The university is an international environment, where you are surrounded by different cultures and languages. Wonderful, but it could cause language misunderstandings. “It sometimes happens that after a long conversation we only realised that we both speak Dutch,” says one student who always approaches people in English.
Another student does not speak Dutch, but he likes it when people address him in Dutch. “If they think I speak Dutch, I take that as a compliment,” he says. Others actually try to speak Dutch, even if they don’t always succeed. “One time someone said Eet smakelijk, have a nice meal, and then I said ‘No, thank you.’ I was so embarrassed,” a British student says with a laugh.
