Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

Almost everyone speaks English, which actually makes learning Dutch quite difficult: as soon as they hear you don't speak Dutch fluently, they switch to English... The intensive beginner's course is very useful, even if you don't want to learn Dutch properly. The only place where I had difficulties because I didn't understand Dutch at all in the beginning was the railways, since the announcements in trains and at railway stations were in Dutch only.

To study in Groningen you must speak either Dutch or English, so English is pretty much the language of international students there, even though they come from all over the world. The Dutch people understand and speak english very well, so it is not a problem. In fact, if you wish to learn Dutch (then you're crazy), you will find it difficult because English is not a problem for the Dutch, and in fact most of them enjoy using it from time to time.

I got the First Certificate Exam (Cambridge ESOL) before doing the Erasmus so I could defend myself pretty well in reading, writting and listening. Although I improved my English in those areas too what I improved the most was my speaking. After comming back from The Netherlands I got the Certificate in Advenced English (Cambridge ESOL)

The language of instruction was English, so I have not had any problems in academic area. Although it was an international program everything in the university and outside the university was Dutch. I find it nonsense but I have started to learn Dutch to overcome this challenge and adopt the environment and culture.

Once I asked a woman in a shop "excuse me, do you speak english?" and she answered: "yeah, a little bit" and then started to speak really fast in english... Well, she should see how is speaking "a little bit english" in France...!!! Most of Dutch people definately speak english fluenty...

I did not speak Dutch before I got to the Netherlands but it was not a problem at all because Dutch people can speak english very well, and we had english courses at the univerity as well. Besides I tried to learn the Dutch language with some locals but it was not easy.