Friday, September 3, 2010

Dutch Deconstructed

My attempt to explain the Dutch..

  1. Dutch love their bicycles. Even 80 year olds ride on a cycle. Although, that doesn't mean there are no Mercs or Bentleys on the road. But more often than not, they are Cabs !
  2. Maastricht has daylight till 8 on most days but the supermarkets close at 6! The most logical reason we could come up for this is that it gives the people extra time to party hard..:P
  3. Dutch love electronic music. Almost everyone on the street, be it a pedestrian or a biker travels with his earplugs on.
  4. Dutch have no respect for hierarchy. Students call their professors with their family names. I wonder what would happen if i addressed a prof as Mr. so & so in India. ;)
  5. Stealing bicycles is considered okay! This theft is a cultural thing.
  6. Dutch are perceived historically as stingy people! They explain it to be more of a thrift thing and say only few among them are really stingy.
  7. Pedestrians rule the world in dutch traffic. Cars stop to give way for the passersby on foot. They also have a button for the pedestrians that can be pressed on most traffic lights and which can mould the traffic lights to their convenience !
  8. Dutch people are categorically blunt in their conversations. A famous story speaks of a difference in British and Dutch culture wherein in a Dutch seminar if a guy speaks poorly he is laced with criticism but given a chance to speak again the next time. Whereas in a British setting, if a speaker is sub-standard, he is offered niceties and pleasant reactions but never to be invited again !
  9. Dutch students love to party. And they consider the nerdy German students who spend their nights in a library , a shame to the society.

will keep adding more as and when i find them..

5 comments:

  1. The Culture Metre:Dutch by Raghav Yadav....sounds interesting..now i will be able to spot a dutch from a distance..:):)

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  2. Well said. As far as my experience with French people goes its almost in line with ur experience.French also have earplugs on,Pedestrians are kings,supermarkets close at 7-8 pm.French are stingy...they are blunt too..etc etc..so quite an analogy :)....

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  3. This is inspired from a similar post of mine on the Germans. Hasn't a year in IIMA taught to you to acknowledge properly? x-(

    ;)

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  4. @ Anchit..do you even have a blog..:D

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  5. i thot germans were some of the heaviest beer drinkers on the planet - nerdy kab se ho gaye?

    but agree with the dutch deconstruction - awesome hai!

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