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



Cheese market in AlkmaarI 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.

Rows of tulips7. 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.
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596 Comments »

  1. I think you like this one:

    Comment by Carlijn — January 5, 2013 @ 3:31 am

  2. article are bullshit –> Geen idee , don’t sounds like rainy day ? WTF ,, you’re serioos can’t not speaking dutch because that alles your dutch translation with them sounds, is all wrongly…..

    DailyCandor: Errr…scratch that part where I said all Dutch people speak perfect English.

    Comment by reor — January 5, 2013 @ 5:30 am

  3. Can I just hit all the Dutch people that say Holland and the Netherlands is the same? Honestly, not everybody is as stupid as that here. There is no such rule as “1 hot meal a day”.

    Comment by Someone — January 5, 2013 @ 5:30 am

  4. So funny to read about your own land. There is one thing that has changed, you can’t sell or eat magic mushrooms anymore.

    Comment by Karen — January 5, 2013 @ 11:12 am

  5. at first, I really did like the article. But there is a difference between the r and g sound. g and ch do sound the same I have to admit that, but one very important thing is in which part of the netherlands you are. In the hague g and r sounds kind of alike, but if you go to Limburg you will notice they pronounce it completely different, they don’t make the awefull harsh sound. they speak with a (what we like to call) zachte g, litterally translated it means a soft g. Find a Limburger and ask him/her to say a word with a g and a r. You will notice a big difference.

    Comment by Tamara — January 5, 2013 @ 4:34 pm

  6. It’s really amazing to read foreigner’s opinion about us, especially an american. Currently I work as a cashier in a supermarket, and I do speak english to some customers, from england, poland, and other countries, because they don’t understand dutch. You can expect to be understood if you speak English to a dutch person, up until the age of +/- 50.

    About the french fries, our family eats them once a week-friday-, since we simply cannot find the urge to cook after an entire workweek.

    and the bicicles, I’m 16, and I’ve never had my bike stolen, ever since I started learning at the age of 3. it happens mostly in the city parts where foreigners live -not to be a racist, these are proven facts- since bikes are quite expensive. I live in Noord-Brabant, in the south part, and in a quite big city, =/- 100.000 inhabitants. also, disturbing youth likes to throw them into the canal dividing my city.

    But it’s good to hear we aren’t considered those old dutchies, with weird hats, living on cheese, growing tulips and living in mills, like the chinese think 😛

    Comment by xoMilkyway — January 5, 2013 @ 4:51 pm

  7. Holland and The Netherlands are considered the same thing.

    Your statement about them being 2 seperate things is historically, although not entirely, accurate. Nowadays the Dutch consider them to be the same thing.

    “Frikandellen” are not throwaway-meat. I don’t know how this myth started in the first place.

    Weed, carrying, using or trading it, are all illegal. U can however buy 5 grams, a day, of it specialised shops. But you are not allowed to carry it with you, use it in public, or resell it. (I know this sounds a bit odd, but makes a lot of more sense, when you are used to the system). “Magical Mushrooms” have been banned since a few years now.

    We do use umbrellas, quite frequently. Although your statement about people not bringing them because it’s inconvenient to use one on a bike, is pretty accurate.

    It’s true that the majority of the dutch people don’t like germans. Certainly not all, but definitly a good part of us don’t. This has a history aswell. The main reason is that Holland is highly dependant of Germany. Other ones are the WWII occupation, and the intense football rivalry (football, what americans call soccer, is our nation’s main sport).

    The part where u talk about bikes being stolen so frequently, only aplies to big cities.

    Fries are indeed very popular, but it is Belgium where the originate from.

    Generally, we speak pretty good english. This is because it’s one of our main educational subject, but most importantly due to the mass consumption of British-English and American-English television and music (don’t forget the internet). It is heavily accented because our native language uses unique sounds.

    Overall I agree with your post, and it was a good read, but I felt like I should address above matters.

    Thanks.

    Comment by Justin — January 5, 2013 @ 11:36 pm

  8. Im from the dutch, the rain sucks everybody hates it. And there is a lot of sun.
    “frikandel” is not nasty, nobody cares whats in that thing ;p.

    Comment by SomeDutchGuy — January 6, 2013 @ 4:06 am

  9. Holland an the Netherlands are the same. The netherlands is an old word for het koninkrijk der Nederlanden witch includes of course The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg. Aso known as the Benelux. Holland is a province. You have north and south Holland witch includes the randstad (the big citys). But because Belgium and Luxemburg are now own countrys we call the Netherlands also Holland. Its not wrong to call the Netherlands Holland, because dutch also say sometimes Holland. I hope that made you realize that Holland isn’t wrong to use as The Netherlands.

    Comment by Tijmen — January 6, 2013 @ 5:03 am

  10. Hello,

    Im Dutch and I would like to tell you that education is in no way comparable to the education in de USA.
    Also, the ‘r’ and the ‘g’ dont sound the same. I enjoyed the article though, good job!

    Comment by ... — January 6, 2013 @ 7:00 am

  11. hello,
    at first. the r and g only are pronounced the same in certain parts of holland, commonly the hague.
    and the kroket and frikandel. damn those things are so tasty :3
    and the netherlands is indeed the old verenigde nederlanden but also the normal name for the netherlands. holland still is noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland. 🙂 *flies away*

    Comment by kylian — January 6, 2013 @ 4:39 pm

  12. hi,
    i’m dutch, and its really annoying that the germans keep saying all dutch people hate them. all the people i know, DON”T hate the germans. the dutch make jokes about a lot of things, also other countries, but we never mean it serieus. so does every other country in the whole world. like the germans and americans don’t joke about other countries. we aren’t gonna think that you hate us, because you also say jokes about us, because it is just a joke. because if thats the only reason, then you can say that all americans hate gay people because they make fun of them in jokes, by calling each other gay, like its a bad thing. i’m just saying.

    Comment by mireille — January 9, 2013 @ 1:09 pm

  13. 3, 6 and 7 aren’t true.
    Trust me, I know since I am from the Netherlands.
    About 3: We don’t ask if someone had a hot meal already.
    Because well, we don’t care. Why should we?
    We usually eat cold breakfast and lunch because it’s easier than preparing a warm one.
    And we prepare warm dinner because we can.
    In the weekends, I usually have a warm breakfast, lunch and dinner.
    About 6: I don’t have German’s.
    They just had bad luck with Hitler.
    But he could’ve been from any country.
    Any country could’ve had that bad luck.
    About 7: I’m not sure where you were but here, we use umbrella’s.
    Some even on their bicycles.
    I use it almost every time it rains.
    And sometimes I just can’t be bothered.

    Comment by Isabelle — January 10, 2013 @ 11:02 am

  14. I am Dutch and I’m pretty sure I don’t pronounce ‘gracht’ as ‘khkhakht’ but maybe I’m just really special. Actually I don’t know anybody who pronounce it that way. Maybe we’re all really special.

    (Oh, and I will never (NEVER) will happily put up with a wet face or head.)

    Comment by Femke — January 11, 2013 @ 3:29 pm

  15. And I agree to Isabelle. We don’t ask if someone had a hot meal already. We don’t fucking care. Hahaha.

    Comment by Femke — January 11, 2013 @ 3:31 pm

  16. You forgot to mention the healthcare system based on money (ie don’t spend any), meetings and dissolution of responsability.
    A family doc will *never* examine you (not even your blood pressure) nor prescribe anything. “First do no harm” somehow became “First do nothing”. You can’t chose your docs, waiting times for specialists are counted in months.
    And no, it’s not a political statement; had excellent healthcare in France, the US (because I had adequate insurance), Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and even Soviet Russia (a while back, obviously). Nowhere but in the NL have I encountered such levels of incompetence, bureaucracy, narrow-mindedness and an obvious lack of compassion: either your life’s not in danger, so why should a doctor do anything to help you, or you’re life’s at risk, and then why spend resources on a lost cause.
    Three yrs in the NL have wrecked my health, and taught me to hate anything remotely Dutch!
    (I’m not proud of it, just stating a fact:Healthcare being one important reason among many others).
    I’ll never spend one minute or one euro in that rotten racist intolerant arrogant little country again, and I won’t even buy anything remotely Dutch (God knows they value their wallets above all else)

    Comment by enragedExpat — January 12, 2013 @ 2:57 am

  17. have been reading this site some of the comments made me laugh that is for sure but there is something that really jumps out and that is the continuing mentioning of WW11 now come on guys if you know your history the fact of the matter is Hitler was not german he was Austrian the normal everyday person in Germany did not want the war but were made to join and fight or their families would be murdered and by whom the natzies and their followers. I do not condone the war dam evel all the same it was 67yrs ago now so MOVE ON LET THE PAST BE THE PAST. The dutch well I am married to one and and yep tight arsed for sure stubourn as hell and are never wrong but in general are very freindly people but as in any culture you are going to get your good and your bad Amsterdam is the pits Maastricht is tops. Police are above and beyond everyone and everything or so they think. theft is common with bikes I have seen parts of bikes left at a stand still chained. The roads are generally good and well looked after The Netherlands is very clean. Food not to bad at all accept herring yuk do not like it at all BUT AT LEAST I DID TRY. Football is far to over rated in any country !! should be banned until people can learn to behave.
    Dutch love to eat out we do my hubby loves his meals not that I cook very often to busy mostly weekends when he is not working or we eat outnow at christmas chocolate covered pepernoten now they are so yum love em took some home to England last christmas and my family loved them along with some of the strong dutch cheese oude amsterdamer yum.
    The Nehterlands is a lovely country love the place.

    Comment by amanda — January 12, 2013 @ 3:05 pm

  18. I just read your thing and I disagree with quite some things. I do am glad you said we weren’t pot-heads, since it’s mainly the teenagers that get into it. However, do mind many smoke their pot at home, not in coffee shops.

    Our G and CH do sound equal, but it does not sound like the R. I believe our R is quite equal to other countries, for example how the Japanese pronounce the R? It’s merely an example I can think of.

    The hot meal thing? Nonsense. I’ve never had someone ask me if I already had a hot meal, and most people just eat whatever they like, whenever they like. Hot or not. This was probably just the case with the people you’ve met.

    Far from all Dutch enjoy speaking English. Many even dislike it if you use English towards them, for as far I’ve experienced (I do enjoy speaking it, but I question the way I pronounce things). Lately more and more shows get translated to Dutch, so people start lacking their knowledge on the English language as well.
    As for the word idea, we don’t say it like you. We say it like “ee-day”, unless we’re speaking of our ID card.

    Saying we all hate Germans is racist. I’m fine with Germans myself. I just can’t understand them because our languages are still very different.

    I always carry an umbrella with me and I see plenty of others with umbrellas around me. Kinda necessary with all that rain here. During summer we also have plenty of sun though, and if we’re lucky we get 2-3 weeks of snow.

    As for bicycles, I’ve always used one lock and so did many others. I assume you mainly saw the Amsterdam area and whatever busier cities. Try to visit other places as well and see what they do.

    I believe that’s pretty much all I’ve got to say about it. Plenty of others have corrected some things already.

    Comment by Laura — January 15, 2013 @ 10:33 pm

  19. I am American but have lived in Europe almost forty years and was first befriended by the Dutch the second week I was in Germany. The hatred of the Germans is there and the war was one good reason, which now only old people can tell you about. I do not know if it still goes on but there used to be traffic jams at one land bridges as you would get these stubborn people who would just wait for the other person to give way. In America the Dutch Americans have a t shirt which reads, “You can always tell a Dutchman, but you can’t tell him much” Apart from the truth in this it is really a wonderful use of idomatic English.
    The sparkles you talk about in Belgium are called “mausstronjes ” mouse turds….lovely. It is true what you say about the fried food, and even if it is supposed to be Belgian or actually Flemish as in French Flancers they eat even more than in Belgium. I once in French Flanders said I would eat my meal with out Fries and there was a resounding laugh in the kitchen, “Monsieur, ne mange pas les frites!” “Quoi? Pas des frites” then laughter.
    This is probably a sad story but funny at the same time.
    I used to take tours around Europe, in Amsterdam we parked the bus on the bridge at the Westkerk to go see the Anne Frank house. a bottle of syrupy cough syrup from England with codein in it (Every Brit will know what I am talking about) tasting of wild cherry fell out of my attache case and broke on the pavement, the driver was afraid people would step in it and bring it on the bus so he moved the bus ahead and said he would have to clean it up. When he came with something to clean it with
    a little dog had licked it all up…too late …..but really I figured everyone was drugged. That was 30 years ago.

    Comment by Franco in Rome — January 17, 2013 @ 4:32 am

  20. About the hot meal thing; its not nonsense, its perfectly normal and common in Holland to eat cold at lunchtime (sandwiches) and warm in the evening. So thats in general definitly a true thing. If you’ve already had a hot meal during lunchtime (and then I don’t mean soup or something like that, but pasta or meat and vegetables, usually people eat cold in the evening. Thats why people are asked; ‘youve already had a hot meal today?’ cause its ‘normal’ to only eat hot once a day, like a main course.

    Ofcourse its not a ‘rule’ and its not something youre suppose to know or to listen to, but its not nonsense. Totally recognizable.

    Comment by Charlotte — January 20, 2013 @ 6:55 am

  21. Ik woon in Nederland. In het prachtige Friesland om precies te zijn. Terwijl de winter ”as we speak” invalt is het hier in het noorden wellicht nog mooier dan anders. Leuk artikel om te lezen als Nederlander. Grappig om te lezen hoe de rest van de wereld over ons denkt! Thanks!

    Comment by Luuk — January 21, 2013 @ 1:49 am

  22. 1. true
    2. whahah true I didn’t know sprinkles were looked upon so infantile 😀
    3. true
    4. partially false, the ‘r’ is pronounced correctly with the tip of the tongue, slightly vibrating it while touching your upper gums. however, ‘ch’ and ‘g’ are indeed pronounced the same, much like ‘c’ and ‘s’ in english (depending of course on the word it’s used in)

    5. TRUE and writing too. but that goes for a lot of languages (german, french, spanish) since us dutchies gain our pride from adapting to people, instead of the other way around. (germans for example do not adapt, as they dig holes in our beaches and adress you in german, just blindly assuming you can understand. most dutchies can, but it’s just plain annoying)
    Btw the younger generation has an exceptional gut for pronunciation due to videogames, cartoons, and so fort.

    6. 😀 a bit true. I personally love the german language, people, and cities. It’s just funny, much like americans ‘look down’ on canadians, but it’s mostly comedic

    7. OKAY NO. FALSE no umbrellas is true, but over 70% of residential areas in the Netherlands sits on clay, dug-out peat-bogs, and a sandy ‘hill’ every here and there. the sand you saw was (99 % sure) placed there for leveling the pavement. the super-duper-fast-water-drainage is due to our ingenuity when it comes to living in a swamp. it’s just that we have the most perfected sewer system on the planet.

    8. false. kroketten are gross, frikandellen are made from quality meat, frites are belgian and cheese soufflé is fucking french.
    9. yup, but kinda exaggerated
    10. I just realized you are full of crap and i wasted my time on typing all this bullshit. still gonna submit.

    Comment by joel — January 31, 2013 @ 4:54 am

  23. I’m a black american but I find dutch men very very VERY attractive I don’t know what it is about them. I’m not making this up. The only men I find even more attractive are maybe ethnic canadians.

    Comment by What the hell — February 6, 2013 @ 1:07 pm

  24. awesome that you spend the time writing this story is completely true. My family are dutch but i never lived in the netherlands since i became 18 and even though i never really got to know holland i have lots of the habits you described seems like stereotyping is a theory you can trust :p lol

    Comment by jonathan — February 7, 2013 @ 5:46 pm

  25. Please don’t listen to people who say Holland and the Netherlands are the same, even if they’re Dutch. I’m Dutch myself, and I feel like they are putting our educational system to shame. Saying The Netherlands is the same as Holland is like saying the United States is the same as Carolina.
    Also, “R” and “G” are only pronounced (roughly) the same in some areas of the Netherlands, like Amsterdam.

    Great article, I like reading about my country through the eyes of foreigners 🙂

    Comment by Le — February 8, 2013 @ 11:22 am

  26. To be clear, holland used to be a part of the Netherlands. We still got “Noord Holland” and “Zuid Holland” (North holland and South holland) but they are parts of the Netherlands (you can compare them with States in the US). But the name Holland is used a lot as a synonym for “the Netherlands”. So much that it became a synonym for the Netherlands. So it is the same and it is not.

    It mostly is.

    I’m a dutch girl, i can know it.
    Sorry for my bad englisch. (;

    Comment by Dutchgirl — February 10, 2013 @ 11:46 am

  27. @Luuk (number 373)

    it’s kind of pointless to comment in dutch, nobody here can read it.
    nouja, behalve ik dan haha

    Comment by Dutchgirl — February 10, 2013 @ 11:48 am

  28. Nice discussions. I’m glad at least we [the Dutch] are thought of.
    Contrary to point 35 we are allowed to grow a limited number of Maria plants but not to sell it.
    Coffeshop owners are allowed to sell it but not to purchase it.
    And Germans don’t dig holes in the beach,
    They build sand heaps and lie behind them to seek shelter of the wind.
    Have you tried vruchtenhagel [fruit hail] in yoghurt? Delicious.
    It’s very important for Dutch to travel a lot to open eyes and spirit since our country is so small.
    I can eat hot meals at any time of the day or night, but it’s true that originally this was only once a day, at 18.00 sharp.

    Comment by Drekracer — February 14, 2013 @ 9:07 am

  29. Actually Holland and the Netherlands is the same. Yes, 2 of out prvinces are called North- and South – Holland but we also refer to our own country as Holland. We even put it into fucking songs.

    exhibit A;
    Hup Holland hup
    Laat de leeuw niet in z’n hempie staan
    Hup Holland hup
    Trek het beestje geen pantoffels aan
    Hup Holland hup
    Laat je uit ‘t veld niet slaan
    Want de leeuw op voetbalschoenen
    Durft de hele wereld aan

    Exhibit B;
    Dus zijn we d’rbij en dat is prima, viva hollandia
    Wij houden van het leven, de liefde en de lust
    Wij danken onze lieve god en drinken is een must.

    So. You’re welcome.

    Comment by DutchChick — February 18, 2013 @ 3:59 pm

  30. Thank you for the article, it was very nice (allthough it contained some stereotypical stuff)
    One thing I want to say about the Fries:
    French fries are the small fries you’ll get @McDonalds
    Belgian fries are four times as big as french fries.
    Dutch Fries do not exist,
    though they eat both kind of fries very regularly
    with loads of mayonaise.
    I’m from Groningen (khrrow-ning-unn), I don’t like fries, frikandels, mayonaise and krokets and i’m only 5feet3.
    Not typical Hollands, but thats okey, cause in the netherlands, i veel like i can be WHO i want.

    To everyone who wants to come to our country:
    Welcome!
    (as long as you’re gonna tell how long you supposed to stay here)
    (no, just joking 😉 )

    Comment by llink — February 18, 2013 @ 5:04 pm

  31. This was a funny article haha. I dont hate germans but the part about them digging holes on the beach is kinda true.
    Tried it once myself, was pretty comfortable with my towel in the hole, less wind. But i have to admit that i laughed about that part. Thanks for the great article!

    Comment by raquel — February 21, 2013 @ 6:24 am

  32. Ejoyable, but too bad about the potty mouth. Now I can’t use this article for my EFL students.

    DailyCandor: Yeah, too bad considering there likely isn’t a single “curse word” used here that your students haven’t used before. XD

    Comment by Too bad — February 25, 2013 @ 2:45 am

  33. some things here are like the biggest fucking BS ever.
    1. We do use umbrellas?
    2. because Holland means something else to us then it does for you, suddenly we are poor edjucated? i mean some english kids don’t even know that the UK belongs to Europe, or what the difference between your and you’re is.
    3. frinkandellen and kroketten are not made of that stuff.
    4. my bike was €200,- and it has never been stolen in my whole life.
    5. it’s not like you see a pothead on every streetcorner
    6. the R and the G are pronounced WAY differently

    oh and one thing:
    homosexuality is also like NO issue here. at least not as big in other countries

    Comment by Dave — February 27, 2013 @ 4:57 am

  34. I agree with most of these, but the German one is absolutely not true. I am Dutch, and I personally hold no grudge against German people. Sure, there are some stupid, naïve, discriminative people in the Netherlands, but you’ll meet those people in every country. I absolutely love Germany: Friendly people, lovely nature and a great language!

    Comment by Marjolijn — March 2, 2013 @ 5:07 pm

  35. There. Is a saying, if you ain’t Dutch, you ain’t much. Regarding germans digging holes on the beach, they are still afraid of a English invasion, so are digging foxholes.
    Regarding typical dutch foods, what about boerenkool, snert, stampot, zuurkool, and hachee?

    Comment by Peregrinus — March 3, 2013 @ 4:10 pm

  36. Uhm in The netherlands we have a good education. I thinking it is very dump of you thinking it is poor ( one of THE first comments) we have a system similar to That from germany. But you can’t expect people to be smart (even though They think they are) 90 % of THE people in THE world is dumb. So shut up and finish your bratwurst you prejudiced Son of a german

    Comment by Maurits vervelde — March 5, 2013 @ 6:52 am

  37. Holland en Nederland is voor gewone Nederlanders hetzelfde omdat Nederland ook vroeger Holland wordt genoemd. Maar Er zijn ook twee provincies die Noord-Holland en Zuid-Holland heten. Maar in de volksmond (vooral bij ouderen) kan Nederland nog Holland heten. En over onderwijs. De Nederlanders krijgen heel goed onderwijs. Echt bijna iedereen gaat naar school en er is hier ook bijna geen armoede. Zoals je dat in Amerika wel genoeg hebt. Daarbij behoren Nederlanders tot de slimmste mensen van de wereld en kunnen we heel goed andere talen spreken. Wat ook in bijna geen enkel ander land het geval is. En we maken vooral grappen over Belgen en dan vooral over Vlamingen. Veel succes met vertalen want dat kunnen buitenlanders niet. Zij hebben nooit zulk goed onderwijs gehad.

    Comment by Femme — March 7, 2013 @ 10:56 am

  38. Very amused by this great article. Very funny to read how outsiders think about your people.. and that some habits that I might consider “normal” are “weird” for foreign people. 😛

    Comment by Bart Willemsen — March 10, 2013 @ 3:34 am

  39. The most thins that you are telling are true xD but you forgot 1 thing, and that is that Amsterdam and the rest of the Netherlands are practically 2 different countries. In everything, from language to mentally thinking 😉

    Comment by Angel — March 12, 2013 @ 3:23 pm

  40. i live in the netherlands for 12 years and i have to admit it is awesome…
    but sometimes people in holland do very stupid about other people…
    i have a friend and his mother goes to the beach very very much and whenever she notices a german car
    she goes crazy and i always ask:why do you get so mad? and she says:those stupid slow germans always go so slow

    also people really think they are the best…actually me and my mother went shopping for a bit for some legoes (i think this toy is famous in the netherlands)and a woman was saying to a man that his son only gets A+ on school,and she said that that was obvious because she was so great too = some people are really stupid

    also people dislike talking to people when the are going to work because everybody looks so unfriendly when they go to work.
    i was in india a couple of weeks ago and when you smiled at someone he or she would immidiatly smile back.but in the netherlands when you even smile at someone.he goes even faster.

    anyway i think its awesome here.because

    the food is delicious.ofcourse my favourite are the patat.and the landscape is nice.and there are some rare like animals.
    when i was on flieland ( 1 of the small islands in the north) i found a rare insect crawling over the street. but there arent things like scorpions tigers or elephants or anything like the wild like animals from the warmer countries

    and yes i am very bad in english – as you may noticed xD – but i think there are very less english teachers you can find

    Comment by romke — March 18, 2013 @ 11:14 am

  41. […] ik heb voor dit artikel passages gebruikt van Amy Schnecker, DailyCandor, LOL Dutch People, activebackpacker en Perfect Living gebruikt. Thanks for evaluating the Dutch […]

    Pingback by Weird habbits: Dutchies door de ogen van niet-Dutchies | GirlsLove2Travel — March 20, 2013 @ 6:03 am

  42. A lot of these points are incorrect, actually.
    Holland and the Netherlands aren’t the same, but the Dutch don’t use the word Holland for their own country, we use it in foreign countries because a lot of foreigners know what Holland is but they don’t know where the Netherlands are (I´ve experienced this a few times, including the question: you speak German right?ALSO in Great-Brittain, which is quite sad noticing it’s so close)

    I don’t know where you got it from that we eat only one hot meal a day. We do this most of the time, but we don’t ask: Have you eaten something hot already?’ because friends don’t come over at dinnertime. That’s isn’t polite in our country, when one wants to come over at a certain time they make a call first so they won’t interrupt. But one hot meal a day is not a rule or something. In the weekends we eat hot more often.

    G, ch and r aren’t prenounced the same way. I understand they might be heard that way for a foreigner, but it’s not the same.
    Due to Napoleon’s conquer we have a lot of words in which CH is pronounced SH. (Chauffeur, driver, for example) The R is certainly NOT a kh sound. We longen our R’s while English seem to shorten it. My name for example is pronounced Laurrrrrrie (with an r like the one in rainbow) and not Laukhie.

    About our English, the accents aren’t that bad. And we don’t LOVE to speak English, but unfortunaly for us foreigners never speak Dutch. We learn French and German in school as well, because they refuse to learn anything but their own language and we like to have holidays over there. It’s not a matter of fun, it’s just practical.

    We don’t hate Germans. WW2 stings in the older generations but not many Dutch hate the Germans. Lots of Dutch work in Germany and the other way around, no hard feelings.

    We use umbrella’s. So I don’t know what the writer of this article has been doing in NL in those four years, but I doesn’t seem like she was outside often.

    The article seems rather rude in my eyes, maybe it’s me but I don’t think the writer likes the Netherlands.

    DailyCandor: I actually have a lot of affection for the Dutch and the Netherlands. I’m sorry if you interpreted my different experiences/perceptions of your country as an outsider but that lived there as an attack.

    Comment by Laurie — March 31, 2013 @ 1:31 pm

  43. I enjoyed reading the story!
    Dont know whats the problem with this guy commenting above me.

    He is right that Holland and the netherlands aint the same BUT we do use it as the same,
    Like nmr 394 already explains.

    1 hot meal sounds standard but im not gonna make a sandwitch for my friend if he comes while im eating xD
    He can have the same as what im eating if there is any left.

    g and ch are pronounced the same but R is differend.

    Yes we do love to speak english and indeed its with a accent. I mean i know people who try to make it sound like americans would pronounce it but the most people i know sure have a accent. though, not the “hi im sjonny and im from holland” accent >.<

    Like comment above me said: older generations hate the german (so obviously we have it to)
    Even commercials sometime use germany vs netherlands (only when euro of worldcup football is) but still look at some of the commercials its not a verry friendly thing.
    But ofc its wrong to say EVERY dutch person looks down on germans (though i like that u said that xD)
    But hey i have a german girlfriend so dont get me wrong. its just easy to talk bad about germans.

    I liked how you explained about the "frikandel" and "kroket" xD i dont see it as shit or a dried up turd but i understand u say that.
    If u smack a kroket against the wall it sure looks like some shitty stuff.
    And about the frikandel, u are right, they cant put more nasty shit in there then there already is.
    But hmmm.. i love frikandellen..

    And yeah maybe older generation or girls use ubrella's but no me and everyone my age (23) i know dont use umbrella's xD
    seems rather gay.

    quote:

    "so I know quite a bit about this quirky country and its unusual inhabitants (and I mean that in a good way)."
    "Seriously, they all speak perfect, although heavily-accented, English."
    "The Dutch are not big potheads."

    In my opinion that are all compliments so i dont know how this can be rude.

    I liked it 😉

    Comment by Manuel — April 9, 2013 @ 4:44 am

  44. Well first of all i’d like to say really enjoyed reading this but i have a few *cough* notes.

    I’m Dutch and i use umbrella’s all the time, and i’m pretty sure i’m not the only one., tough i’m willing to believe other people use them even more.
    We can eat 2 hot meals a day if we want, but hot lunch is unusual, so your friend probably didn’t know how to say “dinner” so he said “hot meal” instead. When you answered yes he assumed you had already haf dinner, so he made you an evening snack.
    Also most people don’t really consider patat, frikandellen and kroketten to be snacks, more fast food or junk food, like hamburgers.
    I didn’t know that sprinkles on bread where a dutch thing to be honest, made me laugh. and you could possibly add we eat muisjes on baby showers, keeping the male and female colours in mind (yes we really do, always).
    The R is supposed to sound like a purring cat, RRRRRRRR, its bit harsh i know, but its nothing like ch, and g.
    You might want to think about why our englsih is so good (not my words), becuase really somewhat of 40 % of the things (as in words) i hear or read are english, since there are very little dutch tv shows and movies and things like that, we basically “import” that from america. I can’t remember the last time i watched a movie in dutch, even tough i watch like 5 movies a week. In this manor children learn english very rapidly, also Dora the explorer teaches english in stead of spanish in The netherlands. Not to mention things like music, games and the internet.

    I should also add the hatred versus germany is mutual, wich is indicated in the comment fights above me 😛

    Comment by Bas — April 11, 2013 @ 9:16 am

  45. I live in The Netherlands and this is absolutely hilarious for me to read. Good job!:)

    Comment by Rik — April 14, 2013 @ 6:40 am

  46. It is great, seriously 🙂

    Comment by Gezi Rehberi — May 9, 2013 @ 2:16 am

  47. Err, Sanjian, as a Dutch person I can tell you you are completely off about our ‘Christmas’ celebrations. First of all, Christmas is not the same as what we call Sinterklaas (What you called Saint Nick). Sinterklaas is celebrated in early december, and christmas is celebrated on the 25th, same as it is in other countries.

    The story is as follows: Sinterklaas is a Saint who supposedly lives in Madrid, Spain. Every year he comes to the Netherlands to give presents to the children, accompanied by his helpers, who are indeed known as Zwarte Pieten (Black Peters). The Zwarte Pieten were not in fact black, but covered in soot from sliding down so many chimneys. There were no black slave children involved.

    When a child has been bad, legend has it that Sinterklaas will take them with him to Spain. It is never actually explained what happens to the child when it gets there, because the threat of taking them away from their own country is enough.

    Anyway, the article itself is fairly accurate, though I have to say I have never encountered any real hatred towards the Germans. If anything, our jokes are about the Belgians and their supposed stupidity, but I doubt anyone here truly believes Belgians are less intelligent than anyone else on the world.

    Secondly, we really do use umbrellas, and yes, some of them also use them while cycling.

    I’m glad you got the part about drugs right. Too many people seem to think all Dutch people are junkies, when in reality many of us have never even touched a joint.

    As for not being willing to speak any other language than Dutch, well, I suppose there are some people like that around here, but let’s be honest, how many countries can you think of where you don’t have one or two people like that? I actually had over seven years of English lessons during middle school and high school, two years of German and five years of French.

    Comment by Marloes — June 6, 2013 @ 8:56 am

  48. It really is all a moot point; all people from The Netherlands are lovely and deserve our respect.

    Comment by Netherland Cheese Lover — June 22, 2013 @ 11:26 pm

  49. I’m dutch and I have to say: Sadly it’s not all true you wrote…

    Comment by Oranje Boven — June 26, 2013 @ 4:01 pm

  50. Some things are pretty spot on, others, are honestly just not true . Especially the g, ch and r thingy, ch and g cán be identical, but the ch can also be pronounced as more of a “sh” sound, depending on the word (so in “chloor” it’s a g-sound and in “chauffeur” it’s a sh-sound). The R is completely different from both and I honestly don’t see how you could ever hear those as being in any way similar.

    Technically, Holland refers to two (of the 12) provinces, North Holland and South Holland. However, it is often used for the whole country, and while not every one likes it (I myself associated with a heavy accent and dislike it) most of us accept it as referring to the Netherlands.

    P.s. we do use umbrellas, just not when we’re biking because it’s difficult to hold them xD

    Comment by Ilja — July 16, 2013 @ 10:27 am

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