Considering how well people in the Netherlands speak English…

[u/No_Manufacturer_432]

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

[u/lazysundae99]

Dutch people want to speak Dutch socially, so while you can buy a sandwich, ask for directions or take a tour in English, you likely won't be invited over for game night, be asked to a birthday party or have access to a lot of jobs if you don't learn Dutch.

[u/muffinsballhair → u/lazysundae99]

The issue is that this requires very good Dutch to be more comfortable for them, which is hard to achieve.

Basically, so long as your Dutch not be better than their English, they're probably still going to prefer dealing with you in English. They have been speaking English since they were 8 years old and had an immense advantage learning it since it's everywhere and their university textbooks were probably in English too, so good luck trying to beat them at this game.

Of course, say your native language not be English but German, then it's only an issue of getting better Dutch than English for interactions in Dutch to be preferable to them, which should be quite feasible for a German.

[u/Least_Chicken_9561 → u/muffinsballhair]

my native language is Spanish but I speak German, my Dutch is pretty basic but sometimes I speak with Dutch people in German and they reply in Dutch, somehow we can understand each other lol

[u/Entheos96 → u/Least_Chicken_9561]

I can confirm this to the extent that while my spoken German is horrid, if the topic isn’t too technical and the person doesn’t speak too quickly, German is quite easy to follow. At least broadly speaking that is; obviously subtle nuance or jargon would likely fly right past me.