5 FAQs about the Dutch | Life in the Netherlands
Вставка
- Опубліковано 2 чер 2024
- In this video, I try to answer 5 common questions that people have about the Dutch and the Netherlands. The questions people ask about the Netherlands and the Dutch really show what makes this country and its people special.
--
I like to share my experiences of an American expat in the Netherlands. I describe both the unique and everyday aspects of Dutch culture, and life in Holland while enjoying every bit of it!
Blog website: www.dutchamericano.com
Instagram: DutchAmericano
Get in touch: dutchamericanonl@gmail.com
Suggested videos:
5 Gezellige Dutch Things: • Life in Holland: 5 Gez...
American PRAISES 5 Things About Living in the Netherlands: • American PRAISES 5 Thi...
Dutch Directness VS American Indirectness: • Dutch Directness VS Am...
3 Dutch Things I Can't Get Used to: • 3 Dutch Things I Can’t...
1 fact about the Dutch: Dutch people love to watch these kind of video's.
That I agree on..!
true :)
I have a 'favorite wrong answer' to the question on why we are so tall. It's because most of our country is below sealevel, so, just in case all our waterworks fail, we've grown tall enough to still keep our heads above water if our country floods
Hihihi I heard that one before.
Nah its because with the last flood, all the little dutch people floated away, the tall one stayed and reproduced.
So survival of the fittest!
As a German living very close to the border, I can tell, that the language thing comes from TV. I didn't learn a lot English during several years in school, but then I found it more interesting to watch films and series in original language on the dutch TV (in Germany everything is dobbed). By reading the dutch translations and watching the better sport-broadcasting for sports like cycling I also learned to understand the dutch language withing a few years (if listening to Mart Smeets can be considered as learning real dutch). I still can't speak dutch because you don't lean that by watching TV but the English helped a lot when I worked for an US company in Autin,TX.
PS: Cycling makes happy
Funny - I had the same experience living on the Dutch side of that border
I learned german because of german tv. Back in the day we only had 2 dutch tv channels and 5 german channels, so i watched a lot of german tv.
@@theseob Same here, I'm still most eloquent in German when it comes to cowboy and Western stuff, horse riding, gun fights, stuff like that. My barfight German is also excellent thanks to Bud Spencer and Terence Hill beeing dubbed.
Yeah, I grew up on the other side, close to the border and that's how I learned German.
@@theseob I learned German because i had a very very strict german teacher at school...there was no way you didn't make your homework, he had so many ways of punishing us students.
I also had to learn french and didn't care much for english. Untill i left holland alone on my way to australia, suddenly i realized that i had to learn way better english to live there which i did.
About curtains: most people do have curtains, we just don't close them. We like looking outside, looking at the people passing, or looking at the weather.
I may have something to do with the quality of the houses: when we still had single-pane windows, we used to close the curtains a lot more, but still only in the evening. Opening the curtains is part of our morning ritual: letting the sun shine in.
The story of showing off rings true: the room(s) at the street were always the posh sitting rooms, with the general living space at the back where others could *not* see what's going on.
TheEvertw besides that, we need all the light!
I live in NYC, I had a roommate from the Netherlands,she said she usually didn't close her curtains in her bedroom back in the Netherlands, she said there was a bus stop across from her room and they might be able to see her getting dressed, but she really didn't seem concerned about it.
@@TheRtmac The Dutch are much less prudish that Americans (on average, of course)...
I personally close my curtains as soon as I have my lights turned on, because that's how I was raised. But during the day, I like to have the sunlight inside, so why would I close my curtains?
It's honestly why we grow so tall, we take in the maximum amount of sunlight in our homes.
It's pretty well known eating cheese improves one's English. Everybody says so
Yes, and eating cheese seems to have an effect on one’s length as well. We have to keep eating cheese as a secret otherwise other countries will follow us... sssssssst....
@@peli71 yes! But only Old Amsterdam.... ssssssht!
but only dutch cheese though, i don't think the fake american cheese is gonna have the same benefits :P , also i wonder why american cheese is so ,,, mehh ? i even prefer normal cheese on a burger then american cheese, americans got cows right ? so why is it so different ?
Not only US cheese is mehhh, also US bread is utterly disgusting. (Like a lot of US processed food imho) why is that Eva?
😆😆
One thing people often miss about why we speak English so well: Dutch and Fries are by far, by very, very, very far the most related languages to English. A Dutch speaker has less problems reading Old English than an English speaker would....
Basically English is Dutch/Fries mispronounced by a Norman French speaking Noble..... Most basic words are similar and so is most of the grammar.
You know all those English words that are spelled so weird (Laugh, bough, enough, sought, draught) ? Now look at the Dutch words: Lach, boog, genoeg, zocht, droogte. They are Dutch words! The spelling is not weird, the English effed up the pronunciation :D
I expected her to know that because she said she was a linguist in another video
Jeroen Metselaar: Yeah, words like (zo)als (= like), waarschijnlijk (= probable), ettelijk (= several), waar (= true), zij (= they), gewoonte (= habit), veel (= many), echt (= real), getuigen (= testimonies), zuinig (= frugal), zin (= sentence), bewijs (= proof), attest (= certificate) and many others are real testimonies to that theory...
@@dirkgonthier101 So.... You are claiming Dutch and English are not related because you found some different words.... words fail me.
@@dirkgonthier101 What Jeroen means to say is that many words are cognate: they have a "common ancestor" if you will. But obviously, regions separated by country borders, or water, or mountain ranges, or any other sort of separation, it's logical that languages will diverge and develop differently, especially when also influenced by war, invasions, shifting of power, trading...
@@dirkgonthier101 Some of the words you give are actually very similar, like zij (=they). And many words have equivalents in English and Dutch. Here we go!
Gelijk: like
waarschijnlijk: verisimilitude (from the French vraisemblable)
ettelijk/elk: each
getrouw: true
zij: they
habitueel: habitually
menige: many
reëel: real
attesteren: testify
frugaal: frugal
zin: sentence
proeve: proof
certificatie: certificate
“... met flink veel glas, dan kun je zien,
hoe of het bankstel staat bij Mien
En het dressoir met plastic rozen.”
- Wim Sonneveld - Het Dorp
ua-cam.com/video/K4mQ0Cssfuw/v-deo.html
Dit is exact waar ik aan dacht
Actually, I think many people in the Netherlands are quite 'nieuwsgierig' (curious). It's not that we keep our curtains open because we have nothing to hide, but more that we love to look out of our windows and see people walking by on the streets. It's basically the same reason why many of us love to sit on a terrace in the city all day long. We'd like to just chat and watch all the different kinds of people walking by. :)
Yet in many other areas in NL we do have curtains so its more the 2 Hollands and Utrecht i believe that do this
Yes we call it mensenkijken or people watching.. we usually just look at what someone is wearing or the say someone walks
@@terabbs I did not even know this haha! I live in Brabant so everybody here just has curtains. We just don't close them that often. 🤷
@@nadine9330 this is everywhere. It is extremely uncommon to not have curtains at all
Source: lived my whole life in the Randstad
This is absolutely it. Most people do have curtains, but how can you see what's going on outside with them closed?
This also explains another phenomenon you might have noticed in the larger cities. Some people with apartments on the second floor have a mirror mounted outside their living room window. This is so they can watch the street from their comfy chair. Especially beloved by Dutch grannies!
The thing is, when you have those television shows where they go find the parents of a child that was adopted from I.e. Colombia to The Netherlands, the child always towers above their parent and siblings. So I think the tallness is mainly food and healthcare 🤷🏻♀️
@@fvefve12 On the other hand, the Frisians have always been associated with being tall, and with dairy, in my college days that average male height in the video was already the average for 18 yr. female Frisians... And then you read in a US book that a really big guy is that tall that 6-footers have to look up at him...
@@fvefve12 No, not if the selection is sexual, which it appears to be. If people prefer to mate with tall partners it happens very quickly, and the trend predates WWII. The egalitarian tradition might have to do with it since it frees people up to choose length rather than wealth or class. Countries with unhealthy diets are no competition of course.
My Asian grandparents grew inches after they came to the Netherlands being adults. It's probably food.. i don't think gravity pulls less in the Netherlands ;)
@@DenUitvreter tall people in the Netherlands stand out and are self-conscious about it. In dating, career etc. It doesn't seem to be of benefit in reproduction. It also started when affluence increased and peaked/levelled out when national nutrition advice became widely adopted. I think we largely just eat well and unintentionally maximize potential growth.
That's not a very scientific conclusion. The fact that those kids are taller might also have to do with stunted growth of their parents. But there's wealthy people in every country and then still the Dutch are very tall. There almost has to be a genetic factor involved.
Bosnians are actually slightly taller than the Dutch. Souh Koreans are very tall as well. Their northern brothers are a lot shorter due to stunted growth even though they're the same ethnic group. People in the north are short because of malnutrition. People in the south are tall because of genetics. Lots of other well fed people aren't nearly as tall as the Dutch, Bosnians or Koreans.
Dairy doesn't make people tall. I wouldn't know why. It's not hormones.
My personal theory on the height thing:
The Dutch went through their golden age around the 1600 where standard of living went up a lot, and significantly higher than the other countries in Europe at that time. Back then, more food likely meant taller people which in turn meant being tall meant being healthy and prosperous.
Perhaps from there it snowballed with people preferring taller people which meant taller people were born and this preference kept preferring taller and taller people.
The other options seem a bit weird. There isnt really anything significantly different about the Netherlands right now besides biking compared to the other northern and western European countries...
As for the English part: its definitely because we dont translate any English media to Dutch, we subtitle it. From way before i even learned English in school i heard English with the Dutch translation beneath it. My video games were in English. Movies were in English. Series and documentaries; English. Music, 95% of the time English. Hell i mostly read English books after i turned like 13. I doubt the educational system has a lot to do with it. We learn French and German as well in high school and kids rarely speak French at a level that could even be considered average. Hell, i know tons of people who were taught French throughout high-school and are utterly incapable of even forming a single coherent sentence.
Yes, and future generations will be even better in English because they came into contact with the English language at a much earlier age through UA-cam. My niece is 4 years old now but she has been babbling the English she picked up from al sorts of kid targeted UA-cam channels for at least a year and a half now. She talks English when playing with her dolls and she really grasps the meaning of what she is saying and using the corrects words and even grammar.
I picked up English by watching a lot of television. So I could understand English even before my first lessons in school at around 12 years old. Most television shows and movies are shown in their native language, with Dutch subtitles. In lots of other European countries (France, Germany, Spain, Italy, for example) television shows and movies are dubbed. So that takes away the opportunity to be exposed to a foreign language. But would be interesting to see if the older generation gives a different reason, of even to know if they speak English to the same degree.
Same! English in high school was so easy for me just from watching Dragonball Z all the time 😂
On the english part: The Netherlands has historically been a small tradiing nation. And if you want to be succesful in trade you need to be able to communicate well obviously. And give the small language base of dutch it is important to learn the major languages of trade partners. In modern day that means we get English in highschool as a mandatory language and French and German as choice languages. Also no dubbing but rather subtitles so english gets ingrained . Dutch is also relatively close to english compared to many other european languages ( the Scandinavian languages are similarly relatively close to english) so English is easier for a Dutch speaker to pick up than say, French. All these things are generalisations obviously, but I think these factors combined probably have a lot to do with the fairly high English fluency
Today Chinese language courses are a hit.
Haha, loved the Mart comment zenk joe.
Historically we were a massive trading nation, did more of the European trade than Spain, England and France combined in the 17th century. During the Dutch Republic we were traders and not rulers. After we conquered Britain in 1688 we didn't make them speak Dutch, we even let them believe they came up with the idea of a Dutch king themselves. We didn't take New York back either. Otherwise Dutch would have been the world language by now and we wouldn't speak English at all. So it has to do with trade in more than one way.
@@DenUitvreter I worded that awkardly... by small I meant in size of country not in volume of trade which was and is indeed massive
@@DenUitvreter Sense008 means a small country in size, not in trading.
Also, just arrived back from France, had a wonderful time there, but oh my goodness, am I happy to be back!! The minute I cross the border back to NL it is no exception a relief to see the tidy infrastructure, the crispness of the road signs, how well maintained everything is, and last but not least, the behaviour of drivers!
Welcome back to civilization lol
@@33lex55 Dank je wel! Oh zo'n ruzie op de weg met die Fransen die het werkwoord 'ritsen' nog niet eens kunnen spellen... . Pffff. Wat een Neanderthalers!
@@vincenzodigrande2070 lol
Zeker als je net door belgie bent gegaan, bij de grens voel je in de beste autos nog t verschil van t betere wegdek. Heb op de ring van antwerpen zelf wel eens waarschuwingen gezien voor aqua plaining, vgm was t dan eiglk een paar jaar daarvoor al tijd om t te verbeteren 😅
@@ninao8460 Belgen repareren de wegen pas als die echt stuk zijn. Preventief onderhoud? Wablief?!? Innovaties zoals Zoab zijn ze echt volledig vreemd. Zelfs gewoon dingen even schoon maken kennen ze nauwelijks. Fransen idem, hoewel hun péages nog zo gek niet zijn, maar dat Parijs mogen ze van mij een tunnel onderdoor graven zonder afslagen.
I think the dutch speak English so well in comparison to some other European countries is because of a at least two things:
- English has a lot of similarities to Dutch.
- Dutch people watch a lot of movies and series in English with dutch subtitles.
Very true about Dutch being similar to English! That's another good point.
Actually, when possible I turn the subtitles off. I find them really distracting.
German has probably even more similarities to Dutch but still we don't speak German on the same level as we speak English.
Higher education also has a lot of textbooks in English. That actually triggered me to also start reading fiction in English. Also the dubbing bit.
@@gert-janvanderlee5307 Because people don't concentrate on it. Once they do, they learn to speak German fairly quickly.
As you know a big part of the Netherlands lies below sealevel, tallness is justy a precaution. :P
😁 Growing gills would be a better precaution.
@@TrickyD Working on that, de-evolution is a work in progress :)
In regard to the length: The Dutch apparently have a really good social welfare system which makes sure that basically everybody has access to good healthcare and decent food. This has helped the population to reach its full potential.
Curtains: It's all true: the origin story is correct with the "do normal" part, but also, as pointed out by Nadine below: The Dutch are very curious and like to know what's happening around them. So for that, they don't have their curtains closed, to be better able to look around.
The Dutch are very happy indeed, but we like to complain about "everything": the weather, politics and often our employers. But that's mostly just small annoyances. The work-life balance generally is really good. We have a saying: We work to live. (Unlike the USA, where it seems like it's more like: Live to work)...
English: Since 1986 it's mandatory for primary schools to teach English starting in grade 7 (that's about 9 or 10 years of age). Next to that, most English courses in secondary education not only teach to pass the final exams but have a strong communicative approach, so that students can actually maintain a conversation and be prepared for the Dutch economy: Trade! As that's where a big chunk of our GDP is being made. This is in addition to the reasons you have given in your video. :)
One reason why the Dutch speak English well is that English is relatively close to Dutch as a language. Another reason is that we are a trading nation, so it is quite natural to be able to speak other languages. All the Dutch people I know where I live, Japan, speak reasonable to good Japanese, depending on how long they have lived here. Americans or Brits: not so much (but of course there are exceptions). So it is just a question of mentality.
People here do have curtains but you mostly only close them at night or in the evening. my take on it its that it's nice to see outside and have the natural light shining inside. Some people do put "raamfolie" on the windows for more privacy.
Pronunciation of "Schiphol" was spot on IMO
Thank you!
@@DutchAmericano I was thinking the same and generally your pronunciation is just really good.
About the d.j.’s a nice anecdote: last year I was in the hospital for a month. My little dog stayed at my nephew, who is a d.j. My dog always wags his tail. Really always. When close to a hard surface it makes a ritmisch sound, that sounds like a beat. My nephew used that beat in a number. He send me a clip of people in Miami dancing to the beat of Santo’s tail.
Another interesting fact of the Netherlands is that we were the first country in the world that didn’t have stray dogs. We have to import our rescue dogs. My dog is a rescue from Spain.
About the other points:
1. The Netherlands has a tradition of learning languages. It’s because we are a nation of international trade. So learning languages at school was and is important. I’m 67, at elementary school we learned French. At high school we learned 4 languages. Now that is 2; English and another one.
2. I don’t think it’s natural selection. I have two sisters who differs a lot in age with me. With my 1.74 I’m the little one. They are both larger than 1.80. That difference is not genetic. It must be something else. I assume it’s the food. And it cannot be only the dairy, because that is not something that changed over time .
And we have the happiest children in the world. That can play a role too.😀
The way dairy is produced has massively changed. Nowadays the cows are kept pregnant constantly, so the milk contains multiple the amounts of IGF and other hormones, which would not occur with naturally inseminated animals.
One reason why we learn languages is because we have sub titels on the tv.
subtitles
The other reason is, that Dutch and English are closely related. Just like German and Dutch. English is easier, grammar wise, so most will opt for English as a modern foreign language in school. And do not forget: the Dutch are a nation of traders, so we were forced to speak other languages. For a long time, French was the dominant language in trade and diplomacy. When I was young, I could opt in to learn French at my primary school. But "Le chat est sur la table", or "Papa fume sa pipe" would not get you very far in the world, and I was following a more natural sort of English course on TV (a '60's BBC course, titled 'Walter and Conny'), which gave me quite a head start in secondary school.
And, yes, we do not dub any films (unless they're young kids' films), so we are more exposed to foreign languages, and that makes it easier to learn other languages.
Hille Oomen: That’s actually not true. In my country little kids of around 3 years old can often speak many words in english due to the fact that we don’t have subtitles, and don’t translate or dub the programs for kids. Around 6 years old you can have a conversation with kids in english.
@@ParamariboCloser True; kids at that age can absorb and learn ANY language. By the simple fact that kids in that age group WANT to learn how to communicate. And I imagine that there, you are even MORE immersed in English than we are in the Netherlands. I bet, if you'd liked Kung Fu movies, your kids would be able to speak Mandarin in a couple of months. Lol, put some 3 yo of all different nationalities together and they'll play together, and have a good time. No language problems, whatsoever.
33lex55 lol, kids talking mandarin so their parents can’t understand what they’re saying! 😀✌️
This is very insightful! Thank you for sharing.
Yes we have curtains, but only close them when it’s dark outside. During the day, you want to enjoy the natural light coming in. So big windows, with windowsills full of plants, preferably you’re able to open the window and get some fresh air in. And if you cannot sit outside to watch people, you do it “achter the geraniums zitten” (sitting behind the flowers)
And even though you do go gawking into peoples home, you still have a look inside, maybe you get some interior decorating ideas or you can spot your neighbour, wave and go in for a cuppa and a chat.
As I watch this...
1) I'm Dutch but there are times when I'm at a pedestrian crossing and two stretched up guys happen to be next to me... in times like that I do feel like a tiny rotund circus clown.
2) we are a nation of traders. Of course we speak English to be able to communicate with our clients. And, very important, out TV is not dubbed. It is subtitled wand with the original soundtrack intact. I learned my English by watching the BBC back in the day when it was worth watching)
Cheesy vid Eva!
😁
I always heard we are tall happy and healthy bc we work hard but also take time to relax and refresh so we stay productive and healthy. We have good food that is not as contaminated (yet) as it is in for instance the US. And our healthcare is obviously accessable to everyone.
My son is 6 years old and he has now started English lessons in primary school.
In the eighties there were a lot of pirate radio stations in Amsterdam where they played a lot of groovy home-made non-commercial music. Some of it was highly repetitive with voices from old movies through the music. In the "Arena" a student hotel next to the Oosterpark there was house music every week.
Great vid again, well you are most welcome over here :) wish there where more like you.
It seems you have all the answers already. My compliments! A few additions. Length comes from DNA. Most Dutch people from north of the Rhine come from Saxon or Danish descendancy. They are big people. And then we feed them with dairy products until they really are satisfied until the children are big. Result: Long people (north of the Rhine). On happiness, it starts with raising the children. According to the UN, the Netherlands has the happiest children in the world (and happy children learn English better as well). Dutch parents give their children a lot of freedom and responsibility for their own lives at a very young age. Children are allowed to play outside unsupervised until dark from 5 years old. They also go out with their bikes unsupervised from 10 years old. Nowedays with the I-phone at hand it may even be a bit younger. They are not punished if they make mistakes. Dutch parents evaluate, not (generally) punish what went wrong. And we try to raise the children in a positive atmosphere, so not saying what they can't do, but what they can do. Lastly, the good work-life balance is mostly there for the children. Fathers and mothers usually spend a lot of time bonding with their children compared to most other countries.
Nice topic once again, Eva! I’m a relatively new subsciber from the Netherlands. I find it very interesting to hear how you experience my country and the differences compared to the US. You do have a very open and enjoyable way of telling and explaining. Oh and I salute you for constantly naming my country the Netherlands instead of Holland, as some seem to do:-)
About why the Dutch seem to speak English so well: all you said about it is true. However, I think there is another reason and that is: because we ‘have to’ (in a positive way!)...
Since the Netherlands are so small, and our language is so complicated for foureigners to learn, we find not many people do speak Dutch. So in order to be able to have a conversation with someone from abroad -which we love!- we have to adapt. I think it also has something to do with us not being as chauvinistic as for example the French are. Yes, we do love our country and we are proud of being Dutch, but we also love other parts of the world and are open to other cultures and so on. To us, English is not only the vehicle to communicate with native English speakers, but also with people from all over the world who have other languages as their mother tongue. This goes for connecting in both the real world as well as in the virtual world.
And we are not ‘too proud’ to do so, like many French are, well in my experience at least. No offense to the French here, I do love France!
The Dutch (well, lots of them, of course not everybody) always have been traveling-loving people. So I think that curiosity and open-ness (if that’s even a word, lol), does help.
These are way too many words to explain that I think it has something to do with how the Dutch see themselves in the world and all its people.
I only close my curtains when I’m not fully dressed (yet) or when I put on the television. When I’m reading, cooking, cleaning or listening to music I don’t feel the need for closing the curtains. When watching TV I get distracted by passers by, so I close the curtains. Another reason to close the curtains is for really hot weather (keep the sun out of my not airconditioned house) or when it’s really cold outside (gives an extra layer of insulation, keeps heating costs low).
About the height: when you go back to the 19th century and before, the Dutch were among the smallest people in Europe. After the Second World War (especially), the height of the Dutch skyrocketed. As far as I know (and I must say I am no expert in this area), there were two reasons for that: prosperity, and natural selection.
After the Second World War the Netherlands was in shambles. Luckily wehad two things going for us: 1. We received a lot of Marshall help, and 2: we discovered natural gas in the North Sea (yes, the gas came a bit later than the Marshall help, but still, it contributed a lot to the prosperity). There is a story about Marshall visiting the countries in Europe, to see how much help is needed. I don't know if it is true (probably not, but it wouldn't surprise me if it is), but it is nice anyway. This story says that Marshall went to Italy, and was received with a lavish banquet. He then thought: wow, the war didn't impact them that much. Then he went to the Netherlands, where he visited the prime minister. He was received in the afternoon, got one cup of tea, one cookie (and no more!), and then had to leave before dinner. He then thought: wow, the Dutch have been hit really badly, they need a lot of help! And so we got a lot of help.
Regardless if that story is true or not, we did receive a lot of help after the war, which helped us to rebuild our country. The hunger winter of '44/'45 had also hit the Dutch psyche hard. Before the Second World War, the Netherlands was a net food importer. This never should be the case again: we needed to be ablo to grow all the food we need. So plans were enacted, and research was done, and a lot was invested, and now the Netherlands is one of the largest food exporters in the world. This has certainly helped with our prosperity.
The natural gas we found, made us a lot more energy independant. We could sell the gas too, which really helped with the prosperity levels. But ... we didn't invest the money like the Norwegians did. We spend most of it. In Norway, where they set up funds with their oil sales, they call this the 'Dutch disease'. Anyway, our prosperity level rose a lot, and research has shown that if many generations eat well, the average height of the population rises. The reverse is true too. Just compare Koreans from North Korea and South Korea to see what effects many generations of malnutricion have on the average height.
The second thing I mentioned was natural selection. Dutch women prefer taller guys (in general). This means that the taller guys are more succesful, and get more offspring. I read a paper a while ago (I don't have it at hand) that shows that this has played a major factor since the Second World War. With multiple generations, this has a noticable effect.
Now you can ask yourself why, if Dutch women want tall men, didn't the natural selection produced a very tall Dutch population before the 20th century? Well, that's due to the prosperity. The combination of readily available food, prosperity and a preference for tall people led to the Dutch from being the dwarves in Europe to being the giants they are now.
I vaguely remember reading about how the "new generation" (I think millenials + generation Z) is shorter than their parents most likely because we grew up with waaayyy more sugar and other unhealthy things, so the prosperity shows it's bad side now
That's interesting, and when you think about it, quite logical. Thanks for pointing that out!
Dat is een mooi antwoord, Gerard.
My take on the curtains : we DO have curtains, however, we only close them at night. I mean, why would you willingly block sunlight from coming in during the day? Makes no sense to me.
There are even more explanations for some of these questions:
- The Netherlands always has been a country of trade. So it always was very important to trade with other countries. We always had an investment in speaking other languages to make more trade.
- The curtain thing is actually quite 'recent'. It's because of the ideal home of the '60s, when most buildings in the Netherlands are from. Open and light was the fashion of the day and most people kept it that way. It's even a law that Dutch housing has a mandatory amount of windows for this exact purpose. Older gens do have curtains more often.
- The Dutch being happy thing... it's a bit complicated. Yes, we rank high on those lists, but on the other side we are ranking with unhappy folks high as well. It's quite polarized.
My sons already started to get English classes at the age of 4 at school. They do watch a lot of English spoken material as well, which is where I picked up my English as well at a very young age, but I didn't get English classes before going to the HAVO/VWO, so also at the age of 12. My English is also pretty much flawless, also spoken, but I had an Irish girlfriend for a while, so that definitely helped.
At my school we were taught English from the start, so when I was 4.
het is ''in school'' niet ''on my school'' lol
Wow I started learning at age 11, interesting how much has changed in such a short amount of time
Bertine Yes, I’m of the generation who learned French from the age of 9
Nowadays, I think a big part of not closing the curtains is also, because you'd want to let natural light in. And maybe also because our houses aren't the biggest (in comparison to e.g. US) leaving the windows open will make it feel like you have more space. Essentially the same way mirrors are used to make a room feel more spacious.
In the past even children programs weren't dubbed in Dutch, they always used subtitles. Only in the last 10-15 years they dubbed foreign childrens tv in dutch. They also teach English in elementary school.
We also had the VOC. If you convert the value of that company from the past, it's bigger than the 3 top companies together in the world (apple , Google etc)
About the certains i think it is more about letting the sun come thrue the windows in the winter it can help warm up your home and in the summer we dont neem to put any lights un until 22:00 although in the summer it depends on where the sun is comming from if it shines directly on the window i do close the curtains otherwise it can become a sauna inside my house.
I myself started learning English at school at age 4. I am dyslexic and had a pretty hard time with it for a very long time. Until I was 15 I couldn’t have a conversation in English or couldn’t understand most of the English conversation I heard. This is because I had been avoiding English my entire life. my reading wasn’t good enough to read the subtitles in series and movies. This all changed when wanted to watch Dance Moms. I really like dance and this way it was still entertaining even though I couldn’t understand most things. The result is that my English is very good now at 17 years old. I barely watch any Dutch stuff because there is more English stuff and so the chance is bigger I will find something I like. Yes we get in contact with English at a very young age, but school is only a starter for learning the language. Spending our free time watching and listening to English stuff really makes the change.
An important reason that reasonable English is spoken in the Netherlands is that films have subtitles. In many countries they have post-sync.
Hearing a lot of English through films and television series makes people familiar with that language.
And that ensures that children learn English faster and better at school
Great video!
I don't close the curtains usually because I like to look outside. But I have them closed now to keep the heat out. Pretty sure the showing off has something to do with it too (well not in my case). Old homes used to have a special sitting room at the front of the house to recieve important guest. All their nice stuff was in the room.
And I learned English from tv mostly. Especially from the Backstreet Boys. Every time they used a word I didn't knew I looked it up in my dictionary.
About the curtains, I just like the sun shining in my life and room. The climate might be part of the explanation. The windows are also quite big compared to germany or Belgium.
About Dutch tallness:
- Recent rise in tallness is caused by better diet. Natural selection takes ages.
- Some genetics: In the northern provinces of Friesland and Groningen, people are even taller than the average Dutch.
Ik denk dat dat ook komt door betere keuzes die de mensen in het Noorden maken, en door gezonde voeding.
I think the tour guide in The Hague was right; originally, the front room was for visitors, and it was more lavishly furnished than the rest of the house. So it was about the only acceptable way to show off your wealth (most houses' exterior in the Netherlands is quite sober), and people left the curtains open. Later on, with housing shortages and smaller families, the custom of the 'front room - visitors only' was abandoned, but the curtains remained open (for some - personally, I don't like the idea of others looking into my house). And some people still like to exhibit their little treasures in the windowsill.
Concerning our length, you can understand why the series"Tall Girl" was kind of a fluke here :)
About the DJ's: it's basically due to our stance in music. We've kind of gotten this notion of "seen this, heared that"-kind of vibe. Not out of arrogance, but out of the variety in quality we get exposed to. As much as the Belgians and Germans do, if you look even further you are able to notice that there is this trinity going on, if you will. Back in the 60's throughout the 90's, if you wanted to make it big in Europe as an artist outside of the European continent - go to the Netherlands. If you were received well here, you didn't need to worry about the rest of Europe. This brings about a certain standard we seem to be used to as well. If you get through that standard and get the Dutch, Belgian and German crowd going - you're golden.
About speaking English, The Netherlands always have been a nations of foreign businesses. We trade a lot with other countries so it is very important to speak other languages. That's what is told you at school. Even kids of 7 years old are learning English at primary school nowadays. At my age, we just started to learn English at high school for 3-4 hours a week (that's why most people of 45+ still have some difficulties about speaking English - even my sister (2 years younger) got English in primary school so it is educated there for at least 35 years now). And because we are a pretty little country, most English programs at TV aren't dubbed into Dutch (as they are in French or German but just got subtitles. So many people have to understand (and train) their English to understand the TV-programs.
My dad alwaYs said that we are tall because we have a pretty diverse eating habits like eating dairies and many different kind of vegetables, and our housings are really well made so we could grow more.
To answer some of your questions:
- Dutch people are tall mostlikely because of selective breeding (tall people mate with tall people, creates bigger offspring).
- We speak English very well because of the use of subtitles in movies and series on tv which (when watching English or American movies) leaves the original audio in tact makes for easy translation. Because of the subtitles we're more easily subconsiously translating the English word we heard on the audio track and finding the meaning in the Dutch subtitles.
I could understand and speak flawless English even with an American accent by the time I was 11. I never learned from English classes in school, they bored me, at the end of my school years, I never made my English homework and my final exam English was still a 9,2/10.
Happiness of the Dutch is probably thanks to a good balance between work, social life and free time. And maybe because of nature, as opposed to the "concrete jungle" of the United States of America.
About speaking English: I started learning English at age 10 or thereabouts. Although I did know some English from English language TV shows before that. However, my English was not very good when I graduated high school, even though I had good grades. I learned "real" English by interacting with native speakers when I was at uni, and by reading lots and lots of books in English. I started doing that because I had to write papers in English for my PhD - It was either that or another English course and I did not fancy the latter. Nowadays I interact with so many native English speakers on the internet that I sometimes find it easier to express myself in English than in Dutch.
It helps that I really love English. I love that English is not so much a language of rules as it is a language of idioms. I love that there's often many different ways of saying the same thing, as English has been influenced by so many different languages. I love the idiosyncrasies in British place names and the fact that US English really is different from British English. I love all the different English accents, and I am proud that a friend detected a hint of New Zealand accent in my English - I visited New Zealand a couple of times and I simply adore the iccent ;).
Other than my personal story, I think there's a few factors at play as to why we Dutch speak English so well: (1) We realise that our country is small, so we cannot expect many foreigners to learn Dutch. If we want to communicate with the world, we have to learn a different language, and English is the modern-day Lingua Franca, so there's plenty of reasons to take the time to learn it. (2) English and Dutch are quite closely related, so English is not a very hard language for Dutch people to learn.
We just cannot expect other people to speak our language. The Dutch have always been travellers, discovering the whole world. So we just need it. One of the many reasons that we need to learn foreign languages is that the studybooks at the university are almost never available in Dutch. I have studied Biology and all my studybooks were in English and occasionally in German. One professor complained that we refused textbooks in French.
I play a game on line. They ask your preferred language and seldom Dutch is one of the languages.When I was in high school, I was not really thaught how to speak fluent english and how to write. We needed to be able to translate because that is what you needed for your textbooks. I really learned to speak and write it well due to travelling, having to write in English at work, many foreigners at work that didn't speak english, the subtitled movies, english songs. Reading a lot of books. And of course it helped that I lived in the USA for 5 years.
What struck me in the USA, that there were barely books, newspapers etc available in another language. Foreign movies were only a very small part of the movies available at the movie rental. I noticed that many english speaking people do not try to get to know and use some of the words of the language of the country they are visiting. Most Dutch do.
For me it is a combination of: Need, exposure on young age, curiosity for other cultures, international work environment and not afraid of making mistakes.
@@okkietrooy7941 "I noticed that many english speaking people do not try to get to know and use some of the words of the language of the country they are visiting."
Related to that, I am always amazed that English speakers simply refuse to learn the correct pronunciation of words like "stroopwafels" or "Gouda". I mean, how hard is it to learn that oo in Dutch sounds like oh in English or that Gouda is a lot closer to louder than to Buddha?
@@ConsciousAtoms These words are really hard for a foreigner. The str for example. And the ou in Gouda is not pronounced as in Buddha.
When I lived in the USA I tried to teach my colleagues the words muis and huis. East to remember because they look very similar to mouse and house. It turned out that for them it was almost impossible to pronounce the ui. They really tried but they kept saying mouse and house. It seemed that they even didn't hear the difference.
@@okkietrooy7941 It's not the str that worries me. It's that they say stroepwaffels rather than strohpwaffels. And I've heard many Brits calling Goudse kaas "Goedah", so maybe that is a British thing rather than American. The ui I can understand, that's a really weird sound for foreigners generally.
I personally always have the feeling curtains take away sunlight. And sunligth provides vitamins and health. So no curtains contibutes at a happier life. And in general most people in the Netherlands have curtains, but are usually only closed at night, and due to how houses are build here you rarely see them when they open, they hide pretty well. We really only close them when we want it to be gezellig or cozy, or just need that extra bit of privacy.
its the pop culture rock and roll in the fifties and early sixties the English invasion in the seventies when your young and exited about pop-music you sing along all day, what also helped was the fact that most all English and American tv shows were broadcasted in English and subtiteld same goes for movies in the movie theatres
To the music part....
More important as the festivals is the party scene. Already at a young age we go out in the weekend. And almost every city and town has his own spot.
At this way it becomes part of the culture and are youngsters encouraged and supported in such a carreer. (Dj)
The indeed, due to festivals and summer parties there is to earn good money in that scene.
Dutch are not only having a lot of good dj's also the sound technicians are pretty good.
So its a combination of things.
The language knowledge is also a part of 'culture' because of the amount of trading in history and nowadays.
In (some levels of) high school English is obligated finals/exam subject. In the other levels (where it isn't obligated) it is really encouraged to do English. And if possible please also do finals in German, French, or Spanish.
You can do a lot of languages as part of your education/finals depending of with level of high school you do and if your school provides it.
The languages are: Dutch (obligated of course), Frisian, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, (acient) Greek, Latin, and Chinese (I thought Mandarin and it is a trial only on VWO education)
when i was at high school all elvels had mandatory english exams, im 30 now
@@Helleuw123 vmbo(-tl) doesn't have mandatory English (in the final year). When I did it about four years ago (my final year). The first three years I did have mandatory English. However English wasn't mandatory in the final year. Only two of 35ish students didn't take it. And as said before it was highly encouraged to take in your final year
Leave gurtains open gives the same effect as mirrors .It enlarge optically the room you are in, because you let the outdoors enter your space.
I don't know where the curtains thing comes from, but a heard it before from foreigners.
I have curtains, al my neighbours have curtains, my friends, family, practicly everybody i know have and use curtains. Strange that we have such different perceptions.
Maybe it's just that they're open most of the day. I guess it's not so common elsewhere that you could look into homes from the street
I don't know when children start to learn Dutch here in the Netherlands officially through school, but the 3-4 year old kids of my friends already speak short sentences very well, and sometimes choose english over dutch to express something. I think it's because when they watch kid tv, its 50/50 english or dutch translated shows. Those shows learn the context in when to use those words very well.
To video that in this heatwave
Pfff looking even fresh ..👍
DJ's and happy, simple answer...: WE LOVE LIFE!!!
For 2, Dutch and English, historically we are a nation which thrives on commerce (and still do). Due to the history of europe the most nations we trade with also use English. This elevates the need and desire to have a nation fluent in communication to continue their trading 'ideology'. If I may recommend: the book The Culture Map by Erin Meyer goes deeply into cultural differences between nations. It focusses a tad on business situations, but many situations are remnants of history and also reflect in non-work situations. It is an easy read, yet insightfull.
Regarding the curtains, it has not always been the case. Until about mid '70s I guess, heavy curtains were more common than today. The 'doorzonwoning' (home with a lot of sunlight inside) became popular. Also, the dominant color at the walls became white instead of darker colors. Thus, an increase of sunlight into the house matched the changing fashion of living so curtains became somewhat out of fashion.
EDM is big in Holland because they pioneered early on it. The clubs Roxy and IT started in the late 80's with the "new" sound of Chicago and DJ's Joost van Bellen and DJ Jean started pushing it. Then ID&T saw money in it and started Thunderdome. There was already a pretty big scene when finally Tiesto entered the stage.
Well, we do have curtains in the netherlands, in fact i have curtains (van het type: Lamellen), but we only close our curtains during the night, before we go to sleep, so sunlight can enter the house during the day :)
Nice video again! I really like to watch your comparisons between the Netherlands and the US. Cheese does make is happy! But the work-life balance is really the most important I think. :)
Could you make a video about the parts of the Netherlands you already visited? If you didn't visit Zeeland yet, I'll guide you around here! The delta works, and the estuary is really nice to see 😉
Why we know English so much? 1) English programs are in English with Dutch subtitles 2) we learn it in school at young age 3) we have quite a large tourism section, which often requires English 4) we have some of the best internet in the world, English is prime language on the web 5) the Netherlands is one of the most divers countries in the world when it comes to country of origin
All, and maybe even more, reasons that contribute to the Dutch speaking English.
We always like to know what kind of weather it is outside ;)
maybe we have insulated our houses so well, that we no longer need curtains to keep the warmth in
It's the low lands below sea level, in case of flooding we have to be taller to survive.
Dutch were early adapters of EDM/house. Check so called "gabber house". When a new upcoming music genre sets in early with its own local style it raises a generation and thus cultivated talent
On the curtains. For me, curtains also limit the ability to look OUT the windows, andI love to see people walk by and the weather change (all the time, could be a reason aswell)
About the curtains.. It looks really gezellig when its snowing and dark outside and you see all the lights inside their homes, maybe a chrismas tree. You see life :) When i drive across the border into germany everything is closed, it looks dead outside, also dark.. not nice at all..
About tall Dutch people: besides dairy it’s boiled potato’s and every day one other type of grocery and a meat ball or sausage for dinner. Which is the traditional food pattern.
About curtains: we just love natural light in our homes (makes us happy) while our weather doesn’t permit a street, garden, park-life culture as you see in Spain or France. Search for the meaning of "doorzonwoning" and you’ll learn something about the typical Dutch housing architecture of the 20th century.
I learned English because of the mentioned movies with original audio, playing fantasy games and listening to metal music.
As a 2 meter tall Dutchman this has always fascinated me.
Height may be because of a combination of good healthcare at the right moment. Growing is front-loaded, how long you can theoretically grow is completely determined by how well you start. At a certain age you stop growing so there's no making up for lost time.
It's known that you pause growing when you're sick. It's also known that a lot of growth happens in short, intense bursts of a few days every few months. If you're sick during such a spurt then your growth spurt and all others after it get delayed. But any that get's delayed to after your growth phase is lost.
So childhood illnesses are a huge factor, but NOT the amount of illnesses but their duration. The longer you are sick, the higher the chance that your illness intersects with a growth spurt.
A good start also points to good post-natal care and we have been doing well at that for decades now.
It may be as simple as a culture of keeping sick children home to get over an illness instead of toughing it out at school that makes all the difference.
Parental leave after birth will be a big factor there, as can our culture of having a kraamverzorger (nanny) after birth so a child is well looked after while the mother is recuperating. Having a healthy and rested parent when the child starts it's growth phases will count for a lot.
My Dutch Father in Law spoke English as this fifth language. I’m always impressed how well even those in the less touristy part or the Netherlands speak English, even though I bring my own translator with me just in case. Always amazed how frustrated my wife got however when we visited Germany and Austria when she had great difficulty with that language. I still remember walking into a crowded bakery in Delft talking to my wife in English and proceeded to recite every item that I liked under glass in Dutch while still speaking English I remember getting some really funny looks from the locals. After all my father-in-law’s was a really good baker and I had only ever learnt the Dutch name for all those lovely things I liked. NSW in Oz
Dear Eva, I like your view on the Netherlands and understand we in the netherlands surprise you over and over. I work a lot with the US and I am always surprised how little Americans know about the Netherlands. The Netherlands had a big influance arround the globe and when I use examples like, The Dutch started New York, we called it New Amsterdam. Yankees is from the Dutch name Jan Kees, Brooklyn is from a Dutch town Breukelen, The Dutch invented the Stock market in 1602, The VOC company was the first company with stocks. Tulip mania is considered the first speculative financial bubble, The Dutch found Australie 1606 and called it New Holland, they found New Zealand 1642 named after a Dutch Province Zeeland, Gin is made after the Dutch Jenever and we can go on and on. As you now know we are a small nation and I still believe we were the first land of the free...
All Dutch people i know have curtains. We have them open during the day to let the light come in and i can look outside. I close them in the evening when it's getting darker. I don't have curtains on my garden side. Since that is facing North, no need to close it ever.
I live in the east of the Netherlands, we were thought English from the age of 10. Last year I did an Erasmus exchange and my English level was rated at c1 which is the highest except for native speakers. Which is rated at c2.
We were one of the first ones how makes housemusic and festivals, like 25 years or longer,
And in the milk and cheese , we had 50 years a go to mutch milk , so everybody needs to drink milk, but the milk and had hormons,
That’s why ,I understand
Nice to hear you speek about the Dutch people
We don't like curtains that much because we like natural light more than artificial light :)
I'm on board with that.
This is nonsense as curtains are closed when it is dark outside and there isn't any natural light.
Maybe a nice fact about the Netherlands about English education: we have around 130 TTO (bilingual education) schools in the Netherlands. I went to a school who provided this education but I didn't participate, but I knew a lot of people who did. Basically the students who follow this education only get their education in the English language (except Dutch class) through out their whole high school career (age 12 - 17/18). My little brother also went to a school where they teached English from the age of 6. It's also a very important graduate subject in high school. So we spent a lot of time teaching our children this language 😊
" My little brother- from the age of 6: Het is taught en niet teached. Sorry voor m'n verbetering, ik kon het niet laten.
@@jonasjaagur9635 Weet ik, ik kon toen even niet op het woord komen dus maakte ik er maar teached van.
I live in a village and everyone has curtains, but half of them stay half open during the night.
It is a mostly protestant village.
You should make a video on how to move to Amsterdam as an American & tips on finding apt, bank, job etc. Much needed lol
When I was in college my parents had a few friends from the UK over as guests and they were quite curious why we spoke English like we were some creeps. We explained that's how our English teachers told us to speak English. When we switched to speaking English like we learned from TV they said we spoke it much better. Of course we didn't forget to tell our teachers what English people said about our pronunciation....
Yes we have subtitles, so you get translation. Easy to learn
I'm 32 and started learning English at school, at the age of 9! So even in my generation there are some who've learned it earlier then mentioned. Perhaps it differs in location and school? My school was located in the city center of Rotterdam
I am 41 years old now, but my first English lesson I got at my primary/elementary school when I was 9 or 10, it was of course very simple yet. Of course, it was for me very helpful I was already exposed to English at a much younger age through television and music because I have bad hearing and I am also dyslexic. So my passive English skills are very good, my active English skills are ok. (Bit to shy to speak English)
The fun fact about us Dutchies speaking English so well, we are taught English as from the age of 6 or 7. We're still, at that age, are learning the Dutch language, but yah, English is quite mainstream in our hierarchy. As for the other reasons, it's mainly from (online) gaming. I started programming on a Commodore 64 in 1986, when I was 4. Amiga OS wasn't available in Dutch back then yet, so I learned the first basics of English at age 4 :)
I think the reason why our English grammar is better than most, is that our schools hammer English class as much as Dutch. Plus , everywhere you look we see and hear English.
In the Dutch educational system you have 3 language English / German / French of which English is compulsory the other you may choice in general 2 language or normal lately also Spanish is available
I learned to speak English even before I got it in school, and all from television.
I could only speak it of course. Writing it I did learn at school.
Especially when you're young, this goes really fast.
Dutch people speak English. Learning a language starts with listening to, hearing, its melodic patterns: in the womb. German babies produce crying spurts with a downward melodic pattern, French with an upward. Like the sentences in their languages. Where do Dutch people start to be exposed to English? In TV series imported from English language productions. Subtitles give a good translation in Dutch. It stimulates both reading ability and English abilities. That said, we are not perfect. Really. As the core of the English language is Germanic and Dutch is a very old and original version of Frankish German, the Germanic dialects that got cooked up into the English soup have a similarity - that helps and often confuses.
We have curtains, but we only use those at night. It's nice to let in the natural light during the day, I didn't know this was a weird thing tbh. Like why have windows if you're not gonna open the curtains haha.
Most dutch people have curtains or a different kind of window covering,but we only use them for the most parts at night time.
You btw can have a quik look inside during the day time but just don't stare because that is considered rude.
Back in the days allot of kids show where in english ans subbed english thatbis how most older dutched learned it. Also we start learning it at pre school.
In Breda there is a dj school.
Geweldig! Ik heb op dezelfde school gezeten als Dj Tiësto.
On the succes of dj's, it's not just that there are a lot of festivals but also a lot of venues where dj's can hone their skills. A lot of smaller towns and villages have a local youthcenter where they organise different activities, these could be live bands or dance nights often with local bands or dj's that are just starting out. If a dj get's more succes it's easy to travel the country to these places as it's rarely more than an hours drive to get there, two hours tops.
We do have & use curtains/luxaflex.
We do habe curtains in the Netherlands. We close thema when we are going to bed. In de Morning when we are dresseren, we open the curtains
About the language thing: it is indeed, I think, all to do with exposure from a young age. When I was 6 years old, I could speak (though not yet fluently) Dutch (of course), English, German and Hungarian (having a Hungarian father). Later I studied French in school and Norwegian and Italian. I still follow classes in Hungarian (some say the most difficult language on earth) and Italian. It’s also a mindset, I guess, when I’m on vacation in another country, I always feel the urge to learn the language ...