Tag Archives: Dutch culture

New Year’s Eve in the Netherlands A Time For Heroes Meet Jan-Willem. He works for a Dutch bank in the blue suit capital of the world, Amsterdam Zuidas. He’s a lovely chap. He’s good to animals, gives money to charity, goes on dates with expat ladies and never sends a …

Duindorp burning In case you’ve never heard of Duindorp, it’s a new town in the Hague. It’s full of social housing that was built for the families of fishermen in the 1930s. It’s known as a ‘witte enclave’ where the only black residents tend to be of a ‘been down …

Dutch recycling, get the most out of your tea bag Who doesn’t like tea? Well, ok. A lot of people. But that’s not the point. My grandmother had hers in a specific manner: as black as possible then diluted with an insane amount of (warm) milk. The Japanese even have …

Sinterklaas versus Father Christmas a SWOT Analysis It’s that wonderful time of year in the Netherlands when football hooligans and neo-nazis attack people who protest against Zwarte Piet. Yes, it’s the Sinterklaas season. Meanwhile, in large parts of the western world, the countdown to Christmas is about to begin. With …

The Dutch Burka ban The Dutch Burka ban law makes wearing face-covering clothing in the Netherlands illegal. It went into effect on August 1st 2019. How are you all feeling? Much safer I hope. After all, between 150 to 400  women in a country of 17 million people are believed …

The Joy of Tikkie Anouk was convinced that Jeroen was having an affair. He was checking his phone far more than usual. Last thing at night before bed, during and after sex and even while having dinner at six pm!  She was just planning to confront him about this when …

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. (No …

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 …