Another pointless thread

Hello Gwyn. Curiosity has got the better of me. Are you actually Dutch? I only ask because your English is so perfect.
CHEERS Vic.

I'm Double Dutch when I've had a few!

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Yes I am Dutch, but only because I applied for a Dutch passport after the Brexit vote. I am also British, and still have my UK passport. Unusually I am allowed to be a dual national, which is not normally allowed in the Netherlands. My three sons are all still British, and still waiting to know what will happen to them come the revolution, if it ever happens.

Been here since May 1984. We will celebrate 35 years here by getting a ferry to the UK .

A recent article by Simon Kuper (who is Dutch) in the F.T. weekend magazine commented that Holland is now so anglophone that their universities are abandoning degree courses in the Dutch language and literature. Hardly any students applying for these courses.

There has been a 60% drop in students taking a degree in Dutch and Dutch literature, but there are still courses offered at good universities. I suspect it has more to do with the need for a job at the end of the degree than the lack of love for the language. There will be a shortage of Dutch teachers as a result though.
There is also at least one university offering a degree in Fries, though not in Friesland.

A day trip to Cumbria today, finished off with Xmas pudding, rum butter and custard.

Certainly the weather for Christmas pudding! Sounds great to me. I am the only one who likes it in my family so it is a very rare treat me.

If your UK trip takes you past the Watermill Café in Caldbeck you'll love it.

Thnks Barrie. Made a note of it

On the subject of things Dutch, quite a few of the DVD box sets we buy are Dutch. They come in English as per the original, with Dutch subtitles if required. Clearly the Dutch take classic TV seriously as we've bought The Avengers, The Professionals, Blakes 7, Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea and others in this way. The presentation of the material is always of a really high standard.

Unlike the Germans the Dutch are happy with programmes and films in their original language, even if it is one they can't possibly understand, like Welsh. We've had a couple of Welsh series on here. Just shows me how much of it I have forgotten! I am glad to have subtitles .
The Flemish Belgians are the same. They even subtitle some of their own programmes because the accent/dalect is so hard to understand!

In my 39 years of travelling around the world for work I found the Dutch and the Belgians were the people who spoke the best English and that includes the Americans. Some of them in the south (Little Rock Arkansas) I could hardly understand. Hey Ho some of
us Geordies aren't much better.
CHEERS Vic.

I once asked a Dutch colleague why the Dutch were so good at speaking English. "Well," he replied, "nobody is going to learn to speak Dutch".

25 years ago I coordinated an international group that was writing a big technical report. 10 authors from 8 countries, including UK, USA, France, Germany, Japan, can't remember the others. If we were struggling to get the right English words or phrase, we turned to the German. He always got it right. His wife (a German) was a teacher who taught English and they often spoke English at home to help their children learn it.

As for Americans, they don't speak English, just various variants of American. 'Pavement' has an important change of meaning when you cross the Atlantic.

Steve

Do the natives of Gibraltar speak Giberish

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If they do there must be a lot in the UK parliament .

The Dutch are not as good at English as they think they are.
But I still sound like an Englishwoamn speaking Dutch afte 35 years of practice so ...

Scandinavians speak the best English.