Categories: General

What are the DUTCH Really Like?

Are the Dutch rude? Cheap? Do they smoke w**d? I went to Amsterdam and Utrecht to ask Dutchies which stereotypes they thought were most and least true.

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0:00 Intro to Dutch stereotypes
1:10 Dutch are direct: true or false?
2:36 Dutch vs American/British communication
5:18 Second True Dutch Stereotype
5:48 Third True Dutch Stereotype
6:53 Foreigner Culture Shock in the Netherlands
7:37 Most untrue Dutch stereotypes
8:23 Forth True Dutch Stereotype
8:45 The "Do Normaal" Attitude
9:27 Are Dutch people cheap?
11:27 Dutch word you have to know

CREW:
Marina Iakovleva (directing)

Sahra Abreu (video)

Oleh Voitovych (editing)

Filmed in:
Utrecht and Amsterdam, Netherlands

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  • As a Dutchman I can say that the statements in this video are very accurate πŸ˜‚ and I think Marina is a very good host of the show πŸ˜„

    • Wow good for you if ur a Dutch man seeing you’re comments getting a heart by this YouTuber

  • From the outside in (Dutch who immigrated to the US almost 2 decades ago), I do think that many Dutch are more small-minded than they think themselves, especially the whole 'doe maar normaal' en 'brood voor lunch'... how boring :-)

    And in defense of the American smiling and doing the little 'how are you' dance... after getting used to it I like the positivity people start with over people being grumpy and moody. And it's nice people try to be customer friendly, why would that be a bad thing?

    What I miss most about Dutch culture is that people are often genuinely interested in each other. It's easy to meet a Dutch person and end up talking for hours about all kinds of stuff, or start a new job and spending the first day just chit chatting with everyone over coffee. America often feels very impersonal and distant once you have the first brief interaction out of the way. That, and that everything is walkable, especially the old towns and cities.

    • Where do you live, because most "Dutch" stereotypes are mostly Hollands and Randstad, for a country as small as we are we have a lot of diversity. With the creation of the Netherlands, there was a "Dutch" way to do, speak, write, etc. with the Unification of the Lowlands creating the Netherlands, uniting and splitting to get the Netherlands people "know" and think off/associate when hearing the Netherlands.
      They don't think of the Benelux area.
      Also a stereotype doesn't mean all Dutch people do/are the same, not all local cultures and dialects are the same there are similarities etc.

      Because it is fake, and you force the employee to behave like they are in a play for the profit for the company and their commissions. Like working at Disney. Wearing a mask for profits = the public you.
      Doe normaal dan doe je gek genoeg. In the US everything is a competition, being the best, American excellence/superiority.
      Similar to the tip cultures, instead of paying a fair wage.
      It is all about the profit for the owner classes, and the working classes are the monkeys that have to "dance" for their money. Work multiple jobs and still don't earn a living wage. Go bankrupt with medical bills, etc.

      Also it is not like we don't have these or similar social dances. "Small talk"
      Wishing people a good day/morning/afternoon/eventing, etc.
      If you are in a big city you don't greet people you encounter, if you live more urban or rural it is more likely you will greet a stranger passing by.

    • I lived all over the place in NL: Delft, Rijswijk, Rotterdam, Lelystad, Zwolle and Deventer.

      I think the statements you make are pretty un-nuanced (like, do you really think Americans are 'forced' to greet you like that?), and you may have a different take on things if you'd live here for a while. Though I agree that how the medical system works and how the income disparity is so large in the US are pretty terrible things, and in fact are some of the reasons why I'm considering to move back again at some point.

    • @@EelcoHillenius South Holland, Flevoland, and Overijssel. How where/are your experiences with the nuances in provinces and their local cultures as well as from the individual cities and their local cultures?

      True, it was un-nuanced, generalizing and stereotyping. If I have to put nuance in, my reactions would be longer still. And it also all depends on the view on 'forced' and what is or isn't that.
      The point is as made in the video, to us it comes across as fake. A thing you do, but not sincere.
      Also a different stereotype of Dutch people/tourists: "Kijken, kijken, niet kopen."

    • @@schiffelers3944 I know, I don't blame you as I myself thought it was fake when I visited/ just moved to the US. But having lived here for almost two decades, between immigrants from all over the world, and being married to a Thai person, I appreciate how cultures have their own particulars, but the end of the day people aren't really that different once you get past these things.

      As for the differences between parts of the Netherlands, yeah, there certainly are some. Frankly, I felt most at home in Deventer. I love the midsized cities and the 'nuchtere' attitude of the Dutch East :-) On the topic of 'fake', we even have that in NL, where - in my experience - people from outside of Amsterdam sometimes look at the Amsterdam 'joviaal' attitude as fake.

    • It’s unfortunately not like this there when you living there, I have been 4 years and Dutch people are direct when it’s comfortable, I’m not saying that they are not nice people, but not everything I found here to be meeting reality

  • The dutch are not the same in the whole country... the diffrences are big in the way they are. There are diffrent cultures in the netherlands in diffrent provences.

  • Happy Friday, Marina 🍷! My parents went to Amsterdam in 2019 on a cruise around Europe for almost a month and they had enjoyed it. As an American born, I like to be punctual when it comes to making plans with friends, girlfriend because I like to value my time to people and I hope in return people value their time to me. I do hope to experience one day to take a trip to the Netherlands and other areas of the world as well. Hope you had an awesome experience over there!

  • As someone who has family and friends in the Netherlands. They are direct and you know where you stand with most of them. Most tourists don't realise there are other provinces besides Holland.

    • No one knows Holland is a province. But here's some directnes for the dutch - nobody cares Holland is a province in the Netherlands. :)

    • Well most people from Holland would agree. Theres Holland and then theres the other areas which we refer to as "the provinces" or "foreign territory". If someone from a different part of the country is talking about something or some issue that we dont have here, we just laugh and say they live in another country.
      For reference, besides north and south holland there are 10 provinces. Groningen is in the north, theres nothing to do there, its just used for mining natural gas. Friesland is where the Frisians live, who are foreigners, theyre not Dutch people, we leave them alone and they leave us alone. Then there is Drenthe which is just a bunch of sheep and approximately 5 people live there.
      Gelderland has some nice forests but the people there are German and we dont care what goes on there as long as the trains are on schedule. Same for Overijssel.
      Then Utrecht is a lot like Holland but they are just a bunch of wannabes who cant afford the rent here.
      Brabant is known for 3 things, carnaval, producing illegal drugs and drinking a lot of beer, but they cant even do that right because the people who drink the most beer per capita live right here in Holland.
      Then theres Limburg which is basically fake Belgium. They even have hills over there. Weird people. Zeeland is also fake Belgium, its main use is for building dams and annoying the real Belgians who are trying to steal our trade with their ports around Antwerp, to which we control the sea route.
      And lastly we have Flevoland which was reclaimed from the sea to provide housing for people who cant afford the rent in Amsterdam.

    • @@TheSuperappelflap and then the Holland provinces are not even Dutch anymore because there are only foreigners, criminality and expats there. And the ones that aren't foreigners are extremely poor Hagenezen, Crooswijk Rotterdammers or cultureless YUPpen.

  • Some of the things the interviewees say about American communication reminds me what my dad used to tell me growing up in America - to distrust people when they are saying nice things (implying Americans give compliments they don't mean) and to trust the negative things he/other adults say to improve implying people won't say negative things unless they are true. I internalized that and I realized later it was holding me back especially because confidence is currency in the US. He's not Dutch and I'm not saying that this is what the Dutch people mean, it just reminded me of those things.

    • Yeah over here its the opposite, if someone is being negative and complaining theyre probably just talking or maybe have a bad day, and if someone gives you a compliment they really mean it. Unless theyre trying to get your money, then we will say anything you want to hear.

    • ​@TheSuperappelflap In my experience, only sales people that follow the scientology way to do sales.

  • 6:21 Wow... That attitude towards food is just wild. I'm such a food snub, I handmake my dumplings, mapo tofu, skewers, etc, I love this part about living in the US

    • The quality of this food is very high. The hagelslag, chocolate sprinklers, for instance are 35-58% chocolate. The cheese is most of the time Gouda, but there are other delicious varieties. The bread is without sugar. The milk most people have with lunch is pasteurized. And lots of people also eat some fruit, which is also of high quality.

    • @@jannetteberends8730 I guess I have to go there and try. But I really can't imagine a slice of bread + Cheese being anything above chicken + broccoli

    • Im dutch and idgaf what people say. I mean, we have all these luxury products. Why shouldn't I enjoy them, if I can? And those places where you can get enjoy an expensive food are never empty, so a lot of dutch people do splash out. But when they see others do it: they have to have some opinion on it and share that opinion with you: 'im just being honest'. Bull....πŸ˜‚Mind your business! I will eat my steak while you eat your slice of bread with bland cheese! It's almost as if they don't want you to enjoy lifeπŸ˜‚ but thats a stereotype ofcourse. People in the southern provinces have a bit more joie de vivre.

    • @@yunleung2631 Fresh, whole grain bread, butter and really old Dutch cheese... just typing this already makes my mouth water

    • There's a difference between criticising and aimlessly complaining I believe. The weather is a good example of aimless complainig, not much you can do about it besides trying to take a positive perspective. (little known and mostly denied fact; it only rains 7% of the time in the Netherlands. Unbelievable but true).

    • @@shoelacedonkey The same with a white christmas. We’ve been complaining there are no more white christmasses. Since they started measuring in, I believe 1900, we only had about 7 or 9 white ones. Have to look up the exact amount, but it’s very low. As if we had a white christmas almost every year in the past. For the first part of your reaction, you are right. It might not be complaining, but it is the ability of walking up to your β€œboss” to say, wait a minute, I don’t agree, I have another idea, without being reprimanded.

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