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 (596)

596 Comments »

Some things are rigt but not all. A bike not get stolen all the time and my friends and i have all bikes from like 300 – 700 Euro
I didn’t even know you could get a bike so cheap €50 cool.
And not everyone who’s dutch look down at german maybe some but not all.
Ps: sorry for my bad inglish.
Zie je later mensen

Comment by Sarah — August 1, 2013 @ 8:32 am
It’s nice that you try to address the difference between Holland and the Netherlands, but all your other statements however are mostly about the Holland region. Some Dutch people actually live above sea level for instance. And in most cities one lock on your bike is enough to secure your bike. Also the pronounciation of the G and R is different, especially in the East and South they have a more gentile way of pronouncing that..
Nice effort though

Comment by F — August 8, 2013 @ 6:26 am
we absolutely do not loathe the german! We love going there on a holiday and I have a lot of friends who are half german because one of their parents moved here. It’s moslty the elderly generation (80-90) who don’t like them because of the war but for everyone else they’re concidered nice people 🙂 Also we are known for speaking english without an accent just some of us don’t

Comment by kris — August 21, 2013 @ 11:34 am
whe’re not that bad! we don’t hate germans!
xx

Comment by Maaike — August 27, 2013 @ 7:52 am
haha, about point 6, we loathe the Belgians, not the Germans :p, we all think their pretty dumb and love making fun of them. And believe me, not everyone speaks good English, but planty enough can 😉 and btw, I love frikandel, cheese souffle and fries XD

Comment by laura — August 27, 2013 @ 8:42 am
People from Limburg will deffo use the name` The Netherlands` when they refer to their country. Some even get offended when saying Holland. Some points are true some aren´t, totally depends on the person´s will. For instance I hate walking under an umbrella, but most of my friends hate getting wet from the rain. I do not like sprinkles and I deffo do not like fast food. Others I know need at least one day or 2 days a week to relieve their fast food addiction.

I try to speak BBC English and want to get rid of my American accent (no offence). I learned English mostly from American shows broadcasted in Dutch telly.

Most foreigners I met on my travels abroad (America, Asia, Africa) like my country, I think it’s a pretty boring place.

As far as the Germans are concerned: who gives a shit!

Oh, and I think Belgians (the Flemish) are cool people! 🙂

Comment by Irina — August 31, 2013 @ 10:19 am
I’am dutch and the thing about the germans is from ww2. They stole our byciclels. Grrrrr

Comment by luuk maas — September 8, 2013 @ 9:45 am
I’m Dutch and I got to say I love germans. And there sure are places where bicycles won’t be stolen at all.
And to all the people who think Holland is the same as the Netherlands, it’s not. Holland is only a part of the Netherlands.

Comment by Willem — September 9, 2013 @ 2:42 pm
Willem is totally right about that.
There’s one thing I wanna add to that, I’m from Drenthe and most people here really suck at English.
We don’t pronounce the ch/g/r the same btw here in Drenthe, it’s really different.
Btw in Friesland they speak a different language, they speak Fries.

Comment by Ellen — September 9, 2013 @ 2:52 pm
I am from Groningen and your bike does’nt get stolen there.
I want to make clear that the sounds g and ch are the same, but the r is really different.
g or ch is the sound you make by clearing your throat or something alike,
and the r is made by vibrating your tongue.

I have a spraakgebrek (speaking problem), because I pronounce the dutch r as the english r.
you can even go to lessons for that.

DailyCandor: So do Nederlanders think you’re a buitenlander?

Comment by Marit — September 15, 2013 @ 1:36 am
cool pics!

Comment by Alexis — September 15, 2013 @ 10:05 am
I’m sorry but some of these “facts” are just plain old bullshit. I was born and raised in Rotterdam, speak English fluently and I don’t loathe the Germans, in fact, I adore them for being more people and enviromental friendly in general. I loathe most of the Dutch people for being such racists most of the time. Guess why most younger people hate the Germans? WW2. They think all German people are Nazi’s, while if you’ve ever BEEN to Germany you’d see how much better they got their shit handled compared to our own country full of backstabbers.

And yeah, a lot of Dutch people talk English with a heavy accent, but that’s mostly because they’re lazy. A lot of CEO’s speak English like they just learned it 3 hours earlier, while they’re education is usually in English or they have a lot of international guests. It’s a disgrace really…

Whoever wrote this post should really look in the mirror and ask him/herself wether he/she wrote it on points that she had a a Dutch person or just generalized an entire country. No matter what: I’m an idiot (I am Dutch after all). Next time I leave a comment, I’ll find REAL facts and not write “facts” based on the few idiots I’ve come across. And I won’t make shit up, any German who illegally parks their car gets a heavy fine.

Comment by Rick — September 18, 2013 @ 2:14 am
hey,
i’m from Holland (The Netherlands, whatever you want to call it) and i’m 13 years old.
The rumours about that the education in Holland is bad is absolutely NOT TRUE! when we greaduate whe know these languages: English, French, German and sometimes Spanish as well. I know my English isn’t very good but remember i’m only 13 years old! The most 13 year old in your countries don’t even know the difference between ‘your’ and ‘you’re’
it is exctualy very true that when you come to Holland you can just expect we know your language (please don’t try to speak Dutch because the most of you are pretty bad)
And the last thing I want to talk about is our ‘hate’ towards Germans. The most of the people who live in Holland really hate German people, But where i come from (Limburg, it’s a province in Holland right next to the border) we really aprecheade (i’m sorry if I spelled that wrong) them they come to our city (Venlo) and spend lot’s of money on food and stuff. my parents own their own restaurant and they once told me that the German people are really nice and leave lot’s of tip.

oh and if you ever come to Holland you should really try the ‘frikandel and the kaassoufflé’

Stanne

Comment by stanne — September 18, 2013 @ 2:34 pm
Hi. Just wanted to say that potatoes came from Peru. Found this article amusing, as well as the comments on it. cheers.

Comment by jul — October 2, 2013 @ 10:50 pm
I was in Holland in November & December of 2013. I did notice they drive as bad in Holland as they do here in the Washington DC area. They will cut in and out of traffic and they might not let you merge. BTW I am a long time area resident and I will say that we are not the friendliest drivers here either.

The Dutch are as nationalistic as anyone, again they are as bad as Americans (USA !! USA!!) They have a lot to be proud of, but so do I. live near the US Capital and our area is wealthy and educated, Virginia is always ranked as a very well managed state. I notice that Holland is also well managed. I found the people to be well informed.

The people are open minded and they also speak their mind. I like the Rotterdammers and they seemed down to earth.

They seemed to appreciate my sense of humor. I did manage to listen to some language tapes and I read some phrase books, so I was able to clarify some English words when necessary. Most spoke decent enough English and I have studied German, so when necessary I used a few Germanic words that I had seen on signs and notices. I did hear some trash talk about Germans. I lived in Germany as a kid for a while and I can understand some of their animosity or ambivalence. But I am also German blooded and well, sometimes some Americans get on my nerves too.

I like to travel, somewhere somebody has compared the Dutch to Americans. They said there are two kinds the good ones and the bad ones.

The Rotterdam people said; Oh Amsterdam Ajax fans- Uh

Comment by SCHUSTER — February 21, 2014 @ 3:59 pm
you CAN eat two hot meals in one day
en het verbaasd mij dat niemand nederlands is met je khkhols het is gewoon grolsch, maar ik ben een mongolenkindje

Comment by hallo — May 5, 2014 @ 4:11 am
Hahahah
I’m Dutch and I enjoyed this very much! Cx
Jongens
Wij Nederlanders zijn gewoon epic…
Maar we googelen onzelf wel xDD

Comment by Isabel — May 10, 2014 @ 11:03 am
What a whiny blog post.
I do not, by any means, loathe Germans.
Neither do any of my Dutch friends and family.
Saying that frikandellen & kroketten look like turds is like saying a sausage looks like a penis, food can look weird *gasp*.
Not a fan.

DailyCandor: Whiny? I suppose you wanted gushing praise and a complete facsimile of your personal views. I’ll be sure to interview you the next time I write anything about the Dutch.

Comment by Suuuure — May 12, 2014 @ 2:59 am
haha, about point 6, we loathe the Belgians, not the Germans :p, we all think their pretty dumb and love making fun of them. And believe me, not everyone speaks good English, but planty enough can 😉 and btw, I love frikandel, cheese souffle and fries XD

Comment by rian — May 14, 2014 @ 9:36 pm
I’m from Holland and i’m pretty sure that there is a diffrence between ‘r’ and ‘g’. They don’t even look alike.

DailyCandor: All a matter of perspective. I’ve had Polish people tell me that ‘th’ and ‘f’ sound the same. They also don’t look alike. 😉

Comment by ghallo — May 19, 2014 @ 2:07 am
The r and the g/ch are indeed not the same, but if you pronounce it with a english accent, it is a bit alike… (I just tried) If you want to pronounce the R, you should try to make a gargling sound. it is impossible to make a K sound out of your throat.
I only red the first 20 comments so I don’t know if anybody has said anything about message #5 … but just to prove that we do have a bit education… If you’re talking about Holland, you’re talking about south-Holland, North-Holland and some small parts of Friesland. A lot of people make that mistake, as you can see, even (a lot of) natives do, but we aren’t stupid just because we don’t know something that is kinda irrelevant.
btw, I really enjoyed the article! but please… don’t post a picture of man with cheese and clogs, It gives a very wrong image of the Netherlands.

Comment by jeroen — May 21, 2014 @ 2:54 pm
Holland is zuid-holland and north-holland and not parts of friesland, but friesland long times ago was friesland with parts of north-holland (west-friesland) and parts of groningen, drenthe, germany and denmark (east-friesland)
I liked the post, because it was right (het klopte like we say, it knocked).

Comment by someone from friesland — May 30, 2014 @ 10:33 am
Most Dutch people don’t hate the Germans. Some elderly do, because the Germans occupied the Netherlands in the war. German tourist also can be really annoying (no offense).

And Dutch people only eat ‘muisjes’ when a child is born. Pink for a girl, blue for a boy.

In the Netherlands you have North-Holland and South-Holland and a lot of other provinces. I’m Dutch and I call the Netherlands ‘Holland’ sometimes. Dutch people really don’t care how you call it.

I think this is a really good article, it’s not insulting to Dutch people. But Dutch people don’t hate the Germans, that’s not true

Comment by Jolien — June 2, 2014 @ 8:39 am
‘g’ and ‘ch’ are pronounced exactly the same, but the ‘r’ isn’t pronounced like them. The ‘r’ is pronounced differently in the north and south

Comment by Jolien — June 2, 2014 @ 8:41 am
I can say without a doubt Germans have a thing for holes in the sand, I was in Australia – on the Gold Coast and I see these people digging huge holes, I asked ” are you making something” the German tourists just reply ” no – digging ” in broken English.
I met many Dutch on my travels and they all have been educated, f%^king tall 6’4 – 6’6 and one at 7’2, all spoke fantastic English, and sometimes have had German girlfriends/boyfriends backpacking with them, so I doubt the hate thing for Germans. On an average I find Dutch have far superior English to German backpackers, both are friendly but the Dutch have this way with words, sometimes confronting, but I appreciate less bullsh!t, so I don’t mind.

Comment by Xeryus — June 16, 2014 @ 8:50 am
Hahaha really great, but the third one isn’t really true. I don’t know anyone who has sandwhices for dinner, even if they had a hot meal for lunch. It’s just very uncommon here to have a hot lunch, unless you go out to lunch at a restaurant, or warm up leftovers from dinner. (I hope my English was correct, because this post set the bar really high xD)

Comment by Eline — June 29, 2014 @ 6:32 am
As a Dutch person, the only thing I disagree on is point 4.
“G” and “CH” indeed sound identical, but “R” doesn’t even sound close to the first 2.
It’s probably a dialect thing because I have never heard anyone pronouncing an “R” as a “G” in my life.
By myself I live in the south and I access the centre a lot, so I think you’ve been to the north (if Jolien’s comment (number 426) is correct).

Side note: nobody will ever prepare any dinner at all for you, unless you’re close friends or you just stay with them for dinner. In neither case I’ve been asked this question even once at all, they just prepare the food they want.
Maybe a regional thing?

Comment by David — July 5, 2014 @ 3:20 pm
hello I’m dutch and this article is great. Only about the “frikandel” , it’s made of pig, chicken and horse NO COW and it’s the best part of the animal because it’s meat from the bone and that’s the best.

Comment by Tom Buskens — July 6, 2014 @ 1:14 pm
i’m dutch and i googled “why are dutch people awesome” coz we smoke legally weed ???????? and i don’t give a fuck about the holland/netherlands coz “not dutch people” don’t understand that and they never will. There are 2 things about german’s 1. Sometimes they are to fat 2. Their weird language, the sound of it.

Comment by Dionne — July 7, 2014 @ 3:11 pm
..and you forget one, and I know its is difficult to tell if you are not familiar with the mentality.
1 of 3 Dutch men / women is gay. In other countries you can(almost) tell by looking at the person, but with Dutch people you will almost never can tell unless he / tell you. The reason is that homosexuality is so well blended in the society, it is no longer an issue.

Your colleague will tell you a story of his/her wedding.. and after 2 months later you find out that it was same gender wedding.

There is a site for teenagers so they can learn about sex:
http://www.hoehetmoet.nl

Comment by Kayle — July 8, 2014 @ 7:39 pm
I am Dutch and I love Germany and the Germans and most of my friends and family do. Ofcourse, in sports (soccer!!) we want Holland to win, but if Holland isn’t playing we are rooting for Germany!

Comment by Leonie — July 9, 2014 @ 3:48 am
Being Dutch, I very much enjoyed your comments which, clearly, have to be read with a smile and a cold Heineken (no, I mean COLD). Unfortunately, just like in the U.S., for any comment made you will find a multitude of people disagreeing, finding it funny or getting upset, even when it is the most benign thing. So, also in The Netherlands we have some who take everything serious (btw, ‘Holland’ is still represented here in the (now split) two provinces: North- and South Holland. This used to be the area from which the wealthier trading-sailing-shipping people came so to distinguish themselves from the poor(er areas), instead of saying they were from The Netherlands, they would say they were from ‘Holland’ (like Americans from Jersey City will probably tell foreigners they’re from NYC 😉 and by doing so showing their stature. Marketing-wise ‘Holland’ is much easier than ‘The Netherlands’ (often even mixed-up as meaning The Netherlands Antilles – Thank you Uncle Sam for delivering my mail to the wrong hemisphere). Last but not least a quick note on our relationship with the Germans: WWII was 70 years ago and we’ve moved on (when two years ago Germany beat the crap out of us during a football (soccer) friendly, the next day on Dutch radio it was mentioned that “The last time our defense was so bad, they occupied us for five years”. We all laughed our butts off). Again, we moved on however, show us a moron German and of course we will have some choice words. Meantime: Thanks for staying in our tiny country and showing us your point of view. Maybe somewhere in there is a message on how we can improve, starting with the frikadellen. Tot ziens!

Comment by Ger Paas — July 10, 2014 @ 8:37 am
number 1 and 3 are the most stupid things if ever read

Comment by David — July 16, 2014 @ 9:19 am
I have lived in Nederland and was born there and I can tell you that # 3 is sort of really incorrect. We don’t( well now we do) eat two hot meals a day but if a friend comes over we NEVER ask them if they had a hot meal. And if they did have a hot lunch for some reason if we eat dinner together we would NOT eat a cold sandwich.

But the rest of them were pretty good, except # 8 was pretty insulting. and #4 four is not correct.

Comment by Francesca — July 21, 2014 @ 7:59 pm
#3 and #4 are totally not true. I don’t know what people you have met 😛 And the pronunciation is not like this. Don’t get me wrong.. I myself believe that its AWFUL. In ”Sch” theres always an ”r”. Schiedam is for some reason pronounced ”Schriedam”.
#8 was not insulting.. just not completely true. Of course theres no thing like dutch meal (except from stamppot which is mashed potatoes with whatever u want inside – its like they are struggling to create a dutch dish 😛 ) Whats dutch, is yellow cheese of course.. and stroopwafels (they are awesome). Yes, they looove fries. Its very usual to see fast food vans with only fries and frikadellen. Of course the food habits and what you think about em, depends from where you are from. I’m Greek.. of course I won’t like the food here.. its normal. maybe other people are going to love it..

Comment by Theodor — July 24, 2014 @ 6:48 am
That is so fascinating ! I guess every country and ethnic group has its quirks and peculiarities. I am sure the Dutch would find Americans, and every other European “strange” in one way or another. I wonder if these Dutch traits have traveled to places like South Africa, where the original white settlers were the Boers from the Netherlands ? Probably some yes, and some no ! One thing you cannot miss,….they are a beautiful people. So tall and noble and regal looking. Truly Aryan ,with blue eyes, often blonde and very attractive as white European ethnic group .

Comment by Wonda — August 14, 2014 @ 7:18 am
On number 44 on this page someone tries te explain the word Holland bij saying its origin has something to do about being ‘hol’ (=is hollow). The truth is, Holland comes from a German word ‘Holzland’ wich means something like Woodland. In fact, de region was covered bij woods so dense that it was possible for aan squirl (eekhoorn) to travel from The Hague to Haarlem without touching the ground. Deeper inlands were more wetlands and swamps so traveling to the coast would bring you to the ‘Holzland’ the land made of Holz (trees are made of that stuff ;-)) The word Holzland became Holland and this was used to point out this region. The names Zuid (South) and Noord (North) -Holland are used to point out two gouvernemental regions, part of the Netherlands. (Excuses for any mistakes in my writing, I’m Dutch and my last Englisch lessons are over 40 years ago :-()

Comment by Fred — August 24, 2014 @ 3:49 am
I would like to add something about the Dutch loathing the Germans. I think it’s partly because of their horrible sounding language, which is an oblicational subject at Dutch high schools.
We have a habit of singing “alle Duitsers zijn homo” which means “all Germans are gay” on the melody of seven nation army (white stripes) at every party. It is not meant anti gay although I understand it really sounds like it. Just anti German.
One thing we do love about the Germans is their bratwurst.

Comment by Maartje — August 31, 2014 @ 2:12 pm
O… M… G… My husband and I laughed and laughed and laughed. I’m Canadian, and my husband is Dutch. However, he’s been in Canada for over 30 years. So, that means many of his perceptions of his home country are based on his patents’ views, and being essentially a tourist for a few days, every few years. (All the things in #8 were comically-familiar to me). (Here, in this part of Canada, there are also “Dutch stores” everywhere. …Not a single “German store”, though.)

Funny thing… I speak a bunch of languages, and am currently learning German. Because of that, this “hatred of Germans” (#6) thing has come up. I have never been to Germany (other than changing planes in Frankfurt). The reason? Despite many trips to Holland and driving around Europe, my husband would never even CONSIDER going into Germany, seemingly due his hatred for Germans, after the thousands and thousands of Dutch killed and starved by the Germans, during WWII.

When I announced my plan to learn German, my husband’s response was a disheartened, “Really…” But the process of me learning German (and loving it!), as well as countless fantastic things I’ve discovered about Germany, has forced my husband to confront his perfunctory negative perception of Germans/Germany. We’re going to Germany for the first time, in a couple of weeks. I’m sure we’ll love it!

But getting back to his 30-year-old Dutch ideologies, I’m finding the same thing with my German instructors. Every last one of them has lived in Canada for 20+ years, leaving their perceptions a bit outdated. Of course they all go back for visits. But there is SOOOOOOOO much I’ve learned on my own, and even TAUGHT my instructors, about current (2014) terminology, social trends, etc. (…Because, when you’re a tourist, it’s not the same AND as we get older, we tend to be less in-touch with newer stuff.)

So, I wonder if some of the discrepancies people are pointing out in the comments might stem from generational differences? Like I said, I’ve only been learning German for a few months and I’ve taught new phrases/terms to my teachers (which I find cray, cray). I can imagine that if one lived in Holland for a year or two, back in the early 2000s, then many things might be a tad different, a decade later.

In any event, terrific article! 🙂

Comment by Jody — September 9, 2014 @ 6:17 pm
Great article! As a Dutchman, I can relate to most of that, but by reading it, I can tell the writer has probably only been to Noord- and Zuid-Holland (North- and South-Holland). Could also have been to other provinces, but this seems to mainly focus on Noord- and Zuid-Holland.

And yea, I do find it annoying when people refer The Netherlands as Holland…. but hey, everyone else refers the United States of America as America, which is as we know a continent and also a town in Limburg, The Netherlands ;). So I think The Netherlands and the USA can relate to that and just let it slide.

And the German thing… I think in these days these it has more to do with competitive football, I mean soccer since we’re talking English now, then WW II.

All in all, great article!

DailyCandor: Dank u wel. 🙂 Yes, I lived in the Randstad and about 95% of my Dutch experience was in Holland.

Comment by Thomas — October 8, 2014 @ 4:34 pm
You guys think that dutch education is poor, but if you are to look up top 100 universities, you will remark that on number 23 or something is the best dutch university. Also the high school as well as middlw and elementary school education system is organised very well. Don’t forget that when you say you are belgian and you say that fries aren’t dutch, Belgium used to belong to the netherlands. On top of that, some may say that we don’t know about the difference between holland and the netherlands, in fact we dutchmen call ourselves “hollanders or nederlanders” so we dont really care about the difference. But the truth is that you wise asses from other countries judge people from the netherlands and look up stupid information about this difference on the web. But we learnt this in history class when we were 9 to 10 or something, in fact the netherlands means “de lage landen” and it was called “the 7 united states of the netherlands” .

Comment by smarty — October 15, 2014 @ 1:26 pm
wij zijn het er niet mee eens domme rus, wij zijn altijd stoned en willen die hoeren bezitten

Comment by Kilo — October 29, 2014 @ 1:28 am
Having left Holland (the Netherlands) some 12 years ago, I tend to look at the country more and more as a tourist. So I understand you, DC! Great humoristic style btw! (which – since we´re stereotyping anyway – is not always a given with people from the land of plenty 😉

Comment by Dutchman abroad — November 11, 2014 @ 11:50 am
spent many years in NL. was a lovely place/culture up until the 80s/90s. now with globalized, EU changes – internet, smartphones, huge immigration – not so nice; same as anywhere else these days. dutch people are idealistic, conservative, stingy, outspoken, private, engaging, provocative, two-faced, proud, progressive, showy, sun worshippers. life in NL is energetic, bureaucratic, crowded, cosmopolitan, expensive. middle class dutch – students, service workers etc often speak good english, blue collar folk often do not speak good english.

Comment by Karl — November 18, 2014 @ 10:35 pm
The Dutch are as Dutch as the Rest of the world is as the rest of the world. Change the word Dutch into indian, Belgium or evenCanadian, the story stays the same. And that’s okay. But “having left Holland() 12 years ago” and keeping up an attitude is evil. Dutchman abroad is a sorry person.

Comment by Fred — November 25, 2014 @ 10:39 am
I been here for around 8 years , married to a Dutch woman. Maybe this will answer some of the post I read.

Why do Germans dig holes in the sand? To get out of the wind simple

Why do the Dutch hate Germans ( this was more the attitude of people who lived thru or grew up after the German
occupation of the country, in response the a railway strike in support of the allied invasion the German cutoff food supplies to the western heavily parts of the country, also it was a very severe winter , the rivers and canals frozen , the destruction of bridges and dikes cause a famine that killed around 22,000

Dutch speaking with a heavy accent , I would not be surprised that the percentage of Dutch people who can speak and understand English is higher then American being able to speak and understand Dutch. If you see all the American tv programs with Dutch subtitles you would understand why. However , I have watch programs where they are speaking a dialect and have to put dutch subtitles

Dutch is be cheap This is True

Its well know that most of the men who drowned on the Titanic were Dutch, When the wife bought the tickets, the first lifejacket (zwemvest) was free , the second one was a addition 5 guilders

He can swim !

Comment by b johnson — December 5, 2014 @ 11:17 pm
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

Stumbled upon the article and, being Dutch, I found it interesting to read about the Dutch from a
(one) foreign point of view.

I have to agree with Tim on this one though. I’m not a writer or publisher or whatever but I’d say using the words ‘never’ (and/or ‘always’) and making assumptions about ALL Dutch people is not really the way to go. Imagine everybody on the Internet writing things like that.. (about whoever)

Comment by Karl — January 14, 2015 @ 10:34 pm
Hi like a lot of people who have replied here, I am Dutch, and proud of it whatever people may think.

I’m from the north eastern part of the Netherlands near Germany and I don’t hate the Germans, but
digging holes is about right, they use it to put their beer belly in 🙂 No serious Germans aren’t Hobbits
that live in a hole in the ground.

Vlaamse Frietekes are the best fries there are btw, if they are drenched in Mayonaise.. But I hate
it to make a mess so I use a fork to eat them. And keep my fingers clean, for the diet coke 🙂

Btw Not all the bicycles overhere get stolen, a few have good locks. So I could not open them. 😉

Ps1: If our schoolsystem is so poor, how can I be so smart. pffff 😉
Ps2: Yes, we have learned English from American TV Shows, you dipstick, qui qui qui, yee-haw.. thats a 10-4 you *peeep* *peeep* I love it when a plan comes together. I’ll be back, yippa ka yee mother***peeep***

Comment by Ronald — January 21, 2015 @ 8:30 am
A major point that I don’t think anyone has covered yet: The Dutch think a microwave is an oven. They don’t see the difference. It’s almost impossible to rent an apartment that comes with an oven.
Convenience over quality seems to be a very typical thing in the Netherlands.

Comment by J — January 27, 2015 @ 11:52 am
Great read!
And what about the Dutch and their ‘agenda’s’???? they seem to be so proud of their ‘volle agenda’, not realising that this is just their inability of having quality time.
And what about ‘kijken kijken en niet kopen’?
And how about their ‘cadeautjes’?
And about rinsing down their krokets with milk or even better: ‘karnemelk’????

Comment by michelle — January 27, 2015 @ 4:32 pm