Cheers!
Small sample size, but the Dutch seem to really enjoy my 4 months of Dutch Duolingo. Maybe English speaking people don’t usually make the effort. I’ve received a lot of genuine smiles when I’ve tried.
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I’m sure it’s appreciated that you’re trying, even though 95%+ of the Dutch speak English.
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I’d imagine 99% will learn hello and thanks at most. I’ll usually learn to at least say “do you speak English?” in the local language, and they seem to really appreciate it, especially in countries with less widespread languages, like Greece.
I really miss Duolingo though. It’s not the greatest way to learn a language, but it can still be effective when used in combination with other methods, and I also found it really fun, almost like a video game. It really helped me a ton in Spanish/French/Portuguese. It won’t help much with speaking/listening, but you can at least get your grammar to like a B1 level if you complete the whole tree, which is nice.
Sadly, there’s no Duolingo for Thai, so even after 6 months in Thailand, I haven’t progressed all that much. I also stopped studying about 2 months ago. I’m not sure if I’ll even make it to an intermediate level during my 5 years here, which is kind of unfortunate, but for me I think having fun with the process and being interested in the media is critical.
With Spanish/French/Portuguese, there is obviously a vast library of interesting TV series, movies, music, etc. I’d even adopt a soccer team and watch games in that language. It helped quite a bit also that I was single and I’d be motivated to learn so I could meet more people and learn more informal language via Tinder.
With Thai, there aren’t really many movies or series that I find interesting and the music is meh. I’m married now and don’t really care to expand my social network much more, so there just isn’t much motivation to go out and use it with Thais. The language is also just way harder than the romance languages I learned before. Sucks, b/c I hate to spend so long here and always have to conduct myself in English.
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I always learn the basics and polite niceties, but I feel like it would be kinda silly to learn Dutch for 4 months only for locals to just switch to English the second they can’t understand you, or you can’t understand them.
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I actually didn’t learn any Dutch before going to Amsterdam because I was told “everyone speaks English” and that was correct. Also went to Paris on that trip and I was more focused on learning a little French so they didn’t beat me with a 
My experience with ham-handed attempts at speaking the local language:
Italy - mixed. Mostly friendly but got more than a couple “shut up and speak English” reactions.
Switzerland - generally unamused but willing to work through it.
Colombia - delighted I was trying, and apologetic they didn’t speak better English. They’d all say “my English is terrible” and then be pretty good at it.
If there ever is a country that will lavish praise on you for speaking like 12 words of their language, it’s China.
Japan is the same. Uttering a simple “konnichiwa” is usually enough to earn a “nihongo ojouzu!” (your Japanese is so good!).
To the point where many long-term foreign residents of Japan who are so praised actually take it as in insult.
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The Swiss seem generally unamused at everything. Very stoic people.
I’ll see your Swiss and raise you the Georgians. Hands down the grumpiest people I’ve encountered, and probably by a wide margin. Waiters/cashiers are just constantly annoyed by your presence, they’ll rarely talk/look at you unless absolutely necessary and forget a smile or any type of small talk. I get that it must really suck to work long hours for meager salaries, but that doesn’t stop a lot of other cultures from being really friendly in similar scenarios (Lat Am and SEA being the most notable IME).
I generally don’t care that much if randoms aren’t bubbly to me. I like the French, for example. They were sometimes curt, but almost never outright rude to me. But I had to live in Tbilisi, Georgia for a year and it just wears on you, kinda like there’s a negative energy in the air. You can see it in the traffic as well. Old dudes constantly honking and yelling at each other from out their vehicles.
You notice your Uber driver’s eyes drifting open and closed. He’s clearly drowsy. You do what?
GTFO
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Yeah that is definitely a “stop the car and let me out” thing, same as if they were clearly intoxicated.
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Yeah, hard to stop and get out when you’re on the on-ramp for a bridge. I’m mad at myself for freezing up and not saying anything. But also knew most of the trip would be at fairly low speeds, not that that should matter. I had to jump on a work call, and at the same time he got on the phone, so him talking on the phone made me feel a little better also. But I’m annoyed that I pretty much chickened out. Sigh.
Confrontation is hard. Glad it turned out OK and you’ll be more prepared next time.
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This happened to me and my friend driving across Belize. I whacked the driver and made him pull over and bought him a Red Bull.
Do I need to leave negative feedback/poor review? I assume the guy is out there because he needs the money, so I feel bad, but he can’t be doing that.
I had fun with it. I get a real joy out of having even a basic conversation in a foreign language with a local, and the Dutch were very welcoming, more than other places I’ve gone. Plus, Dutch just sounds so ridiculous to my American ear, even if they’re super similar language branches.
It’s 4 months, but like 5 minutes a day between Duolingo and learning some key phrases. Totally worth it. I had a bunch of fun interactions.
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10-15 years ago I was always learning key phrases for a new country/language (or at least trying to). Heck, I even learned the Cyrillic alphabet for a Russia trip (although that was largely for personal navigation). But increasingly I’ve found English to be spoken so well across the globe, and find it even more awkward to use a phrase in the local language, be given a response in the local language, and then have that awkwardness until your counterpart realizes you speak not other words in the language and they switch over to English. But maybe something quick and easy like Duolingo is worth it and a good ROI on the time.
Had a great time. My kid is 13 and she was a good sport about doing some “grown up” stuff. She had a great time at the Fulham match, and she and my wife loved the Harry Potter set thing they went to. That day I put in 35k steps walking around London, I stumbled on the Highgate Cemetary which made me feel like I was in a gothic film. Hamilton nearly had the girls in tears. Hard not to be torn about the British Museum - seeing all the stolen antiquities, but incredible to see some of the items in person.
Lille was a pretty city to walk around in, had some good meals there. We were hoping to go to the big art museum, but it was closed as the workers were on strike. Instead we headed about 10km out of town to a different art museum. A nice Algerian man told me he liked my accent. I like trains and I enjoyed going to the bathroom under the English Channel.
King’s Day in Amsterdam was a good time, though 25 year old me would like it more than mid 40s with a family in tow. We felt like we stumbled on a lot of good bits - a big band of horns and drums playing in the street, absolutely killing the Star Wars theme song (we stuck around to watch them for a while), another street where everyone was singing a Coldplay song, a band of 3 tweens playing classic rock, lots of games and some pretty good street food. I felt like it was easier to get around than I had been told - we didn’t have much trouble in the Jordaan and people said it’d be impossible, it was a little rainy most of the day, so maybe that kept crowds down. Trams ran fine outside the city center.
Prior days we took a good canal tour (we went with a smaller company, had just 10 people on the boat), went to Van Gogh museum, and went to see tulips at Keukenhof. Keukenhof was ridiculously pretty, but it felt too crowded. I can’t blame them, they obviously can’t be open all year, just would have enjoyed it more with like 25% less people. Has to be among the most photographed places on earth.
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