Treasure behind the treasure: Dutch Language Café

In this monthly feature, we highlight one of our entrepreneurs each time. This edition, we ask a few questions to Roben, the passionate owner of the Dutch Language Café on Herengracht. A fantastic spot in the city where international residents of The Hague can easily meet new people and learn the Dutch language in a relaxed, accessible way.

What a great place and such a cool concept! How did it come about?

I got the idea for the Dutch Language Café when I returned from a trip to Spain, where I learned Spanish simply by working in a bar for three months and talking to customers. Back in the Netherlands, I wanted to help others learn Dutch in the same way I had learned Spanish: by doing. Basically, just by taking part in fun activities together while speaking the language. At first, I organized these activities independently, but soon I felt it would be great to have a place of my own for it. That’s how the Dutch Language Café came to life.

Over time, it grew into what it is today: a true language café in The Hague, where you can drop in anytime to meet new people, play games, and practice Dutch (and other languages)!

What can you experience at the Dutch Language Café?

At its core, we’re just like any other café. You can come here for a coffee, something sweet, or even a light lunch. If you’re open to speaking Dutch with other visitors, you can pick up a little Dutch flag at the bar to place on your table.

We also organize plenty of activities, as you can see on our activities board. Think cozy game nights, pub quizzes, and bingo, but of course also events more focused on language. Every Thursday evening, we host a Language Exchange, featuring a language of the week and often an exchange of three to four languages in one night. It’s a lot of fun to join especially with the summer holidays coming up. There’s a good chance you’ll even pick up some of the language of your next travel destination!

Which fellow “treasure” do you visit regularly?

As it happens, my wife runs her concept store Always Summer, which is also one of the treasures. And with two kids and two businesses (we often joke that we actually have four children), you can probably imagine that we spend most of our time here and there!