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onelittleworld t1_j5vxben wrote

Reply to comment by Wukong00 in Amsterdam opens a $65 Million underwater parking garage for bikes by Scarppetta

The average Amsterdamer speaks a more understandable English to me than the average Texan. Do with that information what you will.

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94746382926 t1_j5vxlh3 wrote

I've heard employment can be difficult if you don't speak it. Not sure how true it is though.

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Wukong00 t1_j5vxiwz wrote

You are planning to live here without learning any Dutch?

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Moke_Smith t1_j5w4h5j wrote

I speak 3+ languages myself and I think people should make an effort to learn the local language, but Amsterdam is one of the easiest cities in the world to get by with English, other than those where English is the native language.

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littlest_dragon t1_j5xxaiz wrote

Lived in Amsterdam for five years without speaking Dutch. It’s actually super hard to learn the language there, because everyone will just speak English to you, even if you try to engage them in Dutch. Also while the Dutch are generally a friendly people, they’re also not a very curious one and don’t really seem to be interested in making friends with people coming in from the outside. I have never met an expat who actually had Dutch friends outside of work.

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knselektor t1_j5ybfwd wrote

> It’s actually super hard to learn the language there, because everyone will just speak English to you, even if you try to engage them in Dutch.

that it's so true, the people -being polite- switch to english when one is around and is very difficult to grab any pronunciation.

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deaddonkey t1_j5yl6xl wrote

I’m not moving or living there but I did an international year at university there some years back and had professors who couldn’t speak Dutch lol

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