In the past 15 years, I have realized that the dutch are probably the most fluent english speakers out there. It fascinates me because it is the one country where I can speak to a citizen with no consideration of a "language barrier". I can simply talk as I normally do.

Whats also interesting is the neighboring countries dont really have this feature, and the dutch language is far from similar to the english language. The difference isnt so much that they speak the language fluently, but its the word usage and overall accent that seperates them from any other country.

I believe at one point someone in the netherlands told me that english/american professors are very popular in the netherlands and many students go through grade school in only english. But ofcourse, lots of countries, one being greece, sometimes follow this a lot as well. But rarely do they master it, without using their original language accents and habits.

Any wish to shed more light on it?

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Originally posted by SportTrance In the past 15 years, I have realized that the dutch are probably the most fluent english speakers out there. It fascinates me because it is the one country where I can speak to a citizen with no consideration of a "language barrier". I can simply talk as I normally do. Whats also interesting is the neighboring countries dont really have this feature, and the dutch language is far from similar to the english language. The difference isnt so much that they speak the language fluently, but its the word usage and overall accent that seperates them from any other country. I believe at one point someone in the netherlands told me that english/american professors are very popular in the netherlands and many students go through grade school in only english. But ofcourse, lots of countries, one being greece, sometimes follow this a lot as well. But rarely do they master it, without using their original language accents and habits. Any wish to shed more light on it?

Countries like Germany translate all English tv programs and movies, while we watch most of the movies and tv-show in English (as it should be watched in English ) This contributes to our level of English imo.

Another reason is that our country is quite small so in order to keep up with the rest of the world a second universal language is needed. This need is smaller in Germany or France as far more people speak Germand and French.

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Originally posted by Asperge Countries like Germany translate all English tv programs and movies, while we watch most of the movies and tv-show in English (as it should be watched in English ) This contributes to our level of English imo.

When I was a child I watched Super Channel, BBC and Sky Channel for the cartoon without subs

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Originally posted by MaGiK54 When I was a child I watched Super Channel, BBC and Sky Channel for the cartoon without subs

Same here Teenage mutant hero turtles!!!

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Originally posted by Asperge Same here Teenage mutant hero turtles!!!

they called it hero turtles?

funny you mention that though, it was only a few nights ago that I watched the movie on tape again. It has been atleast 10 years since I last saw it.

(being much older, I ofcourse got bored and eventually turned it off)

i always watched Match Of The Day on BBC

(vraag me niet waarom, maar vandaag gebruik ik de hele tijd de/het--smilie)

quote:

Originally posted by Asperge Countries like Germany translate all English tv programs and movies, while we watch most of the movies and tv-show in English (as it should be watched in English ) This contributes to our level of English imo. Another reason is that our country is quite small so in order to keep up with the rest of the world a second universal language is needed. This need is smaller in Germany or France as far more people speak Germand and French.

And the quality of translation is sometimes really

Soo sad!!

I think not to translate all is the better way to learn english....... but most Germans are lazy or they think they don´t understand a movie if they see it in original......... I prefer looking english....... but........ alone is sometimes

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In my opinion, people from Scandivanian countries like Sweden and Norway also speak English very well.


Ofcourse it has to do with watching English/American programmes and movies a lot, but I think our school system also has a big roll in this.
Dutch schools offer many language courses like English, German, French, Hispanic and sadly enough also Fries

I believe our school system is better than, for example, the French system. It also helps to merely subtitle movies and programmes, in stead of rather converting them to the own language of a country, like Germany, and again, France do.

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Originally posted by MaGiK54 When I was a child I watched Super Channel, BBC and Sky Channel for the cartoon without subs

Me to

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Originally posted by TranceZoner In my opinion, people from Scandivanian countries like Sweden and Norway also speak English very well.

I work with sweedish people a lot and they talk engelisch very very good.

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it's a very fascinating phenomenon indeed.

i agree that the media have a lot to do with it. i remember i could speak a bit of English even before i took the course at school, simply because i had been watching subtitled television shows in English. it's the best way to learn, because you immediately have a translation for what you hear.

subtitling is a lot cheaper than dubbing, so it's only natural we (in the very small region that is the Benelux) resort to subtitling. but apart from that, i think there's not as much chauvinism as in some of our neighbouring countries. the French would not dub foreign films if there was no market for it.

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I agree that most dutch speak english very well but I think the scandinavian people are better.

Another reason why the dutch can speak foreign languages well is because our country is a trade country. This goes back several hundred years so even our ancestors were used to talk in different languages frequently.

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Originally posted by basvh I agree that most dutch speak english very well but I think the scandinavian people are better. Another reason why the dutch can speak foreign languages well is because our country is a trade country. This goes back several hundred years so even our ancestors were used to talk in different languages frequently.

I agree with Bas, it's a matter of being a professional businessman. If you want to sell your stuff (gold, slaves, cheese, wooden shoes, trance, drugs or whatever) it is important to let your customer know you are professionaly interested in him. A way to do this is to talk his language. As Dutchmen saw this ages ago, it is common to speak English for us!

btw, I also like to watch MOTD on BBC and when I was young I always watched Sky Channel with a very young Linda de Mol and this hairy little puppet (anyone knows what I mean?) and shows like G.I.Joe.

...and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles is also known as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... (whats in a name )

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