Sports Memes

gt12

Going to be no shortage of these.

MajorPom

@gt12 said in Sports Memes:

Good bants.

Because anyone who's been to Holland or has got Dutch mates knows, they speak better English than the average kiwi

Yep, it’s a sliding scale with age. Older they are, weaker they are. Those in their 20s are all fluent.

dogmeat

@majorrage I'd have thought the overwhelming majority are fluent. When I lived there 40 years ago anyone under 30 was fluent. Those people are retired now. Unless they haven't kept it up their English will be good, although they may be reluctant to use it.

It was actually an impediment to me learning Dutch as the locals would speak English rather than wait for my laboured Nederlands

MajorPom

@dogmeat said in Sports Memes:

@majorrage I'd have thought the overwhelming majority are fluent. When I lived there 40 years ago anyone under 30 was fluent. Those people are retired now. Unless they haven't kept it up their English will be good, although they may be reluctant to use it.

It was actually an impediment to me learning Dutch as the locals would speak English rather than wait for my laboured Nederlands

They’re all probably fluent by dictionary standard.

The older ones are accented heavily though, whilst the youth could be from anywhere.

Stargazer

@dogmeat said in Sports Memes:

@majorrage I'd have thought the overwhelming majority are fluent. When I lived there 40 years ago anyone under 30 was fluent. Those people are retired now. Unless they haven't kept it up their English will be good, although they may be reluctant to use it.

It was actually an impediment to me learning Dutch as the locals would speak English rather than wait for my laboured Nederlands

Yep. I know plenty of Dutch people who (still) speak reasonably good English - older and younger - and they all sound the same. I'd recognise the accent anywhere. That includes people in their 50s, 60s. Maybe not older.

Travel; listening to songs in English; movies; many foreign visitors. It all helps.