Het Nederlands

While English speaking people may correctly use the term "Dutch" for the language group spoken in The Netherlands and parts of Belgium, France and Germany, the German commonly used "Holländisch" covers only a dialect in a certain region of The Netherlands. "Dutch"-speaking People from Belgium often like to call their idiom Flemish.

For someone with Germanic language roots already Standaardnederlands is rather simple to understand and learn. An online support you may find under: http://www.uitmuntend.de or http://www.dutchgrammar.com/. Compared to Hochdeutsch it appears a lively and modern language. You will have fun coming to know with it. 

To complete this little information one should add that it is spoken also outside the European region we are concentrating on here. Suriname, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles have it among their official languages. In Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the U.K. and the U.S.A one can also find a significant number of speakers.