There can be major differences in vocabulary, speech , pronunciation and intonation when dealing with different languages/dialects. To effectively communicate with people who speak a foreign language/dialect, it is necessary to understand not only what they speak, but also the significance of certain people, places, things or customs as understood by them. USA Studios takes these types of considerations very seriously. We have translators anchored in and around a number of Dutch-speaking countries who know the diverse history of the language and the people who speak it.
Standard Dutch is one of the official languages of the Netherlands, Belgium and the European Union. It was out of a West Germanic Lower Franconian dialect called Low German, but it also shares similarities with English and French as well. Often viewed as a cross between English and German, Dutch is considered as one of the easiest foreign languages for native English speakers to learn.
Dutch is commonly referred to as Nederlands, Netherlandic or Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands (ABN) which means "General Civilized Dutch". It is important not to confuse Dutch with Deutche as they are two different languages. The former is spoken by Dutch people while the latter is spoken by Germans.
Standard Dutch is used for public and official purposes including education in the schools and universities of Dutch speaking countries. The majority of film, music, books and other media utilizing the Dutch language, come from Netherlands and Belgium.
Dutch is spoken by nearly 30 million people as a first language and another 5 million as a second language. People who speak Dutch can be found in many countries, including:
NETHERLANDS - About 17 million Dutch speakers are found in the Netherlands alone.
BELGIUM (Flanders) - In Belgium, there are about 6 million Dutch (Flemish) speakers.
SURINAME - In Suriname, Dutch is the official language used in government business, media and education.
CANADA - There are 40,000 Dutch speakers in Canada, most of whom represent the older generations.
UNITED STATES - There are 4.5 million US Americans of Dutch descent. 140,000 of them speak Dutch.
INDONESIA - In Indonesia, Dutch is mainly spoken by the elder members of the population.
CARIBBEAN NETHERLANDS (Dutch Caribbean) - St. Eustatius Saba & Bonaire
NETHERLANDS ANTILLES - Curacao, Aruba, Sint Maarten
One of the most challenging things about speaking Dutch is the pronunciation of certain words. This ease with which one is able to achieve this helps to reveal whether or not they are a true native speaker. The language is often characterized by long words and many consonants. In fact, the longest word in Dutch is over 30 letters long. In business, Dutch communication tends to be direct but informal.
In its written form, Dutch is very monocentric, having a single standard form across the board. However when used verbally, it takes on about 30 dialectal variations. Popular Dutch dialects include: Flemish, Hollandic, Brabantian and Limburghish.
In Belgium alone (mostly the Dutch-speaking northern region called Flanders), nearly 6 million people speak a version of Dutch that they call Flemish , which serves as one of the country’s 3 official languages. Their communication style tends to be more formal than people in the Netherlands.
We handle the entire localization process for your Dutch to English or English to Dutch subtitling project, providing quality control from start to finish:
USA Studios offers the following services localized for American English and Dutch languages/dialects spoken around the world:
We provide multi-language subtitling/closed captioning for television programs, films, webcasts, podcasts, corporate and educational videos, e-learning courses, promo videos and many more.
USA Studios is proud to offer the most high-quality service for an affordable rate that companies of all sizes can afford. We have worked on every type of project so we’re experts at providing the most cost effective rates