I attended a business meeting in Brussels many years ago. I spoke English. One guy spoke French, another Flemish and another German. Apparently, they understood one another. I haven't a clue what the final decision was!
That's pretty common here, to understand all 4. I can't speak French, (un pitete peu) but if the one speaking doesn't start to rattle in 20 words per second like they usually do I can understand it. English is the second language to most Dutch, German is a weird dialect. Come to think of it, better to understand than some of the dialects in the Netherlands itself.
I attended a business meeting in Brussels many years ago. I spoke English. One guy spoke French, another Flemish and another German. Apparently, they understood one another. I haven't a clue what the final decision was!
That's pretty common here, to understand all 4. I can't speak French, (un pitete peu) but if the one speaking doesn't start to rattle in 20 words per second like they usually do I can understand it. English is the second language to most Dutch, German is a weird dialect. Come to think of it, better to understand than some of the dialects in the Netherlands itself.