[Gatac]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]Depends on what German dialect you're working with. Dutch is pretty close to so called "Platt", which is an older Northern German dialect. The similarities stem from the so-called Hanse, a pretty big trading company that dominated the Baltic seas for quite some time. On the other hand, modern German is essentially a streamlined Frankenstein of many different local dialects strung together into a halfway coherent monster. It is true that there are similarities, and if you happen to speak Platt, you can usually discern what somebody talking in Dutch is yapping about. On the other hand, most people don't speak Platt, so there.

People like Rudy Carrell or Linda De Mol, who are originally Dutch, have long been show icons here in Germany and been speaking German for decades, but you can still clearly hear their accent. I find it kinda cute, myself, but then, I'm one of those superior snotty central Germans who thinks that the Bavarians need to get a damn clue.

Ah, cultural diversity.

Gatac[/colorost_uid0]