Workplace language

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From talking to people in my Dutch classes and other expats, I’ve come across several different models of how language works in the workplace. One extreme (experienced by one or two people) is that the workplace is run entirely in Dutch — supervisor meetings, lunch conversations, everything. The other extreme is that the workplace is run entirely in English. Some of my classmates said that they don’t speak Dutch at all outside the course.

I seem to fall into some middle category: the department is still very Dutch, and in informal group situations (such as birthday pie) people sit around talking Dutch regardless of who is present, but formal meetings (both one-on-one and with the whole research group) are carried out in English.

When I started at the uni, without knowing any Dutch, I thought this behaviour at morning tea was impolite and exclusionary. I found it surprising as I wasn’t the only staff member present who didn’t speak Dutch, but this research group has employed international PhD candidates for 10 years, so it wasn’t like it was a new thing for the group to have non-Dutch speakers present. Due to this experience, I decided it would be worthwhile to take Dutch classes, against my initial wishes. (I actually wanted to work on my German, seeing as it’s a slightly more useful/transferable language.)

After 18 months or so (by which stage I could follow conversations a bit better and throw the odd word in every now and then), I brought up the issue of language at informal events with a few of my colleagues. They told me they don’t mean to be impolite, but they often don’t realise they’re speaking Dutch instead of English. I can understand that that’s easier for them, and sometimes I like listening to the Dutch conversations, but I think there needs to be a bit more compromise between the two languages.

The Dutch also point out to me that had I gone to Germany or France to work, then I would be expected to speak German or French at work. Firstly, I assume this would have been made clear to me at the interview stage at least, and secondly, I would have been able to go to language school in Melbourne beforehand for both of those languages. There’s very little opportunity to learn Dutch outside the Netherlands.

So after spending far too much time in Dutch classes, I’ve hit a small problem. With the large influx of new PhDs to our group (our group came into some funding last year), all of whom are international, and the departure of one of the Dutch PhD candidates, I am now struggling to find opportunities to speak Dutch. On the other hand, all the newbies have really tipped the balance towards non-Dutch speakers, so hopefully our Dutch colleagues will become more aware of their language use at work.

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