Dutch isn't that hard.

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Nooduitgang vrijhouden = keep emergency exit clear. Not at all similar, is it? Let's see. Nood is related to need, uit -> out, gang is a noun related to gaan -> go. Likewise ingang is a thing that goes in, an entrance. Vrij -> free, houden -> hold; in some Dutch dialects it's actually hold. Easy peasy ;)
 
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‘Gaan’ for ‘go’ is effectively the same as ‘gan’ used in the north east of England. And a teacher of mine used to say “good bread and good cheese is good English and good Fries” (i.e. from Friesland, not a fried potato product).
 
I know it, I used to play one a lot! I had/have a couple of Susatos in D and C.
Oh, so you never went into WhOAD (whistle GAS) ;) I have a couple dozen from my wild times with them - they have the advantage of not being all that expensive ... The little Clarke Celtic is my "bang for the buck" champ, though - such a nice little tool (even though I managed to ruin the lacquer somehow - but who cares ...).

M.
 
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That's because we all know the average person in your neck of the woods can speak about 5 languages, unlike us English.
I can probably speak 5 languages. Hmmm, there's English . . . I took 5 years of Francais and can remember such important things as "My name is Tony" and "Where is the Loo?"; I can count to 5 in Spanish; I know about 3 curse words in German; and I even know a few Russian words. So yep, there's 5 languages. :D
 
J. Robert Oppenheimer knew many different languages. One time, a colleague asked him for a recommendation for a good quantum mechanics text. Oppenheimer made a suggestion, and the colleague went off to get the book. He returned the following day and complained “The book is in dutch!” Oppenheimer replied, “but it’s such easy Dutch”.
 
I don't know Dutch, nor do I know German, but there's a Youtube channel by Dana Newman and her German husband called "Wanted Adventure", where she talks about Germany from an American perspective. More than once did she say that looooooooong words are very common in German since you can just make them by connecting individual words, the same way "Nooduitgang vrijhouden" is formed.
 
I was visiting Panama on a business trip back in 2014, and one afternoon I was walking in the street looking for an English speaking restaurant by looking at their signs, not that I didn't think someone working at a restaurant could speak some English but I just wanted to be more confident communicating. So when I found this place the only thing I knew on the menu was pizza, there were fruit pizza, veg pizza, some kind of meat pizza pictured and then there was the one I was fairly certain I could pronounce, so I went ahead and pronounced "Combination, questa pizza, combination, combination..." I don't remember how many times I said that but finally he understood, "Ah! Combinación!"
 
Always remember the bloke in the the Italian cafe at Marylebone (Don Giovanni's - now that's not some made up name is it) shouting down the phone to one of his suppliers "Smettila! Basta così! Attento a come parli! Non mi stai ascoltando! Sono sconvolto! Non sono affari tuoi! Come ti pare!". He then shook his head, put the phone down then said in the most genuine London accent "bloody hell" cue laughter from everyone.
 
That's because we all know the average person in your neck of the woods can speak about 5 languages, unlike us English.
That's a little optimistic :). A lot of people speak some sort of English and a little German because it's so close to Dutch and also because we Dutch can make money off German tourists :). I'm old enough (65) to have had to learn English, German and French in high school, and later I added some Italian and a veeerrry little bit of Finnish. I like other languages as you can tell, but most people don't and it's rare these days that a younger Dutchman speaks French for instance.
 
I remember visiting Bruges many years ago, and I used French to order some snack or other from a stand in the GroteMarkt. The teenage girls who were serving thought it was hilarious that their colleague answered me in French, she was obviously considered as being very grand.
 
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