Nico Wijnberg began his work in economic development in The Netherlands as the Dutch government country specialist for Russia and Central Asia, particularly Kazakhstan. His job was to assist companies in their efforts to enter the Russian and Kazakhstani markets. In this position, it was important to not only stay aware of the ever-changing…

Documents the evolution of the Dutch and French languages. Policy and planning initiatives for both languages are discussed, and organizations responsible for planning initiatives for each language are described. (DJD)

A majority of the population of Friesland in the Netherlands can speak the Frisian language and over 90 percent can understand it. Frisian is spoken by 55 percent of the population but only 10 percent of the population claim to be fluent in writing Frisian. A brief review of the development of Frisian in education suggests that Frisian has a…

A discussion of public language policy formation focuses on the situation in the Netherlands and Europe. First, a number of considerations in the formation of second language instruction policy are reviewed, including determination of content, conditions of instruction, and languages to be taught. The Dutch national program for foreign language…