Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
Sheesh! You're being awfully hard on your countrymen! Kudos to all non-native-Anglophones who get along in English.
If Americans in general (including me) could speak another language half as well as the Dutch speak English, we'd get along far better in the world.
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We Dutch *know* English very well, but I'm of the opinion that we don't *speak* it very well, at least not with regard to pronunciation. Ever heard a Dutch politician speak English? Most of them are just bad. Their English sounds like some sort of weird Dutch... or Dutch using English words.
There is one Dutch politician however who speaks at least three languages (Dutch, English and French), and he does so exceptionally well. If he speaks French or English, he actually sounds French or British. For the life of me, I can't remember his name right now...
Even though I think my pronunciation is better than most, I still think it's not nearly good enough. I can still be identified as a non-English speaker quite easily, even though most people will get the country wrong.