Don’t get me wrong: I, too, believe that as an educational establishment, we should fulfill an exemplary role. (Or, in dutchified English: Don’t get me wrong, also I find that the HR is an exemplary turd. That’s why many courses offer an English stream.)

However, what are you going to do if you’re a student who opted for Dutch-language education but who’s still forced to do everything in English because there happen to be a few exchange students in your class who, on top of everything, don’t speak English all that well themselves either? Things play out well often, but they quite frequently don’t. In those cases, discussions proceed in a difficult manner or fall silent because of the language impediment. Of course, you may expect that these students will give effort, but to what extent can you blame them if it’s really not working?

Just to be perfectly clear: besides a poor vocabulary or a lack of grammatical proficiency, there is also this thing called ‘cultural difference,’ which strongly colors the meaning of expressions. For example: if the Englishman says, “correct me if I’m wrong,” he means, ‘I’m very sure about this, so don’t you dare contradict me,’ whereas the Dutchman would interpret these words as, ‘he’s hesitating,’ and would feel tempted to start a debate.

A more fundamental objection lies in the question why we believe it’s necessary to put aside our own language and culture so easily and unquestioningly. Shouldn’t education be the support and protector of our culture, even if Dutch represents a small region?

Anyway, back to everyday education. What if communication is laborious because of the use of English? Well, then I let the importance of transferring information prevail, and I switch to Dutch. Just for a moment, by way of illustration. And I can tell you: it works excellently. So let’s not hang on to our English-language globalization dream by our fingernails. Because in practice, it’s not quite it just yet.