Can Dutch and German Speaking Countries Understand Each Other? (Belgium vs Germany vs Netherlands)

Just to clarify, the language the Belgian girl and the Dutch girl are speaking are the same language. One would be called Flemish (Belgium) and the other Dutch (The Netherlands). Flemish is a dialect of Dutch and apart from a handful of words, Dutch and Flemish are the exact same except spoken with a different accent. It's comparable to an English speaker from the United States speaking to an English speaker from the U.K.

The Netherlands and Belgium are like siblings, and Germany is that one weird cousin you see once a year.

It would have been even more cool if there was a person there that speaks Afrikaans. or maybe even Frisian. Also mind blown that the Flemish and Dutch accents are not very distinguishable for the German girl. And yes as the German girl stated, it might be a bit of cheating for the Dutch(and maybe the Belgian girl too). German and French are mandatory languages for at least a year in high school in the Netherlands. You can swap one language if the school has facilities.

Belgium : you will never know if it's german , dutch , flemish , french or even english 😅

For Karijn and Dutch people in general it is easier to understand German, because German is also taught in Dutch secondary schools in addition to English and French. At the university in the Netherlands I was also in a class with German and Flemish students. I asked the German students if they also noticed a difference between Dutch and Flemish, they also said that they did not hear any difference.

I feel like Ria. I'm also from Germany and I understand about 95% of a written text in Dutch, but when I hear Belgians or Dutch speak I only understand half of it. If they speak very slowly and with emphasis, it gets a little better. But I still like hearing Dutch, because many words sound friendlier and often a bit more “lieftallig” ( = dutch word for "adorable") to my German ears.

It would be interesting to do the same with Dutch, Frisian and Afrikaans

I'm pretty sure that when Karijn mentioned the dialect of the north of the Netherlands, they called it "farm-ish", not "Flemish" (as the subtitles). That's because the northern provinces are well-known for their agriculture - and the dialect is quite different from Flemish 😄

What's funny to me is that once my parents and I were on holiday in the Netherlands (we are Belgian) and waiters would take our order/chat with us in German. Even after we'd literally told them in Dutch that we don't speak German but Dutch. Apparently it was a region where lots of Germans went on holiday, but still it's funny that despite speaking the same language, they still thought we spoke German because of our different accent 😛

"Plattdeutsch" is a language that's very close to the the Dutch language.

For me, the best part was when Karijn said (6:42): "the big red line". It seems she is concurrently translating two Dutch idoms: "de rode draad" (meaning the common thread or recurring theme) and "de grote lijnen" (meaning "in broad strokes", which refers to looking at the big picture, rather than the details). I highly doubt that English speaking people would understand what she is saying in English, as she is making a literal translation of two idioms. Literal translations of idioms are always funny, like "You never know how a cow catches a hare". 😀 I would have like it if they would have picked up on the things they commonly use in their speech. Like how Naya kept saying "echt tof" and "echt leuk"

If you speak Dutch and you just learn some basic German words and phrases and learn how to pronounce their letters you can basically read German and understand most of a normal conversation, it's awesome!!

I'm Dutch and I could understand the flemish very well. I just have to pay attention but its the same language. The German used here was fairly easy to understand but when it comes to different topics it will be more difficult for me. Introducing yourself and stuff is quite easy to understand the main things but other stuff is difficult

In the previous video Naya was really hard to understand for me as a Dutch person, because of her dialect, but here it's super easy, she speaks pretty much standard Dutch.

Dutch speaker here🤗 I went to a German mall with my family a couple days ago and my mother-in-law had such a hard time speaking with people at the check out counter. A few times they just switched to English, which she also doesn't speak too well, the whole interaction was just awkward. There were other times where the cashier also didn't speak English, so they would just continue to speak German, and she Dutch without understanding each other at all😅😅 I also speak no German, so I was no help😅 I think it just depends on what words are said, but they definitely aren't foolproof when being able to understand each other every time.

As for me Russian native, these languages seem similar to each other, only some accent different maybe.

Last week i was in the netherlands to enjoy a festival. I am from Belgium and i speak dutch. Strangely enough i had to speak with a Netherlands dutch accent to the employees at the bar and food stands because otherwise they couldn't understand it and would ask me what i wanted in English😂. I mean come on....... its not like i speak a different language 😅. I also tried my very best to hide my own regional accent (Antwerp)

Dutch native here, who can speak some basic German. When I was about 8 or 9 years old, we were on holiday in Germany a few times, and often with my brother we would go to the ice cream shop on the German campsite, and they’d be so impressed at our ability to order “Zwei Eis bitte, mit ein Kügel Vanillieneis”, that they’d give us a scoop ice cream extra for free. I’m not ashamed to admit that that was part of the reason why I learned that sentence by heart. :D Though one time we went on a hike, and some strangers asked me in German how old I was, I got confused, and said “Ich bin nein Jahre alt”, confusing nine with neun. That mistake haunts me still. I’m sorry, friendly strangers from Germany! :D

Karjin 🇳🇱 : understand Naya and topics or words from Ria Ria 🇩🇪 : understand Naya and parts of words spoken by Karjin Naya 🇧🇪 : understand everything that you guys can say to me and even more Me : understand some words from Ria ( i know some german ) , few words spoken by Karjin (especially the ones who sounds like german) and nothing spoken by Naya at all ( accent totally different and lack of studied of Belgium's languages ) 😅

I am Dutch but also speak French so faking a Flemish accent is really easy for me. You get rid of the harsh 'g's, throw in a few softer 'r's and a few French sounding consonants(they are longer than ours) and some Dutchified French words ('prepareren' instead of 'voorbereiden'). And ofc the Flemish words that are entirely different than in Northern Dutch, such as amai, allée or frituur