I never met a Dutch who doesn't understand German … Probably because they got German television (though I can't understand why they watch it …). Once when I was in Groningen - about 70 km from the German border - we saw in many houses people looki... read more
So if Dutch people want to understand the essence of a German conversation they will need a bit more than just some basic knowledge of the German language, otherwise they will get lost very quickly. And I suppose same is true for a German wanting to understand a Dutch conversation. read more
Dutch people mostly understand Germans - although without practice they don´t speak German. Germans on the other hand need practice to even understand Dutch, since it involves many different ways of pronouncing similar words. read more