{"id":713,"date":"2010-07-30T09:00:27","date_gmt":"2010-07-30T09:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=713"},"modified":"2010-06-21T16:12:54","modified_gmt":"2010-06-21T16:12:54","slug":"how-to-get-the-dutch-to-speak-dutch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/how-to-get-the-dutch-to-speak-dutch\/","title":{"rendered":"How to get the Dutch to Speak Dutch"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most common complaints from anyone learning Dutch and living in or visiting the Netherlands is that it can feel like pulling teeth to get the Dutch to respond to you in<\/em> Dutch.\u00a0 Many of us have faced this situation or something similar before: You need to buy a strippenkaart for the tram.\u00a0 You get yourself prepared for doing this in Dutch, psych yourself up, have all your Dutch sentences ready, maybe even written down just in case.\u00a0 You wait in line anxiously, knowing that you’re going to do this in Dutch.\u00a0 You finally get to the counter and say, “Een strippenkaartje alstublieft.”\u00a0 And the person at the counter replies, “Sure, how many strippen would you like?”\u00a0 Argh!\u00a0 The whole thing is ruined!\u00a0 What do you do now?<\/p>\n

In the city centers and near anything touristy the Dutch will generally speak fairly decent English.\u00a0 And they have a non-native-Dutch-speaker radar.\u00a0 This means that they can hear that you don’t speak Dutch as a native language from a mile away.\u00a0 Sometimes it’s just easier for them to speak English with you.\u00a0 I learned quickly that when I’m standing in a crowded line at the Albert Heijn and the person at the checkout looks incredibly frazzled, that is not the time to practice my Dutch.\u00a0 But then…when is?<\/p>\n

When I first started out going public with my Dutch language skills, I would only do it in places that weren’t that busy.\u00a0 If someone responded to me in English, I would politely say, “Sorry, maar ik wil liever in het Nederlands praten,” or…JUST KEEP SPEAKING DUTCH.\u00a0 Do NOT be dissuaded!\u00a0 Do not let it get you down!\u00a0 Ninety percent of the time, people would appreciate it that I was trying to speak their language.\u00a0 There is that 10 percent where someone would get annoyed or not be patient about it, but generally, people were enthusiastic and encouraging.<\/p>\n

One of the most frustrating things is when you have prepared your Dutch sentences in your head, and then you get thrown a curve ball.\u00a0 For example, you wrangle up the courage to say, “Ik wil cola graag,” but what you didn’t expect was that it somehow elicits a very complicated response that sounds like…”Geugeuhoiaaaaaaruiwaarg.”\u00a0 Hmmm…well what then?<\/p>\n

Don’t give up now!\u00a0 You can politely ask the person to speak a little slower, “Sorry, maar kunt u dat ietsje langzamer zeggen. Ik wil om in het Nederlands proberen te spreken.” Or just ask in English. Seriously. Politely say, “I’m sorry, but I want to practice my Dutch, can you repeat that a little slower for me?”\u00a0 Generally people will oblige you, and if they don’t, that’s their problem.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, getting Dutch people to speak Dutch with me involved a bit of toughening up, growing a thicker skin, and not taking it personally.\u00a0 Mostly I think they were trying to be helpful by finding a common language to communicate in.\u00a0 And nowadays, nobody speaks English to me at all.\u00a0 If I don’t know a word in Dutch, I simply say, “Oh, hmm..hoe heet dat in het Nederlands? In het Engels zeg ik (insert word here).”\u00a0 And it works.\u00a0 They keep speaking Dutch.\u00a0 We move forward.\u00a0 I make it clear that I can speak Dutch, but I need a little patience, and generally people are obliging.<\/p>\n

For me, language is a tool for communication.\u00a0 Don’t worry about getting it perfect, and don’t be embarrassed if you make mistakes.\u00a0 You’ll be surprised at just how many mistakes you can make and still be understood.\u00a0 And that’s really the point, isn’t it? Language is a tool to make yourself understood.\u00a0 If you waited until you spoke absolutely perfect Dutch all the time, you would never get to speak Dutch.\u00a0 What’s the fun in that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most common complaints from anyone learning Dutch and living in or visiting the Netherlands is that it can feel like pulling teeth to get the Dutch to respond to you in Dutch.\u00a0 Many of us have faced this situation or something similar before: You need to buy a strippenkaart for the tram.\u00a0…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3590],"tags":[9296,9297,9298],"class_list":["post-713","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-dutch-language","tag-interacting-in-dutch","tag-using-a-foreign-language","tag-using-dutch"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}