Ashamed of your foreign accent when speaking Dutch? 

Thanks for giving me some better insight into the kind of Dutch I actually speak. I only lived in Flanders for 12 months when I was an exchange student in the late 70's when I was 16 years old. At that time there was really a lot of emphasis on speaking ABN at school (certainly) but also sometimes at home. I frequently was told..."this is how we say it, but you should say..." At one time I even thought I should speak more like people from the Netherlands. Now I'm in my 60's and (thanks to your discussions) I understand that I actually speak a kind of Flemish "tussentaal", and that's really comforting. I lived with a Flemish family so I learned a lot of language variation in terms of vocabulary and accent. In the last few years I've become really proud and comfortable with this "tussentaal" that I speak and I've stopped trying to distinguish between what I speak and the old "ABN". I've really become proud of speaking Flemish, and when people ask me now what I speak I just say "Flemish". Curiously, I have to say that I don't enjoy interacting as much with people in Holland (mostly Amsterdam) because they won't speak back to me in Dutch---very frustrating. But I get it. So, thanks for your videos. Really enjoy them!. Darryl (California, USA)

Ashamed as a girl from Doornik/Tournai who's not fluent as some Flemish people in French...Keep going! I love the spreektaal videos. Thanks for being here for us 🙂

Ik heb dit probleem meegemaakt, soms schaam ik me voor mijn uitspraak in het Nederlands vooral als ik de enige persoon ben die buitenlander is. Ik werk in Brussel en sommige mensen denken dat in het Frans beter zou zijn dan in het Nederlands maar de realiteit is dat ik amper Nederlands spreek en toch spreek ik geen Frans haha. Maar elke dag probeer ik me minder zorgen te maken over mijn uitspraak want dat is een deel van mijn achtergrond. Het is inderdaad zo dat hoe meer ik spreek hoe beter ik zal worden. Bedankt voor jouw videos!!

i think confidence pays a big role in this, At first when i started to speak dutch i used to make faces like I'm confused, faces like O_o, then people would react the same and then they couldnt understand me, then when i got a job with my dutch in vlaams, my coworkers that they are native told me that they indeed understood me, that i just have to speak loud and clear, bc sometimes i used to speak and lower my voice (getting shy i gues of my accent) and then they would not understand me, then i started to speak directly without hesitation and people started to understand me directly. So yeah its like if you want to speak just do it, open your mouth big and say all the words. If you hesitate people will not understand you.

Thank you, Nout! I rly loved this topic. Have you ever thought about making a video about Dutch stress and intonation ? I speak Dutch with a very Latino/Mexican accent. Somehow It also affects my perception of stress and intonation of Dutch Language. So difficult! Greetings👋

I like your approach to language learning and how you analyze things. You distill things down to their essence and quickly and concisely get to the point. You come across as quite sincere and honest and love what you do. You do not act pompous and to me that is a sure sign that you really know what you are talking about. You don't need to hide behind big words and I admire that. Jij bent geen dikkenek en je bent heel goe bezig!

Hi Nout,did you abandon your channel,I enjoyed your lessons very much.

Ten eerste, heel erg bedankt voor deze video! Ik vind dit onderwerp super interessant en een volgende video over hoe je je accent kan verbeteren lijkt me erg leuk! Ik heb persoonlijk alleen goede ervaringen gemaakt als ik in het Nederlands tegen Nederlanders praat. Iedereen (vrienden, de familie van mijn partner, mijn collega's en mensen op straat) zijn altijd heel enthousiast erover dat ik Nederlands aan het leren ben en ze wisselen nooit naar het Engels of zo. En over mijn accent krijg ik ook alleen maar positive opmerkingen. Aan de andere kant vind ik het wel heel frustrerend, omdat ik graag zonder accent zou willen praten maar dat is bijna onmogelijk, ook als je heel veel oefent. Met een buitenlandse accent val je toch altijd op en ik heb dan het gevoel dat ik er niet helemaal bij hoor. Maar ik geef niet op en blijf werken aan mijn accent :)

Appreciate the video. Always good advices ! however difficult to change my french accent :) .The automatic switch to english when i speak dutch is really frustrating but i do not give up, maybe one day it will be good enough. If you have tips for the accent change, more than welcome, thank you :)

Beautiful language and beautiful man 😅 Thanks for the video

I enjoyed that explanation. I wish I could play it for the learners in my language group, the part about if your accent makes it difficult for others to understand it's time to work on your accent (and/or grammar). But I get pushback. Anyway, back to accents. I've noticed that different online tools for Dutch learning use voices with varying accents and that makes it more difficult to identify what is the "norm" Dutch. Which is the geographic area that is considered the norm? The accent I would like to learn is probably western since I grew up listening to Flemish from my grandparents, but I'm not entirely sure. It was quite musical and lively to my ear.

Your accent in English is very close to my own. I've never had any issues with it, but recently, it has really started to bother me :). I have been practicing with an app and sometimes my pronunciation is spot on 99-100%, but at other times it is around 85% of what a native speaker would sound like (at least according to the app).

Heerlijk bedankt Nout...!!

I am immigrating to the Netherlands shortly ,I passed the Dutch integration exam(A1)as a Afrikaans speaking person I have a advantage with the accent because we speak Afrikaans with a Wes Vlaanderen accent!

MOre videos about this and exercises to improves a better Dutch pronunciation please. Thanks!

I think for me, I don't like the idea that people would be able to hear my accent and be like '"Ope, that's an American" or "You sound American" and maybe that has more to do with being American and not liking being American, than the accent itself.

please post more videos for possible beginners of any topics. (I'm taking baby steps to learn but I cant apply to official dutch lessons so i use duolingo to learn but it doesn't feel enough, or practical)

As long as the language the person is speaking is understandable it doesnt matter if theirs an accent, great video by the way,

Ik hou van je video's, bedankt! Ik vraag me altijd af hoe mijn Amerikaanse accent klinkt als ik Nederlands spreek? Is het mogelijk om mijn eigen accent te begrijpen?

Iedereen heeft een accent. Zij het in welke taal dan ook. Al spreek ik Frans, Duits, Spaans en Engels, men zal mij steeds herkennen als een tweede taal spreker en daar is niets mis mee.

Goeie video

But don't Flemish people learn French in school?

I'm Polish and ff I spoke Dutch to people in the Netherlands but they spoke English back to me, I'd reply "Don't speak to me in English, I AM NOT an Englishman".

I found that dutch people can not understand dutch, at least the way I speak 😀

Nederlanders zijn het zo gewoon te antwoorden in 't Engels als ze horen dat iemand niet uit hun land komt, dat het ook mij overkwam. Ik sprak Vlaams. Overduidelijk geen Nederlands, volgens de inboorlingen...