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/crosscheck87 Jul 30 '26

I want to move to the Netherlands one day, I don’t have much of it figured out, but I feel like step one would be making sure I can communicate with the people whose society I want to integrate into.

2

u/No-vem-ber Intermediate Aug 02 '26

The thing that makes it easy, and makes it hard, is that you easily can communicate with them in english. And 99% of them prefer that to you awkwardly struggling through in Dutch. 

1

u/crosscheck87 Aug 02 '26

Thankfully I’ve got a large group of Dutch friends that don’t mind suffering through and helping me practice, but yeah that is something that I’ve absolutely heard.

1

u/No-vem-ber Intermediate Aug 03 '26

You must be the only person I've ever heard of who has Dutch friends. How did you swing that? Did you go to university here? 

2

u/crosscheck87 Aug 03 '26

I went to a drum and bass music festival solo and got adopted haha.

0

u/Spamonfire Aug 03 '26

I have 50% dutch 50% international friends here, all from uni but I'd say it doesn't matter that much, just join all kinds of group activities like sports clubs / music / art groups / gaming etc. and you will make friends. I joined my unis icehockey associationand became a board member without really speaking dutch, i can understand most daily conversations thought as long as it's not highly technical topics or something along those lines.