The Dutch Speak Better English Than Me?! 🇬🇧❌🇳🇱 | Brit Reacts

Added: 2026-06-10

[00:00:00]Today is a great, wonderful, amazing, incredible day and I'll tell you why because it's not a normal day. No, it's a Dutch day.

[00:00:08]Um, why are Dutch the best non-native English speakers in the world?

[00:00:16]Without further ado, let's get into this reaction. Let's go.

[00:00:22]>> Well, I think that has its origin in in in trade.

[00:00:26]>> Dutch are citizens of the world and not citizens of the Netherlands.

[00:00:30]>> Yeah.

[00:00:30]>> Yeah. It's it's our deal.

[00:00:31]>> Interesting. Do you hear what she just said? Hi guys, by the way. Hope you're having a good day. Um, she said Dutch people are the citizens of the world, they're not the citizens of the Netherlands.

[00:00:42]That's very interesting. I have always wanted to know why you guys are so incredibly good at English. You're incredibly good though. Like I've been to Sweden, I've been to Denmark. I've heard Danish speakers and and Swedish speakers speak English and they speak very good English.

[00:01:02]But the Dutch, you guys I think you have the best English in the world. It's so clear.

[00:01:08]It's it's a bit shocking. I don't like I'm jealous. I wish I could speak two languages like that, but like yeah, I need to know. So, I want to find out in this video how you guys speak English so well.

[00:01:20]>> And they do if you want to do business, if you want to make friends as a small country you have to be open-minded to the rest of the world and any business uh uh I think uh like like uh 60% of our of our income >> Yeah.

[00:01:38]>> national income comes from abroad.

[00:01:40]>> Okay.

[00:01:41]>> So, we have to to to speak our languages otherwise we don't earn a lot.

[00:01:45]>> I think you're more successful >> Yeah.

[00:01:48]>> when the communication goes well. So, it's for all for us always very important to to speak our languages well.

[00:01:58]>> The Dutch mindset is if you speak English, you come farther in the world.

[00:02:03]>> And the Dutch have >> Interesting. If you speak English, you go farther in the world.

[00:02:11]I have to agree. They called English the English language the lingua franca.

[00:02:17]Meaning, I think it means that it's basically the commerce of the world. It's the the language that is used by all the nations to communicate [snorts] and to trade and to do business.

[00:02:29]Um it's the business language. It's the financial language of the world. Not bigging up English cuz obviously I'm from England, you know, the the place where it's from. Uh and we speak the best English. I'm sorry, we do. Even better than Americans. I'm sorry. I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll say it. We we do. We do. Our English is the clearest. Um It's bigging up England. Um but no, I understand why it makes sense. Why would you're going to speak the language that will enable you to to trade with the uh countries with the most um finance, I guess. America.

[00:03:07]The USA. That's their first language.

[00:03:10]The UK. Even though we're not the country we used to be, but back in the day we were the superpower of the world.

[00:03:16]So, you Over time, and then then that's transferred from the UK to America. So, it's been such a long time uh where the finance capitals of the world have been English speakers. So, it makes sense that the rest of the world would follow suit and learn that as a second language.

[00:03:37]Um but I'm still jealous. I want to learn an I want to learn a second language, you know?

[00:03:42]I only have one language. I'd love to learn another language. And I always think about it. I do actually think I have I do actually think I do have the aptitude aptitude for a second language.

[00:03:53]I think I could speak a second language if I really put my mind to it cuz I quite like, as you can tell, speaking. I like talking. I like saying words. So, I think it um I think I would I think I'd do well. It's just that I don't have a reason, you know? If I moved to a country um I would learn the language.

[00:04:16]But, I live in England and I communicate in English, so.

[00:04:21]It's one of those things. I don't know.

[00:04:22]>> citizens of the world and not citizens of the Netherlands.

[00:04:26]>> Yeah. So, you mean like we like to travel?

[00:04:28]>> We travel a lot.

[00:04:30]>> Yeah.

[00:04:30]>> or via work, like I already explained, or colleagues, or via music, or theater, whatever.

[00:04:37]>> I traveled a lot when I was young.

[00:04:39]>> I've heard this, but I've never met a Dutch person. Is that weird? I've never met a Dutch person before. Never.

[00:04:45]I've met a South African person. South African um I guess a long time ago their ancestors were from the Netherlands. Well, not long, but a bit ago.

[00:04:58]But, um I've never met a Dutch person. I can't wait to come to to the Netherlands, which is going to happen um so I can interact with you guys.

[00:05:06]Cuz I think you could crack. I think you're funny. I think you're quite funny people. I think you're really chill. um So, yeah. Weirdly enough, even though you guys travel a lot, I've never met one. I've never met I've not met you.

[00:05:18]You're rare.

[00:05:19]>> so then I met a lot of international people and my English improved, I think.

[00:05:26]>> When you use it, you learn it.

[00:05:28]>> When we are like 10 or something, we start learning it.

[00:05:31]>> You learn English when you are in >> primary school, yeah.

[00:05:35]>> primary school already, so yeah.

[00:05:38]>> Uh I learned it uh due to um me liking uh a TV show. Um and it was on one station. And one station only Uh and it was only in English so I had to learn it simply because of that show.

[00:05:53]>> And what show was that?

[00:05:56]>> Some sort of Scooby Doo but the newer version so it wasn't translated yet.

[00:06:01]>> But you mostly learn from just exposure now.

[00:06:04]>> Yeah, TV shows, YouTubers.

[00:06:06]>> I know she she spoke English before she went to school. I know that.

[00:06:11]>> Okay.

[00:06:12]>> Simply just because I wanted to watch YouTube videos.

[00:06:16]>> Entertainment, there you go. Entertainment, you learn English through that. Maybe there's some of you guys that watch me and like um it helps you learn English as well.

[00:06:28]Maybe.

[00:06:29]I don't know. Not bigging myself up but like I speak English. If you like my content then listening to me speak English will help you learn English if you're not very good at English.

[00:06:41]So I get it. She said she said YouTube.

[00:06:45]>> Uh mostly the movies that helped you get to a good level or was it mostly the school?

[00:06:51]>> Yeah, it's difficult. I think I think it's more it's the the basis >> Yeah.

[00:06:57]>> was school.

[00:06:58]>> Yeah.

[00:06:59]>> But later on talking with people, seeing movies. I think that later on in life you start to understand the language better.

[00:07:09]My kids are inside. They're 12 no no 14 and 20. They speak fluently English.

[00:07:15]>> Yeah.

[00:07:16]>> And that's I think also because of all the series on Netflix, television, Spotify, music. The whole culture is more English orientated.

[00:07:27]>> Yeah.

[00:07:28]>> Especially music. Wow, music. I forgot about music. Music the the the the the top artists of the world they're English English speakers so that makes sense. And the TV shows, obviously and movies, Hollywood, American movies. I mean like even us, even us as British people, we listen we watch a lot of American uh TV shows and movies. So we actually to be fair, we learn a lot of our English um from American we learn we we learn a lot of American English. They say certain words are a little bit different from British people we learn and we take on some of those Americanisms.

[00:08:10]>> They're copying the culture from those countries so they are very familiar with English more than I am.

[00:08:16]>> Mhm.

[00:08:17]>> We watch movies and series in in English with subtitles and not like in Germany like it's nachsynchronisiert. I don't know the >> [laughter] >> And you see Germany they have the the English movies are uh uh speaking to they speak German in the movies and while it's an an English movie and we have the subtitles so that's why we we we learn better English than German people or or >> Yeah, yeah. What he's saying is what he's saying is that German which I have a German channel as well and this is true in Germany they will dub the English in German. They watch dubbed things. So if it's an English thing, English movie, English whatever, they'll watch the dubbed version which I hate.

[00:09:03]Dubbed stuff is terrible.

[00:09:05]I've seen things I've seen content I've seen movies or TV shows. I watched a Swedish TV show and it was dubbed in English.

[00:09:14]I couldn't watch it. I was like, no. I had to watch it in their language with the English subtitles because for me that was just better. I hate seeing the mouth move and they're saying something completely different like, what the >> [laughter] >> I hate that. I hate it. I have to watch I have to watch subtitles. So I'm the same as you guys with that. And he's saying that Dutch people, you guys will watch something in English and then have the Dutch subtitles at the bottom.

[00:09:45]Um and a lot of the time the Dutch subtitles the your Dutch language is quite similar to what we say in English anyway, so um makes sense.

[00:09:57]When I was watching um Ooh, when I was watching um uh New Kids Turbo there was certain parts where I wasn't looking at the subtitles, but I understood what he said.

[00:10:09]So, there you go.

[00:10:11]>> Maybe the French people as well. Yeah.

[00:10:13]>> Yeah.

[00:10:14]>> Uh I watch also movies in on English on YouTube.

[00:10:19]Uh they are not subtitled in the Dutch, so I have to concentrate.

[00:10:24]And also in daily life, yeah, some some words uh not not all the time, but some words I use English words.

[00:10:32]>> What's the one you use the most?

[00:10:34]>> Okay.

[00:10:35]>> Okay.

[00:10:36]>> [laughter] >> Do you feel someone can easily live in the Netherlands while only speaking English?

[00:10:42]>> Yes, you can.

[00:10:43]>> Yes, you can.

[00:10:44]>> Yeah, because almost everyone speak English.

[00:10:48]You can use it in the shop or um yes.

[00:10:51]>> Yeah.

[00:10:52]>> Yes, you can you can live here without speaking Dutch.

[00:10:54]>> Okay.

[00:10:55]>> Wow. Wow. There you go. I mean, um I know you can, but I wouldn't want to. Do you know what I mean? Like I think you could get by.

[00:11:06]Like so, I could move to the Netherlands, speak English, and I'll be fine to navigate and stuff, but I think that should be temporary. I think if you're a tourist, it's completely fine to go to the Netherlands and speak English. Am I right? Let me know in the comment section. But I think it'd be completely fine for a British tourist to go to the Netherlands and speak English.

[00:11:26]However, when we're talking about moving to the Netherlands, I I you want to integrate into a society, I can speak as someone who's British. If someone moves to Britain and they don't speak English, they're going to find it very very very very very very very difficult to integrate into British society. It's just how it is. How can you communicate?

[00:11:48]How can you make friends? Um It's probably a lot easier in the Netherlands because you speak English, but probably even easier if you can speak Dutch. And I would I would definitely learn Dutch.

[00:12:05]Just because I don't want anyone talking about it behind my back as well.

[00:12:08]>> [laughter] >> Do you know what I mean? If I walk into somewhere and they know you can't speak Dutch and they want to talk about you, they'll speak in Dutch.

[00:12:16]There you go. I want to know everything, so I'd learn.

[00:12:20]>> And if you live somewhere more remote, do you think you could still get by with English easily or would it be more difficult, do you think?

[00:12:27]>> Outside of cities, you mean? In the Well, I think everybody in these days most people uh if you're younger than 70 years, then you understand Dutch.

[00:12:39]Uh understand English, yes.

[00:12:41]Talk English.

[00:12:42]>> Okay.

[00:12:42]>> Yeah, all good. I moved >> He's actually speaking English, just to correct his English. Um That's really That means your your proficiency of English is high in the Netherlands. It's It is high. It's high That's very high. If you can go out into the rural areas and speak English and they'll all understand you, that's wow.

[00:13:04]Cuz even if you go into the rural areas of England, there's some people that you won't understand.

[00:13:09]There's some people you won't understand in the rural rural areas of of Britain cuz they can't even speak English properly.

[00:13:15]>> Here from India around 4 and 1/2 years ago.

[00:13:19]>> Okay.

[00:13:19]>> And since then I've been living in Amsterdam.

[00:13:22]>> In your experience, what percentage of Dutch people speak English?

[00:13:27]>> In my experience till now, 100% of them.

[00:13:30]Of course, like uh >> Did he say 100%?

[00:13:33]I couldn't I couldn't >> In my experience till now, 100% of them.

[00:13:38]>> Yeah, he said 100%. That's his accent.

[00:13:41]>> Of course, like uh when I'm meeting people who who are like a little bit older, like let's say 60s plus, they have a little hard time with it. So, the conversations I try to mix a little bit Dutch so that I can convey what I'm trying to say.

[00:13:53]>> Ah, okay.

[00:13:54]>> Uh but then at least with the younger generation, uh which is what I mostly interact with, >> Mhm.

[00:13:58]>> they are very proficient in English. Like I never had a problem talking to them.

[00:14:04]>> There you go.

[00:14:06]Um >> [laughter] >> I've never seen that before. This This appears in nine, eight, seven. I've never seen that countdown before.

[00:14:15]Um interesting. Interesting.

[00:14:20]So, what I've learned from this is that you guys are just incredible at English.

[00:14:24]Full stop. Period.

[00:14:26]Full stop. Period. I can't wait to go to the Netherlands um and interact with you guys. I wonder if I'll see some of you guys out and about. I think I will. I Do you know what?

[00:14:37]I've decided. I don't know. You're not even that far away. I might take a trip to the Netherlands soon. Like very soon.

[00:14:42]This summer, I think. I think I'm coming this summer.

[00:14:45]I'm going to come to the Netherlands this summer. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:14:49]Yeah. Probably going to go this summer.

[00:14:51]I've just decided. Just now. I'm very random person, you see. I'll just end up in your country. Listen, you You might see me out and about. You'll be like, "Whoa. Whoa. He's here?" Yes. I'll be there. Um I was in Sweden last year and Denmark last year, randomly. Popped up in the cities cuz I've got a channel that's Swedish and Danish as well. Um So, yeah. I'm probably going to end up coming over and just seeing how good you are at English. Let me know in the comments section.

[00:15:18]Is it true? Uh Do 100% of the people in the Netherlands speak English. Let me know. And let me know, do you guys communicate in English with each other or do you default to Dutch when you speak to each other?

[00:15:34]Let me know in the comment section below. Guys, thank you very much for watching. Until the next one, I will see you very soon.