My second language

Moving to the Netherlands? My best advice is: learn the language. It's the polite thing to do. It minimizes the feeling of cultural difference. It restores your sense of independence and identity.

Those of you that are not completely new to the Netherlands will probably remember that when Maxima, the crown prince's new Argentinian bride asked her father-in-law for words of wisdom, he said, learn the language as quickly as possible.

Before I moved here, I was told that about 80% of Dutch people speak English. So, although I planned to learn the language, it ranked lower on my priority list than other issues of 'getting settled.'

Now that I've lived here for more than seven years and I speak the language (I will never be fluent, but I can communicate), I would also advise newcomers to make learning the language a much higher priority than I did.

It's polite

Many of us admire the Dutch for their seemingly genetic superiority at mastering other tongues besides their own. A British friend once told me about his international camp counselors in Scotland who made sure that one Dutch kid ended up in each tent so s/he could translate for the other European kids!

But just because we can come to Holland and communicate with most of the inhabitants in English (or French, German and Spanish for that matter), it's important to remember that we are in their home ... and the language they speak at home is Dutch. Don't expect people to speak to you in English just because they can.

I have Dutch friends who SEEM like native English speakers. Their English is SO good, and maybe it's because they even seem to have an American accent, that I forget that they are (amazingly) 'fluent' but not 'native' English speakers. No matter how good their English is, the language THEY feel most comfortable with is Dutch.