Are businesspeople from the Benelux nodding in agreement during international meetings while missing crucial parts of the conversation?
This is what DeepL, a Cologne-based language AI company, has found in its new survey released on Tuesday.
Despite Belgians' good command of English, the hidden financial and productivity costs of language barriers at Belgian and Dutch companies were made apparent in this new survey.
Most striking was the finding about Belgian professionals feeling excluded because of native English speakers.
In the survey, 76% of professionals in the Benelux said that native English speakers unintentionally exclude colleagues by speaking too quickly, using idioms and making cultural references that not everyone understands.
Nearly half (46%) of Belgian C-level managers (or C-suite, meaning CEO, COO, etc) admitted to staying silent during international meetings so as not to appear incompetent.
When asking both Belgian and Dutch companies, 99% said they experience commercial consequences due to language-related misunderstandings.
For Belgian respondents, these include: missing out on sales deals (40%), loss of customers (36%) and delayed product launches (34%). Dutch respondents responded very similarly – within a three-percentage-point margin.
As many as 43% of Belgian professionals admit that friction caused by language barriers has led them to misunderstand their company’s strategy.
Credit: Unsplash
"Everyone assumes that professionals in the Benelux have a good command of English, but this research exposes the hidden costs for Belgian and Dutch companies," said Jarek Kutylowski, CEO and founder of DeepL.
"The findings highlight how language anxiety can limit business collaboration and effectiveness, whilst also raising genuine concerns that Benelux business teams nod in agreement during international meetings whilst missing parts of the conversation," Kutylowski added.
These language anxieties can also harm internal business operations, according to the survey: 71% of Belgian employees regularly leave international meetings without having grasped crucial points, technical details or important decisions.
Furthermore, an almost identical percentage of respondents say they speak less during multilingual meetings (40% in the Netherlands / 39% in Belgium), whilst a further 39% in the Netherlands and 38% in Belgium avoid expressing complex ideas altogether because they struggle to put them into words.
In the survey, respondents were asked to estimate the amount of lost revenue. Around 60% of respondents reported losing more than €50,000 annually due to communication problems. Nearly a quarter reported a financial loss of more than €100,000.
Best non-native speakers
These findings are remarkable, as Belgium and Flanders particularly rank among the best non-native English-speaking regions in the world.
Belgium ranks 9th in the world for English proficiency, according to EF’s annual ranking. But no other single region achieved a better score than Flanders in the 2025 ranking.
Furthermore, Leuven, Ghent, Antwerp, Hasselt and Brussels (in that order) were found to be the most proficient English-speaking cities in Belgium last year. As it does each year, the Netherlands ranked 1st in the world for non-native English proficiency.
The DeepL survey was conducted by Censuswide from 7 to 18 May 2026 amongst 600 business professionals aged 25 and over, equally divided between the Netherlands and Belgium.
