Each people of the world has its own characteristics, which are absolutely normal and ordinary for them, but if a person of another nationality falls into their midst, he may be very surprised by the habits and traditions of the inhabitants of this country, because they will not coincide with his own ideas about life. We invite you to find out 9 national habits and characteristics of the Dutch that may seem surprising and a little strange to Russian people.
Their iPhone is cheaper than going to a restaurant
The Dutch know the value of things and services. Moreover, their logic and ours are incompatible. So, if Dutch young people save money, they will not visit a restaurant (this is entertainment and a waste of money!), but they may well give a friend the latest iPhone for her birthday. What about the savings? It turns out that a restaurant, according to the Dutchman, is an irregular expense and a waste. But a telephone is an investment item that is used for three or four years and pays for itself.
They treat other expenses in the same way: they are investments in a stable life. For example, taxes go towards the development of various infrastructures. Payment for utilities - for the maintenance and cleanliness of houses, insurance payments are returned in the form of quality medical care, etc. The Dutch are confident in tomorrow, but also understand that good financial planning is a guarantee of stability. And because...
They give strange gifts
If you are dating a Dutch guy, something like this may very well happen to you: “One day my boyfriend called me and said that he had given me a surprise and sent it by email. I opened my mailbox with great enthusiasm, and it turned out that he had sent me an Excel file in which he planned our joint budget for six months. A very good gift."
They hang photos of relatives in the toilet
However, the Dutch are no strangers to sentimentality. If a Russian always has a book in his toilet - the thicker the better - or, at worst, a newspaper, then a Dutchman decorates the walls of his toilet with a calendar on which the birthdays of relatives and friends are marked. Perhaps photographs of family members will also hang there, maybe even children's drawing. This does not seem strange to people, although none of them can explain what this tradition is connected with.
They close the door on an uninvited guest
The Dutch are not characterized by spontaneity. On the contrary, every resident of the Orange Kingdom has an agenda. Agenda is a schedule of tasks for the day, week, month and even a year in advance. So running over to a friend’s house for tea because you happened to be nearby won’t work. On the phone they will answer with a polite refusal, and if you immediately ring the doorbell, they will ask you to leave.
According to the schedule, they meet here not only with friends, but even with family members. Family weekend is discussed six months in advance: booked country house, then schedules are compared for a long time, a date is chosen, then everyone meets at the appointed place, and after three days they leave and start planning the next meeting. And most importantly, in this country you cannot be late. Being ten minutes late is a terrible crime.
They are treated with ascorbic acid
Ascorbic acid and advice to do yoga are a completely normal prescription that can be obtained from a Dutch doctor. Here they are confident that the body is capable of healing itself and does not need to be interfered with by serious (and less serious) medications. Antibiotics can only be prescribed in cases of severe illness.
The main person for the patient is the family doctor. If you are unwell, it is he who conducts the first examination and prescribes examinations, referring, if necessary, to other specialists. If the family doctor does not find anything abnormal, then it will be almost impossible to get an appointment with a doctor in the hospital.
They don't make a wedding out of an event.
Dutch weddings are modest and simple: no luxurious tables with food for four days, no dresses on credit, no cheerful parties. After the wedding ceremony in a church or in the municipality, where only the closest people are invited, everyone goes to a cafe or restaurant, where the newlyweds are joined by other invitees.
Instead of a banquet table - small interest groups, instead of a suckling pig - cocktails and light snacks, instead of a set for 120 people, a modest envelope with €20 as a gift for the newlyweds. No toastmasters or flying drones with a video camera - in the Netherlands they are trying to save money on organizing and holding a holiday in every possible way, because money can always be spent on something more necessary.
They store eggs in a bank
The Dutch have big and cheerful families. But then - when a career has developed, funds have been accumulated, that is, not earlier than 30, or even 40 years. Young couples live together for years, taking their time to register their relationship, sometimes until the birth of a child.
Actually, there is nothing surprising in this. In Holland there is an egg preservation program, which is covered by insurance. Thus, a woman even in adulthood has the opportunity to give birth to a healthy child.
They don't give a damn
Future parents plan in advance where they will live and how. They move in advance to a country house with a garden so that the children grow up in comfortable conditions. The husband will be present at the birth, and then, along with his wife, will participate in bathing, feeding, walking, raising children, and may even take maternity leave.
And at the same time, suspiciousness is alien to Dutch parents. A baby can calmly lie in a stroller without socks in early spring and sit without a hat in a bicycle stroller in January. Children with early age teach you to be independent. Already in adolescence, many begin to earn extra money, and then, when the time comes for universities and colleges, they leave their parents’ home and receive support from the state.
They've been friends since kindergarten
It is believed that the Dutch are difficult to contact. The reason is not that the Dutch are cold, constrained and uncommunicative people - no. They develop a strong friendship with childhood. Until the end they will communicate with their faithful comrades, with whom they painted train cars together. The Dutch periodically meet with old friends and cherish their friendship.
All tourists are told the story that Montenegrins are the tallest people in Europe. Today I decided to delve into various statistics and check this fact. It turned out that according to the latest data, they share 1st place in height with the Dutch, and in the world, and not just in Europe! Meeting a 2-meter guy (or taller) here is not surprising! Yes and beautiful appearance When they are young, Montenegrins are not deprived, it’s a joy to the eye. But, unfortunately, only the eyes are happy; I will not mention the presence of intelligence in this article...
Indeed, in Montenegro I began to feel like I was of normal height, in my native Ukraine I was considered tall at 175 cm, and in the Perm region in the Russian Federation, where my grandparents live, I was generally considered a giantess, I always hit my head there when I go into any It’s the waiting room, but getting off the train in Perm, it seems that the number of people has sharply decreased...
At the bottom of the Wikipedia article there is a table where you can check the average height data for different nationalities.
1. Dutch and Montenegrins - 183.2 cm
2. Danes and Norwegians - 182.4 cm
3. Serbs - 182 cm
...
8. Germans - 181 cm
9. Croats - 180.5 cm
10. Slovenes - 108.3 cm
In general, the Dinaric Highlands, where ex-Yugolsavia is located, leads the ranking in terms of tall men. But women with an average height of 171 cm from this region are generally in 1st place!!! I took a sign from the Serbian website for some countries, so here the Serbs are in the top line.
I found a map of the world where nations are sorted by height by color. I don’t know what year it is, but Montenegrins also stand out here. The average height of men is taken as a measure.
- Red color - from 180 cm and above
- Yellow color - 175 - 179.9 cm
- Blue color - 170 - 174.9 cm
- Green color - 165 - 169.9 cm
- Purple color - from 164.9 cm
Since I am a lover of old photos, I will show you how they looked before - the growth is visible even here. In the photo - Montenegrins are walking around Cetinje at 6 am! Apparently they dressed up for a trip to the nearest kafana, where they could wash the bones of their wives-mistresses. Eh, there were no tourists then :) 
The famous magazine The National Geographic about a hundred years ago photographed Montenegrins in their nationality. clothes. It is noticeable that mustaches predominated back then :) I looked at various military photographs of those years - all the men were slender, elongated, with a proud posture and for some reason with a mustache... It’s good that they became fashionable in Montenegro. 
By the way, over the past 100 years, European men have grown by 11 cm. This is data from scientists from Australia and Great Britain. Before this, for thousands of years, max. the growth rate did not exceed 2 cm per century. Even two world wars did not stop the intensity of the process. According to scientists, this sharp jump in growth indicates a tremendous improvement in health, nutrition and social hygiene conditions.
Over the last century in Europe (including Russia), men and women have grown by about 10 cm. But Americans have now dropped somewhat in stature and gained a lot of weight - fast food and all sorts of Coca-Cola will soon turn them into pot-bellied dwarfs: )
And I will show modern Montenegrins, of whom the country is proud - these are water polo players. They are one of the best in the world in this sport. I looked at the data for the Olympics for 2008 and 2012 - both times they were in 4th place.
Interestingly, those who eat more meat grow faster: chicken, pork, beef. Montenegrins have a great love for meat, they are still meat-eaters!!! But lamb lovers are not tall. This fact is confirmed by the Turks. When I walk through Istanbul Ataturk Airport in search of my gate (and here you can see people from all over the world at the same time), I see Montenegrins from afar due to their height, and everyone else immediately gets lost against their background :)
I am glad to announce the launch of my website, now read all the most interesting about Montenegro and the Balkans on
flickr.com, Huub Zeeman
Foreigners are struck by the extraordinary openness and straightforwardness of the Dutch, who are confident that honesty is very important - even more important than empathy.
I had been living in Amsterdam for about a year when one day my husband and I agreed to meet his friends in one of the many cafes in the Vondelpark.
We arrived first and waited quite a long time for the waiter. When he finally materialized, he dumbfounded us with the question: “What do you want?” - instead of the traditional “What would you like to order?” or at least “What should I bring you?”
His question sounded too straightforward, if not rude. Perhaps it was because he spoke non-native English. Or maybe he was having a bad day. I, however, was unpleasantly surprised.
Later, my Dutch teacher explained that the Dutch are very straightforward, a trait that is especially common in Amsterdam.
Writer Ben Coates shares similar impressions. He moved to the Netherlands from the UK eight years ago and wrote the book Why the Dutch Are Different.
Once, after a visit to the hairdresser, he met a Dutch friend who immediately stated that the new haircut did not suit him.
“The Dutch always say what they think. Even on business meeting“If your proposal is not very successful, they will certainly point it out to you,” explains Coates.
Briton Coates this national trait immediately caught my eye. In Britain, he says, people tend to communicate and behave in ways that do not offend the other person with words or behavior.
“The British don’t speak loudly on the train, as it can be unpleasant for fellow passengers, and they always try to follow the rules of etiquette,” explains Coates.
However, in the Netherlands they believe that “everyone has the right to say what they think. And if you don’t like it, that’s your problem.”
To many foreigners, such frankness seems impolite and perhaps even arrogant.
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Once in a supermarket, I accidentally dropped food, which, horror of horrors, scattered all over the floor. In a matter of seconds, I was surrounded by at least a dozen Dutch men and women who vying with each other and began to advise me what to do.
However, none of them lifted a finger to help. For me the situation was obvious: I needed help. However, the Dutch saw it differently: unless I asked for help out loud, they would not intervene.
“Some may think that we don’t know how to empathize. Perhaps this is true, because for us, honesty is more important than empathy,” explains Eleanor Breckel, an expert in intercultural communication.
But in reality, these are just different communication models. According to Brekel, who was born in the Netherlands but lived in different countries world, the straightforwardness of the Dutch is associated with Calvinism, although today, as the news site Dutchnews notes, the vast majority of the Dutch do not associate themselves with any one religion.
With the beginning of the Reformation movement in the 16th century, Calvinism spread to France, Scotland and the Netherlands. However, only in Holland did he significantly influence the national character.
The wide popularity of Calvin's teachings was facilitated by the fact that it was at that time that the Dutch were fighting for independence from the influence of Catholic Spain, which dominated the Netherlands from 1556 to 1581 (at that time both countries were part of the Holy Roman Empire. - Translator's note).
In 1573, Prince William I of Orange, nicknamed the Silent (founder of the Orange royal dynasty that still rules the Netherlands today), renounced the Catholic faith and embraced Calvinism to unify the country.
As a consequence, Calvinism had a great influence on national identity - as opposed to Catholicism, which the Dutch associated with Spanish oppression.
“Calvinism preached personal responsibility for saving one's soul from a sinful world through reflection, honesty, renunciation of earthly pleasures, and also renunciation of wealth,” writes Brekel in an article about Dutch business culture published on its website.
Openness and honesty are so characteristic of Dutch society that they even came up with a special word for this phenomenon - bespreekbaarheid (which can be translated as “the desire to discuss everything”). And this really means that everything can and should be discussed, that there should not be taboo topics.
The openness of the Dutch is manifested even in the habit of not hiding what is happening in their home from prying eyes.
In Holland there is a tradition of not covering the windows, so that any passerby can look inside.
“The Dutch have a completely different idea of privacy,” says Coates of their habit of discussing intimate matters publicly.
“Being surrounded strangers, they may talk loudly about their health problems or their parents' divorce or love relationships. They see no reason to keep it a secret.”
It seems that any topic, no matter how complex, is subject to discussion here. No other country in the world speaks as openly about prostitution, drugs or euthanasia as the Netherlands.
Euthanasia, by the way, is completely legalized here, but is strictly controlled, just like prostitution.
And although legal restrictions have recently been placed on the sale and use of marijuana, in accordance with the policy of tolerance, the sale of drugs in coffee shops is not prosecuted by law.
Brekel, however, does not agree that there are no taboos for the Dutch.
“We don't usually talk about wages or pensions. It is not customary for us to say that someone nice house or an expensive car. We don’t discuss anything related to money,” she emphasizes.
Are the Netherlands and Holland the same thing? Yes and no. How to look.
Kingdom of the Netherlands- a densely populated European state. Borders with Germany and Belgium. Includes some islands Caribbean Sea (St Eustatius, Saba, Bonaire), washed by the North Sea.
The name of the state is translated as “lower lands”. In the Middle Ages, this territory was called the “Low Countries” (plus Belgium). Well, fair enough. After all most The state is below sea level. A height of over three hundred meters is considered by local residents to be a high mountain. Perhaps for this reason, the population, when developing rights and responsibilities, easily took into account their “mundane desires”, thanks to which there is no need to break the law in order to feel flight and free-thinking. When a lot of things are allowed, there are almost no temptations left, and everyone lives in peace and harmony.
The Netherlands was originally called that way. There is no other name for the population of the country. From the beginning of the nineteenth century to this day there has been a monarchy here. Only today it is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy.
The country developed its own culture and had its own language. The state experienced each historical turn in its own way. If you managed to stay away during the First World War, then the Second World War did not pass you by. For five years this area was occupied by Germany. The Marshall Plan, created by the United States of America, helped the country recover quickly.
Today, this area pays great attention to the social rights of all segments of the population. It has the highest unemployment benefits and pensions. This is one of those rare places where residents are almost 100% satisfied with their government and the laws adopted. For example, prostitution and the sale of weed are legalized here.
Thus, The Netherlands is a full-fledged state. With its own language, with its own territory, history, culture. The country has its own path of development, its own view of the life of its population. Then why is the Netherlands called Holland? Where exactly are the two countries that are so often confused?
Most developed province
Holland is a province of the Netherlands. Surprisingly, this is a fact. One of the provinces. Or rather, two. Because they distinguish between North Holland and South Holland.
The northern part of this area became territorially isolated back in the sixteenth century. South - much later, at the end of the eighteenth. But here we will talk about Holland in general. To make it easier.
So here it is. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, Holland was the most important province of an amazing country, the most developed in many respects. It was known to all states that had trade relations with the Netherlands. So they called the entire territory “Holland”.
People also thought little about how one name differs from another. “Holland” became widespread among the Slavs after the visit of Peter the Great to northern country. The Russian Tsar praised only the technically developed part of the country. He didn’t even mention the name of the entire state in his stories. Writers and poets contributed to the rooting of “wrongness” in Russian minds. This remains the case to this day.
There is some degree of justice here. Take, for example, the capitals of the Netherlands, official and unofficial. The official capital, Amsterdam, is located in the northern part of the country. Here the monarch swears allegiance to the Constitution. Unofficial, factual - The Hague - in the South. The royal residence is located here, the Government meets, and many foreign embassies are located. That is, the most important events The Netherlands originate precisely in the provinces of Holland.
And yet. How should you choose the right name when mentioning this amazing area?
In official speeches and documents – “Netherlands”. On travel sites, in fiction, in the museum of painting, in the flower shop - "Holland". By the way, the second name is used more by the Russian-speaking population than by people speaking other languages.
The 17th century showed the world two art schools- Dutch and. Both were heiresses artistic traditions Netherlands - European country, on part of whose territory by that time Catholic Flanders had formed, named after the most significant province (today it is the territory of Belgium and France). Other provinces, having defended their commitment to the ideas of the reformation, united and became known as the Dutch Republic or simply Holland. In the 17th century in Holland, approximately three-quarters of the population was urban, and the middle class was considered the main class. The Reformed Church abandoned the splendor of decoration; there were no crowned customers and no patrimonial aristocracy, which means that representatives of the bourgeoisie became the main consumers of art. The space intended for painting was limited to burgher houses and public buildings. The sizes of the paintings, as a rule, were not large (compared to palace paintings or altar compositions for churches), and the subjects were intimate in nature, depicting private scenes. everyday life. That is why the Dutch masters of the 17th century (with the exception of Rembrandt and Hals) were called "little Dutch". Most artists found themes for their paintings within home country, following Rembrandt’s advice: “Learn first of all to follow rich nature and to display first of all what you find in it. Sky, earth, sea, animals, kind and evil people- everything serves for our exercise. Plains, hills, streams and trees provide ample work for the artist. Cities, markets, churches and thousands of natural resources call to us and say: come, thirsty for knowledge, contemplate us and reproduce us.” The productivity of artists reached incredible proportions, as a result, competition arose among painters, which in turn led to the specialization of masters. And perhaps because of this, there has been a wide variety of genre differentiation. Artists appeared who worked only in the genre seascape or the genre of urban views, or depicted the interiors of premises (rooms, temples). There have been examples of still lifes and landscapes in the history of painting, but never before have these genres achieved such widespread popularity and self-sufficiency as in 17th-century Holland. On the peculiarities of the formation of the still life genre in the painting of the “Little Dutchmen” I'm going to tell you in the next blog. You may have already come across examples of still lifes from this period on the blog pages.
