Speaking Dutch at Work When Your Office Runs in English

The international office is a comfortable trap. You are surrounded by Dutch speakers who all switch to English the moment they hear an accent, so you can spend five years here and never practise.

Set an explicit agreement rather than hoping for opportunities. Tell two colleagues that lunch is in Dutch, and ask them not to switch even when you struggle. Most Dutch people switch out of politeness and are happy to stop when asked.

Use written Dutch as a low-pressure entry point. Reply to internal messages in Dutch, read the intranet in Dutch, and put the Dutch version of documents first.

Prepare the recurring moments. Stand-ups, order coffee, greetings in the lift and the small talk before a meeting are predictable scripts. Rehearse those ten scripts and you suddenly sound far more capable than your actual level.

Accept the awkward middle. There is a stage where speaking Dutch is slower than speaking English and everyone in the room knows it. Passing through it takes a few months of deliberate discomfort, and there is no shortcut around it.