Learn how to ask for the bill at a restaurant and decide how much to tip
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to DutchPod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 11 - How Much Should You Tip in the Netherlands? Eric here. |
| Jacob: Hallo. I'm Jacob. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you will learn how to discuss the bill, tips, and payment at restaurants. The conversation takes place in a restaurant. |
| Jacob: It's between Tina and her English friend Bill. |
| Eric: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal Dutch. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Tina: Vond je het Nederlandse eten lekker? |
| Bill: Ja heerlijk! Hoe doen jullie dat hier met betalen? |
| Tina: Meestal delen we alles. |
| Bill: Is het niet gek als ik een vrouw laat meebetalen? |
| Tina: Nee hoor, in Nederland kan dat. |
| Bill: En hoe doen jullie dat met fooi, en service, etc. |
| Tina: Service is inclusief, maar fooi wordt wel van je verwacht. |
| Bill: Hoeveel ongeveer? |
| Tina: Ongeveer 15 procent. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Tina: Did you enjoy the Dutch food? |
| Bill: Oh yes, delicious. What about paying? How do you go about it? |
| Tina: Usually we all pay together. We share. |
| Bill: Won't people think it’s strange if I let a woman pay as well? |
| Tina: No, in Holland that's perfectly accepted. |
| Bill: And what about tips and service charges, and so on? |
| Tina: Service is included, but you're expected to tip. |
| Bill: About how much? |
| Tina: About 15 percent. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Jacob, how much of a tip should I leave in the Netherlands? |
| Jacob: Generally we give about 15% as a tip. |
| Eric: What if I was really pleased with the service? |
| Jacob: In that case, you can bump it up to 20%. |
| Eric: I see. Regardless of the quality of service, tips are a must, right? |
| Jacob: Yes, that’s right. If you have a meal at a Dutch restaurant, make sure you leave your server a tip, unless the service was really bad. |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Jacob: eten [natural native speed] |
| Eric: food |
| Jacob: e-ten [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: eten [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: heerlijk [natural native speed] |
| Eric: delicious |
| Jacob: heer-lijk [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: heerlijk [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: betalen [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to pay |
| Jacob: be-ta-len [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: betalen [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: meebetalen [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to participate (in paying) |
| Jacob: mee-be-ta-len [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: meebetalen [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: delen [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to share |
| Jacob: de-len [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: delen [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: service [natural native speed] |
| Eric: service |
| Jacob: ser-vi-ce [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: service [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: inclusief [natural native speed] |
| Eric: including |
| Jacob: in-clu-sief [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: inclusief [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: ongeveer [natural native speed] |
| Eric: about, approximately |
| Jacob: on-ge-veer [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: ongeveer [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last is.... |
| Jacob: gek [natural native speed] |
| Eric: strange |
| Jacob: gek [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: gek [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Jacob: Is het niet gek? |
| Eric: Which means "Isn't it strange?" If you aren’t familiar with Dutch culture, you might be wondering why Bill used this phrase. |
| Jacob: Right. In the dialogue, Bill literally asked Is het niet gek? because he thought that letting a woman pay seemed strange. |
| Eric: But that’s common in the Netherlands, right? |
| Jacob: Yes, it is. By the way, in this phrase we have the word gek, which literally means "lunatic," but can be used in other ways too. For example, it just means “silly” in the sentence Dat staat een beetje gek |
| Eric: “That looks a bit silly.” |
| Jacob: Or you can use it as a figure of speech to mean “crazy,” as in..Hij werkt als een gek |
| Eric: “He works like crazy.” Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Jacob: Ongeveer 15% |
| Eric: meaning "About 15%" |
| Jacob: The structure is simple. Ongeveer is for “about”, or “approximately” and then we have vijftien procent for 15%. |
| Eric: And there’s a way to say it formally, right? |
| Jacob: Right, to make it a bit more formal, you can say Om en nabij de 15%. It means "15% or so." |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Jacob: Sure. For example, you can say.. Hij is ongeveer 15% langer dan ik. |
| Eric: .. which means "He's about 15% taller than I am." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Jacob: Nee hoor. |
| Eric: meaning "Oh no." |
| Jacob: Nee of course means "No," and is followed by hoor, which is like “oh” or “very” in English, and is used to emphasize things. |
| Eric: In this case, it emphasizes that there’s nothing to worry about, giving it a positive connotation. |
| Jacob: Another example of its use is in the phrase leuk hoor. The word leuk means “funny,” so the phrase means something along the lines of “Oh, it’s so funny.” |
| Eric: Okay. How can we use it in a real situation? |
| Jacob: For example, you can say.. Saai? Nee hoor, ik vind het heel leuk. |
| Eric: Which means "Boring? Oh no, I like it very much." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to discuss the bill, tips, and payment at restaurants in Dutch. The method of paying the bill seems to be different in every culture. In some countries, for example, it would be extremely bad manners to have a woman pay for a meal, but In Holland nowadays no one raises an eyebrow if a woman pays, or if a man and woman each pay their own share. |
| Jacob: That’s right. Now that you have a bit of background information, we can move on to the phrases. Let’s review some phrases that we had in the dialogue. |
| Eric: After a lunch or dinner at a restaurant, you’ll often hear this expression. |
| Jacob: Hoe doen jullie dat hier met betalen? |
| Eric: It means “What do we do about payment?” |
| Jacob: The first part of the phrase, Hoe doen jullie dat hier met, is a frequently used expression that inquires about the protocol for how something works or how something is done. This is then followed by betalen, which means “payment.” |
| Eric: This statement is slightly informal, right? In more formal situations, what can we say? |
| Jacob: You can say.. Wat zijn de regels voor…? instead. It means “What are the rules for…?” |
| Eric: So if you want to ask “What do we do about payment?” formally, you can say.. |
| Jacob: Wat zijn de regels voor betalen? |
| Eric: “What do we do about payment?” or literally “What are the rules for payment?” |
| Jacob: In the Netherlands, it’s common to “go Dutch” or share the bill. |
| Eric: That was referenced by Tina in the dialogue when she said “Usually we share everything,” right? |
| Jacob: Yes, she said Meestal delen we alles, which means “Usually we share everything.” You can use the word Delen to mean “to share” or “to go Dutch.” |
| Eric: So if you want to say.. “Let’s share” or “Let’s go Dutch,” you can say.. |
| Jacob: Laten we delen. |
| Eric: Sharing the bill is very common in the Netherlands, so you don’t have to worry about paying for everything. |
| Jacob: Also, don’t feel like you need to pay for a woman’s meal if you’re a man! |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Jacob: Tot Ziens! |
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