Originally Posted by
MerseyView
How long do you think it takes to learn Dutch? it seems you expect everyone to understand conversational Dutch by the time they step on board for the first time. It will take quite a while for someone to get to that standard, so yes, they will expect you to do things in English, just because they are there, otherwise you are not very welcoming and inclusive.
I am Dutch and I speak 5 languages, my wife is English and she speaks 1. It is hard to learn another language later on in life. About 18% of English adults (merseyview) speak a second language (and about 15% of the population wasn't born in the UK, so that would only leave about 3% of the real Brits), over 90% of the Dutch are bilingual, and over half of the Dutch adults speak 3 languages. We don't expect people to make the same effort, just an effort.