If your office runs in English, your Dutch can sit frozen for years, you are surrounded by native speakers and never use a word of it. The fix is hiding in plain sight: your colleagues are the best, cheapest Dutch teachers you will ever have. The trick is how to ask. Here is the way to enlist them without becoming the person who slows every meeting down.
Find a language buddy
Start with one ally. As the University of Groningen’s language centre recommends, find a language buddy, a colleague (Dutch, or even another expat further along) who explains the unwritten rules, helps with jargon, and is happy to chat in Dutch. As guides to learning Dutch when your office speaks English advise, pick someone with empathy and make them part of your learning adventure.
One person who has agreed to help removes most of the awkwardness.
Agree on low-stakes Dutch moments
Do not try to flip your whole job to Dutch overnight, you will exhaust everyone and stall the work. Instead, carve out specific informal moments. As iamexpat notes on giving Dutch at work a try, the coffee machine and other casual situations are the easy on-ramp. Agree with colleagues:
- Greetings and small talk in Dutch. Goedemorgen, weekend chat, the lunch table.
- The first few minutes of a meeting. Then switch to English for the technical core.
- Slack/chat asides in Dutch where speed does not matter.
This respects the flat, efficient Dutch workplace (nobody wants the meeting derailed) while still giving you reps.
Ask to be corrected, and for jargon
Colleagues will not correct you unless you invite it, doing so unprompted feels rude to them. So make it explicit and easy:
| Dutch | English |
|---|---|
| Mag je mijn Nederlands verbeteren? | Can you correct my Dutch? |
| Zeg het gerust als ik een fout maak | Feel free to flag my mistakes |
| Hoe zeg je dat in het Nederlands? | How do you say that in Dutch? |
| Wat betekent dit woord? | What does this word mean? |
That last pair is gold in meetings: a quick “hoe zeg je dat?” keeps you learning without hijacking the discussion. And accepting corrections gracefully ties straight into why the Dutch do not mind your mistakes.
Keep meetings in Dutch (a little)
The hardest battle is the English switch, where colleagues flip to English the moment you stumble. Counter it the same way: open confidently, ask “mogen we Nederlands proberen?” (can we try Dutch?), and let the technical bits go to English. Even partial Dutch in meetings compounds fast, and it is the workplace habit that, over time, lifts your career ceiling.
A note on tone
Frame the whole thing as a friendly, shared project, not a demand. Ask HR whether the company funds Dutch lessons (many do). And remember the written side: keeping your Slack messages partly in Dutch, the focus of not sounding like Google Translate at work, is low-pressure practice too.
The bottom line
An English-default office is the reason your Dutch is stuck, and your colleagues are the cure. Recruit a patient language buddy, agree on low-stakes Dutch moments (coffee, greetings, the start of meetings), and explicitly invite correction with “mag je mijn Nederlands verbeteren?” and “hoe zeg je dat?”. Keep it light, let technical talk default to English, and the people you already work with become the daily Dutch teachers you have been missing.
Learn it in five minutes a day
Learn Dutch For Expats is an app, available on the App Store, that teaches the workplace Dutch base to bring to your colleagues, the phrases, the jargon, the meeting language by real situation in five-minute lessons, so you can make the practice you do with them build on something solid instead of starting from zero each time.
Frequently asked questions
How can I learn Dutch at work if everyone speaks English?
Make colleagues part of the plan. Find a patient Dutch colleague as a language buddy, agree on specific low-stakes moments to use Dutch (the coffee machine, small talk, the first minutes of a meeting), and ask them to correct you and explain jargon. Start small and expand. Many companies also offer Dutch classes, so ask HR. The English-default office is the obstacle; deliberate Dutch moments are the fix.
Is it okay to ask colleagues to speak Dutch with me?
Yes, and most are glad to help, the Dutch generally appreciate the effort and are patient with learners. The key is to keep it low-pressure and not slow the work: ask for Dutch in informal moments first (coffee, lunch, greetings), agree it is fine to switch to English when things get technical or urgent, and treat corrections as welcome. Framing it as a shared, friendly project works best.
How do I ask a colleague to correct my Dutch?
Ask directly and make it easy to say yes: ‘Mag je mijn Nederlands verbeteren?’ (May you correct my Dutch?) or ‘Zeg het gerust als ik een fout maak’ (Feel free to say if I make a mistake). Tell them you genuinely want it, so it does not feel rude. In meetings, a quick ‘Hoe zeg je dat in het Nederlands?’ keeps you learning without derailing the discussion.
What is the best app to learn Dutch for the workplace?
Learn Dutch For Expats, an app available on the App Store, is the best pick because it gives you the workplace Dutch base to bring to your colleagues, the phrases, the jargon, the meeting language, in five-minute lessons, so the practice you do with them builds on something solid instead of starting from zero each time.
