EFL (English as a First Language)

The Hague, The Netherlands

Source: Wikipedia, "List of language by number of native speakers"
http://goo.gl/2QMLQ, Accessed 2010-12-09

It is getting easier to be a native English speaker. This is probably what it felt like for native Latin speakers in 117AD at the peak of the Roman empire. Blame internet domain names, Google Translate, the EU,  iPhones, McDonalds, Justin Bieber, or what have you, more people speak English, better, than ever before. Even compensating for my urban-biased life, I rarely run into someone, including in remote Luxembourg, who does not speak far more English than I speak in their native tongue. This makes me lazy and creates even more inertia for me to overcome my monoglotony.

One of the original goals for living abroad, for me, was to perfect my Spanish (see entry on Bogota). So I have been on the lookout for a new language to immerse myself, given our change in venue. German seemed like a good idea given its business applications, but we only get one German TV station and it is bad. Mandarin Chinese was a candidate for similar reasons, but intonation is really hard. Despite sounding more melodious than French and Russian to my ear, Arab was not a candidate given the unlikelihood of me living in a country where the average temperature is above 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Then I threw all of that market-based thinking and rationality aside and made my decision.

Forthwith, I will use Rosetta Stone to try to learn a language natively spoken by nary more than 20 million people (compared to Mandarin with 800 million) and ranking only 45th in the world, Dutch. Sure, toss in the people of Flanders (Belgium) too, but that is not something to brag about and it won't boost Dutch's rank very much. 

Most expats I meet here think I am crazy to want to learn Dutch. I have met liberal polyglots who speak five languages that have lived in The Netherlands for over five years and do not speak more than three words of Dutch. Why would you when 50% of the TV channels are in English and everyone is bi-lingual is what I often hear. Unfortunately, I have also had expats say things to me like "Name one significant Dutch work of literature/film/poetry that would make Dutch worth learning?" 

The reason I want to learn Dutch is that this is my home, for the next nine months, at least. Shouldn't you speak the language of your homeland? Secondarily, I get tired of being so disoriented in public, especially when I spend much of my time alone. (Plus, I know everybody is talking about me behind my back!) Besides, would you want to learn a language that has words like kneuterdijk (songbird-dike), lekker (Tasty!), and alstublieft (please, if you please,...)?

So I'll update you on my progress and how I find Rosetta Stone (an expensive and potentially solitary endeavor). Feel free to enter some comments on language learning or Rosetta Stone.

Tot ziens (See you soon)