Comments on: Dutch Culture From Foreign Perspectives

By: Jackie

Jackie — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:12:41 +0000

Oh jesus, people like martin and dennis, what is your problem? It is absolutely not true that Dutch people are too proud to speak english! I’m english myself and when I went to the netherlands every single person I talked to could speak English at a high level, and believe me, i’ve talked to a lot of people. They were also very hostile and interested in my culture. And in other countries people might not look the same, but that’s just because they don’t seem to care what they wear. In the netherlands people do look a bit the same but they’re all very fashionable. I also thought the dutch women were gorgeous and very natural, unlike most women in England. And it’s true that they don’t like above average people, but that’s just because they don’t like to brag about themselves, see it as a good thing. Another thing, I went to a lot of parties, and the dutch people definitely know how to make them. Everyone was very free and nice, and the music was great. And they’re definitely not stuck in the past, maybe when you’ve visited Friesland or something you might think that, but the rest of the Netherlands lives more modern than any other country in Europe, legal weed, legal prostitutes, you don’t see that anywhere else. All in all, I think Holland is a great country and anyone should be happy to live there.

By: Alejo

Alejo — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:34:48 +0000

I have no idea who wrote all this crap, but it’s so not true! I studied in the Netherlands for a year and Dutch people are great! They are so open and friendly, especially to foreigners.

They don’t expect foreigners to speak Dutch, they enjoy speaking English with you and they’re very good at it.

I never experienced arrogance among Dutch people. Their motto seems to be: don’t pretend to be bigger than you are. Ofcourse they are proud of their country, who’s not?

I agree with the fact that parties in Holland can be spiced up a little bit, especially familieparties. Everybody is sitting on chairs in a circle with coffee, talking a little. But hey.. I only went to one familieparty so what do I know. But as a student I went to a lot of great parties! Maybe the person who wrote it, spent his time among old boring people Ofcourse Spanish man (I’m spanish) can dance much better

Conclusion: don’t be so generalizing and look for the great things! Netherlands are great, with beautiful people (and beatiful women ghehe). I really want to go back sometimes.

By: Danny

Danny — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:19:01 +0000

hey we are not sad ignorant people. im from holland and i can confirm that.. we are a real down to earth kinda people… and yes we read books but dont actually do that in public because we might think it look weird and yes we eat at 6 or earlier.. and yes we dont like it when people knock on our door when we are eating we like to eat in private.. and we dont like people who stay as long as he/she can just to have a chance to eat with us.. because we think they look like be beggars that way because they have their own homes and kitchens so eat home!! hahaa. if you look at the americans they all look different that cool.. but we look the same because we dont want to show of. we are a very christian country, so almost every shop is closed on sunday due to that god had created the world in six days blablabla and well i dont like it to but cant do anything about it… but on the other hand we are free to do almost anything.. buy alcohol when your 16 and hard liquor when your 18. we are easy with that kinda stuff and you can smoke weed legally here. and about the stores we dont have so much space to build big ass supermarkets. and we know how to party but maybe different than other countries are used to..
greeting from holland Danny

By: dennis

dennis — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:00:17 +0000

I JUST CAN’T STAND THEM! They praise their individuality but they are ALL the same! And you can really tell, they always do the same things at the SAME time: there’s a festival in a park? the whole town is there; sales at blokker? you can expect the queen on 1st row; they open a new stupid albert-hein? gotta check it out, can’t miss that!
And what about women? fashion to them is trying to look EXACTLY like all the others! Any of them without BOOTS is an outcast…conformity has reached new scary levels!
Sitting on a terrace on a sunny day and drinking a lekker coffee in a gezelig cafe is their idea of a great day…pllllease!
Never catch ANYBODY reading a book, all they’re interested in is how they look, who they go to bed with and how ‘cool’ they are.
And that’s in the 2009, after the 70s which gave us great values but, apparently, NOT in holland.
Sad, ignorant people in a sad, ignorant country…

By: xxx

xxx — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:38:45 +0000

Many of those articles above are not true, I think those kind of many things are only true in the Area of Amsterdam where the people are more heterogen than the other area in Holland. So people there are more tolerant, speak english better, not rasis oriented, simply because they are living in a multi cultures environment. but the other area? I dont think so!!!
I dont think tolerance is a virtue / civic duty for dutch people when it come to foreigner from Asia & Africa.
and I strongly disagree if people said that Dutch are very tolerant with racial and ethnical issues. Some of them maybe yes, but 70% are not. Discrimination is every where in NL.
They always underestimate people from Asia & Africa, & always think that Duth is the smartest people in the world.
I dont think almost everyone speaks English in Netherlands, even in the winkel when I asked smthing in english they said that they can only speak ” a little of that”. Teenagers in Asia countries are now a days much better in English comparing with teenager in NL. That’s because Dutch are too proud about themselves, dont appreciate English as international language, they want foreginer to speak Dutch, and make dutch become international language too.
I agree that Dutch doesnt like “above average” people. They never appreciate if you are smarter than the other, but I dont agree if you said Dutch people doesnt like to show off, you can not see them from the clothes they are wearing is simply because they are mostly not trendy or fancy.

By: oyinloye sherif oyindamola

oyinloye sherif oyindamola — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:14:39 +0000

one love to you all

By: parl

parl — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:12:07 +0000

I think u r a sweet philosopher….

By: Harry

Harry — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:08:02 +0000

I wonder where you’re from…utopia?

By: Bodhi

Bodhi — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 01:46:04 +0000

Martin you sound like an bitter fool

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:03:11 +0000

The Dutch all eat at 6 o’clock and if you don’t eat at 6 o’clock they think you are weird. They can not accept the fact that Dutch food is very bland and tasteless, (Zuur kool) mashed potatoe picked cabage with a sausage on top. The landscape is like the people very boring, Dutch supermarkets are very small most are shut on Sundays, A land that is stuck in the past. The reason they are so open towards homosexuals is because most Dutch women look like men.

Flat sad silly stupid ignorant smoking pigs