That's true for the country as a whole, but in Amsterdam lots of people don't even speak Dutch at all. It was a rather bizarre experience for me to go to a coffee place and order in my native language, only to get frowned upon—English only!
Perhaps the person you encountered was a recent migrant who hadn't mastered Dutch yet? The poor individual is probably just trying to earn an honest living in your country's increasingly globalized city.
I don't know if they were learning or not. They simply expected English. Nothing against that particular individual; my point is that in Amsterdam, English is the norm.
