Why do Dutch and Scandinavians speak English so well?

not thát bad.




This is quite an interesting mistake. You have to have a particular keyboard / version of Microsoft to be able to type 'that' the way.

Your credentials appear to be genuine.

Where does the name 'Mork' come from?

"Mork & Mindy is an American sitcom broadcast from 1978 until 1982 on ABC."

Mork calling Orson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdz4dCMGbbw





I used to have a very high opinion of Dutch people. Whenever we met them on holiday, they were always very friendly. Unfortunately, Dutch people who work for Shell are the exception.

I am being a bit extreme in order to make a point. Dutch people who work for Oil companies do have a bad reputation.


Mork and Mindy?

Mork and what? Sorry, never heard of it. My name is just Mork, thats all.

The reason I usually make a mistake is because I sometimes mix up my own language with English. When I said "on school" earlier is a good example, because in Dutch it would be "op school", which translates to "on school". I think its the same in German. You can get used to my spellingerrors though.

I don't get why you form a opinion over people who work at oilcompany's though. That doesn't make much sense to me.

Mork & Mindy is an American sitcom broadcast from 1978 until 1982 on ABC. The series starred Robin Williams as Mork, an alien who comes to Earth from the planet Ork in a large egg-shaped space ship, and Pam Dawber as Mindy McConnell, his human friend, roommate, and later, wife after they married in the final season.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mork_and_Mindy

It is surprising that you would not know that with your name being "Mork".

>>I don't get why you form a opinion over people who work at oilcompany's though. That doesn't make much sense to me.<<

He is specifically referring to the Dutch oil company Shell, which has been involved in various some less-than-savory activities in places, particularly in the delta of Nigeria...

Not Dutch: I'm from the Netherlands and I never heard of it. My guess is that that show was/is exclusive to America, although I could be mistaken. I was born in 1986 so that can very well be another reason why I don't know about it.

Travis: I can't say I'm familiar with it (I do know Shell though but thats it), but then again I never really cared much about gas and motors and such.

<<One major difference between Anglo-Saxon and continental European culture is that we Anglo-Saxon types are far more interested in the motives behind the acts of others rather than the acts themselves. Germans and I assume the Dutch as well, do not see things this way.>>
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<<If you make the effort to learn Dutch or German, try not do be discouraged when you get English in return. It's embarassing, but maybe you could point out how great their English is, then ask them to teach you a new phrase in Dutch. Turn the situation to your advantage.>>
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Stephen and K.T. made some interesting remarks here

I believe it all comes down to the problem of
INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE.
In many situations, language students
are learning the new language with just a few excursions
into the customs and history
of the country or countries,
let alone psychology, different accents
or the etymology
of the language they are just learning.

And in the beginning, being surronded by mostly EFL speakers,
this might seem not of great importance to the mere first steps.

Being confronted with native speakers later,
say, in business affairs, corresponding, travelling or maybe even
living in the foreign country, people then often come across
difficulties in understanding, prejudices, misconceptions
and severe misunderstandings which can even lead
to the ending of a business connection,
or, in the case of somebody living abroad,
to the experience of culture shock.

In this context I believe it is important, to achieve at least a rough understanding of the structure of a number of foreign languages and cultures in general, to be able to understand the way foreigners speak and think, and to better understand and communicate with EFL speakers as a native speaker. This way one will also be confronted with one´s own etymology, language structure and psychology, and in return be less judicative and better communicating in general.

After all we are living in the 21st century, and living is learning.

see also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_shock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercultural_competence
http://www.etymonline.com

I think the Dutch speak very well English because its a very important language on school

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Quote from a post written by a Dutch person. Typical - full of mistakes but the Dutch still think they speak better English than the Americans / Brits do.

The Dutch often compliment each other on their perfect English e.g. "he / she speaks English without an accent" when in fact the person speaks with a very noticeable Dutch accent. The Dutch seem to think they can judge that themselves. ARROGANT OMG!!!

English-speakers, it's partly our fault for telling them they speak better English than we do. I know we don't really mean it and it's just a compliment, but the Dutch think we mean it literally and believe it, adding to their already enormously inflated egos.

Johnny Tue May 26, 2009 2:51 am GMT

Not to put Mork down, but if you read his English you will find that just about every sentence is riddled with grammar errors and the the ones which are free of grammar errors read like a 4 year old would speak.

Judging from Mork's English I would get the impression that the Dutch do not really speak English very well at all.

_______________________

Exactly, they don't.

<<English-speakers, it's partly our fault for telling them they speak better English than we do. I know we don't really mean it and it's just a compliment, but the Dutch think we mean it literally and believe it, adding to their already enormously inflated egos. >>


LOL! So true! Sad but true!

“It is surprising that you would not know that with your name being "Mork".”

It’s surprising how you expect other nationalities to have good knowledge of American pop culture.

Not all of us have a passion for the Anglo-Saxon world, even though we speak English.

"It’s surprising how you expect other nationalities to have good knowledge of American pop culture. "


I thought everyone, especially Europeans, knew *everything* about America and its non-existent culture?

↑ Why would they?

<<English-speakers, it's partly our fault for telling them they speak better English than we do. I know we don't really mean it and it's just a compliment, but the Dutch think we mean it literally and believe it, adding to their already enormously inflated egos. >>


LOL! So true! Sad but true!


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Absolutely. Sad but true!

Personally, I don't like it when I hear an English-speaker saying that to a Dutch person anyay. It really annoys me because non-natives do NOT speak a language better than natives unless you want to be outrageously prescriptive and say that invented rules take preference over natural colloquial speech. Even then, the Dutch overuse the progressive tenses, forget the present perfect, can't pronounce "d" at the end of words, have no feeling for register in English and so on....

I've always found it very annoying when people in some cultures say something they don't really mean just to be polite. "You should come to see me some day", "you speak like a real American/Brit", "that dress really suits you" and garbage like that.

I have this same problem in Germany. The fact that I have an English first and Irish last name doesn't help. I often get calls from people I don't even know who will simply start speaking English thinking that I don't know German based on my name alone.

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You're lucky, I'm italian, have an italian name and surname and live in germany, and when I meet german people for the first time they speak directly in german, not in italian. (Of course, I can speak german (with a very bad accent)).