There are more people willing to respond you in Dutch in Brussels than in Holland. Sad bad it's true.

"there is absolutely no difference between Dutch spoken in Belgium and Dutch spoken in the Netherlands, yet some of them actually consider it to be a completely different language. This just goes to show how xenophobic Dutch speakers are even towards people with slightly different accents or pronouncation, so get a foreigner speaking Dutch as this is magnified x1000."

I can hear the difference in sound between Antwerp Dutch and the Dutch from the Netherlands, but I enjoy hearing the different accents. Hearing Belgian Dutch reminds me of Jacques Brel singing (I never heard his recordings until after his death, but somehow I really love his music.)

<<I can hear the difference in sound between Antwerp Dutch and the Dutch from the Netherlands>>

You can hear the difference in the sound of Bristol English and Cardiff English - are these different languages?