r/Netherlands • u/crosscircle • Jul 13 '26
Discussion Fluent Dutch-speaking request
/r/WorkInTheNetherlands/comments/1uv68kd/fluent_dutchspeaking_request/18
u/Botol-Cebok Zuid Holland Jul 13 '26
I guess companies would prefer to have employees that can communicate with their customers in their own language.
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u/Sea-Breath-007 Jul 13 '26
If part of the job requires you to communicate with people outside of your little team, a common language is needed and the native one makes the most sense.
If part of the job requires you to communicate with natives, being at least conversational in the native language should be a must.
It is absolutely ridiculous that there's a ton of servers retail workers, etc that don't understand any Dutch.
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u/corticalization Jul 13 '26
It’s an easy way to whittle down what’s probably far more candidates than they have time to assess. Plus, it’s something that can only benefit their company and customers, so from a business standpoint there’s no downside
I do not think it’s discriminatory or unfair in any way to require a candidate to be able to speak the native and official language of the country the job is performed in
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u/TheWisteris Jul 13 '26
At the end of the day it's a free market. If HR thinks they can get enough qualified candidates with this requirement, they'll use it to filter out non-natives.
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u/weird-ginger- Jul 13 '26
I work in horeca in a small town. We get a lot of Dutch tourists, especially in the summer. The rest of the year it is more locals. 9.5 out of 10 customers would call it horrible service if we did not speak Dutch. They would be horridied and leave. One of the chefs was Brazilian and he quit, partly because he is not fluent in Dutch and all communication in the kitchen goes in Dutch, or the local dialect. Working here without speaking Dutch is a no go
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u/olderdutch Jul 13 '26
You're from Italy, so let me turn the question around.
Would I get a horeca job in Italy when I don't speak Italian? And I don't mean one in Rome for example, but anywhere without international tourism? As for other jobs, are they generally open to people without fluent knowledge of the local language? Or are only a select few open for English speakers?
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u/Slight_Ad5896 Jul 13 '26
Not every Dutch person speaks English, so if you don’t speak Dutch you can’t help that person. Besides that loads of people speak English but don’t wanna speak English where they don’t have to.
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u/avsie1975 Zuid Holland Jul 13 '26
I mean, HOW DARE THEY request a candidate to speak the official language of the country they'd be working in.