As a Dutch person with a German girlfriend, I’m in both countries quite often. It’s common knowledge in both countries that the Dutch are good at English, and it’s common knowledge in Germany that the Germans are not very good at English. Apart from that, fully English courses, or just English lecture slides, are common in our exact sciences university. In Germany apparently not so much, although I don’t have first hand experience.
Looking up actual numbers, this seems to be somewhat true. The English Language in Europe wikipedia page has a nice bar graph and map, created from data from an EU survey In the Netherlands, 87% indicate that they speak English. In Germany it’s 51% and in Belgium it’s 52%. Across all of Europe, it’s 51%.
Oh, and if you’re ever back in the Netherlands, you’re welcome to drop by :)
As a Dutch person with a German girlfriend, I’m in both countries quite often. It’s common knowledge in both countries that the Dutch are good at English, and it’s common knowledge in Germany that the Germans are not very good at English. Apart from that, fully English courses, or just English lecture slides, are common in our exact sciences university. In Germany apparently not so much, although I don’t have first hand experience.
Looking up actual numbers, this seems to be somewhat true. The English Language in Europe wikipedia page has a nice bar graph and map, created from data from an EU survey
In the Netherlands, 87% indicate that they speak English. In Germany it’s 51% and in Belgium it’s 52%. Across all of Europe, it’s 51%.
Oh, and if you’re ever back in the Netherlands, you’re welcome to drop by :)