ik spreek nederlands

In commercials on Dutch tv, whenever there is music with lyrics, its sung in English. The voiceover is always in Dutch, but the song is in English. (The only exception to this is the sex hotline jingles, which are always in Dutch.) The music playing in shops or on the radio is usually in English, and once and a while the shop-person or customer will sing along. I wonder why so much music is made in English, or why its so popular.

I managed to find a Dutch DIY language course (on cassette, now I just have to find something to play it on), but it was difficult. I can't think of a more useless language to learn, since all the Dutch speak English, and they don't speak Dutch anywhere else in the world (besides parts of Belgium, the Netherlands Antilles and Suriname). But it will be useful to me, just to be able to read the side of a box of rice or instructions for a children's card game. I don’t know how much I can learn in the limited time I'm here, but if I can just learn enough to get by I'll be happy. I do have the whole total emersion thing going for me. Except for the music on the tv commercials and the American sitcoms (Alf, the Nanny, Aly McBeal, bleh!), the English books in the bookshops and the restaurants with 2 menus. We will see.