If you approach someone in Dutch speaking with a (non-middle eastern) accent, people will switch to English without asking. It's horribly annoying really, learning the language (and thus really picking up the oh so important subtleties in professional and private life) is made really difficult this way.

People often explain it as kindness, but it's really just plain rude laziness: for many Dutch people, speaking slow and clear Dutch requires a lot more energy than upspeed English. Let alone listening to and trying to understand broken Dutch.