Making friends with the Dutch is a challenge…

Many older former people of faith, eventually, come crawling back like husbands that have had a brief affair with a younger woman, humbled, to their religion. One of the reasons for this is the fear of certain death and eternal damnation, which brings me to the subject of this post.

Many expats look up to me as a kind of land bound, better-dressed version of Christopher Columbus, and have asked for my advice on navigating the choppy and uncharted waters of relations with the Dutch. With tears on their keyboards, they write to me asking: “Shallow Man, we’ve lived here for years and still have no Dutch friends, why is it so difficult to get to know them on a personal level?”

Indeed many expats live here in the Netherlands in a kind of social purgatory, trapped between heaven and hell. They can see all of Dutch daily life going on around them, but are not quite involved due to lack of any meaningful friendships with the locals.

Being the selfless person that I am, yet again I will step into the intercultural breach and provide advice on how to befriend the Dutch and reach that desired state of integration heaven – having a Dutch friend. This will no doubt be controversial in some quarters, and yet, like Miley Cyrus at the VMA awards, I will twerk my perfectly formed bottom at my critics, even if it means being locked in a room by angry Dutch people and forced to listen to Andre Hazes’ greatest hits while watching TV shows featuring Linda De Mol.

The things I do for my readers!

Over the years, the Shallow man has wandered through the Dutch wilderness, from Hoorn to Harderwijk, Den Bosch to Zwolle, from Utrecht to Maastricht, and from the Bijlmer to Rotterdam Zuid and has acquired much experience in dealing with our denim-clad, brown-shoe, white sneaker wearing hosts. Following my wandering in the wilderness, I have returned with advice on how to become friends with the Dutch.

Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me

A common question asked by Dutch people is “What do you think of Holland compared to your own hell hole of a country that is not the Netherlands?” A character trait I admire in the Dutch is the willingness not to allow a complete and utter lack of facts get in the way of a good lecture of the pros and cons of a country they have never lived in. When asked this question, always reply how much you love this country compared to your own, and how much better the quality of life is here; that will immediately score you some bloody foreigner knows his or her place brownie points.

How to Make Friends with the Dutch? Doe Effe Normaal!

As I’ve posted elsewhere, being smartly dressed, for example wearing black shoes, heels, make up, not wearing denim and taking care of one’s appearance is generally frowned upon. If you dress in a way that is outside the “normen en waarden”(i.e. norms and values) of Dutch society, you will be labelled as someone who thinks too highly of themselves. If you want to get on, dress as if you are going to pick up some plants from the local garden center. This will make you less suspicious to the locals who will relax and might even involve you in a conversation.

ripped jeans are a good way to dress casual like the Dutch

Wear jeans with holes in the knees to make friends with the Dutch

The Language Death Spiral when trying to make friends with the Dutch

Here is an interesting conundrum. If you speak Dutch with a local the response you’ll receive will invariably be in English. However, if you speak in English you’ll be asked: “How come you don’t speak Dutch?” Breaking this vicious cycle without causing offence will require the delicate diplomatic skills of a UN  negotiator.  If your Dutch is good enough, then politely insist on speaking Dutch. I’ve known fluent Dutch speakers who’ve lived and worked here for years that still get spoken to in English by the locals.

Be persistent and, even if they respond in English, continue speaking Dutch. This should hopefully wear them down and have them speaking with you in their language. The effort you make in speaking Dutch should, with most reasonable people, play in your favour.

For the “How come you don’t speak Dutch?” question, don’t get defensive. Simply reply that you’ve tried to learn the language but found it too difficult. This will often go down well and give them a warm feeling of superiority and a chance to show off their English skills. Do not under any circumstances tell the truth which is that as hardly any countries of global economic importance speak Dutch, and, since you only plan to stay here for a couple of years, it’s not worth your while to bother learning the language.

learning dutch conundrum

 

 

Transparency

In most countries in the world, the invention commonly known as curtains is still widely used. Here in the Netherlands, with its open society, such things are not regarded as necessary. To befriend the locals, it won’t help if you make sarcastic jokes about looking through people’s windows and watching them eat Frikandel while counting their money due to the lack of curtains. When in conversation with the locals, compliment them on the financial astuteness of not having to waste money on unnecessary dry cleaning.

Why expats find it difficult to make friends with the Dutch

Two views.

View 1

If you work in one of the larger cities in the Netherlands, such as Amsterdam or Den Hague, you’ll find that most Dutch colleagues who have children will live well outside the city, in small towns where house prices are cheaper. As much bonding and friendship often start with drinks after work, this often excludes local Dutch colleagues who have to rush off home to their demanding partners or to collect children from childcare. What then transpires is that the only people who tend to socialize regularly outside work are the expats who often, at least, to begin with, are on their own.

View 2

As Dutch people, they already have a circle of (local) friends and don’t want to expand their circle with Expats. The view is often: “ Why should I make new friends when I have them already?”  Some might say that’s a selfish, anti-social and narrow-minded point of view, but it’s certainly one I’ve heard mentioned by Dutch colleagues over the years.

 

Enter the Circle of Death

If you do somehow manage to overcome all of the obstacles mentioned above, you will not only become friends with a Dutch person but also end up being invited to attend a “Party.” Many cultures have their own ideas of what constitutes a party but may have never experienced what those of us in the know describe as the Circle of Death. This is a slightly surreal experience. A group of Dutch people will sit together in a circle. Alcohol is often not served. Hapjes (tiny hors d’oeuvre), small bites of bitterballen, cubes of cheese (with mini Dutch flags) and that exotic delicacy, crisps in a bowl- are provided.

The gathering then sits together and talk, with much use of the word “Gezellig” coming into play. It’s an interesting experience, to say the least. If you experience this, then you’ve arrived and have a genuine Dutch friend.

Cheese cubes with Dutch flag

You know you’ve made Dutch friends when they invite you home and serve these

Summary

There’s an old saying that I firmly believe in: “I would never want to join a club that doesn’t want me as a member.” This is particularly true when it comes to making friends, regardless of nationality. There has been a nationalistic far right-wing movement in this country that started with Pim Fortuyn, continued with Rita Verdonk and later Geert Wilders and the new poster boy of Dutch isolationism and intolerance Thierry (let me throw some Latin or Greek into a sentence to sound intellectual) Baudet.

The doctrine spouted by these people is that foreigners who live here should want to be Dutch, in other words, resistance is futile and assimilation is the only option. It’s a strange mentality that believes, when you move to another country, you should strip away your national identity and want to be something else, a cardboard cut out of a typical Dutch person that doesn’t really exist. This is strange as integration does not mean assimilation.

FVD starter pack MEME

 

Thankfully such views are held by a relatively small (I hope) subset of people in the Netherlands. By and large, I’ve found the Dutch to be pretty open-minded, fair and sometimes even friendly ;). It’s difficult to make friends with them and I would say that they are actually less open than for example the Germans or even the French, but that’s just my personal experience.

People should accept you for who you are. If they don’t want to be friends with me because I’m not from some small village in the Netherlands, so be it. I’ve made some good friendships with Dutch people and we’ve bridged the language gap without much of a problem. Keep an open and positive mind and only good things can come of it. This is a wonderful country and I’m happy to be here, and to people who can’t appreciate the value of a friendship with someone as they are not from the Netherlands, I say  Rot op met je intolerantie!

No Dutch nationalists were hurt during the writing of this article.