10 things you probably didn’t know about the Dutch and the Netherlands

I lived in the Netherlands for a couple of years, and had a Dutch boyfriend for almost 4 years, so I know quite a bit about this quirky country and its unusual inhabitants (and I mean that in a good way). I’m going to share some pearls of wisdom about the Dutch and their country that I gleaned during my stay, and limit it to 10 because I could easily write 100 and bore you to death. Hope you enjoy.

1. Holland and the Netherlands are not synonymous. Holland is just one section of the Netherlands, largely the western coastal region, including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Haarlem, Leiden and the Hague. However, other famous Dutch cities like Utrecht, Groningen, Maastricht, Den Bosch and Leeuwarden are *not* in Holland.

2. The Dutch love sprinkles on toast. I’m talking the sprinkles kids put on ice cream, but Dutch adults put it on bread. For breakfast. It’s called “hagelslag”, and De Ruijter makes the best kinds. Another variant, “muisjes” – little mice – are candied anise seeds; also delicious on buttered toast. You can get either pink, female, or blue, male, varieties. I’m not joking.

3. The Dutch will only eat one hot meal a day. If you arrive at a Dutch friend’s house around dinnertime, they might ask, “Heb je al warm gegeten?” which means “Have you eaten something hot already?” If you had a hot lunch, your friend will prepare a (cold) sandwich for you for dinner. You can not eat 2 hot meals per day.

4. Dutch “g” “ch” and “r” are all pronounced more or less the same (although the Dutch insist they’re different) – a harsh, guttural “kh” sound (like you’re clearing phlegm from your throat). So the word “gracht” (canal) combines all three “kh” sounds in one word…that sounds really, really awful: “khkhakht.” This is why “Grolsch” (the beer) sounds like “Khkhols”, not “grolsh”.

5. The Dutch love speaking English. See #4. Seriously, they all speak perfect, although heavily-accented, English. They will pronounce “idea” eye-DEE, and they will resist pronouncing it with 3 syllables in English, no matter how many times you correct them. On a related note, “I have no idea” is “geen idee”, which sounds a little like “rainy day” when pronounced correctly.

6. The Dutch loathe the Germans. Some pretend they don’t, some are openly proud of it, but they all look down on them. An example: I was walking along a beach (Schevengingen) with a Dutch guy, and we saw a guy furiously digging a hole in the sand. My Dutch friend sneered. I asked him why the guy was digging a hole. He said, “Because he’s a dumb German.” I pressed, but what for? Is he building a castle or something? “No, he’s just a stupid German! He can’t help it! The morons just love digging holes for no reason!”
Another story. A Norwegian friend flew down to Germany, rented a car there and drove to Rotterdam. He had parked on the street, and a cop approached him while he was in his car, and told him, in German, that he wasn’t allowed to park there and began writing him a ticket. When he looked at his driver’s license and saw he was Norwegian, he tore up the ticket, said, “Park wherever you want” and “Welcome to Holland!”, all in English.

7. The country is drenched with rain year round, but the Dutch never use umbrellas. They use raincoats and rain “suits”, but they never use umbrellas (too hard to ride your bicycle with one; plus, it’s *really* windy all the time). The Dutch will happily put up with wet faces and heads. The “wet look” is permanently “in” there.
Another oddity is no matter how much it rains and floods temporarily, all the water’s gone in about 20 minutes. I think it’s because the ground is mostly sand; the water just drains away. The cement blocks used as a road surface are taken out every few years, the sandy ground is pounded flat with this sand-pounding-machine (seriously) and then they replace the cement blocks.

8. The Dutch have strange snacking habits. They eat fries (what they’re famous for) but they’re often drenched in mayonnaise or pindasaus (basically spicy peanut butter). They also love frikandel (all the scary remnant parts of animals they can’t sell elsewhere, pressed into a vaguely hotdog shape, and then deep-fried until dark brown; yes, it looks like a piece of shit), kroketten (deep-fried lumps of dough wrapped around meat, that look like dried-up old turds), and cheese souffles, which are greasy but I have to admit, pretty damn tasty. The most famous purveyor of this junk is a chain called Febo; you buy everything out of an automat. They’re everywhere, especially inside train stations, and open late when you’re coming out of the clubs at 3am.

9. You heard about the Dutch using free bicycles provided by the government? Nope – that’s the Danish. The Dutch love using bicycles (called ‘fietsen’, pronounced FEETS-un), but in every city, theft is rife and you have to use 2-3 locks to prevent even a piece of shit bike from being stolen. This is why the average Dutch person doesn’t spend more than $50 for a bike – it’ll eventually get stolen. Junkies in the Amsterdam red light district will sell you a bike for 10 euros (25 guilders before the euro changeover), but be careful; if you buy one and a cop sees you, you go to jail.
There are specially-designated “fietspaden” (bike paths) all over the country, and pedestrians can not walk on them. If you hear a bell ringing–that’s how the Dutch tell people to get out of the way–then pay attention! You’re about to get mowed over.

10. The Dutch are not big potheads. Despite it being legal there (along with “magic mushrooms”), you almost never see a Dutch person getting high. You see TONS of foreigners – Brits, Americans, Germans, etc – smoking out in Dutch “coffee shops” (“coffee shop” means marijuana; “cafe” means coffee, so pay attention to what the establishment calls itself), but it’s pretty rare to see a Dutch person there. The legalization is tied to a very Dutch concept called “gedoogbeleid” which is difficult to translate but means permissiveness-because-there-are-bigger-fish-to-fry. The Dutch live below sea level, so they have plenty of dams & dikes keeping the water out. To relieve pressure on this system, a little water always trickles through – that’s okay as long as they can keep the floods out. This is often why the Dutch are said to not care about trivial drugs like marijuana and magic mushrooms – so they can focus on hard drugs like cocaine and meth (which are very much illegal).

There’s my list. Let me add something that I found in a tourist brochure given out at the Schiphol (SKHIP-hull, not Shiffol!) airport, which I think totally captures the Dutch attitude (I’m paraphrasing because I don’t have it here):

Please keep in mind that not all of the women you see in the windows in the Red Light District are really women.
If something bad happens to you, please find a policeman/policewoman and explain the situation to us. Please do not be embarrassed – we have really seen it all before. You couldn’t possibly shock us.

Comments (262)

262 Comments »

I just wanted to mention that the fries are more a thing of Belgium, not the Dutch.

You missed out one important part about the Dutch and eating culture: they love having “boterhammen met kaas” (loafs of bread with cheese) topped with peanut butter or jam.

It’s a great story, keep up the good job and maybe see you again in the Netherlands.

Michelangelo

Comment by Michelangelo van Dam — July 31, 2008 @ 8:40 am
Michelangelo: You’re right; patat has its origins in Belgium, but they’re still ridiculously popular in NL.

I definitely left out some of the other Dutch culinary items like boterhammen met kaas, met ham, poffertjes, stroopwaffels, tosti’s, etc. and my FAVORITE: komijnekaas! (I’ve been able to find it here every now and then.)

Love the Netherlands – look forward to visiting it again.

Comment by JM — July 31, 2008 @ 10:19 am
Nice

Comment by nice — July 31, 2008 @ 11:41 am
Erhm, i’m from Holland and i’m quite sure there’s no difference between The Netherlands and Holland. The zone you refer to is called ‘De randstad’.

Comment by Jape — August 29, 2008 @ 11:31 am
I hate to have to do this, you being a Dutchman and all, but de Randstad only refers to the the cluster of Amsterdam, the Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht (the last *not* in Holland) and their surrounding areas.

Holland is composed of the provinces of Noord Holland and Zuid Holland, and most definitely does not include Utrecht, Groningen, Leeuwarden, etc.

Substantial overlap but not the same things.

Comment by JM — August 29, 2008 @ 12:21 pm
Well, i suppose you’re right. Maybe you should add an item about the poor education over here.

Comment by Jape — August 29, 2008 @ 12:31 pm
Haha, I would, but that would be terribly hypocritical (I’m American).

Comment by JM — August 29, 2008 @ 12:35 pm
And the Dutch are notoriously anal, as the last couple of posts prove.

Comment by ubidubi — August 29, 2008 @ 12:42 pm
What’s up with all the Dutch not knowing their own country? Their education is truly really, really poor. I once had to do the same to some exchange student named Amcke, she thought she was really smart. But she had no idea Holland was not the same as the Netherlands, even though she was Dutch.
But then again, it may just be because I’m German and thus superior.

Comment by I hate Amcke — August 29, 2008 @ 12:54 pm
Okay, I’m a little biased. I’m Belgian, living just across the dutch border. Let’s get some things clear. First: fries are a Belgian thing. There is no such thing as GOOD dutch fries. I’m not going to say we invented them. Go to Belgium and ask a local about a GOOD frietkot (as we call them). Success guaranteed. Second. Holland is NOT The Netherlands. Those who say it is, are the real ‘Holland’ dutch. Stay away from them. (well, most of them…) But DO visit Friesland, Noord-Brabant, Drenthe, Limburg (a favorite!), … Third. Good beer? Just a couple of miles south…

Comment by Bram — August 29, 2008 @ 1:21 pm
Well, number 6 would certainly explain a lot. My former boss is Dutch (and spoke with a heavy accent, ja?) and every time I wore the ‘Germany’ T-shirt I bought at EPCOT, he gave me merciless grief. I expect some of that comes from being occupied during WWII…(quite possible he was old enough to remember).
Thanks for a great post

Comment by Phred — August 29, 2008 @ 1:51 pm
Wikipedia knows all (and if not, correct it!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland

Comment by BK — August 29, 2008 @ 2:45 pm
Hey , I’m Mexican and i want to say your article was superfluous.

Can’t wait to go there. I’ve been in Europe before, but I’ve never stayed for living on the Neads, it seems to be a pretty good life experience… maybe I will travel there next year.

It seems the only problem is the language.

Comment by Esteban — August 29, 2008 @ 3:44 pm
Please give more – I have Dutch friends – this is an insight to them!!!

Comment by Maggie — August 29, 2008 @ 4:17 pm
What about droppies?

Comment by Gary — August 29, 2008 @ 4:44 pm
The sprinkles were noteworthy on my voyage to Amsterdam.
Great article~

Comment by Nanook — August 29, 2008 @ 4:52 pm
This article is full of B.S. Thumbs down.

Comment by kasssoufle — August 29, 2008 @ 5:47 pm
what about the pancakes! When I lived in Amsterdam i could not get enough. Also, going to a dutch birthday party is one of the most awkward things in the world if you don’t know ‘the rules’.

Comment by MissingNL — August 29, 2008 @ 5:55 pm
Fascinating stuff.

The thing that struck me most about Amsterdam, last time I was there, (August Bank Holiday 2005) while sitting out on the pavement somewhere near the Dam, and getting very pleasantly stoned, was “Where are the sirens?”

Actually this train of thought was triggered by a siren. I suddenly realised it was the first siren I’d heard since we arrived about 5 hours earlier. This was about half ten on a Friday night in a European town with a population of about half a million(?). If I’d been in ANY British town of more than one fifth that population at that time, the evening would have be a continuous chorus of sirens.

From Friday night to Monday Night on a very hot weekend (which meant that there were a lot of people on the streets and out late) in Amsterdam, I heard just 5 sirens. I have no idea whether that is typical, whether it’s due to some special anti noise laws they have or what. But the impression I got was that it reflected the low number of incidents which justified a siren in the first place. It was certainly impressive.

Apart from the stolen bikes, have you any idea of the relative crime rates in NL (v UK) and are you aware of any good sources of data. My working hypothesis is that Cannabis – when it’s not treated psychotically by the State – reduces rather than increases overall crime and Amsterdam is a living experiment to test that empirically. But I can’t seem to find a definitive data source…

Comment by Harry Stottle — August 29, 2008 @ 5:56 pm
hi
im not dutch but i life in holland for over 10 years (i´m 13)
um they changed the frikandel they dont put any cow intestins and oher rests in it animore mostly i’ts jjust pig in it so you dont have to worry

you forgot to ad that pannekoekenhuizen “pankakehouses”
are veryvery popular

and the education is very we compared to in america ^^
and holland is the same as the netherlands
de fries “patat” are not detched in mayonase

Comment by chloe — August 29, 2008 @ 6:07 pm
i’m french and english

Comment by chloe — August 29, 2008 @ 6:09 pm
i couldve sworn marijuana and shrooms were illegal, but the authorities just didnt care…

Comment by james — August 29, 2008 @ 7:04 pm
they make a misery to indonesian… thousand miles away from they are, now…
http://tinyurl.com/5syzsu for 350 years of time…
looting, torturing….
http://tinyurl.com/oy58g
something that you SHOULD NOT forget!

Comment by jerky_holland — August 29, 2008 @ 7:27 pm
This was a really interesting read. So nice to find something like this about a country I didn’t know much about.

Comment by Rhonda — August 29, 2008 @ 8:18 pm
I’m dutch-Indonesian (born in Canada) please explain further the “issue” with Indonesia….My Oma never mentioned any racism towards her.

Comment by Lauren — August 29, 2008 @ 9:28 pm
I’m married to a Dutch gal. They do like their drop (licorice). The average Dutch person eats five pounds of it a year, but my sweetie eats about twenty. You’re right about animosity toward Germans. Many familys were affected badly by German attrocities during the occupation. A visitor to the Netherlands may feel they’ve entered the land of giants. They’re the tallest people on Earth. It’s not unusual to see a six foot two Dutch girl walking down the street in highheel boots.

Comment by Frank — August 29, 2008 @ 9:41 pm
Well, it seems you don’t know so much about Holland as you claim to do.

Firstly, hemp (weed, grass, dope, wiet) is NOT legal in the Netherlands. Anyone who has lived in the country long enough knows this. Tourists don’t know this.

Weed (the stuff sold in the coffee shops) is “tolerated”, but not legal. There is a tolerance amendment in the Opium Act regarding this.

And secondly, the Dutch don’t “hate” the Germans as you claim. This statement I find very racist. Like with any nationality, it depends on the person not on where they come from.

Next time, get your facts straight. I found your article not never well written.

t.

Comment by tim — August 29, 2008 @ 11:30 pm
What a civilized society.

Comment by tommy — August 29, 2008 @ 11:54 pm
[...] 10 things you didn’t know about the Dutch and the Neterlands [...]

Pingback by krekola » Bloggarkiv » Några ord om människorna här — August 30, 2008 @ 12:17 am
[...] things you probably didn’t know about the Dutch and the Netherlands. But now you’re [...]

Pingback by The Fine Art of Eccentricity · Okay, you light it and I’ll hit it with this bat. *BOOM!* AUGH! — August 30, 2008 @ 12:18 am
About the kh (ch/g/r); that’s just their accent; and definitely not the language. In Flanders (that’s the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) we pronounce them quite differently and distinctive, and no horrible kh sounds…
Although I guess we make are own pronunciation “mistakes” (for my region that would be using the “french r” instead of the “rolling r”, pronouncing double vowels as single and pronouncing the I sound to sharp…)

And then there’s the slight difference in vocabulary. For example the word “poepen” has quite a different meaning in these two Dutch speaking regions…

Comment by Lieven — August 30, 2008 @ 1:24 am
I’m really curious why Dutch hate the Germans so much.
The languages sound so similar…..

Comment by matelot — August 30, 2008 @ 1:45 am
So, why are ‘patat frites’, originating in Belgium indeed, being called ‘french fries’ by the anglo-saxons?

Comment by velijn — August 30, 2008 @ 2:55 am
To someone who understood neither German or Dutch it may well sound like American English vs British English, but modern German evolved quite differently and there were constonant and vowel shifts which made words that were otherwise spelt similarly, sound quite different.

I’d say Dutch is half way between English and German and they all have alot in common – a common example:

Wasser pronounced ‘vasser’ in German
Water pronounced ‘vaater’, note the t and long a in dutch.
Water in english (bless the shocking phonetics, pronounced ‘waugh-ter’, I can’t even begin to explain it.)

Amusingly the Swiss who speak a form of German sound like they have a Dutch accent to my ears!

also on point 5) Dutch speaking English – I think their accent is influenced by an American one due to their television consumption – But I suspect their English is more internationally understandable than most spoken by English people in England.

Also, as for the behaviour of colonial powers in past centuries, can anyone honestly cite an example of perfect behaviour ? The Belgians, Portuguese, French, English, Italians etc all left huge problems in their land-grabbing wake, behaved callously and disenfranchised huge numbers of people. If you’re going to pick on the Dutch at least mention the rest.

The Dutch are an exceptionally tolerant society now. I haven’t met any truly racist Dutch – there are some more against immigration than others though, and I’m sure there are some burn-them-all racists as well, as you find both types hidden away under every country’s bed.

Comment by alext — August 30, 2008 @ 3:14 am
The animosity for the Germans comes from a bitter rivalry in soccer. The Germans always win.

The definition of “Holland” differs from person to person, but oficially it’s the region comprised of Noord Holland and Zuid Holland. Still, no Dutchman is going to tell you off for calling all the the Netherlands “Holland”.

About the legality of weed: You can sell it, but you are not allowed to grow it.

Comment by vidar — August 30, 2008 @ 3:17 am
Having had the privilege of staying in a few Dutch homes when holidaying in the Netherlands, I would like to say that all the families ALWAYS had umbrellas(7), and I even managed to ride a bike using one when needed.

Comment by Brian — August 30, 2008 @ 3:49 am
Never been there before, but you sure give a good picture of it.

I wasn’t really interested in this country before but now I’ve read your post, I might have a go one of these days.

Thank you very much for this discovery.

Comment by axelle akermann (from france) — August 30, 2008 @ 4:26 am
Hi, I’m Dutch, and would like to explain a bit. I really liked this article, because you are mostly very right, and it is interesting to see what other people think of our culture.

The blue and pink “muisjes” are a tradionally treat, when sprinkled on “beschuit” ( a sort of biscuit, often used as breakfast). When a child is born, the parents often serve “beschuit met muisjes”, and of course, that’s where the colors are for.

And the reason that the Dutch don’t really like Germans, is that some of them are very rude as tourists. They often refuse to speak anything but German (they exspect the same from you when you are there) , and they are known for digging huge holes at the beach. The “hate” for Germans is also a remnant of WW II for some older people.

And about the term “Holland”, that is indeed the name of the two western provinces ( Noord-Holland & Zuid-Holland) combined, but most of the people use it as a nickname for the whole Netherlands.

Comment by Steak — August 30, 2008 @ 5:08 am
Here in Belgium it’s the same, the youth (and I’m one of them) thinks it’s cool to keep shitting on the Germans “to take revenge for the World War”, we all do it in here!

Comment by belgian brewer — August 30, 2008 @ 5:30 am
hi,
i wanted to start by complementing you on a very good portrayal of some of the weird dutch customs.
However I wouldn’t say we hate the Germans. We just have a big grudge against them and it is more of a prejudice really.
Also i want to thank all the Belgians for their very amusing comments (please stop relating yourself to us and instead find a working government or decide on what language to speak).
Yah it might have been worth mentioning when our jokes are not based on Germans they are based on Belgians ( because of their extremely low IQ)
uhm that’s pretty much all i had to say =p

Comment by lucifertje — August 30, 2008 @ 5:43 am
Well, wait till you hear what Germans think about the Dutch – especially when they see them on the Autobahn!

But seriously – I’m not sure if the Dutch antagonism toward the Germans is as extreme as you wrote. I often meet Dutch tourists and travellers overhere in Germany and they are all very nice and mostly speak at least some German. I don’t know a single German who speaks as much Dutch. They just laugh at their accents and call them “Käskopp” (Cheeseheads).

But allow me one positively biased assertion: I think the Dutch people have a really great, sarcastic sense of humour!

Comment by Dal — August 30, 2008 @ 7:23 am
The practice of tolerating open marijuana use was the same here in London – the attitude being it’s relatively safe, but there are more important things to worry about. Still – the drug is illegal.

Loved the observations. I have a Dutch boyfriend, and dated another Dutchie last year, visting AMS several times. Not seing things from a tourist’s perspective opened my eyes to certain things: The Dutch DO have a certain ‘side eye’ attitude to the Germans; they have a very dry and offbeat sense of humour, and also, I’m told the attitude to sex is more conservative than it would appear.

Visitors could be forgiven for thinking that all Dutch people walk around with a spliff in one hand and an erection in the other. That’s really not the case!

I loved AMS, and hope to live there one day and explore the rest of NL/Holland. From what I’ve seen, it’s an interesting, quirky place and I feel right at home there!

Comment by china blue — August 30, 2008 @ 8:11 am
LOVE this post! It makes me want to learn the language more than anything, actually. Thanks!

Comment by eli skipp — August 30, 2008 @ 9:00 am
Holland, hol = hollow, land = land, thus ‘hollow land’ meaning the diked area’s which are lower than the sea forming hollow pieces of land. Technically the provinces Zuid- and Noord-Holland can be regarded as Holland only but most other provinces of the Netherlands have diked area’s (we are a delta country so we have dikes against rivers as well) and could be considered Holland.
I love the Germans and the prejudice against them is mostly a result of mass psychosis and is one of the many lesser things about living here.

Comment by ThunderPreacher — August 30, 2008 @ 11:02 am
My girlfriends is Dutch. She can’t stop going on about tosti. Drives me nuts

Comment by Ren — August 30, 2008 @ 11:18 am
Stumbled upon this page. Interesting points you make. And mostly accurate. Being Dutch I would know, wouldn’t I. The thing about The Netherlands and Holland: Officially the country is called The Netherlands, but whenever I’m abroad I always say I’m from Holland. And when we cheer for the national football (soccer to you) team we say Hup Holland Hup. So basically we all get it wrong from time to time.
The thing about pot being legal is so complicated that even the best lawyer would have difficulty explaining it.
As for us not liking the Germans, I think that’s pretty much universal. Try going to France for instance. They really can’t stand them there. I suppose this all still has to do with WWII.
I assure you the Dutch snacks, although they may not look appealing to you, have to meet rigorous standards and are not made from leftovers that can’t be sold anywhere else. Even though that’s a popular myth and just about anybody will tell you that they are made with cows eyes and ears and whatever else you can think of.
But we do use umbrellas, even on our bicycles. But we’re obsessive about them. like the English.
The thing about bicycles being stolen is, unfortunately, true.
I’ve had two of mine stolen over the years.
Once again i liked your article. It’s always nice to see a foreigners view of this lovely country.

Comment by Rien Jansens — August 30, 2008 @ 11:46 am
I meant to say we’re NOT obsessive about umbrellas

Comment by Rien Jansens — August 30, 2008 @ 11:48 am
Apparently the Germans have no love for the Dutch either.

A german friend told me this joke:

What are the 4 phases of water?

A: liquid, solid, gas….and a Dutch tomato

Whenever I’ve told this to a German, they laugh hystreically, saying “Ja, is true!”

Comment by Jaleel — August 30, 2008 @ 12:24 pm
hehe. its funny to read all of these comments. Some of them seem like the person only knew about two words of english. Esspecially some of the dutch comments. Anyway, i’m part dutch. my last name, de Vlaming, is dutch. Apparently there is a hotel in Amsterdam, or some city in holand, that is the de Vlaming hotel. I am american and NO ONE pernounces it right here. the pernounce it like \defleming.\ It gets on my nerves!!

Comment by kcat3838 — August 30, 2008 @ 5:44 pm
American child of a Dutch mother here. You forgot to mention the very weird concept of “gezellig” in Dutch culture. I’m not sure what the actual definition is, but my Oma once explained it to me as “togetheryness”. It is usually used to describe long family get-togethers and large crowds involved in pointless activities in my experience.

Also, there’s the issue of “Ik kan niet” (pardon my spelling if that’s not right; I don’t speak the language). In short, the Dutch refuse to do pretty much ANYTHING the first time you ask. The respond with “Ik kan niet” or “I can’t do that.” Once while we were on a trip to Holland, my mom approached a woman at a ticket counter and spoke to her in English about switching trains. She was greeted with a series of “Ik kan niet”s until she gave up, switched to Dutch and say “I don’t care if you can’t. I can be a pissy Dutch lady as well as you can. I want to switch trains!” The ticket was rapidly granted.

And finally, on bicycles- the standard practice (if you can get away with it) is that if your bike is stolen you just steal someone else’s bike. Thus the entire country is constantly about 5 bikes short of its population. It’s like a game of musical chairs.

And finally, the Dutch birthday song may be the most obnoxious thing in the world when your half-deaf Opa sings it at high volume irrespective of the neighbor’s preferences… Actually, scratch that. It’s obnoxious regardless of who’s singing it!

(But god, hagelslaag is good stuff. As is all dutch chocolate, cookies, pastry, and poffertjes!)

Comment by afiena — August 30, 2008 @ 10:22 pm
How could you not have included oliebollen…..as homer simpson would say mmmmmmm doughnuts.

Comment by Adriaan van den Broek — August 30, 2008 @ 11:08 pm
I really enjoyed reading the post and comments. I am actually an American but I am of Dutch and German background. I guess that I am proof that at least once a Dutch and a German liked each other enough to get it on!

What is bothering me though is that I really don’t understand the Germans digging big holes at the beach? Can anyone please explain this for me, other than just being stupid Germans? My yard looks like swiss cheese.

Comment by van hoose — August 31, 2008 @ 12:00 am
I don’t even think the Germans dig holes that often, I think it is just a myth started by a comedian or something. But when we see holes in a beach, we would always say: “oh, those Germans….”.

O, and the best way to keep your “fiets” from getting stolen is to paint it in a bright color and make it recognizable. And your “stadsfiets”, the bicycle you use in the city, has to be pretty much worthless.

Comment by Steak — August 31, 2008 @ 4:09 am
well, how do I emigrate to the Netherlands?

Comment by romeo — August 31, 2008 @ 6:16 am
Interesting observations. I heard if you try anything related to drugs in Rotterdam you will find the almost opposite as perceived by the public, partly results from it being a huge shipping port. I live in New York City and work in archaeology and we have had Dutch visitors (too few) who work dig cisterns, privies, etc., to compare the social history with the records that are written about later. I live on Holland Ave. in the Bronx, but it was named after a Mr. Holland, thought too built on landfill in the former Bear Swamp where Regis Philbin grew up. The next street over is Rhinelander, another family, and we try to live in peace.

Comment by George Myers — August 31, 2008 @ 7:15 am
Steak – funny, what you say about everyone hating the Germans… when I’ve traveled in Europe everyone has said the same about the Dutch.

Some Australian friends of mine were traveling in France in a rented Dutch vehicle and they were harassed mercilessly until people spoke to them and realized they were actually Australian. From that point on it was all smiles and hospitality… I’ve heard a lot of people complain about A) lunatic Dutch drivers (and I have to say I saw a LOT of them in Germany and France) and B) the fact that the Dutch (much like what you’ve said about the Germans) refuse to speak anything but their own language and bring all their own stuff from home, contributing very little to the local economy.

As for myself, I’ve traveled a little bit in Holland (yes, Holland, not the Netherlands ;D) and I loved it. It was beautiful (very rainy though) and the people were great.

Comment by Isa — August 31, 2008 @ 8:58 am
I worked in the Netherlands for six years,in a small town on the west coast called Noordwijk. I started as a bulb monkey on the processing line and ended up as forklift driver and floor manager. My Bosses,Corne and Ingrid Hogervorst, became two of my best friends and epitomised the dutch attitude.Work hard and we’ll let you play hard.
The area I lived and worked in was over run with ittinerant workers every summer,Irish,Spanish,Ozzies and English, but the local Dutch population took it in their stride and put up with our antics year after year with no real complaint.As long as you turned up for work reasonably straight and sober they had no worries.
To sum up,I f*****g love the Dutch,their country,their attitude,their weed and their vast range of good munchies.
Signed , A Disgruntled Brit.

Comment by Vertigo — August 31, 2008 @ 11:06 am
Great post, and very informative! I really want to go to the Netherlands now.

Comment by Joanne — August 31, 2008 @ 11:49 am
Very funny and reveiling story from a foreigner about us. I agree with you on the Dutch speeking english with a heavy accent. This is true and I have no idea why they (we) do this (`dis`as we say, haha). There is one thing, though, I must disagree with you on and that is when you say that we hate the Germans. I would like to differentiate that a bit. There are at least as much Dutch people who love them as there are Dutch people who do not like them. Only in soccer we all hate them! But it is true that they love to dig holes in the sand!

Comment by Ruud — August 31, 2008 @ 12:25 pm
“B) the fact that the Dutch (much like what you’ve said about the Germans) refuse to speak anything but their own language”

Definitely not true

“bring all their own stuff from home”

True

French drivers are insane go to Paris and try to find a car without a dent/ Furthermore, last summer those Frenchmen tried to plow in my motorcycle three times. Never happened to me in the Netherlands.

Although Germans and Belgians are generally looked down upon by the Dutch, this is purely prejudice. Belgians and Germans are great people if you ask me.

Saying that dutch is halfway between English and German is about the same as saying English is halfway between Frisian and German. http://www.danshort.com/ie/iecentum.htm

PS yes I am Dutch (and therefore biased off course)

Comment by klaassmeerkaas — August 31, 2008 @ 1:21 pm
I deeply enjoyed this article, JM. And, I did give it a thumbs up on Stumble Upon. Very interesting. Thanks.

Comment by JD from Hoeno — August 31, 2008 @ 1:22 pm
The Germans dig holes at the beach to mark their spot. They then lay in it and act as though they own it. Now if we could just go ahead and cover them up while they are in there we would have a lot less Germans to worry about!

Comment by ogden — August 31, 2008 @ 1:35 pm
Interesting Article! As a fluent German speaker I consider it easy to understand Dutch. I just imagine them trying to speak proper German with a piece of cardboard stuck under their tongues.

Comment by Razzle Dazzle — August 31, 2008 @ 2:24 pm
I’m a german girl who lives in Aachen (Germany) and commutes to College in Maastricht (Netherlands), where all lessons are given in Dutch every day – so I guess I’m living the intercultural dream. I’d like to throw in the fact that we have a German quota of about 40% at our Dutch college, and apart from a few idiots who have their heads firmly jammed up their arse, we all get along just fine.

Granted, in the beginning there are prejudices on both sides, but in a mentally healthy person, those prejudices are reduced to mere joke-material pretty quickly.

Comment by Jiggs — August 31, 2008 @ 4:47 pm
Hewloow,

I like to ramble, so here I go!

You’re right about number 1: Holland isn’t the same thing as The Netherlands. ‘Holland’ used to be a duchy: Holland. There was another ‘Holland’ nearby, so they called them North and South Holland. Then there were many wars with the French, the Spanish, the Germans, etc, and all the duchies surrounding Holland (like Utrecht, Brabant, Limburg, Drenthe, Overijssel, etc) became part of the Low Lands (Nether Lands). ‘Low’, because our land is flat and low, and because there were many ‘polders’ with levies to protect them. Later, the southern part of The Netherlands seperated and became Belgium. There are some provinces in Belgium that bare the same names as in The Netherlands (Limburg, Brabant). North and South Holland occupy most of the west coast, but not all.

Number 2: aahh.. you’re absolutely right on that one.

Number 3 about the Dutch having only one hot meal a day is just bullocks. Where did you get your info from?! Some people eat two or even three hot meals a day, some eat no hot meals at all. It’s just how you were raised and how you choose to live your life I guess. The Dutch are generally used to having a hot meal around 6 or 7pm. The French have theirs at around 8pm, but that’s because otherwise it would be too hot. The French and other ‘hot’ countries have a siesta, the Dutch don’t (they work from 9 to 5), so they get hungry earlier. What you meant to say was: when the Dutch ask: ‘have you had a hot meal yet?’ and you say ‘yes’, the people asking you assume you already had your hot meal at dinnertime. So then they want to be hospitable and ask you if you are still or again hungry. Many people will just ask you if you’d like to join them for dinner. Others will just grab some sandwiches and hangout in front of the tv because they’re too lazy to cook!

On to number 4: the ‘g’ and ‘r’ sounds ARE different. The ‘g’ comes with no ‘tone’; no sound (using your voice), the ‘r’ does and both are pronounced using different parts of the mouth. It’s like the English ‘g’ (gee) and ‘r’ (ar) are also pronounced using different parts of the mouth. Our ‘normal, hard g’ comes from the back of the throat, like you’re scraping it. Then we also have southern parts of The Netherlands that have a ‘soft g’, which doesn’t take as much ‘muscle’ to produce it. Also, the latter comes with a slight vocal sound.

Just to make it easy on y’all, we have three kinds of ‘r’s, believe it or not. It’s kinda hard to explain, but generally speaking, there are two kinds of ‘tongues’ in The Netherlands. One kind uses ‘r’-sounds that seem harder than the rest of us. Also, the Dutch will often use two types of ‘r’s. One hard, one soft. The hard one we use for words starting with an ‘r’; the softer one we use for the ‘r’s in the rest of the word. People who use the ‘rolling r’ often also use that for all ‘r’s in every frickin’ word, some ‘rolling r’ speakers will use the softer ‘r’ sound for ‘r’s in the rest of the word. One ‘r’ sounds exactly as the English one, softly. The second comes from the back of the throat, yet uses a slight different part than the ‘hard g’. The third ‘r’-type is the rolling are and comes from the front of the mouth, using the tongue.

Number 5: it’s true many Dutch speak English with a typical Dutch accent. But those are generally older people (40+). Younger people speak English very well, mostly with an American accent.

6: Then our hate for the Germans.. I really don’t know where that comes from. Where did you get that weird idea???!!!

No, just kidding: we do hate them very, very much. But the story about the Norwegian guy just can’t be true. Our cops are the most stubborn in the whole entire world and will never waive a ticket.

7: you say we never use umbrellas.. Why wouldn’t we use umbrellas?! That’s just a myth. If it rains, and I’m in reach of one, OF COURSE I’ll use it!
And what’s this about cement blocks???? What did your friend tell you? Of course, we know the concept of asphalt (d’oh!!!!). We don’t have cement blocks for roads, except in some rare places on ‘De Veluwe’ where some old German roads from the war are sill used. And they don’t get lifted up to flatten the sand hahaha! (you’re hilareous!)

8: we don’t eat fries, frikandel and kroket all the time. Again: only in the big cities do you see more people eating them, just because they’re visiting that city, just like you and all other tourists. If you go to a country and visit a McDonalds, would you write a piece about the people of the country you’ve been through, eating nothing but McDonalds just because that was the only thing you saw? Also: fries do NOT have their origins in Belgium. Believe it or not; the Chinese had them first. Always the Chinese… Potatoes, where fries are made of, also come from China.

9: we don’t ride bikes all the time. In fact, many roads in The Netherlands are the busiest roads in Europe, filled with cars. Not bikes. It’s true that we have many ‘bike roads’, and so do the Belgians, the French, the Germans, the Italians, the Spanish, and so on.. In fact, I’ve cycled from The Netherlands all the way to the south of France this summer and often we were riding on these ‘fietspaden’. Before my ‘bike holiday’, I didn’t even own a bike for like 15 years or so. You write that if you buy a stolen bike, you go to jail. As you do in pretty much all civilized countries. Then you write about our bikes being stolen all the time. Again: only in the bigger cities, just like in the rest of the world. I can’t remember how often I left my bike in the streets when I was young, unlocked, afraid that it might be stolen, only to find it neatly parked where I left it hours later. And if cyclists ring their bell and you don’t get out of the way, we just slow down and pass you carefully.

10: Finally, you get one thing right where most Americans f*** up. We are NOT high all the time! w00t! Some people do, but again: just like in the rest of the world. They’re called junkies.
But then I read on about our ‘dikes’ (levvies). Wrong, wrong, wrong, missy. What do you think? That we build our dikes just to be strong enough when there is water running through?? We have a huge water-management-system here. For instance, water is running through to prevent the water from standing still, collecting germs and diseases. Running water is cleaner than stale water, everybody knows that. Also, there is no chance any dikes breaching, except in the ‘old’ country, because they were all built keeping in mind that the waterlevel might rise.

OMG what a ramble this turned out to be! My text might even be longer than your original! haha!

Nice post though, you have been Stumbled!

Comment by Icarus (Dutch guy) — August 31, 2008 @ 6:11 pm
Good article. Although there is one BIG notable abscence in both the thread and the comments; dutch Christmas traditions. Not that american christmas traditions make any sort of rational or religious sense, but i find the history of christmas in the the Netherlands (Holland?) truly bizzare.

My take, and someone please correct me if Im wrong, is that for some time leading up to St. Nicholas Eve (Dec.5) children are encourged to fill their shoes with food for St. Nick’s horse, in return for which they receive trinkets from his small cadre of black slave children. They do this, not just in hopes of getting stuff but also in order to have their names recorded by the big Nick in his Golden Book, rather than his Black book. Those lucky children noted in the Golden book will wake up the morning after St. Nicholas Eve to find “surprises” or presents left for them by the above mentioned slave children. If they were bad boys and girls, landing them a spot in the Black book, instead of presents and gifts they receive a surprise of a different sort. Zwarte-Piet or Black Peter, who is either the captain of the child slaves or just the head clone(?), comes through the chimney while the child is asleep and tosses the errant youth into the same sack normally full of presents and proceeds to kidnap him back to Spain. I have read other versions where before the kidnapping, but after the kids is thrown in the sack, 8 grown black men under the orders of Zwarte Piet beat the crap out of him/her.

As an American, whose christmas traditions were largely created by Macy’s and Coca-Cola (research Haddon Sundblom and J.C. Leyendecker for starts if curious), i will admit that what I grew up with makes just about as much sense your average television commercial. However, about the worse thing I ever had to deal with was the idea of being called naughty by a fat bearded stranger in his bath robe (my honest-to-god childhood interpretation of Santa) and maybe some coal in my socks.
But seriously… A black child (or a child in black-face covered in soot, whatever) coming with a religious mandate to kidnap in my sleep me if I was bad…

Anyway, I’ve had several good laughs about this with some friends I have in Rotterdam, and thought it deserved an honorable mention at the very least.
=)

Comment by Sanjian — August 31, 2008 @ 10:19 pm
Looking forward to visiting NL soon.

To Esteban: the word ‘superfluous’ doesn’t mean ‘super.’ It means “unnecessary, esp. through being more than enough.”

I believe the term you were looking for was ‘super-duper.’

: )

Comment by ELBSeattle — August 31, 2008 @ 10:48 pm
Dutch Liquorice! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Absolutely fabulous.

it’s rot to say the Dutch don’t like a toke though, I’ve seen many people have a coffee and a joint before going to work.

Which I think is admirable.

But you won’t find many European countries where a large section of the populace remember what the Germans did in the second world war, so underestimate it at your peril

You see the same thing in Thailand with the Japanese.

Comment by Harry Barracuda — September 1, 2008 @ 1:06 am
A very enjoyable read and VERY informative! And I love those little pancake things – they sell them at market stalls here in Sydney. But I have to know – that comment about going to Dutch birthday parties and their being the most awkward thing in the world if you don’t know ‘the rules’? Tell me more!

Comment by Lindarama — September 1, 2008 @ 3:36 am
Interesting tidbit about the Krauts and their constant digging of holes.

I live near the beach here in Canada, and one day I saw a tour bus nearby with its passengers on the beach digging holes with whatever implements they could find.

Intrigued by this curious behavior, I wandered over to where the excavations were taking place, and sure enough – it was a bunch of Germans. I told my dog to go over and dig, which he loves doing anyway, and the Germans were delighted by this, clapping their hands and babbling away in that curious language of theirs.

Comment by Wogblaster — September 1, 2008 @ 6:43 am
Well I love Holland/the Netherlands and the Dutch. I have worked there a few times and they are a very friendly bunch and, unlike the Welsh, are certainly not hated by the rest of Europe.

Just don’t say that Dutch is a bit like German and you will get along fine.

Comment by Rob — September 1, 2008 @ 8:00 am
Thanks for the informative post. Cheers from sunny Turkey.

Love and Peace.

Ali

Comment by Ali — September 1, 2008 @ 8:32 am
Nice article!
I’m dutch myself, and the things you say, are really true. There are little dutch people in coffeshops, totally true!!

And the snacks, they may sound strange, but in fact, they are delicious IMO, especcially frikandel speciaal.

Comment by reindeer47 — September 1, 2008 @ 11:17 am
[...] Daily Candor » 10 things you probably didn’t know about the Dutch and the Netherlands (tags: amsterdam dutch vacation jessica) [...]

Pingback by links for 2008-09-01 at ..geek.. — September 1, 2008 @ 12:00 pm
@Lindarama: the little pancakes you?e referring to are called ‘Poffertjes’ and are made of somewhat the same stuff that go into their bigger brothers. I have no idea where they came from or who invented them, but I’m sure that if you Google them up, you’ll find them. Perhaps Wikipedia knows them.

We eat them mostly at kids parties and on Queensday. They are most delicious if you eat them with butter and powdered sugar. Don’t eat too much of those, though!

Greetings,
Icarus

Comment by Icarus (Dutch guy) — September 1, 2008 @ 12:26 pm
About Dutch birthday parties :
http://everything2.com/e2node/Dutch%2520birthday%2520party%2520protocol

I’m Dutch myself and have been to parties that went exactly like this !
But when me or one of my friends has a birthdayparty we just crank the stereo get horribly stoned and drunk “stronken” and dance the night away.

Comment by Sil — September 1, 2008 @ 1:41 pm
Nice story there. You’re right about Holland and the Netherlands, but most Dutch people also use it interchangably. The ‘g’ ‘ch’ and R sounds(especially the latter) are very different.

About the Germans: I’m not sure who you’ve met(yes, I also know quite a few people who hate germans) but honestly, that’s just not everyone. Far from it actually.

Comment by Roelof — September 1, 2008 @ 1:50 pm
Hey,
First of all I want to say that I agree on most of the things in your article and as a someone who is Dutch liked reading your point of view.

Next I would like to comment on the christmas or sinterklaas (as we call it) item.

In fact, there is Sint Nikolaas (sinterklaas) which is kinda like santa, white and old man who gives away presents. Sinterklaas arrives a few days before Dec. 5th every year from Spain every year on his boat (although Sint Nikolaas is actually from Turkey) and leaves Dec. 6th.
In stead of visiting families (children) with a sled, he uses a horse. Sinterklaas has a (large, unknown) number of assistants (or slaves, if you will) which are all black and are all called Piet (or Zwarte (=black) Piet (pronounce Pete)). I know this sounds kind of racist (actually is, really) but its tradition.
Also, Christmas like it is know to the rest of the world is becoming increasingly popular as well.

Comment by Gijs — September 1, 2008 @ 4:26 pm
Very nice article, and yes this is all true I’m 100% Dutch, and I live in Zuid-Holland and lovin’ it The only part not totally true is that dutch people don’t smoke that much. It’s just that so many foreigners live here that it’s hard to tell who has a Dutch ID and who doesn’t

Comment by Jasper — September 2, 2008 @ 9:03 pm
i have to say, i am fascinated by the german hole digging thing.

i stumbled on to this website randomly, and though the above list is very good, i am riveted by the mental image of germans digging meaningless holes in the sand while sneering dutchmen and women walk by with their noses in the air.

wtf is the deal with holes?

Comment by joel — September 2, 2008 @ 10:19 pm
I must say that the whole hatred towards the “Duitsers” (and the other way around) is mostly for shits and giggles. I think the Germans are great people! And I love speaking German even though I suck balls at it

Some people said on here that the education is very poor but I beg to differ. The Netherlands and Germany offer the best education in Europe! They teach us French, German, English in school and sometimes even Spanish and arabic languages.

And the reason why so many Dutch people are confused about the whole Holland vs The Netherlands thing is purely because foreigners insist that the Netherlands is called Holland. If you ask anyone in Dutch if they know the difference they’ll give you the correct answer (I hope) just not in English.

Greetings from Amsterdam!

Comment by Ayla — September 3, 2008 @ 7:35 am
Well, I think the whole hole digging thing exactly has to do with the weather: it’s quite windy on our beaches. So the holes are to be able to lie on the beacht wind-free. I guess you could say it’s smart thinking..

Why we (dutch people) make fun of it is because most dutch people take a ‘windscherm’ (wind-shield) to the beach which does the same thing. And secondly the german are very protective about their holes: if you arrive at the beach and spread your towel in a hole, there is a big chance you wil end up arguing with the german who dugg the hole the day before and considers it his hole…

The hol digging also could be a leftover of WWII. They did dig in on the beaches to defend themselves against the allied invasion ofcourse…

And most of the ‘hatred’ against the germans these days is football (or soccer as the americans say) related: they always win (mostly in the last couple of minutes of teh match) and we really hate that!

Comment by robert — September 3, 2008 @ 1:00 pm
I LOVE FEBO!!! Went to Amsterdam this past summer and there was one right down the street from my hostel. I had an egg burger there.

Comment by Brittany — September 4, 2008 @ 12:14 pm
i stumbled this page, and i think it’s really nice!
i’m dutch myself and i love too read this from someone who’s not from the Netherlands.
and dutch people do smoke loads of weed and stuff, but maybe not in the shops
and the rest is already discussed over here i guess :p

so thumbs up!

Comment by Laila — September 4, 2008 @ 1:20 pm
I’m almost-half Dutch and almost-half German, so I guess I’m all kinds of screwed.

Comment by Seth — September 4, 2008 @ 5:05 pm
This was total shit. It’s cute when people take the things we Dutch tell them and think they’re true. Next time, maybe, talk to some people who aren’t fucking with you.

Comment by OMG — September 5, 2008 @ 3:48 pm
OMG – take issue with the dozens of Dutch who’ve commented above you that it’s all true. Man, don’t be so sensitive – not your style.

Comment by JM — September 5, 2008 @ 4:17 pm
I lived most of my life in Albufeira, in the Algarve (south Portugal). My house overlooked the beach which was filled with Germans from March to October, and I must say I never, ever saw a German adult dig a hole in the sand. Children, yes, but not adults.
Maybe they only do it in the Netherlands?

Comment by sofia — September 5, 2008 @ 7:49 pm
Hehe, liked this post very much

I`m from Germany and i just want to say that the “hate” the dutch have against us is mutual. It has many reasons, one of them is they cant drive cars. I live in the border region of the Netherlands and maybe u know that u can drive as fast as u want on German Autobahn. Somehow the Dutch dont get this. There is ALWAYS, yes ALWAYS one damn dutch truck or car overtaking some other truck while driving exactly 1km/h faster than the vehicle to be overtaken. We hate this soo much u cant even realize. I think they do it on purpose coz they hate us. But we never spit on their soccer coach, if u know what i mean. Well i personally dont hate them, except when im driving car I think they got a great political system, especially their drug politics is really intelligent, not like ours. Im no pothead, but how can a plant be a crime ?
I like u, Netherlands, but please, for the fun of it, try to get ur car to the limit or at least to 160 km/h or so next time u overtake someone in Germany

Comment by Steinschmetzer — September 6, 2008 @ 1:39 am
this is one of the best websites i have ever seen response wise. i initially wanted to leave a comment which is rare for me because i’m from the other side of the planet and found the home grown advice interesting enough for me to want to detour in the middle of a very expense trip and see the sites…thanks for inspiring me to see that corner of our amazing planet.

Comment by kat — September 6, 2008 @ 3:37 am
the food sounds nasty

Comment by mark — September 6, 2008 @ 9:05 am
Seems pretty accurate to me, as a Dutchman living in the US its an interesting analysis to read. I only think number 3 (about the warm meal) is a bit of a generalization. People wouldnt mind eating multiple warm meals (it is just very uncommon though). 6 is perhaps a bit exagerated, I would describe it as a playful animosity

Comment by Hylke Buisman — September 6, 2008 @ 1:35 pm
This was very entertaining – the article and the replies.
I am an American of Irish and Dutch descent from Boston.
There are very many Irish Americans and very few Dutch Americans in Boston so I hear plenty about the Irish and very little about the Dutch.
I was very fortunate the my Dutch Great-Grandmother and my Grandmother lived very long lives and loved to talk about the Netherlands.
They both loved to cook what they claimed were traditional Dutch food that they made back in s’Hertogenbosch – olie-cook (fried dough with raisins), soep met balletjes (noodle soup with meatballs). I am sure I misspelled them but that’s how they sounded to me.
I especially miss their Dutch Apple Pies!
I would love to visit the Netherlands some day!

Comment by John — September 6, 2008 @ 5:08 pm
Interesting read, thanks! I look forward to a visit to the Netherlands one day,

Comment by DragonOak — September 6, 2008 @ 9:38 pm
My dutch cousins have a phrase they like to yell at Germans:

“You still have my grandmothers bike” *shakes fist in air*

Comment by Oma's bike — September 6, 2008 @ 9:50 pm
Awesome post and comments to follow. I love that there was so many contributions from Dutch people. Very informative and humorous.

Also THANK YOU robert! That was going to drive me crazy if someone didn’t explain the Germans digging holes in the beach thing. I think i would be tempted to start filling the holes in with them in it though, if I ever seen one.

I personally am Canadian born and raised, with German, Dutch, Danish, and a few others in there, so interesting to get some knowledge on my heritage.

Also spent a while planning on moving to Belgium for a year with my wife, and in my research I think the Belgians backed up what I read about them after reading their posts.

Cheers all and thanks for the good read!

Comment by ragehead — September 6, 2008 @ 11:31 pm
Numbers 5,6,7 and not entirely true.
I also lived in the Netherlands (but for 2 years).
I lived close to the German border, and i can tell you that they dont all hate the Germans (Not even close), they dont all speak english (I met 3 people that didnt!)
It is not drenched with rain (Not compared to Ireland)
And they do use umbellas, as every person i have seen can ride there bike with 0+ hands.
Also, i have never come across the 1 hot meal thing. Maybe these coustoms are limited to a small part of the netherlands?

Comment by `Peter — September 7, 2008 @ 6:03 am
“And the Dutch are notoriously anal” My ex sure was! Good point.

Comment by Stephanie — September 7, 2008 @ 7:52 am
Stroopwafels . . . yummy.

Been to tha’ Dam and the Hague several times and once for an extended 8 month stay. Beautiful country/cities – the rain is not so bad really and the people are amazing for the most part . . .

Ever notice how EVERYTHING is well designed there – whether its the street signs or soap at the grocery or the PTT phone cards . . . And it all so seamlessly integrates with the old world europe thang . . .

Queens day is crazy – definitely the time to be in Amsterdam though.

Also, fellow Americans, notice how the whole country HAS NOT degraded into chaos from decriminalization. I personally am not into weed, but it seems that the Netherlands are fairly ahead of the world in regards to social policy . . . wish the US would pull its head out of its ass already . . .

Comment by vince — September 8, 2008 @ 4:55 am
To all those confused, Holland IS NOT the same as the netherlands. North Holland and South Holland are two provinces in the Netherlands.

Comment by Eric — September 8, 2008 @ 5:37 pm
Hm, I’m German and I like the Dutch, actually. lol.

XD Somebody explain the holes thing to me, when I go to Holland, will I have the uncontrollable urge to dig a hole?

We eat mayonaise on fries , too, in Germany. Many even like mayo with ketchup.

Comment by Claudia — September 8, 2008 @ 11:05 pm
I recently met a nice Dutch girl who was staying in England and she told me loads of crazy stuff. Correct me if im wrong but don’t they have some sort of bread and butter thing that translates as “turnover bitch”? We had a lot of fun with that!

Comment by Salmon — September 9, 2008 @ 1:55 pm
i think the story about the norwegian is true. yes, everyone likes norwegians

Comment by mb — September 10, 2008 @ 1:37 pm
I’m an American composer and writer who has had performances in several of the major Dutch cities. I was very struck by the quotation from the tourist brochure which stated “we’ve seen it all before…you couldn’t possibly shock us.” This is very true about Dutch audiences which are, in many ways, the most avant-garde in the world. The Dutch support new and experimental performing arts including music, theater, music-theater, dance and performance art and there is a big Dutch public for new work. I have actually had someone say to me “we’ve seen it all before…you couldn’t possibly shock us.” Of course, it’s also true that The Netherlands is one of the few places on the continent where you can perform in English and expect to be understood.

Eric Salzman

Comment by Eric Salzman — September 10, 2008 @ 4:14 pm
It’s been many years since I was there but I remember some things that wern’t talked about. My dad was born in the Netherlands & came over to the US as a child. My grandmas family has a cheese factory & cheese is a very big deal. Also the fish haring to be exact my grandma used to love the pickled haring ( yuch). In Amisfort where my aunt lives she has a factory that makes candy sprinkles. In her town in the mornings they have a market almost like the farmers market here in the US, they have everything you could imagine meat, veggies, flowers, baked goods, the stores bring out stuff it was so cool. Everyone was very friendly everywhere we went in the country & one day I hope to go back.The acents are so true my grandma lived here for 50 years & never lost hers & when she couldnt remember a word in english she would always say it in dutch. As for the german thing I can’t really say anything bad as I am German on my moms side & they always got along (duh).

Comment by missy — September 11, 2008 @ 3:50 pm
Holland is a part of the Netherlands and I always tell foreigners that it is similar to England in the UK. The name of Holland is based on ‘Wood land’ (holt or/and holz) from the past. There are woods but not as many as in the past. The relation with Germany is like Portugal-Spain, similarities in languages and culture and competition. The Netherlands are depending on Germany in the economic trade tradition.

There are two official languages in NL, Dutch and Frisian. The Dutch people do not suffer from being modest about themselves, they still think they are best people on earth because they (think they) are so international. In fact they are far behind in education, attitudes and emotional skills. That is because they never learned to understand that other people might be far more interesting then themselves. There is a long history in making money out of other people, colonies, slavery and so on.

The Dutch were never brave, Most Jews transported to the camps were from the Netherlands. They never said sorry to Indonesia. And why? The Dutch are only interested in money and will kill their relations to get that.

Comment by Roelof — September 12, 2008 @ 11:55 am
And then, there are the numerous church bell towers in Amsterdam, successively ringing their melodious carillon music. Fantastically quieting.

Comment by Pleroma — September 12, 2008 @ 2:58 pm
I would like to correct yourself on the comment:
“coffee shops” (”coffee shop” means marijuana; “cafe” means coffee, so pay attention to what the establishment calls itself)”

the real deal is:

Coffee shop: A place where they sell coffee drinks and eats only.

Coffeeshop (spelled together): A place where they sell weed, pot, cannabis, marijuana.

Cafe: It’s how they call a bar, pub, place where you can get alcohol!!

if you lived here for two years you should know that better mate

Comment by Bryan Edgar — September 12, 2008 @ 10:49 pm
Loved the article, but this is a terribly prejudiced article.

First of all, I’m in no way nationalistic. In fact I do not think the Netherlands is the greatest country.

But the comments are just ridicolous; sayings such like the tragic state of our educational system, our cockiness and our hatred for Germany are just false, only in some cases they’re true.

But that’s like saying all black people can play the bass guitar.

It’s not that I’m particularly proud of my country, but this biased stuff has to stop.

We do not hate the germans, only the fact that they murdered millions of our people and occupied us for 5 long years.

We are not cocky, we just have good living conditions and we’re proud of that.

Yes, we have weird snacks, but the majority of the population eat healthy normal foods.

We don’t have a bad educational system, I’m quite sure that our crême de-la crême of our education is amongs the best of the world. Only the lowest level of education is lacking. But that’s because of the increase of ‘buitenlanders’ or foreigners. Most of them still have to pick up on the language and other stuff, but when they’re integrated the level of education will rise agian.

And JM, please get your facts straighten out. (Although you are right about Holland not being synonymous to the Netherlands)

Comment by Evert de Ruiter — September 13, 2008 @ 7:21 am
Holland and Netherlands are offically not the same thing but everyone who lives in Holland will say so. It is legal to buy grass till a certain (quite small) amount. It IS LEGAL to grow grass limited to one per person with a maximum height of 15 cm. The dutch don’t hate the Germans they just have a strong football rivalary. ( Please don’t argue on this point I’m German live in Holland and have a lot of dutch friends).

Comment by matrix — September 13, 2008 @ 3:57 pm
Your humor brought a smile to my face…thanks for sharing!

Comment by DJ — September 13, 2008 @ 4:55 pm
Nice, George Bush must be German. ”

The morons just love digging holes for no reason!”

Comment by Dr. Browne — September 14, 2008 @ 9:47 am
Great article. Enjoyed the comments.

As an Englishman though I’ve yet to meet a Dutch person that doesn’t speak English as well as me. Even the kids manage it too. Good old BBC eh?

Everyone loves the Dutch don’t they?

It seems when we travel in Europe everyone hates the French, us and to a lesser degree the Germans.

Comment by Dane — September 14, 2008 @ 10:15 am
…and what about “Engelse drop” (Englisch drop)? Why do we call it like that beats me. From what I’ve learned there is nobody outside of The Netherlands who is familiar with this candy, not even in a candy store in England…they actually never heard of it….

Comment by Richard — September 14, 2008 @ 10:37 am
hahhahahahahha
uffff
all of this is absolutely true!
i ve been living in holland for three years now, and some things are still strange to me but all in all it is a good country to be in..
the language is horrible though, i can’t argue with that.

but mmmm stroopwafels

Comment by cuoct — September 14, 2008 @ 10:50 am
Ask the germans about the Dutch clogging (what a pun!) up the german autobahns in the summer with their caravans. They pass through germany mind you, and try not to stop or spend money where possible. It really is frustrating, like a snail convoy where there is unlimited speed streches.
I say the WWII thing is B/S. The dutch are hardly innocent when it came to butchering people. Ask any indonesian…

Comment by Superdude — September 15, 2008 @ 8:07 am
I have lived in NL for 20 years in total and although I have Dutch relatives, Dutch friends I am VERY fond of, I must admit the country and it’s people have some WEIRD things.
Overall I liked living there, but the last 5 years hatred of foreigners (especially people of color and muslims has become worse. which is sad because they have conquered quite a lot of places in their days……

I will never generalize though cause the people I have known there are just marvelous. I miss the dutch landscape, I miss amsterdam and it’s canals…for such a small country they have accomplished quite a lot. What they do and have done for art and design is simply genius!

Although their dislike of Germans is simply idiotic……..

Comment by miranda valladares — September 15, 2008 @ 8:46 am
I was in Amsterdam many years ago and they had something in fast food places called something like “Hoodjes Broodjes” (or similar spelling). It was like a sandwich. Do you know about them?

Comment by Raul — September 15, 2008 @ 12:27 pm
JM – Cool list. Made me laugh a bit. Some need to put their tongue in cheek and relax a bit. There is the occasional American who is capable on independent thought and understand what you say is not a hard and fast rule.

Comment by Anthony(Abev) — September 15, 2008 @ 7:19 pm
I want to hear from some Germans on the subject of hole-digging…

Comment by Jim — September 16, 2008 @ 2:30 am
i dutch, and i wanna say that our language is very pretty and beautiful sounding.

to us dutch.

Comment by oki — September 16, 2008 @ 1:32 pm
This is a great blog. I just came back from Europe, Amsterdam and Stockholm to be precise, and I so wish I discovered your site BEFORE I left. Based on my own personal limited observations, you’re right about a lot of things, especially this post about the Netherlands.

Comment by T. AKA Ricky Raw — September 16, 2008 @ 4:07 pm
Lol weird germans digging holes
btw not all dutch hate/dislike the germans.. A lot of the older do beacause of the war.. (not very strange if you consider what most have been trough or how many family members they might have lost)

And lol @ pronouncing the dutch words not easy is it?
(not easy for many dutch to pronounce english words either, come to think of it )

Comment by Lisa — September 17, 2008 @ 9:04 am
Olieballen, pannekooken, lyden kaas, gerokt makreel, borenkool…..yum…! Oh and the first time I saw someone in blackface roaming around the street dressed as Swarte Piet! I looked around to see if anyone else was as shocked as I was. Nope! Did you write poems for Christmas presents, and did Sinterklaas break in your door and throw speculaas (little anise cookies) into your house? Fond…but sometimes odd memories. Thanks!

Comment by Kleine Monstreje — September 17, 2008 @ 9:19 am
Great article, I really enjoyed it.
And altough some of the information here is not factual but from your own experience, it really does describe the Dutch quite well i think

Comment by Wouter — September 18, 2008 @ 1:32 pm
This seems really interesting, do you know if they have an animosity against black people? Everytime I travel to Europe I feel like I’m limited to the UK because I know a lot of black people live there and there wouldn’t be any problems. I’m always scared to go anywhere else. I’d like to explore other regions so let me know, thanks

Comment by Ify — September 19, 2008 @ 12:11 am
After reading some the earlier comments I strongly suggest you’d change one of the 10 things into:
The Dutch have a tendency to be ‘azijnzeikers’ (people who piss vinegar, because they sourly comment on little things pretending it to be big things) and/ or ‘dominees’ (vicars, because they like to correct you in a self-righteous manner).

Comment by Patrick — September 19, 2008 @ 2:18 am
Mmmmm, stroopwaffels, you can feel your arteries hardening as you eat them, but they’re irresistible. I think it’s largely how they dissolve on the tongue when dunked into hot coffee.

Comment by cookie monster — September 19, 2008 @ 6:45 am
I really like the dutch, found them to be really nice and helpful people, but please explain this, if you come from germany your german, from france, french from england ,english, from holland, dutch?why………

Comment by allen — September 19, 2008 @ 8:15 am
A big part of Belgium speaks Dutch too. Calling it Netherlandish or whatever wouldnt do them justice, Allthough the Dutch speaking part of Belgium was actually a part of the Netherlands a few centuries ago (It was called Southern Brabant).

O, and it’s true that we have a lot of ‘azijnzeikers’ living here (not all of us), but at least were not German…:P

Comment by Dutchman — September 20, 2008 @ 9:15 am
Of course Belgians would think their frites are better. You should hear the jokes we tell about the Belgians.

Comment by FormerNederlander — September 20, 2008 @ 8:46 pm
I went to Amsterdam last February, and for me it was the best experience I ever have had, it is interesting the way they can live, I mean, it doesn’t matter if you’re smoking weed, it doesn’t matter if you’re homosexual or prostitute, I think that is the highest point that a society can reach.

And of course I want to go back there. what a nice place

Comment by chucho — September 20, 2008 @ 9:17 pm
I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!!! YOU FORGOT JUMPSTYLE???!!!

Comment by Marc — September 21, 2008 @ 12:31 pm
[...] clipped from dailycandor.com [...]

Pingback by 10 Things you didn’t know about Netherlands! at OnEarthTravel - A wonderful directory of Travel — September 21, 2008 @ 2:36 pm
[...] about an hour a day dreaming about a trip to Amsterdam (yes, it’s time consuming,) this 10 Things to Know About the Dutch is pretty interesting. It talks about some of their crazy eating habits and dislike of Germans. [...]

Pingback by theFreshScent » Blog Archive » The Royale with Cheese, Other Dutch Differences — September 22, 2008 @ 9:28 am
Interesting article about Netherlands and its habits, thank You for sharing it. Also are very rich all the comments.

Comment by Buenos Aires for dutch — September 22, 2008 @ 7:12 pm
Many people wrote something about that the germans can´t and won´t speak dutch.

but i made the experience that a lot of dutch people (especially unknown) don´t give you as german a chance to speak their language.

i few years ago (in a period when i was learning dutch) i tried three times in different coffeeshops to order some weed in dutch but always i got an answer in german. in the fourth shop i was sick about always gettin german answers so i ordered in german but suddenly the guy was yelling at me what stupid german i am and why i don´t even try it in english and stuff?

so help me, what can i do?

and please forget, that the north of the netherlands, especially the region around groning was liberated not until the 4 of may in 1945 of the germans in IIWW. i don´t thik that the germans could´nt occupie this land that long without dutch supporters.

but nevertheless…i love this country

Comment by PeterKunze — September 23, 2008 @ 4:29 pm
Dr. Browne should pull his head out of his arse.

Comment by Ray — September 25, 2008 @ 12:49 pm
[...] bleeding (super gross), and he’s a little high strung. However, I stumbled upon this blog today, which sheds a lot of light on his [...]

Pingback by Culture vs. Personality « Implied Profanity — September 26, 2008 @ 1:31 pm
@ all the people who think it’s appropiate to bring WW2 into this bloglog: please stop doing this, it is not even funny if you’re trying to make a point wether to hate/dislike germans.
I’d suggest you watch the episode of “Falwty Towers” (the Germans) instead.

Great blog by the way, LOL to read the comments and look at ourselves from the perspective of non-dutch!

Comment by Richard — September 27, 2008 @ 2:12 am
@ Ify

It is more than safe for coloured people to travel to the Netherlands and to Europe. Why wouldn’t it? I am Dutch but live in London, and have not noticed any difference between the Dutch and British attitudes towards coloured people. Please go and visit Nederland( or Holland But do not limit yourself to Amsterdam. There is much more to the Netherlands to Amsterdam.

JM
I loved your article. I’m proud of my accent
And most Duch people do not hate Germans. I love German people. My gran is German. We just like to tell jokes about them. I don’t know why.

What I do not like about the younger generation of Germans is that they are not aware of the history of their own country. I’m from Rotterdam and a few years ago we had some distant family member with friends staying with us, and after a few days they asked. “Wo ist die Altstadt?” – “Where is the old town?”, Uhmmm… It was bomded by the Germans 60 years ago….

Just pay attention in History, and we get along just fine.

Tess

Comment by Tess — September 28, 2008 @ 5:59 am
I love this posting. I’m an American and I lived a few years in Yugoslavia. My wife and I traveled a lot in Eastern Europe. We liked every country we visited. The best thing about traveling is meeting new people and hearing new ideas. (If we can just avoid anything dealing with governments we get along great.) I’d love to visit Holland. My wife speaks fluent German so I think we’d do OK.
Once again, thanks for a great posting.

Comment by Pat — September 28, 2008 @ 9:43 pm
This is a great list. I was blown away about the ice cream sprinkles on toast. Had to confirm with my friend living in Belgium. There’s some more info over here on Amsterdam for Barry Shulman’s luxury travel blog. He just posted three items about his Amsterdam travels. I’m kind of interested in trying those ice cream sprinkles on toast now.

Comment by Luxury Travel — September 29, 2008 @ 11:26 am
To reply on some comments made about Sinterklaas: his helpers (Zwarte Pieten) are not black. In fact, they are Italian from origin, and got their color by sweeping the chimney before they deliver the presents for the children through it.

Comment by Tijn — October 10, 2008 @ 2:53 am
Also a comment about Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet

Zwarte Piet (or Back Pete) is a good friend of Sinterklaas, ans NOT a slave, the ‘Pieten’ (yes there all called Piet) help Sinterklaas to deliver the presents and they entertain the children, these days the children believe Piet is black because he climbes through the chimney.
‘Piet’ first appeard in a childrens book a very long time ago when black people were kept as slaves ans some people had a black child dressed up funny.
At the time the book was published this was ‘normal’

Zwarte Piet these days are not slaves en i’ts not ment to be racial.
The children love them.
I’m Dutch and have children, I thought about this a long time, when they were small.
My kids have black friends, and they love Piet to and don’t find it racial at all.
There is more to Piet than just the color, just think of the costume, the earrings, the ‘Jute Zak’ filled with candy.

Soon the ‘Sinterklaas journaal’ starts again(daily news about sinterklaas, every year the boat from spain runs in to trouble, will sinterklaas make it to the Netherlands this year?)
And we are really looking forward to see all the Pieten save the day and deliver the presents to the children

The are a lot of different pieten there is Hoofdpiet (Master Pete of Head pete), SorryPiet (sorry pete) Paardenpiet (horse pete) and many more.

Comment by Mikay — October 20, 2008 @ 2:09 am
I don’t every read blogs, but I was Stumbling and came across yours. It was great! Very entertaining. I have never been to the Netherlands but will go someday. I learned some fun and interesting things to look for from the Dutch people.

Great job!

Comment by Strength & Honor — October 21, 2008 @ 7:21 am
Hi, I enjoyed reading your article! I’m Dutch and I’m from Groningen. I think what Jape means is that you can just call The Netherlands ‘Holland’…That’s just the informal word for our country. It’s not accurate, but that’s ok. If anyone needs a guide when coming to The Netherlands let me know. P.S. maybe a store should be opened in the US where they sell Dutch ‘drop’

Comment by Bert — November 1, 2008 @ 3:22 pm
I am from the U.S. My parents are Dutch, but from the southern province of Limburg. Here is an amusing paraphrase of conversations I have had at least a couple of times (seriously):
Me: “Hi, are you from Holland?’
Dutchie: “Yes, how did you know?”
Me: “My parents are from Holland and while they never taught us Dutch, I can hear a Dutch accent a mile away”
Dutchie: “Oh, where in Holland are your parents from?
Me: “W —, a small town in Limburg”
Dutchie (with a bit of a sneer – seriously): “That’s not Holland!”
Needless to say, I have learned to use “the Netherlands” rather than Holland, unless I am specifically speaking about Noord or Zuid Holland.

I think it is a bit funny that anyone points out “weird” things about other countries or cultures. Every country and even regions within countries have different customs and idiosyncrasies. I also think it is narrow minded to think that your own country is superior to all or any others. We should celebrate the differences, that is certainly what makes travel so interesting.

Three more observations:
1) I would love to be able to live in the Netherlands
2) Virtually everyone in the Western hemisphere is an “American”. People from the U.S. need to find a better name for themselves, I opt for USer.
3) Bert, there are actually many “Holland American” stores in the U.S. and Canada where those of us pining for dutch food can get our fix of drop, hagelslag, Wilhelmina peppermints, chocolate letters for Sinterklaas and just about anything else you need. It’s just not quite as fresh!

Comment by Jo — November 3, 2008 @ 1:39 pm
Goodness, I would have loved to read through all the replies to see how worked up everyone gets just by interpreting one article in their own way.

I am currently staying in Utrecht for a 3 month study visit and was interested in seeing if there was some good advice for people who will stay in the Netherlands for such a short while. So far from my own experiences: they love fries and drop, they are very rude sometimes (not everyone but we quickly learnt not to be surprised by their rudeness), *everyone* rides bike, shops close at 6pm (except Thursday nights when they stay open until 9pm) and are closed on Sundays except for the first Sunday each month and all Sundays in November and December. I haven’t seen any direct animosity against Germans, but I haven’t seen any Germans so…

But the funniest thing about this discussion is how one person’s views can step on the toes of another’s without the first person even meaning it the way the second experienced it. Remember, this is a discussion, not the complete and utter truth of all Dutch (or any person) in the whole world!

Comment by Elizabeth — November 5, 2008 @ 8:31 am
I like their stance on drug legalization. Fry the bigger fish! Tax the trade and use the money for maintaining the countries damns and levies!

Comment by Derek — November 17, 2008 @ 6:20 pm
Hey, I liked reading your article. ^^ But although I kind of agree on the whole concept of Dutch ”hating” the Germans, it’s not just in The Netherlands. They are looked down on in many European countries, or at least I’ve noticed. For instance; when I went to Madrid and went to the market, a Spanish man asked us whether we were German, we said no, then he asked us if we were Dutch and we said yes, he immediately said ‘Much better!’
Also when I went to Greece, they were always aware whether you were Dutch or German. Really, they’re just easily looked down on. I think it’s lame.

Comment by Dewi — November 20, 2008 @ 8:04 am
“Trivial drugs like magic mushrooms”? You´ve obviously never ingested them. Trivial indeed. Nuclear is more like it, but in a good way.

Comment by Michael — December 2, 2008 @ 5:38 pm
As a Dutch person, lemme clear something up about the Holland-Netherlands dilemma and our ‘bad education’.

Holland is not the Netherlands. The netherlands are divided into Provinces, sorta like States. Two of these provinces are North and South Holland. People from those two provinces often refer to the Netherlands as ‘Holland’. People from other provinces get homicidal when you do.

Cause it’s less trivial then Mushrooms!

By the way, Mushrooms are banned since three days ago

Comment by Anastasios — December 4, 2008 @ 7:03 am
One another dutch person adding / correcting stuff in here ^^’

I loved reading this, it totally made my day. It’s so weird that someone else finds our natural habits so strange xD

Anyhow, first I wanted to add:
A lot of dutch indeed make fun, or look down on the Germans. But there is also a big part of us who don’t. Mostly, we’re just making fun of the stereotype. Belgium on the other hand, is having a rougher time on the jokes. We are all truly convinced that they’re dumb.

Second,
I don’t know where in the Netherlands you’ve been, but in general, umbrella’s are used (that sounded bitchy, I don’t mean it in that way ^^)

Third and last,
The dutch 14 till 25 (excluded exceptions), nearly all smoke, or have smoked pot. We áre true potheads. The reason you can’t tell, is because we are all safely at home, tucked in behind the TV getting screwed up.. or secretly in the shed, if the parents are home^^
The ‘foreigns’ you see on the street getting stoned, are on the street because there are smoke detectors in hotels ^^’

But you were right about the language. I don’t like it too. It sounds so rough and primitive.

Comment by Lot — December 11, 2008 @ 7:36 am
Hey,

1) The Netherlands and Holland ARE synonymous! Some foreigners think Holland is only the western region, this is also true, the word has two different meanings in our country. It’s the name of the region and of the country. Some people think it’s only this region cause these province’s are called North Holland and South Holland, but Holland can also mean the whole country.

2) This is true. But about the pink and blue mouses, They’re especialy meant for if there’s someone born. They will then put in on rusk and give it away to friends, family, etc. who come to look for the baby. And they use the pink one’s when a girl’s born, and the blue one when a boy’s born.

3) strange, have never had such a situation. It’s true that dutch people eat twice a day cold and once a day warm, but if you get somewhere else, and they’ve got a warm lunch you can just eat warm with them, just say that it doesn’t matter for you to eat warm twice a day.

4) Maybe you’ve thought about the Japanese “R” and the Dutch “G”, cause they’re about the same, but there’s a big difference in the sound of the Dutch “R” and “G”! The dutch “R” is like in the french word “grand” and the “G” is like the sound the sound you make when you clear your throat to spit… And then the difference between the “G” and the “CH”, There’s almost no difference, but the “CH” is pronounced somewhat softer. But you can’t say the “G” is pronounced as “kh”!

5) Dutch people know the basic English words which they will normaly need to ask something in English, but if you’re gonna use difficult English words like (don’t know how to spell it) “dendro chronological” they will look weird, and they won’t know what your saying. Most dutch people don’t know how to pronounce the english words correctly, but now we’ve got some school’s where you get more english. This extra lessons are then used for the right pronouncing of word’s and are given by teacher’s from Great Brittain and the US which came to holland. I’m at such a school and I’m also thinking many time’s that people have got a weird way to pronounce this words. And last thing about this, “geen idee” isn’t pronounced like “rainy day”!

6) Okay, this german who was digging a hole is just stupid. There such many German people who’re digging hole’s and we dutch people don’t get why they would like to do this….. Maybe they want their bombs back from the WW||? And about that police, I don’t believe that they said “Park wherever you want cause these rules are there so it doesn’t become a mess at the street, but I can believe the thing about the German car. Many people in Big Cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam just still hate german people because of WW||, especially the older people hate them because they just destroyed a part of their life. So, this can be true.

7) Yes, our country IS rainy but people use umbrellas, they just don’t have these always with them because then they’ve got to walk with that stupid “heavy” thing, which isn’t heavy at al, and maybe it won’t even rain. Dutch people sometimes are just thinking very easy, A typical dutch expression is “Waarom moeilijk doen als het makkelijk kan”, which means, “Why should you do difficult, when you can also do it easier”. And most people just don’t care about rain, It doesn’t matter for them if their hair gets wet.

The frikandel is just made of pork. But, in the kroket are remains of meat they can’t sell elsewhere but these parts aren’t scary. It are just the little piece’s of meat which they just can’t use for a normal hamburger or something else. They’re just to small. They also use meat of Horses in there. But they don’t use any eyes, casings, etc. anymore, they did in the past but thats already 20 years ago. And the automats are especially in big cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam, They’re just saver because of all the drunk people who get from the clubs….

9) fietsen are just bicycles, It’s the dutch word, and you pronounce the “ie” more like the “e” in the english word “we” than like in “feet”. The Big dutch cities like Amsterdam are criminal citie’s, bikes are stolen everywhere, but if you go to friesland, Groningen, Drenthe, Flevoland, Overijsel, Gelderland, Limburg they almost never steel a bicycle. And if you buy a bike from they junkies you do never go to jail. You just have to pay about €250,- I think. But you can’t get in jail for such a thing. “fietspaden” are just meant for cycling people, not for walking people. You can walk next to it in the grass, but not on it, because you the block the cycling people.

10) Yes, a coffee shop is a “soft drugs store”. Just go to a café, restaurant, bar or a coffeecorner. “gedoogbeleid” doesn’t mean the thing you said, it just means “tolerance policy”. Soft drugs are just less dangerous then Hard drugs, so, they allow soft drugs, to get no smuggling, In country’s like belgium, soft drugs are also allowed….. So.

Pronouncing of schiphol: schip like “sgip” and the “ol” like “al” in always.

Hope you now understand it better…..

Comment by Xander (dutch guy (friesland)) — January 6, 2009 @ 1:59 am
I lived in Holland for 10 years. I have family there….I found flaws with almost every one of those points….Listed below.

1.) There is no section called Holland, it is called Noord Holland or North Holland. She is wrong here..
2.) They do not toast their bread before putting any sprinkles on it. They put butter and sprinkles, not toasted..I have neevr seen this. She is wrong again
3.) This is also wrong. no one has ever asked me if I had eaten anything warm. They may have asked if I had eaten if I was lucky….In the smaller villages back in the 50s and 60s they used to eat their dinner at lunch and have a smaller meal in the evening. Some old people may still do this…Wrong again.
4.) That’s pretty much true….
5.) Again that depends on where you are. Most Dutchies speak English better then most European countries but this way of speaking is for people who rarely get to use their English. They live in the little villages and smaller towns..kind of like the people ion our country who live in villages…they can’t speak english either.
6.) I know the Dutch don’t like Germans but I doubt it is that extreme….
7.) They do use umbrellas and I dont think I know anyone who has ever used one while riding a bike. The streets stay wet just as long as anyones elses streets…maybe the streets just dont hold as many puddles but I have never noticed anything liek this.
8.) Accurate…
9.)I have had over 30 bikes in my 10 years there and never went to jail..Im sure you will get in trouble but you wont be going to jail…
10.) It is NOT legal and I have seen plenty of coffee shops with ONLY dutch people in it…..maybe the crap tourist shit holes that this chick went to were filled with whack tourists…

Comment by Adriaan — January 28, 2009 @ 3:41 pm
I learned new things about Holland. I need it because my friend lives there.. Hope to visit the place soon.. Anyone???

Comment by Janice — January 29, 2009 @ 12:03 am
I miss my Old MAn who lives in Holland soooooooo much!!!!

Comment by Janice — January 29, 2009 @ 12:08 am
Enjoyed living in Holland, and hope to get back ASAP. before I moved there my friend, (who has lived there for 4 years) warned me that the Dutch will correct you when you do something wrong, be it not changing lanes; quick enough while driving or walking on the bike path. I soon found this to be true but I also came to understand why they do this; the country has over 16 million people living there, and it is pretty well organized, so if someone steps out of line then they are quick tocorrect them so that order can be mantained.
I came to respect and appreciate this kind of order, and being back in the U.S. I miss my Holland, my Netherlands.

I lived some of the time in Hillversum, and in Nederhorst for @ 7 months. I enjoyed the ease in getting around from place to place, and once I got the hang of having no North, South, East, and west on the signs; getting around was easy. I loved the fact that there were no big-ugly-yellow-school buses, for the school children. Instead there were groups of children walking or riding there bikes to school.

I loved the way that the homes windows are not closed off from the world, instead they are displays for plants, and crystal wares. I felt like a peeping tom, at times but I just couldn’t keep from wanting to see all the wonderful displays that were in the windows.

I have so many wonderful, and truley beautiful memories of Holland, and The Netherlands, I really feel that America could learn a lot from the way the Dutch run their country, just for starters; in America there is a well known problem with people not paying enough attention to motorcycles on the roads, but in Holland/ Netherlands, the motor-sports are given the right-away, this makes it easier to remember them, just like using caution for scooters, and pedistrians. Cars even move aside for the motor-sports to pass by them. It also makes it more appealing for people to choose the motor-sport as a mode of transportation.

I could go on, and on about this magical place.

Comment by marsha — February 22, 2009 @ 10:05 pm
Very fascinating short article on the Dutch and the Netherlands. thumbs up!!

Comment by coach charter — February 22, 2009 @ 11:21 pm
LOL LOL LOL
you made my day!!
you’ve got a very funny way to describe us.

I’ll save the comments for a rainy day,
they’ll probably make me laugh too.

Comment by Sissy — February 24, 2009 @ 4:34 pm
hagelslag – I have had this before, my friend is from Holland and brought some sprinkles here to Costa Rica.

It is great, seriously,

Comment by Jim Gaudet — February 24, 2009 @ 4:43 pm
Awesome article. That was seriously very entertaining and informative. I might have to go there someday, now. Thanks again!!!

Comment by Fuzz Martin — February 24, 2009 @ 4:52 pm
Even a German will not try to digg holes in a rocky beach in Portugal. But they will in Holland, parts of France, Spain, the one sandy beach in the Algarve in Portugal, in Italy, the two sandy beaches in Croatia and then they sometimes try to run the border to Greece dressed up like Mancunians -no-one ever told them that one will be considered being Russian when doing so- , from which they usually are extradited immediately by Greece radical commie bastards who have other stuff to do than attending to Germans, like setting Athens on fire, or manically trying to shag as much scandinavian girls as they possibly could each holiday season. Having that said, I’m Dutch and I grew up near the German border and I can assure you, the traditional grudge is a mutual one, a cultivated one and, nowadays, has little to do with war other than tribal rituals around soccer domes involving slight beatings on the heads, that what the average Brit would consider to be day-care brawls.

Yous truly,
Tony

Comment by Tony — February 24, 2009 @ 5:10 pm
I am a Dutchman living in Germany (Nordhorn). The overall tenor of article is correct. Always like those pieces,
But I have some remarks:

Germans
Generally the Dutch don’t despise Germans and Germans are well accepted in the Netherlands.
Germans are most disliked in Rotterdam (I know, I have studied on the Erasmus and lived in Rotterdam). Probably because of the bombardment on 14 May 1940. The next places are all tourism places in the West of the Netherlands. The more you come to the German border, the dislike disappear.
Dutchman really hate to lose a soccer game to Germans. On the border Dutch will drink a beer in German bars after a win.

Drugs.
If you should go the the Bijlmermeer in Amsterdam you will find stoned Dutchmen. Be very careful there driven a car because they may not see you. General Dutch are used to smoke pot and know when they have had enough better than the not-used-to-smoke-pot foreigners.

Food.
What about the ‘Bitterbal’. Is a small ‘Kroket’. On every business drink and also in Dutch embassies abroad the ‘bitterbal’ is an absolute must.
Never had Dutch raw fish the ‘Herring’. Served nearly everywhere, but please ask the Dutch where to buy/eat one. Especially the tourism location have very bad quality (Keukenhof etc).

Comment by Harm Frielink — March 3, 2009 @ 9:13 am
I’ve been to Amsterdam once for a week. I was watching tv and a public message regarding AIDS prevention aired. Two 14 year old children were sitting naked hand in hand. They each masturbated to climax. What an incredible way to make a point.

Comment by Warren — March 13, 2009 @ 5:30 pm
Being Dutch myself I always love reading about my own little quirks. As several people pointed out in the comments the article is not 100% accurate, but it gives a nice impression.

I think the reason for all this discussion about Dutch habbits comes from the versatility within thw country. That’s also the thing that strikes me most about The Netherlands (being from Noord Brabant, to me Holland and The Netherlands are not the same).

It’s a pretty small, densely populated country. However there are significant differences in both culture and speech between the various provinces. Dialects differ from town to town (however dialect are slowly fading). We even have 2 provinces that have their own language: Limburg an Friesland. I am not able to understand either of them although I live about 120 km away from Limburg.

What I find funny about a lot of Dutch people is their ‘sense of distance’. When travelling to the next best city they feel that they have to go a long way. To put thing into perspective: the two large cities in The Netherlands that have the most distance between them are Maastricht and Groningen and that’s no more than 350 kilometers (about the distance some Canadians have to travel to visit their neighbours ).

Comment by Boy — March 19, 2009 @ 3:37 pm
Where is my bicycle? I want my bicycle back.

Comment by Federale — April 30, 2009 @ 7:53 pm
hey esteban. wrong usage of the word superfluous

Comment by Randy — May 21, 2009 @ 8:09 pm
4. Dutch “g” “ch” and “r” are all pronounced more or less the same (although the Dutch insist they’re different) – a harsh, guttural “kh” sound (like you’re clearing phlegm from your throat). So the word “gracht” (canal) combines all three “kh” sounds in one word…that sounds really, really awful: “khkhakht.” This is why “Grolsch” (the beer) sounds like “Khkhols”, not “grolsh”.

Not correct. Please see the phonetic inventory of the dutch language.

Comment by SnakeDoctor — May 24, 2009 @ 5:12 pm
Ha, this list is perfect! I’m glad to see I’m not the only Dutchwoman who likes DeRuijters on toast!

Love that you also mentioned that hardly any Dutchmen are stoners. THANK YOU. You can imagine the teasing when I say I’m Dutch…

And I can understand why we hate the Germans – if you were a Hollander during the Nazi occupation, you’d hate them, too. They did horrid things to the Netherlanders, things that shouldn’t even be repeated.

Comment by Rachel Hekman — July 6, 2009 @ 3:38 pm
[...] continue [...]

Pingback by 10 things to know about the Dutch and The Netherlands | Traveling and Tourism Guide at TravelZones.net — July 19, 2009 @ 6:56 am
Guys,

I have lived in different places in the world, but one of the nicest cities is Rotterdam. It’s the 2nd largest city of the Netherlands and has a very nice mixture of old and new architecture. It is also the only city that has a ‘skyline’ in NL. Amsterdam is amazing, but you definitely have to visit Rotterdam also!

Comment by Casper — August 2, 2009 @ 8:40 am
A couple of years ago they did a study and we eat a lot more patat frites than the Belgians.

The best breakfast for little kids is of course sandwiches with peanutbutter AND chocolate sprinkles!

“either pink, female, or blue, male, varieties” You do realize these are just to celebrate newborns? if that’s a girl, the guests get pink, if boy then blue.

“If you arrive at a Dutch friend’s house around dinnertime”
Ah, the story that Surinamese people tell each other about this is that whenever THAT happens the Dutch won’t invite you to dinner, but ask you to wait and will give you a book to read or something.
Other things Surinamese people say about the Dutch is that they’re dirty because they don’t shower everyday and are stingy, cos they ask a cigarette back you might have bummed from them.

“Dutch “g” “ch” and “r” ” ….
not true of the “R”!! Unless you go to the deep south, Limburg.
Dutch R varies between a fat (English) one and a rolling hard one.

The Dutch are/were filled with numerous tourist stories of “they treated me harsh until they discovered I wasn’t German” with they=other Europeans. I’m not sure that’s really true.
I lived in Germany for 6 months and I’ve met just 2 germans which were slightly stereotypical.

There are about 1.5 million dutch with a german or belgian parent … Dutch animosity towards Germans is definitely not as strong as it used to be, but now and again someone might mention it.

Hey, we DID have a “witte fietsen plan” back in the 60s but they got stolen. Now Paris and Barcelona have succesfull projects with electronic protection.

Most of the Dutch are always trying to impress tourists with their (non fluent) English. The more educated ones speak French too. And we all more or less understand German, but we don’t speak it that often.

ha ha the portugese comment on beach holes! insightful! maybe it’s not a windy beach?

and a coffeeshop is a place for getting softdrugs, no matter how you spell it. There’s no official spelling for it. there are some chains where

Holland vs the Netherlands is explained best here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland#The_image_of_Holland_at_home_and_abroad

Comment by Bij Lobith komt de Rijn Ons Land — August 6, 2009 @ 4:45 am
Ive been to the netherlands twice and Ive seen some of these behaviors. But just like anywhere else, a generalization is just that. For example, I live on the Cheyenne river sioux reservation, and we make fun of the standing rock reservation. South dakotans v north, west river v east, etc, etc. Pretty much any border, physical or political is bound to create a rivalry. I actually had a conversation with an english chap and a dutch bartender about this, and jerry (who spoke with such rapidity, that I would have to pull myself out of reverie to try to catch everything that was being said) said that his town had rivalries with a town about 15 km away and couldnt understand anything they said. He said this and then admitted that we must have a hard time understanding him. The barkeep and I readily agreed.
But anytime someone writes something that sums up an area in ten points is, by nature, going to be riddled with inaccuracies. I just cought a program that had the top ten \lost\ cultures in the world. Well by jimminy, they threw the spotlight on lakota! Now we call ourselves lakota, but the program, and most people in america call us sioux. Thats a name the french trappers bestowed on us. We call ourselves lakota. But the names sioux, or indian dont cause us to get riled up. It also said that outsiders can jump in and jump around like fools at our \powwows\ (WACIPI). Again, someplaces yes, some no.
As for their education, they were going through a cold spell when i was last there. It was mid march and the locals fell all over themselves apologizing for the weather. Freezing rain was thankfully keeping most people indoors. After being apologized to five or more times, we said that the weather was just fine. We were asked where were from and said south dakota, and recieved an understanding , \Ah the dakotas! You have snow until the middle of may over there!\ Color us impressed!
That being said, holland (hehe) is a great place to visit. The people are friendly. Im not sure about this but they seem to enjoy laughing at stoned beyond social functioning tourists (at least they sure did when my friend took a long slow fall onto his face from the terrifying height of 10cms), and in all is one of the warmest, most polite, and enjoyable countries in the world. Hope to return!

Comment by Danial — August 13, 2009 @ 5:43 pm
Thanks for this nice article, made me laugh

Very funny reactions as well, although, also some really stupid ones, especially from some Dutch people adding ‘corrections’ which are totally untrue.

What is true though is this line from the posting above mine:

‘Hey, we DID have a “witte fietsen plan” back in the 60s but they got stolen.’

That is indeed exactly what happened and after reading section 9 in the article I think this is really hilarious

Love to be Dutch!

Comment by Dutchie — August 20, 2009 @ 5:46 am
Amsterdam is one of my favourite cities, and I don’t go for the drugs or the filthy hookers. The last time I was there I bought a bike for 9 Euros and had it stolen 2 hours later, which I thought was a good deal!

Comment by William Wallace — September 7, 2009 @ 12:25 pm
Interesting facts, that makes me want to travel to the Netherlands even more.

Comment by Anonymous visitor — October 21, 2009 @ 6:43 am
Does anyone find, dutch and german people seem to have a very high arrogant attitude, why is this? A good example is your trying to help someone with what there doing even know they have never done it before but yet will still tell you what is wrong and right being completely wrong themself. Why is this so? Both Dutch and Germans.

Comment by Iron Sword — October 21, 2009 @ 5:54 pm
Patatje oorlog ?!

Comment by Ivo — October 25, 2009 @ 4:14 pm
Imagine how many prejudices and untrue facts americans would have to defend on a page like this. I am an American,I live in Vermont. But most people don’t know where Vermont is, alot of people think its Canada. I visited Holland over the summer with my boyfriend and we had a great time. I just wish there was some way we could squash the stereotype that all Americans are lazy and stupid, It’s simply not true. It really other countries that have closed minds about us, I admit there are so many things I am ashamed of our country for, but you have to understand, its ignorant people led to believe the governments lies. Please stop thinking we are uneducated and lazy, im sick and pissed off of always hearing that, you sound just as ignorant when you group a whole country together like that.

Comment by Irena — December 13, 2009 @ 5:09 pm
While we are trying to plan another trip to Europe I found this so funny it left me in fits of laughter LOL! I really didn’t know as much about the Netherland region, I have been a tourist for sometime know so these are probably not the selling facts but that is true everywhere but when we visit a new place it is good to hear about cultural habits, offering a wider variety of activities on our trip, so thanks again for this article…… A Canadian wrote Kelly Green….

Comment by Belgium Tour — January 12, 2010 @ 4:54 pm
Lived in Amsterdam 1969&70. The people there (all of them) were so gracious and tolerant it changed my life forever. Thank you Nederlanders!

Comment by Daniel Bee — February 5, 2010 @ 8:38 am
These really were 10 things I didn’t know about the Dutch. Man, I’m smart now!

Comment by Cherrye at My Bella Vita — February 19, 2010 @ 3:33 am
how’re the women, looks-wise?

Comment by dejay — February 20, 2010 @ 7:09 pm
The Dutch have an American accent,,– due to american television- but they might mix accents up because dutch students can learn so many languages at school. – English (obliged) and French or German (obliged) but also Spanish, Chinese, Latin, Greek, Arabic.

The Dutch do use umbrellas though. O THE MOST INTERESTING FACT I’VE NOTICED; THEY CAN ALL CYCLE WITHOUT THE USE OF ANY HANDS. and it doesn’t matter whether the surface is hilly or flat or whatever,, they can turn etc without hands. Fascinating,,

and about the hatred towards the Germans, that’s because of soccer,, trust me

@ dejay
Dutch women often tall, blonde and blue-eyed.stunning

Comment by Ava — March 6, 2010 @ 12:56 pm
Yeah… a real Dutch girl here.

I seriously cracked up about the “Germans digging holes” part, because it’s totally true! Our hatred towards Germans is probably caused by a combination of WW 2, Soccer & their lack of fashion. I don’t think we HATE them. Were just slightly annoyed by them..? And it’s certainly not EVERYONE that hates them..

By the way, most of us don’t have such a bad accent at all. I’m in America right now as an exchange student & most people don’t even notice I’m foreign until I tell them! It’s really funny.. hehe.

The reason why we can all bike without hands is because we have to BIKE TO SCHOOL. YES. No whimpy things like a schoolbus in the Netherlands. Doesn’t matter if it’s snowing or raining you have to bike anyway, EVERY DAY. So after a while you get bored and learn yourself how to bike without hands or just 1. I mean, come on… how would you entertain yourself?

And I love Hagelslag! Who sais it’s only for kids?

Anyway, love this article! You just made my night!

Comment by Marjolein — March 18, 2010 @ 8:27 pm
“The dutch are no potheads”. I noticed that too, they all said that the whole drug thing was just to get more tourism to the country, and that most people who smoked in cafés were British and American boys…

Comment by Sofia - As We Travel — April 14, 2010 @ 1:51 am
My wife is Dutch, so I know all about the chocolate sprinkles, stroopwaffels, and poffertjes, which I love. Especially the ones with the Grand Marnier. and you are right about the English. I make jokes that the Dutch national hobby is correcting Americans’ grammar. I think the Dutch dislike most other Europeans, but especially the Germans because of the war. During the war the Germans confiscated Dutch bicycles, and it’s still a joke when a Dutch person sees a German to yell, “Hey, where’s my bicycle?”

Comment by MinniePearlJam — May 16, 2010 @ 12:59 am
Ok, so i have seen allot of people posting here that Weed is not legal in holland..

To corect you all in your stupidity,

It IS legal, but in small sizes, you can have around 2 plants for own use.

And its a very popular medicine for people who can’t sleep well, or have other problems, they use weed to relax.

The relation with Holland and Germany is pretty different i live just besides the german boarder in a dutch city called Enschede and we usualy only use germany for their cheap gass and illegal fireworks.

Holland is not a different part then The Netherlands.

Noord Holland (North holland) is a “Provincie” (State in America)
we have 2 words for Holland: The netherlands and Holland.

but it is basicly the same thing.

Thats all.

If enyone comes to Holland, have a good day/week. and i hope you enjoy our weed.

Comment by G.S — May 25, 2010 @ 12:23 pm
Nice post,
tough point 3 and 7 are nonsense. its not like we are some kind of alien species (yes im dutch) with totally different habits. the world today is mostly international and we DO have umbrella’s and DO eat more hot meals a day occasionally. (tough a farmers habit is to eat hot in the afternoon and always cold, bread, in the evening). if you really want to know stuff about The Netherlands (indeed not Holland) ask a dutch guy!

greetings

ps sry for the bad grammer, as i said im dutch, and only 17 years old.

Comment by Nanko — June 18, 2010 @ 2:36 am
Man on man. I had no idea how many stereo types that were associated with me. I lived in Holland for about 5 years at one time. I had plenty of friends, good neighbors, as long as I did NOT mention, that my father was in the US Air force.
In my case, they liked me as a friend, but as a future NCO, it was just cold, unmoving, nervous, silence. Well that was just my case. I’m not sure having a military background applies to all of Holland, or just those select people I met.
I wish I kept up with speaking dutch, now that I think about it.

Comment by James Loveland — June 20, 2010 @ 12:13 pm
Well, this was most certainly interesting to read being Dutch and all.

I’m not entirely sure about the umbrellas part though. I rarely if ever see raincoats etc. We have like 10 umbrellas lying around in our home (they’re practically fashion accessories) and my friends are the same.

As for hating Germans, some hate them, most don’t. It depends on what kind of people you meet. The ‘common man’ is more likely to hate outsiders. The French however are hated quite a bit more and the feeling is mutual. Apparently we argued with them once about being the biggest ‘Cheese’ country in Europe…. Meaning we get tickets for doing absolutely nothing and vice versa. It’s sure entertaining though, especially considering it’s probably the Dutch nr. 1 vacation destination.

As for the sprinkles, we usually eat those colored once when a baby is born. Pink for a girl and blue for a boy, the new parents pass those around. Kind of like birthday cake ;p

And no, our country isn’t exactly made out of sand. It’s dark topsoil/sludge. Half of our country (more or less) was ‘raised’ out of the water. In other words we added land. So it’s pretty diverse, but yeah, a lot of sand XP

Comment by Denise — August 1, 2010 @ 11:47 am
Hi,

Dutch guy speaking here^^. I will try not to say some stuff that has already been said, but some stuff may be already said because there are sooooooo many replies.

Anyway, just to clarify, drugs are actually ILlegal here. We just have a particular policy on this point. Drugs are illegal, but there are no sanctions on using/growing them, up to a certain point. And it is not because there are bigger fish to fry, but because our government can regulate this better.

About the generalization, we have a lot of jokes about foreigners, especially our neighbors, but those are just jokes about stereotypes. We have a lot of jokes for instance about Belgians being stupid, but we know this isn’t (always:P) the case.

A typical breakfast and lunch (and with typical I mean there are always exceptions and people who do otherwise) consists of multiple slices of bread. And on these slices of bread we put almost everything, from chocolate sprinkles to coconut bread (yes, it is actually true, we put bread on bread:P), from tuna salad to plain mackerel. For diner a typical Dutch meal consists of potatoes, some vegetables and a piece of meat, all covered with gravy.

Also, here is a fun fact: in the Netherlands there are actually more bikes than there are people :O

Comment by lollio — August 12, 2010 @ 1:26 am
A line said by a Dutch guy – had to laugh for an hour:

‘If it’s illegal we make it legal. So we can keep an eye on it anyway’.

I just wanted to say that i adore the Dutchies. I don’t understand why people call them arrogant. Perhaps because they just say whatever they think and act the way they want to act – some people are not used to that kinda beheviour and call it rude, i rather call it normal. Also they have a great sence of humor and they are willing to help, a bit rude and they have lovely weird habits.

Like putting loads of ‘hagelslag’ on bread, going on bike everywhere – no matter what kinda weather it is, and trying to make profit of everything (like taking food home which is left in a restaurant to save some money!)

Well, that was it. Good story!

Comment by Danielle — August 23, 2010 @ 3:14 pm
For the people who visited holland and heard sirens.
Those sirens are warning systems that have been implied since WW2 and are tested daily at the same time to see if they work. Its’ funny because when we hear them EVERYBODY checks their watches to see if its time to test them, if not then you have to go home and lock the doors.

From someone who is happy to be dutch.

PS its not holland, its the netherlands. The full name is also Koningkrijk der nederlanden(Kingdom of the Netherlands)

Comment by Gibity — October 2, 2010 @ 7:13 pm
hey guys…… I’m an 5th generation Indian living in Fiji… iv always had a passion for Europe and plan to visit and explore the continent after I finish up with my medical school….. but the thing is the only languages i know r Hindi and English…..British accent English….. but I’v read that nearly a third of all Europeans have some knowledge of English…. would this create problems for me during my travels???

Comment by fjij indian — November 14, 2010 @ 4:30 am
Most Dutch do not hate Germans and vice versa. In fact, many Dutch entertainers are very popular in Germany and many German enterainers are very popular in the Netherlands.

While the Dutch have an accent when speaking English, who doesn’t? Even Americans from different states have an accent. One should keep in mind that most teachers that teach English are Dutch, not native speakers. And even if they were native speakers, it wouldn’t make a difference.

Most jokes are meant to make fun of the Belgians. Belgians make Dutch look like idiots and vice versa. I think the Dutch outsmart the Belgians, though. It’s a fact!

Belgians call the Dutch “gierig” (stingy, misery) although, in truth, the Dutch donate more per capital then any other country. Belgians don’t even come close.

About any joke that the Belgians tell can be reversed to make the Belgians look bad…and vice versa once again! LOL

While Belgium has indeed great beers (I’m not a beer drinker myself), the Dutch have the world famous brand of Heineken. It’s easy to get Heineken all over the world but not so when it comes to Belgian beer(s).

You left out a very important aspect of Dutch culture: haring (herring) and cheese.

In the 60s, Belgians would drive or take the bus to the Netherlands to buy cheese, butter and cigarettes, as they were cheaper across the border.

Comment by Geborenopdeverkeerdekantvanhetbeloofdeland — November 20, 2010 @ 10:15 pm
HAHAHA, this is sooo funny!
I would loved if you did wrote 100 things!

The accent is so true, I’m Dutch btw ..
Words like ‘tongue’ or ‘mouth’ are impossible for me to say correctly ..
It comes out like ‘tonk’ and ‘mout’ or ‘mouf’ with a really hard F
And I also say I-DEE

And yeah, we don’t like Germans. Please don’t ever tell a dutchman that the Netherlands and Germany are the same ..We hate them for many things but mostly their TERRIBLE LANGUAGE !! (No, Dutch isn’t the most beautiful language, I know) but German is just AWFUL.

If you don’t believe me, check this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRe3gLoE0wU

ANTON AUS TIROL UWHUAHA

Thanks for sharing this!! It’s so typical and funny :p

Comment by Dyana — January 5, 2011 @ 8:38 am
well, i have to say that i never experienced any hatred in the netherlands although im german. i always try to speak a little bit of dutch (my dutch friends always teach me new stuff everytime i visit them lol) and i get along well and if i dont know a word i just speak english and theyre always willing to help me. so i wouldnt say dutchs hate germans.

and i have to say that dutch and german are alike. surely not the same but alike. i live close to the dutch border and its easier for me to understand dutch than swiss german for example. and by the way (concerning the comment above mine) tirol = austria. austrian german is different from normal german. i know german sounds mean sometimes (depends on who’s speaking it) but its not super awful. there are languages that sound worse.

Comment by stefanodhiwvoh — February 7, 2011 @ 5:52 pm
I read a lot of comments and laughed a lot. Some things are true other false. I really don`t like that German hate subject, its nonsense. In every country you have silly people, so also in the Netherlands.With football, yeah there is some competetion. But i am sure that is also in other countries.And beside I rather see a nice German then a bad American:)
For the rest of it, just make fun and learn from eachother, no one is perfect!

Comment by Grunneger — February 11, 2011 @ 9:22 am
Haha cool. I’m dutch too and I must admit I love fries with mayonnaise. I see some people saying bad things about our scholar system but it is referred to as one of the best scholar systems in the world. People do not only go here for the drugs but you see a lot of college students from other countries here.

Comment by Cynthia — February 13, 2011 @ 12:23 pm
First of all I’m dutch myself. I enjoyed reading your article and almost all of it is true. I want to add that we are refered to as Holland by the rest of the world during any major football event. We even chant “Holland! Holland!”. So during the world cup the name of the country is Holland the rest of the time it’s called Nederland.
Oh and in “de randstad” they don’t pronounce the r and the g speratly. So gracht is pronounced as GGaGt. Even though they claim to have no accent at all in “de randstad”. But actually they’re having a hard time speaking the language properly.

Comment by Thomas — February 16, 2011 @ 4:12 pm
Saying ‘Holland’ instead of ‘The Netherlands’ can, as far as I know, be called a ‘pars pro toto’ (in Latin). This means that you only name the most important part instead of the whole. (See wikipedia on this subject).
This is probably based on the fact that the province of Holland has always been the most important part of The Netherlands in de field of economy, art, business, government etcetera.

Comment by Pim — April 8, 2011 @ 12:29 pm
love the dutch hate red light districts

Comment by samuel welsh — April 15, 2011 @ 1:47 am
nice story and really made me laugh!
just as a side note.. and i’m not 100% sure on this.. But i’m always told Holland is part of The Kingdom of The Netherlands
Same as suriname, South africa, Indonesia and some of the Carrabian islands.

Now those countries have their own independence and everything it’s only holland that’s still part of the kindom.
So in that case Holland and The Netherlands would be exactly the same.
(correct me if i’m wrong)

and damn i miss all those foods! I’ve been in australia for 15 months now and it’s just not here!

Comment by Martijn — April 17, 2011 @ 4:11 am
Just a message for Martijn, there are a number of “Dutch Shops” in Australia, one in Sydney and as far as I know one in Brisbane, they sell most of the stuff you miss. Google “winkeltje smithfield”

Comment by Cees — April 28, 2011 @ 3:21 am
I found this hilarious, mostly because its true. I have been living in NL for over a year and I still find the dutch a difficult race to understand.
Here are some of my personal observations:

1. Dutch guys use way too much gel in their hair.
2.They have a strong opinion on EVERYTHING.
3. They do not like sharing AT ALL.
4. They are generally quite rude.
5. They do not like to work.

Comment by delft-student — May 19, 2011 @ 9:33 am
The Dutch don’t hate Germany because of the occupation.

As we say, we’ve put ‘zand erover’ (sand over it).
We have in fact forgiven them for being cunts in the past. Actually no, they still owe us some bikes and they won’t give it back no matter how often we tell em. It’s rather off-putting. But yes we HAVE forgiven them for the occupation – in general.

We mainly hate them for sucking at football and still making it to the finals.

And YES, we have an accent, it’s an affliction and I pray to god someone finds a cure FAST.

Speaking of God, we don’t believe in it. Apart from some people (we call them ‘mongols’, which translates to retards) in some – as we call – ‘kutdorpen’ (which translates to ‘vagina villages’ but means ‘retarded villages that have no form of education and don’t know anything about anything)’.

And just to be clear. Once and for all.
Holland is indeed comprised of the provinces ‘zuid-holland’ and ‘noord-holland’.
Its interpretation though is different for different parts of the Netherlands :
- People who _do not_ live in zuid-holland or noord-holland believe holland (noord-holland and zuid-holland) is the same as the randstad, and even know they know it’s not true, they still swear by it because they’ll call it ‘een pot nat’, which translates to ‘one big bucket of wet’, which is comparable to ‘potato – po ta toe’
- People who _do_ live in zuid-holland or noord-holland are retarded and have no idea other parts of the netherlands exist or are to be cared for.

Comment by Brabantse geezert — May 28, 2011 @ 2:16 pm
listen, i’m dutch and we’re not stupid, we call the netherlands not only nederland but we call it holland too,

Comment by dawn — June 2, 2011 @ 5:36 am
i am freaking dutch, and im proud of it..
but its sure you dont know anything about the netherlands cuz you missed out ‘Limburg’..cuz their we have another accent.. and they are very nice have alot of beautiful nature and places…
but over all WERE NOT RUDE!! you guys dont live or know our country so you wont know..we can be very kind and very helpful …alot of us also respect things..but yes its true if someone doesnt like us we dont like you….so what that us dutch people..and im proud of it!..cuz im sure the country YOU live in isnt that perfect either..

Comment by sammiee — June 7, 2011 @ 9:04 am
love this article, I myself am Ducth and recognize every single bit

I would like to clear up the thing about German and Dutch being very similar.
They may SEEM very similar, but they really are very different, they just sound alike to someone who doesn’t know where to look. I can speak and writer proper Dutch, but even after 4 years of being taught German I can barely speak it let alone write it.
It’s the grammar really, German grammar is one of the most confusing things I’ve ever seen, I’ve tried learning myself Japanese and Korean and was taught French in high school, but even these were easier.
So saying that Dutch and German are like British English and American English really is a misconception.

and about the Germans digging holes in our beaches…..they don’t do it that often as people make you believe, but when you comment about their holes they go completely nuts

I’d also like to add that the Dutch LOVE to complain about things, basically everything, but at the same time we’re one of the “happiest” countries on the planet

Comment by Josca — June 22, 2011 @ 3:18 pm
It’s a nice article, thanx. Especially the Hagelslag.
All peeps may believe what they want.

See Ya,
Fred

Comment by I am Dutch, named Fred — June 28, 2011 @ 9:58 am
And yes, no german is liked here after WWll ( ’40-’45 ).
But we DO love your ‘ camp ‘- artist, Divine ( ‘ Shoot your shot ‘ etc. : all songs between ’81 and ’88 ) !!!!!.

See Ya,
Fred

Comment by I am Dutch, named Fred — June 28, 2011 @ 10:04 am
Did y’all know that the dutch country peeps are in heart the same as the american country peeps? Nów you know !!! We’re just merely alike : we love y’all there in
‘ the states ‘ too.

See ya,
Fred

Comment by Fred — July 2, 2011 @ 2:16 am
You forgot to mention that the Dutch are the tallest people in Europe and the world. I was in The Netherlands for three days and saw a total of 30 girls and women taller then me. Compared to when I was in Sweden for three days I saw only six women taller then me. Another thing is that the Dutch are very blond and blue eyed in certain parts of the nation lets say like Den Helder, and certain parts let say Maastrict more people have brown eyes then blue eyes.

Comment by Shinsagee — July 12, 2011 @ 10:52 am
Ok let me get this straight, yes most Dutch people will tell you they don’t like Germans but it’s got nothing to do with the war.
It’s because when we’re abroad people always mistake us for them, foreigners look at The Netherlands as a part of Germany instead of as a country on itself. They think the languages are the same.
Of course this depends on the country you’re visiting, but in general it’s like this.
And then let me express the fact that Germans loath the French, don’t ask me why though.
I am a Dutch girl and I’m 5’10 (1.78m) and have friends (girls) who are taller than me but still wear heels.
And by the way, I hate my Dutch accent and tr to get rid of it.
But at least we speak several languages, most Americans I met spoke nothing but American English. Maybe a little bit of Spanish and French but so do I.
And yes, we may seem rude. But wouldn’t you feel a bit uncomfortable when someone you just met is already inviting you over for dinner at their place?
And by the way, I live in Spain right now and Spanish people will never, ever ask you to come over to their place. That’s way to intimate for them.
Love the article though, it’s very recognizable, but I hate the Febo, don’t ever go there you have no idea for how long those Kroketten and Frikandellen have been there.

ps. Do we have rules for birthday parties? Except for the three kisses thing I mean.

Comment by Marieke — July 20, 2011 @ 7:05 am
i am brazilian and visited netherlands last year.
i love their political system and the common sense of the population. hopefully their way of life will be mixed and widespread around the world.
netherlands has much to teach to the world.

Comment by FELIPE XAVIER — July 21, 2011 @ 7:30 am
I’m getting pretty pissed because of some replies here about our education. It’s actually pretty good, better than american education.

DailyCandor: And yet…you’re in America.

Comment by Jose — July 26, 2011 @ 12:20 am
are holland and the netherlands the same now?

Comment by Joseph — July 28, 2011 @ 10:39 am
We are all equally in validation ( same “worth / value ” ).

We all just differ in genes ( partly ) , that makes us unique individuals. The equal genes should unite us.

No need to get into some kind of a competitive mainstream here We’re all just human and nice.

Love y’all,
C ya,
Fred (NL)

Comment by Fred — August 4, 2011 @ 8:42 am
I thought the ten-points-thing was hilarious! So thank you!

It’s true that the Dutch people have an opinion about EVERYTHING and get very passionate about them. (You just have to read the comments my fellow countrymen have left here to see that that is true) On the other hand, we also have some kind of ‘polite disinterest’, meaning that it doesn’t matter to us what someone else is doing if it doesn’t have any affect on us.
But people are different everywhere, so I don’t know if that is also true in the north or west or east or south of our country.

About us being rude. I think we are more rude then people from the States. (from what I gather from tv/oprah c; )
We try to say what we mean in the shortest time-span as possible, instead of getting to it in a polite, interested manner that will take too long (in our opinion).

And yeah, I think we are pretty arrogant about our country, but not in a very bad way. More proud then arrogant maybe?

Oh one more thing. About our like/dislike to foreigners (german, french etc):
On the one hand we hate them for not speaking our language while visiting the Netherlands (and forcing us to speak theirs when we are visiting their country), but we also like to feel inferior when we ARE able to speak their language. Like we are smarter then they are or something? (I mean, maybe that’s only how I feel. Again not a bad thing, just an observation, don’t kill me please)

again: love to read your comments about us!

Comment by GirlfromBrabantNL — August 7, 2011 @ 6:51 am
I mean superior instead of inferior, of course!! (man stupid! I ALWAYS mix those two up c; )

Comment by GirlfromBrabantNL — August 7, 2011 @ 7:23 am
The discussion about wether its Holland or the Netherlands is just a translation problem. Holland is indeed just the name for zuid holland(Southern Holland) and noord holland(Northern Holland). We call it the netherlands but alot of americans dont know it untill you say amsterdam and they will just not get that that is our capitol city of the COUNTRY the netherlands, not a STATE. The education is way better than in America since you dont go to a university here for good basketballing or whatever but only for your brains.

Comment by Frits — August 8, 2011 @ 9:04 pm
GirlfromBrabant: Read the most recent comment from Frits above. You might have to reverse yourself yet one more time!

Comment by JM — August 9, 2011 @ 10:17 am
Just in reaction to some: yes there is indeed a difference between The Netherlands and Holland, which is actually two provinces (North and South Holland). But Holland may be used for The Netherlands as a general name. What should not be used is Dutchland, which does not exist as a name. Which brings me to the Germans. No there i no hate relationship. This is ridiculous to say. Than, French fies are consumed all over the world, mostly in the United States, The Netherlands have their share of rain, but it is far from being drenched with from. Taking the risk of sounding offensive defensive, the writer left out quite some remarkable things about the Dutch, such as their liberalism, generosity, trade, waterworks, art… In overall, I find this article very generic, not funny and even a bit offensive, beg your pardon.

Comment by Mark — August 26, 2011 @ 1:10 am
Holland (according van dale/the biggest dutch dictionairy) means both the two provinces zuid and noord holland together as well as The netherlands

The name holland originates from “graafschap holland” in the year 1101.

nederland originates from Bourgondische Nederlanden (1384)

napoleon renamed nederland to holland again.

technically both the britsh failed to free the netherlands from napeoleon, and napeoleon failed keeping us… i guess this is the reason why both Holland and The Netherlands/Nederland can be used for pointing to the whole country.

i love hagelslag and muisjes, patat with a shitload of mayonaise. hate germans on average (we used to have a german king though)…

still wondering about the rules of dutch birthdayparties… whats special about it?

buying and smoking weed/wiet/grass/hash in coffee shops is LEGAL in holland.

Comment by bazoo — September 2, 2011 @ 12:22 pm
oh… germand dig holes in holland indeed… moest germans never seen the sea, go on holidays to holland and finally get the chance to dig for the first time in their lives… and most of them take that chance…

we hate them for several reasons:
- they’ve driven awefull shitload of kilometers to get to the sea… and in all their excitement they forget about other people on the beach… dutch get irritated about that…
- World War Two… most of the dutch living then are already dead… but those sort of things get passed on for some generations…
- foreigners mistake us for germans… e.g. the french… french ppl hate germans too… we have to explain every time about not being germans… irritating… their fault!
- germans drugtourists can be irritating too… (french and belgium ones too though)

why didn’t tell about how we think of belgium people? or even worse: americans:D

Comment by bazoo — September 2, 2011 @ 12:38 pm
bazoo: It was titled 10 Things you DIDN’T KNOW about the Dutch. We ALL know you think Belgians and Americans are stupid.

Comment by JM — September 2, 2011 @ 2:09 pm
Everything is right and our educational system is great, only people from Holland like to think that the Netherlands = Holland, because they think they are better then the rest.. Well if you’ve spend 4 years in the Netherlands I think you could guess that I’m from Limburg and I’m proud to say that we are the only ones that don’t have that weird -R and -G pronunciation. But for you it would probably still be weird XD Well I think much is different about Limburgs, for instant we don’t hate the Germans, because they are our neighbours and well, frankly we can understand them better, because we see more Germans then ‘Hollanders’ with that weird -R and -G pronunciation.. When I’m there I really have to focus to understand them, when I’m in a Themepark I even understand it when a German stands next to me, but when a ‘hollander’ stands next to me I can’t understand him unless I’m focussing on it.. Really weird, also really awkard when a ‘hollander’ tries to speak German, I guess that’s why they hate them, because they can’t understand them..

But never the less we are still proud to be Dutch, doesn’t matter where you come in the Netherlands but everybody will be proud because they are Dutch. Actually we are the proudest of the ‘gouden eeuw’, the golden age, when we had the biggest fleet on earth, but actually that is the only time we did something right, for the rest we’ve lost almost everything and even in the golden age we facked up pretty fast and had to give new york to the english and more after that. But still we kept our own identity, also weird that we have so many individuality, I mean I’m a ‘Limburger’ and I’m proud of it, you have like 5 dialects and own identities, while our country is as big as 1 average american state.

Ow and we want everybody to be our friend, and to establish that we always want to fight in the wars of other countries and contribute al lot of money to organisations like NAVO and the EU. Sometimes it sickens me, especially because we’re so facking proud of every little succes. The US would need 200 TV stations to send out everything if they would do the same. Ow and if a cop fires a gun in the Netherlands you can bet your money on it that it will be in the news for at least the next 3 days. And that’s only when it’s a warning shot, if he actually shoots at somebody and misses it will be in the news for 2 weeks, don’t get me started if he shoots and hits. When the criminal that was shot dies you can expect to see it in the news for a half year and the whole system will be turned upside down to look what went wrong and how they could have prevented it..

Comment by Mc — October 13, 2011 @ 4:15 pm
Please note, that there’s more than one Dutch culture and they are very different from each other.

Comment by Anna — October 20, 2011 @ 1:39 pm
Another example of The Dutch loathe the Germans

Some years ago, I went to Amsterdam, I joined some kind of city canal tour, a stupid question came up “Is the water on the canal safe to drink?” (the water was opaque greenish); The boat driver answered “Of course it’s not safe to drink”, but then he added “But if Germans ask the same question, I would tell them it is safe to drink” LOL

Comment by Dutz — November 24, 2011 @ 12:29 am
Great article, very amusing! Their loathing of Germans is just fascinating…

Comment by Awesome Amsterdam — December 5, 2011 @ 5:50 am
OK, having read up ’till #60 right now, I have to respond to the question about Germans digging holes. They do dig holes, and that is hardly a problem. In formar times, let’s say the 60′s and 70′s, when the anger against Germans was much much bigger than today (WWII) (no anger at all nowadays, just some general attitude that we alle should hate them, which we don’t), the Germans used to dig holes in the sand and stay in their hole all day. The day after they would come back to the same hole and find someone else in it, they would say: ‘Das ist mein Kaul!’ (That is my hole!), which, of course, was not accepted.
That is it. And we still make the joke, but I have never seen it happening and I’ve lived here for 35 years.

Comment by Jesse — December 5, 2011 @ 9:16 am
So, I read through your top 10. Obciously, it is fun to read what others say about us. Some of your points I found incorrect though.

However, I first want to comment to poster #10 about his fries story.Sorry mate, it just sounds like typical northern/southern rivalry. The Belgians may have invented fries, which I duly credit them for, but to call all the fries in the Netherlands poor when they’re made the same way (but smaller) is just utterly ridiculous. Then again, you know what the Dutch think about the Belgians .

So, back to the stoy;

#1. Spot on. Holland refers to the provinces of North and South Holland. The term Holland is usually used to support the Dutch national football team, though any Dutch athlete will be encouraged by the crowd shouting “HOLLAND! at them.

#2 Hagelslag for the win! Anyway, you won’t find much difference in flavour. De Ruijter is just a bigger brand.

#3. Never heard of that and no idea where that comes from. I’ve had toast in the morning and a warm meal in the evening plenty of times before.

#4 The Dutch R is so, so, so, so much different. How does rrrrrrrrr sound the same as gggggg?

#5 We don’t LOVE speaking English, we assume it is easier to speak English to foreign people rather than them trying to speak Dutch. A lot of Dutch do have that annoying accent, however, pronouncing words incorrect is not down to being stubborn, it is down to translating. Idea in dutch is idee EE-day and quite often Dutch simply say the Dutch word in English.

#6 What a weird story. We do not LOATHE the Germans. We dislike them, mostly during football. The loathing was definitely present shortly after the war, but 60 years later, it is not that big of a thing. We definitely don’t call them stupid/dumb, we save that for the Belgians.

#7 No umbrellas on bikes, generally, but you’ll find that quite a few people do when they don’t have access to a raincoat. Hey, it is better than getting soaked! Wet face, no biggie. Get a towel and it is dry. It is wet clothes that is the problem, hence the raincoat/suit.

#8 Drenching? In most cases people have mayonnaise seperate so that they can dip their fries into it. I don’t know many, if any, people that like to get greasy fingers diving into mayonnaise finding that one fry that is hidden underneath.

#9 Not sure about the junkie stoy. Only ever been in the red light district once. However, everything else is pretty much correct. Also, we carry fellow people on the back, something I don’t think is done anywhere else.

#10 Pretty much spot on again, though plenty of Dutch still smoke. Mostly, we buy it in a coffeeshop and then go home and smoke it there, with, or without friends.

Comment by JB — December 6, 2011 @ 5:19 am
Dutch dont know what they stand for anymore they lost their way along time ago.

Comment by willem — December 9, 2011 @ 9:24 am
Actually, most Dutch people from Holland don’t know Holland isn’t the same as the Netherlands, whereas everybody who lives in THE NETHERLANDS (excluding Holland) will be deeply insulted when you say they’re from Holland. Personally, I accept it when a foreigner makes that mistake once, but when they repeat it I can become really pissed off.

Love it though, it’s always so much fun to read how foreign people are so amazed by our culture.

Comment by Tristan Woudstra — December 11, 2011 @ 2:19 pm
Obviously, the author used exaggeration here and there. But if you look at the big picture, it’s kinda true. ;p
It was funny but not offensive to the Dutch (IMHO). Which is good because nowadays you rarely hear jokes that don’t offend a particular country or ethnic group etc.

And BTW, many people in the Netherlands think they speak English properly, but they don’t. Especially youth.

Comment by Dutchguy — December 30, 2011 @ 6:39 am
I’m not sure if it has been mentioned before in the comments, since I’m too lazy to read all 238 of them, but I just have to say something about the bike part.
You say that every bike will eventually be stolen, so no one spends over 50 euros for one. That’s not true for the whole of the Netherlands. It seems to me that you have mainly been in big cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag etc. Where I live, in Gelderland (Apeldoorn, in the east), not every bike will be stolen if you don’t have 3 locks on them. Sure, if you leave it unlocked, it’ll be stolen. But I use just one very-easy-to-break-lock, like many many others here by the way, and have had the same bike for over 5 years now. The only reason I get new bikes is when they are “total loss” or getting too small when I was a child.
This does not only go for my town of course, but many other places as well. I admit that in big cities or some particular cities/towns bikes get stolen all the time. But not everywhere, all the time.
Other than that I think you wrote a good article, except about the patat which has been said before. It is indeed from Belgium.
I actually do not like those big “Vlaamse frieten”, but oh well.

Comment by Tabitha — January 3, 2012 @ 8:17 am
I believe the Germans dig holes in the sand because the sand will be colder then. The surface of the sand is hot, but how deeper you get, the colder it is.

Comment by Suzan — January 3, 2012 @ 8:23 am
@ Mc Not only Limburgers have that weird R and G, Brabanders also don’t have it.

Comment by Suzan — January 3, 2012 @ 8:29 am
1, 2 and 7 are partially true.
10 is true, even though it has some flaws.
Also, the dutch can beat the US in any kind of contest, easily, of course especially at being retarded or fat.
Believe me, I hate the dutch culture myself, even though I have lived here for almost al my life, but the truth had to be exposed.

I hope I die from those STD’s I got from selling my body in Amsterdam’s red light district.

Comment by DrDouchetastic — January 3, 2012 @ 2:32 pm
Haha leuk artikel. Grappig om te lezen hoe anderen erover denken.

Comment by Patrick — January 3, 2012 @ 2:53 pm
The reason why we, Dutch people, are so anal about what foreigners say about the Netherlands, is because they are always confusing us with the Germans and Belgium.

And I want to set straight, a lot of us do smoke pot but we don’t usually do it in coffee shops because there are to many high foreigners. So little of us eat from a ‘FEBO’ and only in the center of big city’s bikes get stolen. And as reaction on some of the other reactions, the Netherlands has been chosen (from 21 country’s including the US, the UK, Germany, France etc.) to be the best environment for children to grow up. There by, we are a rich and well educated so what the fuck!

You are right on a lot of your points. Like point 1 and point 2, couldn’t have said it better. Point 3 really depends on the person itself, I offen eat a hot meal for lunch and dinner. Point 4 is kind of right, that hard for me to judge with me being Dutch. Point 5 is true, we learn English at a very young age, but our accent is terrible, mine has improved since i’ve lived in londen for a half year. Point 6 … Yeah, most of us hate Germans, mostly because of the WW II. Point 7, no we’re not living on a ground of mostly sand. Point 8 i explained already. Point 9, we cycle a lot mainly because we barely have any hills in our country (and it’s easy). Point 10, some of us smoke pot, some of us don’t, we don’t really care. I do, but I’m young, most of the adults don’t smoke .

Great article, glad you love our country! I would certainly love to go to America one day.

Sincerly,
Pam from Rotterdam!

Comment by Pam — January 11, 2012 @ 1:22 am
#8: fries originate from France, where they were invented in Paris. So neither the Belgiums and Dutch can be credited for that

Comment by Limbids — January 12, 2012 @ 2:44 am
All the “Dutch people” that say that holand is the same as Netherlands are probably from Amsterdam or one of those big cities. They think their “provincie” (like a state) is the best (wich is either north- or south Holland). they think that rest sucks and stuff. I am from the northern part,Drenthe, (and i personally think we’re more Dutch because we really live between all the farmers).
I know that there is a difference between Holland and the Netherlands. so don’t say we’re not educated. look at my english, im 14 years old. you can’t deny that this is no good english for a 14 year old. ( I’m not trying to be selfish, im just saying that we are educated.

Comment by Yannick — January 14, 2012 @ 1:44 pm
I live in holland and I loved reading each one and going “yes! that’s so true!” Except the umbrellas. The dutch do use umbrellas, but they are like a day-use thing there. On a particularly rainy day, every single public trashcan on the streets is full of broken umbrellas from the constant wind!

And since the fries topic is to hot, I’ll just add that the ones the Dutch like are Belgian, not French, and they seriously have stands devoted to just fries.

Comment by Br — January 15, 2012 @ 11:08 am
I really get it why a lot of the non-dutch people above characterize the dutch as being rude. I just felt like i had to explain it a bit. Overall i think the dutch are really down to earth and open. In conversations when having an opinion or trying to make a statement they simply say what they want to say. They just call a spade a spade and don’t hide behind words. This can really be mistaken for being rude. Of course rude people live everywhere and also in the Netherlands, but when visiting the Netherlands just keep in mind that most dutchies are really direct and don’t mean to be rude.

I loved to read all the thoughts on my country. It makes you think… Oh, and i’ve been to Germany very often and i think they’re the best. Just visit a city like Cologne or something like that and you’ll know what i mean.

Comment by Tom — January 15, 2012 @ 6:33 pm
Hi i only read half of these comments some good some not im English and proud of it and all i want to say is i have never met anyone like the Dutch People they are kind and ready to help you no matter what the first time i went there on holiday the people were only too happy to help out one guy even gave us a lift to the soilders cemetry i just love the place and im going this weekend 20/ 01/ 12 and i just carnt wait lovin it lol

Comment by Pauline Hay — January 16, 2012 @ 10:43 am
Marijuana is illegal but it is allowed for medical purposes. Marijunana is still used very often and seeds are easily bought in Amsterdam. There is a coffee shop just around the corner that sells it. Many Dutch love to party and get wild XD. Own experience. I am fully Dutch and partially Australian.

Comment by Kevin Kilic — January 17, 2012 @ 12:21 pm
Maybe you should have stayed a little longer in the Netherlands to get all your facts straight.
I’m Dutch and even though some things you mentioned are true, tthere are really quite some things that do not make any sense.
For starters, the “G” and “CH” sound alike, but the “R” most definitely does not.
Then.. the most important one if you ask me.. Why do all American people just assume that the Dutch hate Germans?! Sure there are still (ignorant) people who say they hate the Dutch, but that does not mean that the Dutch in general hate Germans! You gave 2 examples, but come on.. I’m studying at a international university and I’ve met more foreigners there who hate Germans, than I’ve ever met Dutch people who do so.
What’s up wit that “Dutch don’t use umbrellas”-crap? Were you wearing blinkers while living here?
Don’t even get me started on “our strange snacking habits”. You’re from the US, right? I think you get where I’m going with this.. Just LOOK at the people you’re surrounded by.. What do you mean, everything is king sized in the US?
And before I forget: the Netherlands is not known for the fries.. That’s Belgium.

So, on behalf of the Dutch: it would be nice to get your facts straight before you think you’re an expert on the Netherlands and start writing these things.

DailyCandor: Did I forget to mention that there is a surprisingly high percentage of stuffy know-it-alls in the Netherlands? Consider that item #11.

Comment by NL — January 19, 2012 @ 2:50 pm
Hey i’m from Holland ( Den Haag haha ) and lived there almost my whole life. I really like your article and i think that you have explaned it very well. The way we are. You know what you are talking about. I want to thank you for the nice article about us dutch people. It made me proud when i read it. It’s nice to read that someone tells nice and true things. You can’t say that about everyone. I hope you had a nice time in the Netherlands. GREETINGS

Comment by Boy — January 20, 2012 @ 3:04 am
Funny YOU should be the one calling others know-it-alls..

DailyCandor: Clever riposte!

Comment by NL — January 20, 2012 @ 10:19 am
I feel this could be my Secound country. Cause i have no time for the German’s, either.

Comment by anna page — January 22, 2012 @ 11:02 am
90 ? ????…

[...]10 things you probably didn’t know about the Dutch and the Netherlands :: Daily Candor[...]…

Trackback by 90 ? ???? — January 23, 2012 @ 4:07 am
hahahaa great! super funny (comming from a dutchman… )
but I think it’s pretty obvious you’ve been staying above the rivers, somewhere in the ‘randstad’ maybe? let’s say amsterdam/rotterdam/utrecht? Am I right?
The Netherlands is parted by the Maas and the Rijn, two big rivers. not that weird but the people are a bit different above or below the rivers. The HARD G and R pronounciations are part of the overal above rivers dialect. Below rivers they have a SOFT G and R. It’s really hard to explain in text but the KH sound for a G or a CH is really a hard pronouncement. Below rivers those letters are not THAT present.

Also I agree with the fact that the G and the CH are completely the same, when I’m writing a text or a fb post or something I almost always only write G’s instead of CH”s. However thats just way the words are written, cant do much about that

and one last thing, if you don’t live in a big city like amsterdam or rotterdam, you can worry less and less about your bike My bike got only stolen once (not even on the street, but from my own backyard), all the other bikes I owned I just used them untill they where that broken you couldn’t fix them anymore… have been offered a lot of bikes on the street also, ow well..

Comment by dinges — January 23, 2012 @ 4:39 pm
We also make alot of jokes about Belgium people xD
And we dont really hate Germany, but its like a neighbor who you dont really know that well and dont really like … xd
Its crazy how much different cultures there are in the Netherlands, and how fast the Dutch culture changes with it..
And yep, I’m Dutch

Comment by naamboeitnietxd — January 24, 2012 @ 7:59 am
Great writing. Really liked to read it and see that we, the Dutch, have some typical things that are very normal for us but very strange for a foreigner. Good that you explained the difference between Holland and The Netherlands! I hate it when people say Holland.

Oh, and yes we do hate Germany. Has something to do with football I guess.

Comment by Tim — January 24, 2012 @ 3:45 pm
Hi,,

I’m dutch and I don’t hate people from Germany, I think it’s a beautiful country. And I am 12,5 % German ;D
We even learn to speak german at school!
I live in a big city and my bike has never been stolen! And I know dutch people have a heavy accent when they (we) speak English but at least we’re trying :$,, Believe me, I’m working on it! And we all use umbrellas!

Comment by DutchSwifty13 — January 25, 2012 @ 9:41 am
260 Comments and absolutely NOTHING about the famous “Dutch Oven”? WTF?

Didn’t know some of these things about the dutch however the “Dutch Oven” is known by all American kids at a young age. Some of the other Europeans on here probably have no idea what it is but undoubtedly they’ve had sleepovers from their youths or have older brothers or sisters that have performed this act while in bed together. You can even do it to your wife, husband, girlfriend/boyfriend while you’re in bed.

Comment by Yohan Cruyf — January 25, 2012 @ 2:02 pm
I’m dutch and most of all is true. Especially hagelslag is my favorite breakfast.

Comment by gert — January 30, 2012 @ 1:16 pm
I left the Netherlands in 1979 when I was 5. This article makes me homesick for the motherland.

Comment by Yuri de Groot — February 2, 2012 @ 2:53 am

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

10 things you probably didn’t know about the Dutch and the Netherlands

262 Comments »

Leave a comment

Most Popular Posts

Blogroll