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The Netherlands is in the EU. English is the most widely spoken language in the EU, even after the UK left, because it is by far the most common second language
by tzs 10mo ago
The Netherlands is in the EU. English is the most widely spoken language in the EU, even after the UK left, because it is by far the most common second language. Nearly half of the people in the EU can speak it.
In Northern Europe the percentage is even higher. In the Netherlands there are almost as many people who speak it as there are Dutch speakers.
Taking into account people from other EU countries who are there on business plus tourists there is a good chance that if only one language was to be used for train announcements more people on the train would understand if it was in English then if it was in Dutch.
- prmoustache 10mo agoThanksfully, dutch is reasonnably easy to understand (not to speak) if you know english and the actual context. Or maybe that is just me having grown to understand dutch and flemish as a cyclocross rider and spectator.
- trvz 10mo agoIdeally announcements should be bilingual, but if there’s only one language, it’s better to inconvenience any number of foreigners than even a single native who doesn’t speak English.
- mort96 10mo agoNobody suggested that dutch announcements should be removed. You can make announcements in two languages.
- nephihaha 10mo agoWhy have Dutch at all? "They all speak English."
- mort96 10mo agoNot everyone speaks English though. The point of an official language is that the government makes it as convenient as possible living your life knowing only that language. It wouldn't be that unreasonable IMO to switch official language to English, but seeing as NL is a democracy, that ought to be a democratic decision. A referendum of some kind would probably be best. It's not a small decision to be taken lightly. But it's still nice to offer information in other languages in certain situations. Infrastructure used heavily by tourists and recent immigrants who don't speak the language yet should be made as usable as possible to people who don't know Dutch. Making important announcements in both English and Dutch on trains is an example of that.
- Matumio 10mo agoIn Switzerland, on some trains there are trilingual announcements: German, Italian, French.
- nephihaha 10mo agoThis is imperial mentality. Dutch is the language of the Netherlands not English and they have the right to use it. If we follow your line Dutch will go the same way as Welsh or Basque.
- garbagewoman 10mo agoAnd the dutch aren’t very well known for their imperial mentality?
- nephihaha 10mo agoThe Dutch were ridiculously bad at imposing their language on other countries. Little trace of it remains in Indonesia, or New York. Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten have never taken to it. South Africa is kind of the exception except even then Afrikaans has played second fiddle to English for 150 years, and they have sought to differentiate their language from Dutch in more recent times. Portugal has been better at that game when you consider its size.
- F3nd0 10mo agoThe ongoing non-adoption of Esperanto remains one of the world's many tragedies.
- nephihaha 10mo agoYes and no. Esperanto has strengths and weaknesses, and some see it as Eurocentric, but let's just leave it at that.
- F3nd0 10mo agoEvery language has strengths and weaknesses. Perfect is the enemy of good. If your definition of 'good' is 'relatively easy and technically international', Esperanto is very suitable. (Not to mention way better than the status quo, in any case.)
- flexagoon 10mo ago