I wondered: what do foreigners know about the Netherlands (or Holland if you prefer to call it that way)??

Windmills, Tulips, Wooden Shoes, Canals.

That's the limit of my Ugly American knowledge on your beautiful country!

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Regards,

Brett Harris
Director of Technical Information, Infopop Corporation

[This message has been edited by BHarris (edited 10-25-2000).]

quote:

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Windmills, Tulips, Wooden Shoes, Canals.

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Windmills belong to the 'Historic Buildings Bureau'(?) (I got this word from a translation-website), we don't often see them!
Tulips we do have, and a lot of them, but only in a small region of Holland.
In the spring we have fields full of tulips and hyacints.
Wooden shoes, hmmm...
Does anybody really believe we walk in those things? There probably still are a few farmers who wear them, but we don't often see them and if we do, we're only a little bit less surprised as you would be.
Canals, yes we do have al lot of water, most of the Netherlands is below sea-level.
We're a very flat country too! We don't have any hills. Only in the south but they're not very big!
We have almost 16 million inhabitants, though it's a small country. The max lenght wou will sit in a car driving from the top to the bottom of the country will be between 4 and 5 hours.

Either people know the Netherlands because of the things you just mentioned or they do from our drugs-policy.
People seem to think we're always stoned (our government tolerates the selling of softdrugs (cannabis)).
Most people don't know our country but háve heard of Amsterdam (our capital city) and immediately ask if we can get them some...

I'm 75% Dutch (25% French) and have many family members that live over in the Netherlands. I've never met them, but I'd love to travel there someday and tour the country.

I am very proud of my background and most my relatives in the states are only 2nd or 3rd generation Americans... Still pretty close to their roots!

[This message has been edited by kristi (edited 10-25-2000).]

Sad - I admit that I have little knowledge of Europe and that I have not even see all of the United States, yet. But I do wish to travel to Europe and visit your beautiful country!

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Regards,

Brett Harris
Director of Technical Information, Infopop Corporation

Okay - let's turn this around - what do most people in the Netherlands think of the United States?

Marilyn Monroe?
Cowboys and Indians?
Gang Wars on the streets?

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Regards,

Brett Harris
Director of Technical Information, Infopop Corporation

"Cup of tea anyone?"

week coffee
fast food
big expanses of empty land
fat people

Just a thought

[This message has been edited by navaho (edited 10-25-2000).]

Let me remove me edits and try again.

....

Ok, put your post back as it was. Now let me try again...

I'm not from the Netherlands, but:

week coffee << You have obviusly never had the coffee in this office. WoW.
fast food << Hey, I have things to do. I don't have time to wait all day for lunch.
big expanses of empty land << Nature is very natural IMHO.
fat people << look at me. Fat? No. By the way. why is your calcam always either darkened out or showing an empty chair?

Just a reply to a thought

[This message has been edited by navaho (edited 10-25-2000).]

Ahh

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Just a thought

Dutch people are absolutely not fat, we leave that to the Americans!
It's been said that the Netherlands have the most beautiful girls of the world (Then why isn't Miss Universe won by a dutchie every year?)!

The US is a lot in the news, so we know a lot about the States. I was never very good in geography at school, but I do remember that New York (founded by a dutchman, 'york' is translated as 'amsterdam', our capital city) and Washington lie near the de eastcoast and Florida and California at the westcoast.
Ofcourse in the Netherlands we know about Bill Clinton (and Hillary, Monica and his daugther Chelsea), we follow the elections we know about policies concerning drugs and sex.

Most things we see on tv is American (with subtitles).
Al kinds of soaps: ATWT, B&B, Santa Barbara, Days of our Lives.
Other series: Dawson's creek, Sex in the city, Roswell, Fresh prince of bell air, Amercia's dumbest criminals, LAPD, ER, Ally McBeal, Jerry Springer, Cheers; really a lot of things!
And ofcourse many, many movies!

If you ask a dutchman: what do you think when I say USA, they'll probably say:
Fat people, United Nations and they're all prudisch (got that word translated by a website, hope it's right).
For instance: when we watch Jerry Springer, we get the American version: a beep whenever someone says a nasty word, whenever someone shows a tit or his/ her genitals (?, you know what I mean) there are blocks on the screen to prevent you from seeying it!
In our talkshows even clitoreses are pierced on screen! We are not ashamed to show things on public television.

And homosexuals! In the Netherlands you can come out for what or who you are. I know several gays and if we see one, it's the most natural thing. Nobody is surprised.
We even have Gay-pride, where our gays show off during a big party (for about a week) on boats in the canals of Amsterdam!
We even try to match them if we think we see another nice gay-boy or girl!

What is there more for me to know about the US?

And yes, Dutch people are more direct than most and it's more "free" there, for that I keep coming back for the rest - why I live in the UK

quote:

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Originally posted by Coreace:
Hi Ireen,
Too crowded and people everywhere.

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Yeah, that's right. But I don't know any better, I've never lived anywhere else!
I guess we're the only ones awake, since the rest is from the USA!

BTW, another thing: almost every dutchman speaks English en a lot of people also French and German!
What are children in the UK being taught at school?
I had 8 years of English, 2 years German and 3 years French, but English is probably the only language in which I can express myself, so that people can actually understand what I'm trying to say!

Holland is one of Europe's top nation in terms of education, health, economics & so on... Here in England things are very different. The National Health System is poor, powerty high and education isn't up to date unless you are an "upper class" or go to a private school.

You think of nightlife and London, perhaps a stay in a nice cottage and gentle people - well, this image you have from school is far from reality. I took my pre MBA here and after travelling here & there decided finally to move over permanently (and got lost). I'll probably stay a few more years before I go elsewhere.

Having said that (the negative bits), I like this country - I live remote out in the countryside and I just love it. Peaceful and it does relax me alot on my way from work to see the sea closing in and feel fresh air.

If you want to study - England/Scotland is a good place to stay, to live here is a completely different matter and it does take you a while to get used to "the English way" of liking.

This is kind of like having a pen-pal again... However, you raise a good point: What _IS_ American 'Culture'? What are the high points of the USA that we would wish to show to other people...

Hmmm - well, Infopop is here in Washington State (On the West coast above California - Florida is on the East coast - BTW) Given that I have lived here my entire life, let's start with some high points of this area and I will let my brethren across the USA backfill the remainder:

Mt. Rainer National Park
Lake Chelan - okay, so I'm in love with the place...
The Space Needle
Walla Walla, Washington!
The Cloumbia River Gorge

That's a good start for my favorite places around here... How's about the rest of you folks?

I believe we don't have that kind of things! Our sceneries aren't that beautiful (or I just haven't seen them) and it mostly rains or is very clouded!

But considered Washington is about two times as big as the whole netherlands, it's not so very strange you have a more beautiful environment!
If you'd compare my country with yours on a map or in an atlas, you'd probably wander how almost 16,000,000 people can live in such a small country!
I guess we just don't have any space for it!
How many inhabitants has Washington state (guess no 31 million (1,000,000 is one million here, didn't you call that a billion?)?)?

Well I'm done for today! It's already after 6 PM here, so I'm going home and fix myself a meal! You probably just started thinking about lunch...
Have a nice (working-)day!

You will love Alaska - it's really, really, huge.

Hope your dinner was yummy!

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Regards,

Brett Harris
Director of Technical Information, Infopop Corporation

My dinner sucked!!
It was raining and there was a lot of wind, so I didn't feel like going to the supermarket. All I had in my fridge and freezer were cucumber and chickenfillet (?, I still don't trust the translation site), so I went to a snackbar and got myself some fries with it.
It was a bit...scant(?) !

When I first entered my kitchen after coming home, I remembered it was my turn to do the dishes!!
We have a lot of everything, and EVERYTHING was dirty!!
None of my housemates were athome so there was nobody to complain to!!
I had to change my suds (? soap-water) three times!!

I had sent my boyfriend an sms, which remembered him to fix the tire of his bike (that morning he had said he was gonna fix it that afternoon).
He called me up, just to chat, and when I said again that he had to do the job, he got mad and hung up on me!
I smst him again (was to angry to hear his voice), and told him never to do that again, only if he wanted to have a fight/quarrel(??) with me!
He sent me a message back: I already have a mother who tells me what to do!
I let him know he could have said 'I don't HAVE TO do anything', but not hanging up the phone! He hasn't reacted in any way!
So now I'm quite pissed off!

So much for my great evening!
Well, Fridays I work only 4 hours, so I was able to sleep out for an hour!

I study in Utrecht (communicationsystems) and live there during the week in a studentshouse (?). That's a house where a (only) students live together.
For example: I live there with three housemates: two girls and a boy.
The four of us share a kitchen, a toilet, a bathroom and a balcony. Some houses also have a collective livingroom, but we don't.
We all have an own sleeping (and/or living) room.
I guess you probably have similar locations for students (campus wasn't it?).

Every friday afternoon, after work (I'm a trainee(?) till February), I pack my bag and go to my parents (about 2 and a half hours with public transport).
I reserved Friday night for my friends at home and my boyfriend. Saturday nights I work at a partycentre (back home after working at about 6 o'clock; we always have a drink with the colleague ) and the Sunday is for sleeping out after working or elseway for my boyfriend and after dinner I go back to Utrecht.

My life seems pretty boring, now I read it back!
Well, got to do something now, or I'll get in trouble!

Bye, Ireen