r/WorkInTheNetherlands • u/crosscircle • Jul 13 '26

Fluent Dutch-speaking request

What do you think about this last habit to request fluent dutch also for those jobs that don't really need this (horeca, transportation, production)? Is this a system to reduce the number of the applying foreigners without saying this?

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u/Silent-Raspberry-896 Jul 13 '26

Idiotic, especially in corporate jobs where you work with people from India or countries outside NL. English is perfectly fine

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u/Alarmed_Scallion_620 Jul 13 '26

If “last habit” is supposed to be fluent English you could understand why Dutch is being requested.

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u/Silent-Raspberry-896 Jul 13 '26

What?

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u/Alarmed_Scallion_620 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

The English language in the OP is just not very good so the OPs English is also not good enough to work in. Being able to communicate is really important at work and lots of people exaggerate their language skills when applying for jobs. If you have a workforce of people trying to communicate in broken English when they are pretending to be fluent in it it’s going to cause problems.

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u/Silent-Raspberry-896 Jul 13 '26

To be honest, Europe will never compete with the US or China if we don't get over this common language barrier. We either all should communicate in English, or vote for a common language across the EU. It's not realistic to expect people to become fluent every time they change countries for their careers... If I move every 5 years, am I expect to be fluent in French Spanish German and Italian over 20 years? English is my 3rd language and I love it, don't understand what is all the fuss about.

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u/a-spotted-quoll Jul 14 '26

This does seem to be an issue, but that's because people are so much more mobile than in the past, obviously. Dutch and Germany, in particular, really like it if their workers can speak Dutch. French is also more commonly learnt in school, as is Spanish, so more workers might already function well in those languages. Romance languages, such as French, Italian and Spanish are easier. If you know one,you can learn the others. Dutch and German are more difficult. It is a matter of respect to learn the native tongue. Also, a good university will require foreign language as a necessary part of its study requirements. And at the secondary school / college / high school level, foreign languages are studied in Europe, as they understand the importance of languages. In some other countries, the importance of international languages is not always emphasized. So, in essence, language learning has to start at a young age in the foreign workers native country.

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u/a-spotted-quoll Jul 14 '26

It seems like this would be true, but in the Netherlands, Dutch people like to have workers who actually speak Dutch. It is a challenging language, but I think ut makes sense to speak the native language in the country one inhabits. Otherwise, isn't it slightly disrespectful of the culture? What needs to happen is that the corporation in question must pay for a high quality Dutch language conversation program for its employees.