3 ms·

I think it's that plus literary tradition. The Netherlands isn't actually that small population-wise, but it has a long tradition of its best minds (e.g. Spino

by wheels 18y ago

I think it's that plus literary tradition. The Netherlands isn't actually that small population-wise, but it has a long tradition of its best minds (e.g. Spinoza, Erasmus) writing in the lingua franca of the day. Even though there are only four times as many people in France as the Netherlands, I'd guess there's more than twenty times as much written and published in French. Edit: Interesting note -- if Dutch, Flemish and Afrikaans are all considered the same language, then Dutch has around 30 million native speakers.

mixmax 18y ago
Interesting and valid point, but I think it only applies to some countries. Søren Kierkegaard, Niels Bohr and Hans Christian Andersen all wrote in Danish (to my knowledge at least) and the Icelandic Sagas were written in Icelandic. So a portion of small countries that have good English skills don't seem to have that tradition. Bjork does sing in English though :-)