Amsterdam Picture #7
Here is a picture looking down Dam street, around the corner from my hotel
room. Notice that all of the signs are in English for the benefit of tourists.
At any given point, the majority of tourists may be from Britain, Spain, Italy,
France, or another country. For the most part all Europeans can at least speak
some English and nearly all the Dutch that I met spoke excellent English,
though sometimes they have trouble with slangy or rapid-fire English. I'm not
sure why, but I was accosted on at least two occasions in Dutch. Although I
can understand French, there's only so much a poor American can do what with
our educational system not stressing fluency in foreign languages. I was never
treated poorly, though, because I was unable to speak Dutch, though I might
have missed out on getting to know a nice young lady who came up to me saying I
know not what. :-)
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