What do you think the dutch people are?

...and were quite astonished that I could speak with me in German as well.

Radio Netherlands Press Review
Monday 12 February 2007

* Those dodgy meaty snacks

De Telegraaf gives a clue as to what may be happening to the animal casualties resulting from those 2000 yearly accidents. A study at the University of Wageningen has revealed that one third of all meaty snacks sold in the Netherlands contain horsemeat.

The popular minced-meat hot dogs, called frikadellen, and meatballs even have a higher amount: fifty percent. The animal rights' foundation that ordered the study is astonished by the outcome and says it will investigate what else exactly can be found in meaty snacks.

Finding my space

Expatica
21 February 2007

When Latvian student Gunta Badovska fell in love with a Dutchman and moved to Amstelveen from Riga, she found some of the differences in culture and style between her homeland and Holland frankly peculiar.

Name: Gunta Badovska
Nationality: Latvian
City of Residence: Amstelveen
Date of Birth: 5 March 1977
Civil status: Samenwoning
Occupation: Student Dutch language
Education: Masters in Social Psychology from the University of Riga
In the Netherlands since: 2005

Love brought me to the Netherlands. I met my current boyfriend while I was on holiday in Turkey recuperating from a difficult period in my life. It was love at first sight and we both knew immediately we would live together. It was also clear that I would come to the Netherlands, because the Dutch language was easier for me to learn than Latvian was for him. He had also bought a house and had been working in a steady job for several years, while I was living in rented accommodation and had just switched jobs.

After eight months I moved to the Netherlands. Although I hadn't completed my Master's thesis, I arranged to finish it in the Netherlands. This arrangement was also a lot cheaper than my boyfriend's fortnightly plane trips from the Netherlands to Latvia, not to mention the enormous phone bills we were running up!

In the beginning it was rather strange to leave my busy life - my job and studies - in Riga to live in Amstelveen. But I started doing a course in Dutch immediately and quickly made a lot of friends.

The nature I miss

I'm glad I'm living in Amstelveen; it's greener than Amsterdam, but you still have the advantage of living next to a big city. Nature is beautiful in Latvia, there are so many forests, rivers and lakes, and the countryside is mostly hilly. When you go hiking you sometimes don't meet any one else for days - that's how expansive it is.

In Latvia, a lot of people do things outside at the week-ends. During the winter, skiing and snowboarding are popular sports, and in the summer you can go camping, sailing, swimming and hiking. A lot of people stay in summer residences in the summer months. They even stay there during the week if the location isn't too far from their work.

I really miss all of this in Netherlands. It's so crowded here and gardens are so small. Sometimes they are only 20 square metres, while in Latvia a garden is at least 600 square metres!

Nodding off

There are hardly any highways in Latvia and the existing routes are poorly maintained. However, here in the Netherlands there are so many good, smooth roads, which is really relaxing. However, I often fall asleep because there is little to see in this flat countryside.

What women wear

In general women pay a lot of attention on their appearance in Latvia. Especially in the capital, women wear high heels and elegant clothes. To be honest most of the time elegance comes before practicality, which is quite different from the Dutch women's approach. To be honest I must be becoming a bit Dutch myself, because when I go back to Latvia now I feel like a rural resident. The first thing I always do is pay a visit to the beautician, manicurist and hairdresser! I have the feeling that the Dutch woman pay more attention to their appearance when they are older. I mostly see very elegant and well-groomed women in their fifties.

Bike after bike

In Riga you see hardly any bicycles. They are associated with the countryside, where they are used as a means of transport or to exercise. In the capital people hardly ever cycle. All those bicycles in the cycle-ranks are so typical of Holland, as are old, rusty bikes.

Brick upon brick

I think Amsterdam is a beautiful, romantic city, but it also feels a bit like the country because of all those identical brick houses. I miss the allure and elegance of the Jugendstil in Riga, with all its architectural embellishments.

In the Soviet period a lot of the Jugendstil creations were neglected and that is a pity. The houses are plastered and sometimes the paintwork is all cracked, Amsterdam on the other hand is very well-maintained.

Weekend shoppers

In the Soviet period there was hardly any choice in the stores, but now we have compensated for that and supermarkets, which are much larger then those in the Netherlands - they are almost all hypermarkets - also offer more choice. Opening times are longer as well. I really don't understand how people in the Netherlands can do their grocery shopping when they work all day. A lot of Dutch people do their shopping on Saturday but I really don't want to do that on my weekends! Besides, how can I know what I want to eat for the next four days?

The quality of products in Latvia is better as well. Over here the meat often has a rubbery taste to it. In Latvia most of the products come from small farmers and everything is biological. You don't even have to label it that.

Dutch mealtimes

In Latvia we tend to eat a hot meal at midday. I missed that a lot in Holland in the beginning. I was hungry all day and could only eat 'for real' in the evening. Now I am more used to this. At midday I make pasta or a salad and I eat my main meal in the evening.

Uusually the service in restaurants isn't good here. I always remember the restaurants where the service is good because I think it is important. Often the interior of restaurants are a bit old-fashioned and in some small restaurants I get the impression that I am having diner in some one's kitchen!

My foreign friends and I often make jokes about Dutch birthday parties. "Make sure you have something to eat before you go!" In Latvia you don't eat before you go to a birthday party because you know a lot of food will be served and sometimes even a full meal. The cake you get here as a starter is the dessert over there.

Fast friends

I think the Dutch are friendly in day-to-day contact and easy to connect with, but I have the feeling it remains a bit superficial. Latvians are less open and spontaneous, but in the end, I think they are more serious about making friendships. I must admit that I don't have any Dutch friends except my boyfriend's. I only make foreign friends myself.

I think another difference is that Latvians are often more friendly with their colleagues. You hang out with them more, also in the week-ends. For instance it is normal to organise a company party where a sauna is included. There are a lot of nice hotels with saunas and they are very popular for parties.

Lasting romance

Lastly, let me tell you about the first impression I had of the Netherlands, something which remains lodged in my memory.

I had visited the Netherlands twice before my immigration, to attend the marriage of a Latvian friend of mine to her Dutch boyfriend. I discovered that a famous Latvian writer of children's books was also living in the Netherlands and was married to a Dutchman. The couple had been in love for years but she was only able to marry him at the age of 80. I think it is a very romantic story and I was lucky enough to meet her in Holland. In short, the Netherlands has been a country of love for me and everything has worked out in the end.

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I have lived in holland for two years now and i still feel like a stranger. I can speak the language. I really don't like here. I have some many friends at home and here it is such an effect to get to know people. I am a every social person till i came here. Then they carry on about my country (Australia) Man they know everything about it. The funny thing is they have never been there. I don't know what to think about the dutch but i know one thing that are not the most like people. Everytime i tell someone from home i am seeing a dutch man they say why would i waste my time with one. Well i am starting to wonder too . He never listens to me thinks he is right all the time, i hate beening here in the netherlands. So who knows what will happen

One other proposed explanation is that the term, often expressed as "talk to one like a Dutch uncle," originated in the early 1800s as an allusion to the sternness and sobriety attributed to the Dutch. Dutch behaviour is defined in the book Culture Shock! Netherlands: A Survival Guide To Customs and Etiquette as "practical, direct, outspoken, stubborn, well-organised, blunt and thinking they are always right."

and assume I would like to learn Dutch? There are not so many people in the world speak Dutch and it is derived from German somehow.

what do u think of the dutch
Well i can say they are arogant and every self center. I live and work in holland and i can speak the laungage. I have never meet in my life such rude people. When u speak there laungage or english it really doesn't matter. I have always made friends really easy here but do u think that u can in holland no. They don't help u out with learning the laungage and if you don't know the laungage they cann't be bothered taliking to you. I have really been made felt welcome here not !!!. All i can say is get alife dutch you not the only people in the world that matter.

Its true about how they dont exactly make it easy for you to learn the language ("no, no, why would you bother, we speak English") - and then suddenly get all upset if after a year you "still havent learnt the language", though.

like to make jokes with people from other countries, say, german, belgium.

Some 40 percent of respondents indicated they wanted to leave due to a combination of inefficient bureaucracy, growing xenophobia among the Dutch public and the lack of a service culture.

Now, I actually don't have a clue whether this is Dutch, or human behavior, and of course not all Dutch people will only help when he or she is just swapping inconveniences, some of them, not many, actually like to help. And others won't even feel uncomfortable when he (or she) is sitting comfortably while next to him (or her) a disabled, 90 year old pregnant woman is standing uncomfortably ...

Or, maybe it's just me and maybe I am just projecting this onto others. I'm Dutch, and I'll help you when it's needed, but not because I'm this cheerful idiot, smiling an' singing all day, helping people whenever I can, just for fun. No, I'll help you because you need help, that's it, quit whining about it!

I've lived in Holland for two years and there's something about Dutch people that puzzles me. I'm from America and I have a strong Southern California accent which anyone from North America can identify. I don't speak Dutch fluently yet but I understand alot of the language. When I hear someone from the Eastern Netherlands speak I can hear their accent. When I listen to Flemish people I can tell right away they are speaking a different dialect although I don't know as much of what they are saying. Dutch people always ask me if I am from England. What I don't understand is, why can't Dutch people differentiate between the dialects from two countries miles of ocean and two centuries apart when they can speak it fluently? Whereas English speakers like myself who understand little to no Dutch at all by comparison can still tell the difference between different dialects of this tiny area?

What throws them off? Because I don't dress like an American and apparently that's what gives most Yankees away. All Dutch people can spot Americans but it's because of their clothes. They are clueless to the sound of a British accent as opposed to an American.

Though I'll heartily agree that the Dutch are a pain in the effin' arse, I think the "so much harder here to get to know people / before they accept you / etc" thing might be just as much to do with the experience of migrating itself, tho. As a Dutchman now in Hungary, I have the same thing, and my (Italian, British and Russian) colleagues are complaining in similar vein...

* Those dodgy meaty snacks

De Telegraaf gives a clue as to what may be happening to the animal casualties resulting from those 2000 yearly accidents. A study at the University of Wageningen has revealed that one third of all meaty snacks sold in the Netherlands contain horsemeat.

The popular minced-meat hot dogs, called frikadellen, and meatballs even have a higher amount: fifty percent. The animal rights' foundation that ordered the study is astonished by the outcome and says it will investigate what else exactly can be found in meaty snacks.

One other proposed explanation is that the term, often expressed as "talk to one like a Dutch uncle," originated in the early 1800s as an allusion to the sternness and sobriety attributed to the Dutch. Dutch behaviour is defined in the book Culture Shock! Netherlands: A Survival Guide To Customs and Etiquette as "practical, direct, outspoken, stubborn, well-organised, blunt and thinking they are always right."