Highly-skilled people leave SA

TheMightyQuinn said:
I think this was the 3rd year in a row the Netherlands were rated the #1 English as a 2nd language speaking country in Europe.

Everybody here speak extremely good English. But most jobs require English AND Dutch. But I guess there will be an anecdote for every situation.

My wife works for a Dutch company and everybody speaks Dutch. They also insisted that she learns and quickly.

I work for DB Schenker and all our daily meetings are in English since the team mostly consists out of Internationals from all over. They do not expect me to learn Dutch at all, so....

IF you can speak, read, write and understand Dutch, you will get a job easier here, depending on your field of course.
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My post was very obviously anecdotal but more meant as a bit of motivation for Dolby. A bit of hope that it’s not insurmountable.
 
Paul Kemp said:
My post was very obviously anecdotal but more meant as a bit of motivation for Dolby. A bit of hope that it’s not insurmountable.
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Most if not all posts like these , are anecdotal. I honestly did not mean that in a negative way OR to negate YOUR comment.

My apologies if it came over that way though.
 
TheMightyQuinn said:
I think this was the 3rd year in a row the Netherlands were rated the #1 English as a 2nd language speaking country in Europe.

Everybody here speak extremely good English. But most jobs require English AND Dutch. But I guess there will be an anecdote for every situation.

My wife works for a Dutch company and everybody speaks Dutch. They also insisted that she learns and quickly.

I work for DB Schenker and all our daily meetings are in English since the team mostly consists out of Internationals from all over. They do not expect me to learn Dutch at all, so....

IF you can speak, read, write and understand Dutch, you will get a job easier here, depending on your field of course.
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How do they react to Afrikaans?
 
I would not move just yet. Jumping from the pan into the fire imo. A couple of milliseconds to midnight for armageddon,
 
Magnum said:
How do they react to Afrikaans?
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The native Dutch people understand us mostly. We used it as main form of communication with our older neighbours who don't speak english. And we've built a good relationship with them using afrikaans. I'd almost wager to say they understand us better than we understand Dutch.

The people that have learned Dutch like the Syrians or similar - they don't understand Afrikaans, like, at all. I had a afghan hair dresser and we communicated in hand signals. It sucked.

Caveat, this has been my experience. Granted, I stay in a smaller town where there is more people that don't speak english.
 
GhostSixFour said:
The native Dutch people understand us mostly. We used it as main form of communication with our older neighbours who don't speak english. And we've built a good relationship with them using afrikaans. I'd almost wager to say they understand us better than we understand Dutch.

The people that have learned Dutch like the Syrians or similar - they don't understand Afrikaans, like, at all. I had a afghan hair dresser and we communicated in hand signals. It sucked.

Caveat, this has been my experience. Granted, I stay in a smaller town where there is more people that don't speak english.
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How is the weather there?
 
Magnum said:
How is the weather there?
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In NL in general? Winters are dark and rainy. Summers are bright and hot as ****. The sun only goes down at like 22:00 and it just doesn't cool down. But you can go ride a mountain bike in the "forest" at like 21:00 and be completely safe.
 
GhostSixFour said:
In NL in general? Winters are dark and rainy. Summers are bright and hot as ****. The sun only goes down at like 22:00 and it just doesn't cool down. But you can go ride a mountain bike in the "forest" at like 21:00 and be completely safe.
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I like hot. our SA cold winters bothers me alot.
 
Magnum said:
I like hot. our SA cold winters bothers me alot.
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What I found, the winters here are colder than SA, but the houses are better built for it. So you actually feel less cold than on a cold winters morning in JHB. Yeah, if you go outside it sucks, but you dress for that and then that's ok too. If you're main concern is gonna be the weather, then maybe don't consider NL. I'm quite satisfied with the fact that my biggest complaint would be the weather.
 
GhostSixFour said:
The native Dutch people understand us mostly. We used it as main form of communication with our older neighbours who don't speak english. And we've built a good relationship with them using afrikaans. I'd almost wager to say they understand us better than we understand Dutch.

The people that have learned Dutch like the Syrians or similar - they don't understand Afrikaans, like, at all. I had a afghan hair dresser and we communicated in hand signals. It sucked.

Caveat, this has been my experience. Granted, I stay in a smaller town where there is more people that don't speak english.
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My OLD neighbors also do not speak English...it is purely a generational thing. We speak Dutch to them and they cannot stop smiling when we do...probably 'cos we speak it so badly.

The old people did not learn English in school like the kids do today. But veryone I've met and/or worked with from 60 and younger, are extremely proficient.
 
Neptuner said:
His own people seem to think he has betrayed them
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Not exactly. He's mainly hated by the far-right and far-left.

Most people see him as a sensible person and a good negotiator though like all of us, also had his flaws.

Personally, I think he was a man with good and bad qualities like everyone. Western nations made him a cult-hero because he was mostly very pro West (apart from the pro communist here and there which would have not hurt them in any way).
 
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