NT2 (pronounce ‘en tea two’) – we all use this abbreviation, many of us not knowing what it means. Full name- ‘Nederlands als Tweede Taal’, which means ‘Dutch as a second language’.
Native speakers of Dutch speak NT1 (pronounce ‘en tea one’), meaning ‘Dutch as a first language’. So anyone who has a mother tongue different from Dutch and who studies Dutch, studies NT2, Dutch as a second language – even if it is his third, fourth or seventh language.
By the way – what’s ‘diploma NT2’ ? The answer is simple: it does not exist. This word was used before 2000 by students who had passed the Staatsexamen NT2. In those times we had only one State Exam – nowadays we have two. ‘Staatsexamen NT2 programma I’ is the name for the state exam NT2 on level B1 and ‘Staatsexamen NT2 programma II’ is the name for the state Exam NT2 on level B2.
