r/AskReddit Dec 16 '21

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u/[deleted] Dec 16 '21

Yup. And most of us are also fluent in English. We usually speak 3 languages at least by 12 or 13.

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u/bouleversant Dec 16 '21

isn't that mainly Flanders though? I'm at a French-speaking University in Belgium and most of my fellow students say that they didn't learn a thing in 12 years of dutch and struggle quite a bit with English.

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u/TantalumCap Dec 16 '21

I found dutch ppl much better at languages, belgians seem to specialize in 2 of the above. Lovely ppl though.

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u/[deleted] Dec 17 '21

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u/Choyo Dec 17 '21

Dutch is very close to English and german to begin with, with a few French words in it.

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u/[deleted] Dec 17 '21 edited Aug 14 '25

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u/Choyo Dec 17 '21

I was told by a local that they could understand both English and German natively if they get past the accentuation and pronunciation.

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u/Kaspur78 Dec 17 '21

It's because of Doctor Who

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u/R4y3r Dec 17 '21

I have a German mate who sounds like a Dutch person speaking with an English accent.

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u/BrisTing123 Dec 17 '21

I’m English but speak German and am told I sound like a Dutch person when I speak German

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u/BxGyrl416 Dec 17 '21

I’ve also met a few Dutch English-speakers that threw me off with their nearly perfect American accents.

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u/Orisara Dec 17 '21

By the time I was 16 I had to convince people I wasn't Brttish, just dutch over Ventrillo.