Why is this called professional development rather than language learning?

Because the goal is not the language, it is what the language gives you back. Being able to speak Dutch at work means contributing in the meeting instead of nodding, being considered for the visible project, winning a Dutch client, or getting through a hiring process that lists Dutch as a requirement. The Dutch is the tool. The professional is the point.

What professional Dutch actually is

Q: What is professional Dutch?

Professional Dutch is the Dutch you need to work as the professional you already are. Not a separate vocabulary list of business words, but the ability to hold an adult conversation at your own level: to make a point in a meeting, disagree politely, give and receive feedback, say you are not sure yet, and explain what you know. Most people who need it already understand a great deal of Dutch. What they cannot do yet is produce it under pressure, in real time, in front of colleagues.

Professional Dutch is the Dutch you need to be yourself at work. That is the whole definition, and it is not the one most people expect.

When people hear professional Dutch they think of vocabulary. Words for invoices, meetings, deadlines, contracts. That part is real and it is also the easy part, because you can look up a word. What you cannot look up is the moment in the meeting where you have thirty seconds to say something useful, the colleague who asks what you think and means it, or the feedback conversation where the polite English version you had in mind does not exist in Dutch.

So here is the working definition I use with everyone I coach. Professional Dutch is the ability to hold an adult, intellectual conversation at your own level. Not a simplified version of you. You, at the level you already operate at in English, in Dutch.

The Dutch is the tool. The professional is the point.

What it actually asks of you

Five things, and none of them is grammar.

Making a point while the conversation is still moving. Not the perfect sentence afterwards, the useful sentence now. This is where most people lose the room, and it is the reason meetings are the hardest place to start.
Disagreeing, and being fine about it. Dutch working culture is direct in a way that catches many people off guard. Knowing the words for a disagreement is not the same as being able to have one without it feeling rude in either direction.
Giving and taking feedback. Both directions, both uncomfortable, both unavoidable if you want to be treated as a peer rather than as a guest.
Saying you are not sure yet. Uncertainty is a professional skill. In a second language most people avoid it entirely and either go silent or overclaim, and both read badly.
Explaining what you know. Your expertise did not shrink when you moved countries. But if you can only express it in English, half the room experiences you as someone with less to say.

Notice that none of that is about being correct. It is about being present. That is why another course will not fix it, and why understanding Dutch and speaking Dutch are two different things.

Why this is professional development, not language study

Almost nobody arrives here because they want to study a language. They arrive because their Dutch is standing between them and something specific.

A job they are qualified for, with one line in the advert that closes the door. A promotion that goes to the person who speaks in the meeting. A Dutch client who would have signed. A team that switched to Dutch after a reorganisation and never asked. In every one of those, the language is not the goal. The goal is the work, the role, the client, the seat at the table.

That is what makes this professional development. You are not learning Dutch for its own sake. You are removing the one thing that keeps a capable professional from being read as one.

What that looks like in practice

Professional Dutch is not one situation, it is a handful of recognisable ones. Each has its own logic and each has its own page.

Speaking in meetings, where the cost of staying quiet is that quiet slowly becomes a description of you.
Job applications and interviews, where the Dutch requirement in the advert usually means something different from what you assume.
A team that becomes Dutch speaking, where the company language is English but the corridor and the lunch table are not.
Winning Dutch clients, where your everyday Dutch holds up fine until the moment money is involved.
Staying in Dutch instead of switching back to English, which is the habit underneath all four of the others.

What it is not

It is not a business Dutch course with a chapter on telephone etiquette. It is not perfect grammar, and it is not waiting until your Dutch is good enough, which is the most expensive strategy available because every month of waiting is another month of being read as quieter than you are.

And it is not beginner work. This is for people who already understand a great deal, from A2 upwards, and who cannot yet produce it under pressure. If you are below that, the honest advice is to build a base first, and I will tell you so.

Where to build it

Speaking is the only part of a language that improves by doing it out loud, so that is where both of my products start.

The free Spreekwafel app is ten minutes a day, out loud, around real work situations, and it costs nothing at all. Spreekwafel Circle adds the part an app cannot give you: other professionals at your own level, a weekly speaking assignment with feedback, speaking circles, and a monthly masterclass with me. The group starts on 1 October 2026.

Not sure which one fits, or whether either does? Ask me, and I will tell you honestly.

Questions people ask about this

What is professional Dutch?

The Dutch you need to work as the professional you already are. Not a separate vocabulary list, but the ability to hold an adult conversation at your own level: to make a point in a meeting, disagree politely, give and receive feedback, say you are not sure yet, and explain what you know.

Is professional Dutch just workplace vocabulary?

No, and this is the most common misunderstanding. Vocabulary is the part you can look up. Tone, directness, timing and the nerve to speak before the sentence is perfect are the parts you cannot.

What level of Dutch do I need before this makes sense?

From A2 onwards. If you can read a Dutch email and follow most of a meeting, you already know more than you can say, and that gap is exactly what this work closes.

How is this different from a Dutch course?

A course teaches you the language. This is about producing it. Most people here have already done A2, B1, sometimes B2, and still go quiet in the corridor. Speaking is a separate skill and it only improves by speaking.

Why call it professional development rather than language learning?

Because the goal is not the language, it is what the language gives you back: the meeting, the role, the client, the seat at the table. The Dutch is the tool.

Written by Jacky van der Starre, who teaches professionals to speak the Dutch they already understand.