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Everyone likes to speak English

I'm English and have been living in the Netherlands for the past 2 years. Dutch is quite a difficult language even though it's one of the closest languages to English. It's exactly this closeness that makes it difficult for some English speakers. My tip is to learn combinations of difficult sounds and compare them to English sounds that you know. Like the OO sound in Dutch is like OW in English. When I moved to the Netherlands I had every intention of learning Dutch. I did my courses and can understand and write very well. But my problem is that everyone likes to speak English and if you're learning the language it makes you lazy. Here it's far too easy to slip back into English when you have a problem.I've had to start forcing myself to speak Dutch and make mistakes. If people reply to me in English I carry on in Dutch. It makes for a very strange conversation.

Sent by: Peter

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