Is the form "double Dutch" still used?

I'm looking for a way to say that something it is really difficult, like when you start learning a new language, or reading something that you are not familiar with and there are terms that you never heard before. I found this "double Dutch", but not sure if it is still used or substituted by doublespeak or double talk.

The sentence is

[...]better understand all the "technical" terms that sometimes sound double Dutch.

I'm wondering if I should add like:

sound like double Dutch.

From the comment (thanks @Phill Healey): Adding 'like' would make it a literal statement, and thus mean something that had the same phonics as 'double Dutch' So for example 'bubble hutch' would "sound like" 'double Dutch' as opposed to something which is not-understood.

edit: Do the words gobbledygook OR gibberish make more sense for what I want to say?

Solution 1:

Double Dutch is an expression which I still hear from time to time, but I would say it used less frequently now than it once was. I have always taken it to be synonymous with expressions such as It's all Greek to me. I am absolutely not familiar with the idea of double Dutch being synonymous with double talk, although some online dictionaries do indicate that this is the case. That said, the dictionary entry for double talk to which I have linked here would seem to suggest that this latter term is used to refer to deliberately opaque or misleading speech.

Solution 2:

I heard the phrase “double Dutch” often growing up—but never in the sense you have here. I didn’t know it ever had that meaning until just now.

Rather, “double Dutch” to me refers exclusively to a form of jump rope, with two ropes being swung simultaneously. This was popular in the playgrounds of New York City at least as recently as my childhood (call it fifteen years ago, last time I had playground recess), and I imagine it still is. The linked Wikipedia page mentions it having become a varsity sport in New York City public schools in 2009.

On this basis alone, I suspect that this usage would confuse a lot of Americans, or at least New Yorkers, in your audience.

Solution 3:

The Online Etymology Dictionary gives us this information about Dutch (emphasis added):

Since c. 1600, Dutch (adj.) has been a "pejorative label pinned by English speakers on almost anything they regard as inferior, irregular, or contrary to 'normal' (i.e., their own) practice" [Rawson]. E.g. Dutch treat (1887), Dutch uncle (1838), etc. -- probably exceeded in such usage only by Indian and Irish -- reflecting first British commercial and military rivalry and later heavy German immigration to U.S.

So be aware that the term has a potentially offensive connotation. Although this offensiveness has been lost over time, the origin remains less than friendly.

I first came across this concept when looking up why a Dutch oven is so-called, and have since only referred to as a cast-iron camp oven or similar.

Likewise, as stated in a comment, the only context where I have ever heard the phrase Double Dutch, is that of rope jumping.

Solution 4:

I've heard 'Double Dutch' throughout my 60 years and still do from time to time. It always has the one meaning: incomprehensible gibberish; the speaker's intention doesn't matter but the listener doesn't understand.

'Doublespeak' I've never met, though it sounds very like Orwell's 'doublethink', meaning the ability to comfortably hold in the mind two contradictory thoughts at the same time.

'Double talk' always and still means nonsense, perhaps grammatically correct but in the end semantically worthless, with the sole intent of misleading the audience; we might call 'double talk' something like 'jargon squared'.