Tag Archives: Dutch culture

Five Things The Dutch Blame Expats For Firstly, I’d like to make something very clear. It’s tough being Dutch. After all, the Netherlands is only the seventh largest economy in the EU. Poverty is practically non-existent and the country has extensive social benefits and a first class affordable medical system. …

Scenes From The Dutch Schoolpleinpolitiek An expat reader of mine who goes by the clever name of Sue Denim has been kind enough to provide her observations of the complex intercultural human interaction that takes place during the school run. The mysteries of the Dutch schoolpleinpolitiek are revealed in this …

British and Dutch Cultures Compared Guest Blog Post The old saying of “men are from Mars women are from Venus” (the planet not the chain of sex shops) is something that certainly applies to countries too. Being from the UK, I can tell you that the Netherlands is so different that …

5 things the Dutch can learn from the British Sometimes, life can be like an Albert Heijn Allerhande Box, disappointing. That rather ambiguous opening statement has absolutely nothing to do with today’s post. The Dutch Review recently published an article called “5 personality traits that the Brits should learn from …

Dutch Manners and Etiquette a guide for foreigners People often say to me, “Shallow Man, you dress so well”. Which is, of course, true, but people also often say to me, “why are the Dutch so rude!”. To which my answer is always “it’s complicated”. To truly understand the Dutch …

Life in the Netherlands My Favourite Things The Shallow Man recently received the following comment from an aggrieved reader. Is it just me? To notice an edge of cynicism (check spelling.) within your recent posts? Could you find another slant? This pisstake has become tedious/odious. Yes, you make a point …

Five Essential Dutchisms Definition of Dutchism 1:  a patronising and irritating way of explaining some aspect of Dutch culture to foreigners 2: a tendency towards condescension  a manner of behaving toward others in an outwardly polite way that nevertheless implies one’s own country is superior to that of others; One can detect …

Why Zwarte Piet must remain black! As I write this, it’s November again. In the Netherlands, the annual pretending not to be black season is about to begin. I am of course referring to the annual Sinterklaas celebration and the most popular ethnic minority in the Netherlands, the Zwarte Piets. …

The Shallow Man etiquette guide for staying with Dutch friends Today I’m going to publish an email I received (if you’re younger than 25 you might want to ask your parents what an email is) from a reader who is resident in the UK.  She’s awfully polite and was left …

One of my favorite expat bloggers is Andra Stefan author of Amsterdamming. She recently wrote an incredibly thought provoking piece which she’s kindly allowed me to repost here. Why living in Amsterdam is killing the woman in me Here is one of the very reasons I love living in Amsterdam. How could …