Musings from The Netherlands

This week, I went to Amsterdam.

The capital of The Netherlands is really something. The official language is Dutch, and even though I speak German, believe me: it’s not the same. It looks different, and it sounds worlds apart.

Was that a problem? Not at all. Because practically everyone there speaks English. And it’s not just the fact that more than half of the population is foreign – Dutch natives are fluent, and not only in English; in good English. The mother and the bus driver. The priest and the pastor. The college student and the college dropout.

I couldn’t help but wince when I went into a bar and talked to a young waiter, asking him to show me what kinds of beers they had that were genuinely local. He spoke, of course, perfect English. And when I said that we came from Germany, he spoke German. And when he found out that my friends were Spanish, he spoke Spanish. When I finally asked him jokingly how many languages he spoke, he shrugged: “Four or five. And here I am, still a waiter.”

That got me thinking. English is becoming the universal language in the whole world. There are still many countries where it’s still not that widely extended, but they are, slowly but surely, going in the same direction as The Netherlands. And in a world where everyone speaks English and is perfectly capable to hold a conversation about any topic, no matter where he or she is from, how are translators necessary?

It was a scary thought. Luckily, I found the answer to my question soon enough. Me and my friends took a cruise around the canals of Amsterdam. We were surrounded by people from all nationalities: from Japanese to Italian, from Turkish to British. And I’m quite sure that 90% of them understood English more or less, but they still asked for a translation of the explanations in their own language. But there just wasn’t enough time. Japanese and Spanish people had to struggle to understand English, spoken fast and with a semi-neutral accent, trying to fill the holes in their understanding with other languages they knew or that sounded similar to theirs.

And then, I noticed that in many restaurants the menus were written exclusively in Dutch, and that very few stops in the subway were actually announced in English. Dutch people are proud of their language, the same as Japanese and Spanish and everyone else, and they want to hear it, and they want to understand completely what others are saying and without straining themselves. It is part of their culture, and it will never disappear in favor of practicality. Same as translation. As translators, we offer the possibility to provide this service that makes people proud and comfortable. And by doing a good job, we assure our own survival.

Thank you, Amsterdam, for enlightening me.