Old news then, right? That’s what you would think, but my colleagues and I still regularly receive Dutch texts by email, with the request to share them with our colleagues. Or we read a text that was written in Dutch but is (also) addressed to our non-Dutch speaking colleagues. Fortunately, there are online translation tools available such as DeepL translate, which can quickly convert Dutch texts into English. This saves a lot of typing. But surely, it would be just a small effort for the original sender to send this text out directly in English? Especially if you know that there are non-Dutch speakers among the recipients.

Not that I don’t like the Dutch language. On the contrary: it’s my native language. It’s the language in which I can best express myself, the language I understand best, in which I can play with words and sentences and make silly puns. In which I can tell by a person’s accent whether they’re from the south, north or east of the country.  I also greatly appreciate it when my non-Dutch colleagues take Dutch courses and are suddenly able to wish me “Goedemorgen,” [Good morning] a “Fijne avond,” [Pleasant evening] or a “Zalig Pasen” [Happy Easter].

In this column, I won’t discuss whether or not the quality of education decreases when it’s taught in a second language. I just want to point out once again that there is a large number of non-Dutch-speaking students and colleagues at TU/e. All of whom are eager to know what’s going on at our university; and they want to be able to judge for themselves whether a text or presentation is important or not. Also, many of them want to be able to engage in small talk during lunchtime or in between lectures. And there is a very simple way to do that: by communicating directly in English to groups that include non-Dutch speakers or, even more inclusively, by offering both a Dutch and an English text.