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The Teaching of Foreign Languages in the Netherlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

P. H. Breitenstein
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Extract

For centuries the Netherlands has been a cultural crossroads, where the Germanic and Romance cultures have met and mingled. For centuries, too, the Dutch have been a commercial people, trading and negotiating in lands all across the globe. No wonder, then, that a knowledge of foreign languages is a major goal in Dutch education. Changing times and the new significance of world trade in the economy of the Netherlands, combined with the realization that Dutch is not a world language, have emphasized the importance of foreign languages.

Type
Other
Information
PMLA , Volume 73 , Issue 4-Part2 , September 1958 , pp. 1 - 6
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1958

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Footnotes

*

Third of a series of articles commissioned by the editor of PMLA on foreign language teaching in other nations. P. H. Breitenstein is Chairman of the Modern Language Association of the Netherlands. In preparing the article for printing, the services of Seymour L. Flaxman (New York Univ.), Chairman of MLA conferences on “Problems in the Dutch and Flemish Languages and Literatures,” were requested. Dr. Flaxman also provided several paragraphs of introductory material.

References

1 It is interesting to note, as is clear from the above, that about 50% of Dutch children learn English, French, and German at school, and that many adults study one or more of these languages in evening classes or in private schools.