My Little Dutch ABC Book
E
Engles ~ English
Engles, my favorite language because I’m fluent. Of course
this is because I was born and raised in a country where English is the primary
language. But living in The Netherlands has given me such an amazing
appreciation for different languages. In The Netherlands, Dutch is the primary
language but most of the country can also speak English fluently as well.
Beginning at the age of around 10 years old English is taught to children.
When speaking to someone here, I usually ask if English is
ok… or do they speak English? The response is usually the same… either yes, of
course…. Or yes, a little. But after a few sentences I discover they are pretty
much fluent. I always make sure to compliment the person on how good their
English is and I make sure to thank them for speaking English to me.
My funniest story about the word Engles was when after a
year of living here one of my daughters was here visiting and we had gone to
the movie theater. Two of my kids went off to get popcorn, candy and drinks and
as they came back, the movie attendant at the door said something to them. While
my older daughter looked at him with a blank stare, my youngest, who was living
here and attending Dutch classes at school said… “spreekt u engels?”… Which of course he started
speaking English. My older daughter came back with a huge smile on her face
explaining that the younger one had spoken Dutch to the guy… and was saying
something about bagels! Well…. Not quite a bagel … but close enough to
communicate.
It upsets me whenever I hear back in my home country that
people are upset by the amount of people that speak Spanish. To me, it’s an incredible
a gift to be able to speak more than one language. I’m truly grateful that the
people of The Netherlands have compassion with me and help me with my Nederlands.
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