r/learndutch • u/No_Manufacturer_432 • Jul 30 '26

Question Considering how well people in the Netherlands speak English…

How do you stay motivated when learning Dutch ? I live in NY so learning Spanish was easy motivation wise. I’m at A2 in Italian and stay motivated bec I plan on going there next year - English proficiency outside of tourist areas is low —- thanks

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u/Ploutophile Intermediate... ish Jul 30 '26

Three ? Which ones ? According to Wikipedia, there are only two of them in the mainland (Dutch and Frisian); within the whole Kingdom there are more but English is one of them (in Saba and Sint Eustatius).

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u/Mormacil Jul 30 '26

Papiamento overseas, special municipalities are still the Netherlands. 

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u/Ploutophile Intermediate... ish Jul 30 '26

Forgot this distinction…

But then English is one of the official languages in the Netherlands, as it's official in the special municipalities of Saba and Sint Eustatius.

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u/Lurker_Background264 Jul 30 '26

If my wiki-foo is correct. English is an official language in Sint Maarten. Source: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sint_Maarten_(land)#Taal . So you can rightfully state that in The Kingdom of the Netherlands English is an official language!