Tim: Cultural Learnings of Netherlands for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of USA (and others)

I think it was back in december when Knate, Odell and yours truly had this chatbox party where Knate and Odell asked me all kind of questions about my country. I think I cleared some things up, but I wasn't able to answer everything they asked, because it went too fast. So I decided to make this topic so all of you can ask me questions about my country, shit we did, our colonial things, Dutch food, Dutch influences in the USA, bust myths and what not.

I can't promise I know the answers to everything you will ask, but I'll try.

Ok, I'll give some answers before you ask:

1) It's not Holland, but the Netherlands. Holland is a part of the Netherlands. See the picture below.

Calling our country Holland is like saying to someone from Scotland he's English. DO NOT DO IT.

2) Amsterdam sucks. Really. It is filled with wannabe famous people, professional criminals, aggressive taxidrivers, antisocials and bloody tourists.

3) There are quite some famous people with Dutch (last) names. For example: James van der Beek, famous for the tv-show Dawson's Creek. If you translate his last name it says Of the Stream or Brook. And, of course, Bruce Springsteen! I'm not sure, but I read somewhere that he has Belgian roots, but if you translate Springsteen to English you get Jumpstone.

4) The first and so far only US President who's first language wasn't English was Martin van Buren. His first language was Dutch.

I like this thread

Ross wrote:

I like this thread

Any questions, Ross?

while ago i was looking at a map and counting all the countries i'd been to. i counted Netherlands but couldn't find Holland lol. Looked it up on Wikipedia

Now you know why you couldn't find it!



Also: Anyone ever wondered why New Zealand is spelled with a Z while the English word sea is spelled with an S?

That's because a Dutchman 'discovered' New Zealand. Zeeland is a Dutch province (on the image, just below Holland. Those island thingy's) and the discoverer was from there. So he called 'his' new found land New Zealand because of New Zealand's shape is quite similar to the islands Zeeland consists of.

I have questions, but no time.


Later.

What is your country's policy on ponyback riding... and jews?

We have an amusement park for ponyback riding called Ponypark Slagharen (Slagharen is the village nearby the park). So it's ok.

And what about jews? Before the second world war we had a large jewish community, but now we only have a few small ones. Most of them live around Amsterdam.

How devastating was vuurwerkramp?

Imagine your entire neighbourhood being there one second and being completely blown apart the next. The only reason just a handfull of people died that day was because everyone was outside. If it happened on a rainy day hundreds would have died.

Tim wrote:

Ross wrote:

I like this thread

Any questions, Ross?

I've been to the Netherlands a couple of times on my travels and loved it whenever I was there. The one thing that stood out to me most about the place was that EVERYONE seems to speak English, and not just English but perfect English. I swear 90% of us brits don't speak English as well as you guys and girls.

Question 1: what is your favourite dutch cuisine and how is it made? (so I can try it!)

Question 2: what is the situation with cannabis really like in the Netherlands? Many people over here publicise it as being legal and everywhere but as far as I know that's only really for the tourists in Amsterdam, is it not?

PS: Top marks on being one of the few nations in the world still holding onto its Queen! Woo for meaningless monarchies!

I have a question. Why hasn't George Boateng won more Dutch caps? Answer me that.

Ross wrote:

Tim wrote:

Ross wrote:

I like this thread

Any questions, Ross?

I've been to the Netherlands a couple of times on my travels and loved it whenever I was there. The one thing that stood out to me most about the place was that EVERYONE seems to speak English, and not just English but perfect English. I swear 90% of us brits don't speak English as well as you guys and girls.

Question 1: what is your favourite dutch cuisine and how is it made? (so I can try it!)

Question 2: what is the situation with cannabis really like in the Netherlands? Many people over here publicise it as being legal and everywhere but as far as I know that's only really for the tourists in Amsterdam, is it not?

PS: Top marks on being one of the few nations in the world still holding onto its Queen! Woo for meaningless monarchies!

About being able to speak English: I don't think we are THAT good. Have you been to places where most tourists go? Because in big cities in the stores, everyone has to speak English for the tourists. Like I've said before; in all the English classes I had in my life I was BY FAR the best student. So yeah...

I don't really really like Dutch cuisine. Most typical Dutch foodthings are poor people's food. Things that aren't that tastefull, but will get you through the day. Try googling Boerenkool and Snert. As for snacks: Drop is (mostly) black candy that I haven't seen anywhere else. There are also Stroopwafels; a waffle with sirup or something. I am a really bad cook, so I don't have a list of the ingredients...

And soft drugs are legal here. You can buy a certain amount at coffeeshops. It is for sale in just about any city in the Netherlands. And that's a good thing because: There aren't alot of dealers and if you're not an experienced user coffeeshops are the place to be. You know the stuff is good (no rat poison or other strange things involved) and there are enough people around who know what to do if something does go wrong.

WWD4D? wrote:

I have a question. Why hasn't George Boateng won more Dutch caps? Answer me that.

Because for most of his career he had Philip Cocu ahead of him. Cocu never had any injuries as far as I know and was waaaaaaaaaay better than Boateng. That doesn't mean that Boateng is bad, but Cocu was just so good.

Good answer!

Tim wrote:

About being able to speak English: I don't think we are THAT good. Have you been to places where most tourists go? Because in big cities in the stores, everyone has to speak English for the tourists. Like I've said before; in all the English classes I had in my life I was BY FAR the best student. So yeah...

I don't really really like Dutch cuisine. Most typical Dutch foodthings are poor people's food. Things that aren't that tastefull, but will get you through the day. Try googling Boerenkool and Snert. As for snacks: Drop is (mostly) black candy that I haven't seen anywhere else. There are also Stroopwafels; a waffle with sirup or something. I am a really bad cook, so I don't have a list of the ingredients...

And soft drugs are legal here. You can buy a certain amount at coffeeshops. It is for sale in just about any city in the Netherlands. And that's a good thing because: There aren't alot of dealers and if you're not an experienced user coffeeshops are the place to be. You know the stuff is good (no rat poison or other strange things involved) and there are enough people around who know what to do if something does go wrong.

- Yeah I have only really visted the most touristy parts such as Rotterdam and Amsterdam. I guess at least it's a positive reputation to have even if it's not completely true haha.

- I guess I'm asking the wrong person when it comes to food :p

- That's interesting, but good to know that the "problem" seems to have been tackled with reasonable efficiency if there's a low nummber of dealers. There's plenty around me, and they do a good job at overcharging for poor product. Shame. It's good that it's out in the open though, because as you say, it's safer. Do you think the Dutch system could be improved in any way?

There is always room for improvement, but I think it has more to do with peoples opinion about drugs than drugs itself. All of the coffeeshops are in parts of towns that aren't that great if you know what I mean. People don't seem to accept them in 'better' neighbourhoods, because they think drugs only cause problems. Also, there have been some problems with Germans and Belgians coming into the Netherlands for drugs and they create a lot of problems (like fights). Some cities in the south even decided to close down the coffeeshops, so it might be an idea to improve that. Maybe but a bouncer or a couple of bouncers at the door? I don't know how to solve it since there isn't any border patrol anymore. Closing down shops certainly doesn't help. It only moves the problem (like that one South Park episode with the homeless people).

Oh and Ross, monarchies are cheaper than a republic and the Dutch are known for being cheap...

Indeed there'll always be the problem of "drug tourism" until more countries accept drug legalisation. I don't honestly know what to do about it either.

Also: God save the Queen!

This is our queen by the way.

This is our prime minister:

Do Dutch people and Afrikaaners still have any links at all? Like, do lots of Dutch people go visit South Africa a lot and vice versa?

Mike wrote:

Do Dutch people and Afrikaaners still have any links at all? Like, do lots of Dutch people go visit South Africa a lot and vice versa?

No more than other countries. South Africa was 'sold' a long long time ago to the Brits, so we don't really have any connections with South Africa anymore other than the similarity between Dutch and Afrikaans and some of the names of certain towns.

Oh, and the football club Ajax has an own satellite club in Cape Town, giving youngsters the opportunity to become professional football players. Steven Pienaar is the most famous example of that.

It's about the same with the connection between the New York area and the Netherlands, without the language bit. There are plenty of streetnames and names of areas over there that have a Dutch background. Rhode Island = Old Dutch for the red island. Broad Way = Broodweg = Bread way (it used to be called Heerestraat = Street of the Lord). Wall Street = Walstraat = A 'Wal' is a primitive wall made of dirt, it used to keep evildoers out. Brooklyn = Breukelen = a village near Amsterdam. Harlem = Haarlem = city in the Netherlands. The Bowery = De Boerderij = The Farm. Coney Island = Konijneiland = Bunny Island.

New York used to be called New Amsterdam

pintsogin wrote:

New York used to be called New Amsterdam

True

hyperballad wrote:

Give me some reasons as to why I should visit there. I've always wanted to go, but mainly to Amsterdam so I want to know what there is to do outside of a tourist-y city.

Well... most of the city centres are quite awesome. Cities like Groningen, Utrecht, Maastricht, Leiden they have these old buildings and architecture. Leiden also has I believe the biggest museum of the country. In Utrecht and Groningen there is a small, but active music scene and you can go out every night. These things are possible in Amsterdam too, but that is WAAAAAAAAAAAY more expensive and there is a bigger risk of you getting mugged, raped and/or murdered than in the other cities. We have about 100 murders each year and 20 of them are in Amsterdam, another 15 in Rotterdam and the rest is spread over the country.

You can go to a province in the north called Friesland (Fryslan in their language). They have many lakes. You can rent a boat and sail them. In this time of year carnaval is a big thing is the southern provinces (Noord-Brabant, Limburg). They'll party for weeks dressed in silly outfits. It's like Halloween, but longer.

And if you're interested in structures in water to prevent flooding, you might want to check out the Afsluitdijk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afsluitdijk Or the Delta Works: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Works