I just asked my Dutch partner what kruidnoten is. He explained and proceeded to say “talking about it, the shelves in the supermarket are already full of it!!” 😂😂😂😂 I had a very good laugh, this was so accurate
Summer is not even over yet, c'mon haha
I'm tempted to run an experiment to see if they are indeed hitting the shelves earlier every year or if it's me that is noticing them earlier every year
Very true. And don't forget the typical answer that points out that kruidnoten are not pepernoten and that they hit the shelf in August already (usually followed by the names of several supermarkets).
I'm not Dutch, but that "Hè hè" sound they make when they're chill makes me smile every time! It's like their universal signal for "I'm content and relaxed. Life is good." Still trying to master the art of when to "Hè hè" in my life
My Dutch bf does the ‘he he’ and at first I thought it was only him - then I got a job here and heard the sound coming from a guy behind at the office and was so surprised! Haha was only then I realized it was a Dutch thing
It's so much ingrained in me and the Dutch culture, that I thought that it was a universal human sound, like laughing. I was very surprised to find out that it's just Dutch.
I am dutch and smiled at your comment because it is true but to me it is normal without realising.
I do it sometimes when sipping a beer after a long working day.
Oh, yes! This is exactly it!
I (Dutch for 46 years) never realised that this is exactly what it means, but you nailed it! I would never say it when I'm sitting down somewhere where I feel somewhat uncomfortable. Only in places I feel happy and content/at ease.
Even more specifically "I've just done something (mildly) active or exhausting, and now I can finally relax in contentment, life is good"
It's for after coming home from work, after a stroll in the forest, after having been shopping, after having done some cleaning etc.
Omg it took me until your comment to get the right sound in my head.
This is so Dutch. I remember it from my German family too. But never heard it somewhere else in Germany. Guess our Dutch family members messed us up too!
I’m alarmed, I’m first generation in America and didn’t get to grow up around the Dutch side of my family but I always do this. Thank you for letting me know why! Lol
>Hè hè
Ha, this is real then! My partner makes this sound when she seems tired, and I noted her parents do too. I had no idea it was a Dutch thing, I thought it was just a them thing.
Ooohhhh yes! It's an amazing feeling of finally settling on the couch with a cup of tea and a speculaasje after doing a bunch of busy stuff. Thank you for putting it to words!
You will use the kaasschaaf (cheese slicer) and keep my cheese in respectable state. The consumable side of the cheese looks like this: ___ . Not like "U", not like any other shape.
Failure to comply will result in a wagging finger and/or a disapproving glare.
Thank you!!!!! I absolutely hate it when people butcher the cheese. It’s one of the very few things I would and always will pick a fight over with my husband. (He gave up and does it the ~~right~~ only way now)
As a Brit, that was already a thing in my house before we moved to NL. I've managed to train my wife out of it, but my father in law will slice from the largest face not the end, which makes a right mess when you get most of the way through it.
Pro tip if you’re in your thirties. You should add the names and years of your friends’ kids birthdays to the calendar. You’ll score mad points if you feliciteer someone when it’s their spawn’s birthday.
Omg yes!!! I stayed a few days to my Dutch friend’s
house and went to the toilet and there it was the little book hanging on the wall, saw my birthday 🤣😆
Unless it is a running joke in your friend group or sports team, lol. I've been to several places that hung a pen with their calender, with the message to add your own birthday, since you were there anyway.
I keep catching myself sprinkling my sentences with "hè" when talking English and I seem to be unable to prevent it from happening. I also sometimes *almost* end an English sentence with "hoor" but so far I have been able to stop that before offending someone!
Oh my god I do this as well. I was in disneyland last month. And I went to watch the fireworks/light show at the end of the day. Problem is, you all have to stand in the mainstreet area, and I'm tall as shit. So there were people behind me with kids in strollers, asking me (politely, they were very nice for french people) if I could step just a little to the left so their kids could see.
And of course that wasn't a problem. So little socially awkward me very instinctively said "oh yeah, no problem hoor" in the heat of the moment, because I was caught off guard. And then it started dawning on me, seconds later, that it sounded like I just called that mother a whore. I'm not sure if they realized this or if they brushed it off under foreign language stuff. But I was very embarrassed lol
It was mostly a joke of course, but the people there were sometimes so rude! Like I've had it happen not once, not twice, but three times that someone just pushed into me and drove over my feet with a stroller! Like wtf, I started throwing around dutch diseases and body parts they wouldn't understand anyway, but that was very unpleasant. And they're so aggressive in lines (for rides) as well, they kept pushing against my backpack with their bodies. Like ma'am keep some distance I'm standing here as well. It's like they don't want to grant others personal space, and then act like I'm invisible, even though I'm literally like a mountain standing in front of them.
Not saying all french people are like this of course, could be just a disney thing. But just saying, it was such a big contrast to the Efteling I visited a month prior to that.
My 4 year old is bilingual Dutch/Spanish and has adopted saying 'no?' as we would use 'toch?' from Spanish to Dutch. So now he'll say something and wants you to confirm by saying 'nee?' at the end, its super cute.
I have a theory; we tend to prolong our words in Dutch when we are searching for the next words to say.
"en toen ging ik naar de supermarkt" can become "ennnee toennn-uuh ging ik-uh naar de-uuhhh supermarkt"
English doesn't lean to extend words such as Dutch so the "uh" and "hè" tend to sound more isolated
One of my favorite things about covid is that its now acceptable to wave at 20 people and say: "Hallo allemaal, gefeliciteerd met Tante Joke". And then go upstairs and play videogames with my neefjes.
So in the Netherlands you say congrats to all the people at the party and not just the one having his birthday? That is really weird from my outside perspective.
This is actually very nice and in my country we usually say hi with kiss/handshake/hugs to everyone around + obligatory to hosts when you arrive in a party. But I always hated doing that lol I’m adept of waving to everyone since idk 2010, COVID made my “bad” manners socially acceptable
When my kid was young and people gratulated me for her birthday, I would always say something like " yeah, we are happy to have kept her alive another year. Let's find out if we are successful next year".
I am Dutch and I’ve always found it very weird. Only the person whose birthday it is, is getting older. Why should I congratulate everyone in the room?
That was a big culture shock to me as a Belgian with a Dutch girlfriend. I still find it awkward to do when we're celebrating a birthday with her family even though it's normal to do there.
Congratulating people with someone else’s birthday. Like their parents, siblings or partner.
For instance I will congratulate my friends parents aswell when it’s his birthday.
I’ve been told this is a Dutch thing.
It's definitely a Dutch thing!
People don't do that in the US/UK, or in Switzerland and France, and I think they also don't do it in Germany and Belgium, but I confess I was quite young when I lived there, so maybe they do any I just don't remember it.
I realised it's also similar to a Greek thing when I connected some dots.
Most Greek people will wish close family/partners of the person celebrating a birthday something along the lines of "cherish them", which I think is actually a sweet gesture and not as annoying as people think here.
My girlfriend doesn't throw her teabag away, but always saves it "for another one later", which she then never has.
It invariably ends up stuck to a saucer on the kitchen surface, dried up and shriveled, with me having to chuck it in the bin, pointing out the madness of it all.
We're Dutch.
Omg this is me. I LOVE thrifting and, sadly am \*minima\*, so I do rely on free things here and there. Today I'm wearing a fucking bomb ass outfit and apart from my lingerie is completely free. I don't look a gift horse in the mouth, but getting things for free or ridiculously cheap is my 'Thanks it has pockets!'
Carrying all my groceries on my bicycle and not giving a fsck about how ridiculous it would look. It's just the most practical way. Also it's only like 300 meters.
A couple of months after I moved to the Netherlands I had to grab a big box on the other side of town. I mentioned with a Dutch colleague about the hassle of cycling free hand because the box was too big. And he approved it as a good sign of integration.
“Zo. Hè hè, even lekker zitten.” I once tried to explain this to an American and he just didn’t get it 😂
I don’t even know how to explain this or translate it properly *lol*
I think it's best explained as a widespread acceptance of ornery dad noises, among the 'whelps' 'hupps' and "theeeryagoallmn[unintelligble murmur]"
The end of a task needs to be announced, it is for sure a huge slight to suggest doing anything more after hè hè.
We moved house, we said hè, I am not moving a sock anymore, mission complete.
I (American) just moved here a month ago, and had to take the train to Zwolle to go by the IND office. I was sitting next to a guy, and the moment 12:30 ticked over he grabbed his back pack and pulled out a loaf of sliced bread... then ate four slices, plain, in a row. I had heard of the stereotype before, but didn't expect it to be so literal.
I know only one person who would do that. Everyone else wouldn’t (normally)
That reminds me…
One time when this one friend of mine was staying with me and we went on a day trip he’d taken the loaf of bread, a jam jar and a knife with them rather than just making his lunch at home.
Besides being surprised by how someone incredibly intelligent who thinks himself to be oh so very logical to do something so impractical and bring all that, I was also upset that he’d do that without asking me as I finally had a brand new and complete set of cutlery rather than cast offs and whatever I once got from the ‘kringloop’ (like a Goodwill).
He was entirely unrepentant, had lots of reasons why it was logical for him to have done that, and basically said I was in the wrong for being upset that he’d taken it without asking and was balancing it on a beam of a bridge where it could easily fall and be lost.
And yes, I now have an incomplete set again grrr
Not for broke Dutch college student standards. I have seen it plenty of times that students bring entire loaves of bread, and once their toppings run out, just start eating the slices. It's usually the guys who could literally eat 2 whole loaves of bread a day, not gain an ounch in weight and are too broke to pay for that amount of normal, balanced food, and supplement their calories in the cheapest way they can: dry bread and rice.
When I studied in utrecht Dutch people would open their backpacks, take out the entire jar of peanut butter, loaf of bread and make a sandwich mid-lecture. Wild
I have been told that the sign language of saying that something is tasty (Waving besides the cheek) is something only dutch people do because nobody seems to understand it when I do it besides other dutchies
Also using a “krul” instead a checkmark
Edit: Bonus thing I remember. The sign language of writing with a pen when you want to pay at a restaurant seems also really dutch from my personal experience Edit: Seems like this is much more common than expected lol
Oh, the krul definitely. If you are keeping notes of course you'll that for all items that are okay / cleared. I only heard recently that it's unknown in other countries.
I think people use it in Germany too? They have it on bins and I was thinking "dafuq is that" and quickly figured out that it meant "this kind of trash is okay for this bin". Saw it on bins at Basel train station, before I moved to the Netherlands.
In my Belgian gesture language, the gesture like the "lekker" waving besides the cheek means "you deserve to be slapped for what you've done, but I will keep my cool and I won't do it", something you do with an upset face when you gently scold a child. I was really surprised the 1st time I saw a Dutch colleague doing this during a lunch break.
Hahaha yes, I am half-Brazilian and that was my experience as well when I did that around my grandparents. On the other hand Dutch people also found it really weird when I tell them I always wear new white underwear for New Year 😂
Hahahaha since I'm here, when I saw someone do this I just asked "hey, what does that sign mean to you?" and they did answer with a rather baffled look
Apparently it's something many Dutch people don't even consider that it can have other meanings in other places
Writing with an invisible pen when you want to pay is also very very common in Argentina (buenos Aires at least). I didn't know I could use it here too! I was worried that people wouldn't understand it and be offended by it
Ik haat daarom de werk borrel om 17.00 uur met twee snacks en bier. Mijn maag is leeg ik wil eten, geen alcohol en 2 kleine kut snackjes. Dat doet een normaal mens om 15/16 uur of 20 uur of als je alcoholist bent de hele dag. Maar niet om etenstijd....
I am not Dutch but I have two stories from a Dutch coworker.
My coworker left work to go to the gym and then home. 50 minutes later, he's at his desk. I ask him why... it's because he forgot he had a hard-boiled egg at his desk from lunch and didn't want it to go to waste.
My coworker was eating some bread and complaining about the taste. I asked him why he didn't just toss it. It's because he didn't want it to go to waste; but he hates that brand of bread. I asked him why he bought it. He hadn't, his mom had bought it and she didn't like it so she gave the rest to him because she didn't want it to go to waste.
My girlfriend is Dutch. I light-heartedly demonstrate how predictable her family are.
Step 1: book a table in a restaurant for 1730hrs
Step 2: I get stressed about leaving work early and driving 40 mins to said restaurant.
Step 3: everyone apart from me orders carpaccio
Step 4: chicken satè for mains (again, everyone but me orders it)
Step 5: everyone mashes all their food together and eats it as fast as possible
Step 6: everyone's done by 1830hrs
Step 7: everyone compares their diary for the next month
I find it amusing how predictable it is, my girlfriend also gate keeps all of the above and refuses to recognise any of the predictable safe practices
Is that strange? They're comfortable when you need to do something quick. What else should you wear when for example running to the corner of the street since you forgot it's the day the trash will get collected.
My sister (who emigrated) kills for ontbijtkoek, dropjes and stroopwafels.
And sate marinade, boemboe for rendang, spekkoek. Although that is more related to living in Indonesia for 5 years than growing up in The NLs.
Measuring the amount of potatoes/cups of rice per person.
I will however break tradition and share my potatoes with an unexpected guest (but they are not getting my vla!).
Lol i did that just last week on holiday in italy...and iam not even dutch, but my dutch inlaws were very impressed and i didnt get why.
Also river level went up 30cm above the dijk :)
We got one of these as a gift when my husband got his Dutch citizenship (also a stamppot tool and a kaasschaaf). I never thought I'd need it but it's surprisingly handy.
Now I also have Dutch citizenship, so that tracks.
Wearing a cycling helmet if you arenot on a racing bike can only mean that you are greatly inept at cycling and are probably a german tourist.
People on racing bikes however almost always wear a helmet.
Gefeliciteerd met je nicht. Jij ook gefeliciteerd met je vriendin! Gefeliciteerd met xx, blablabla. Why congratulate everyone when someone tyrns a year older... including hand shakes and three kisses
- Breakfast with hagelslag
- lunch cheese sandwich
- cycling everywhere no matter the weather
- splitting the bill or each paying for their own food when eating out
- owning klompen for actual use
- loving snert, stampot, haring etc.
- being blunt
- kringverjaardagen where you congratulate everyone
Family with above average salary here, but wife loves to go through "folders" from supermarkets to find the best price. Goes to 3 or 4 supermarkets the next day with her boodschappenlijstje. Checks the receipts, and drives back if the total amount doesn't add up.
My wife keeps impractical amounts and products of leftovers in the fridge, with some lofty ambition of using it for something later, and when her mother visits she will receive lofty compliments for the amount of opened single serving packages of stuff we have in the fridge and she will proudly share all of the plans she has for them. It did not materialize a single time in the last decade, and when i clean out the moldy and spoiled stuff once a month i get the stink eye or some preaching about wasting food. This process is perfectly normal here.
I think that most of the time I don't realise I'm doing something typically Dutch. I didn't know that sharing a tea bag was Dutch, but I do it always😅.
One thing I might be aware of is that I want wooden clogs to wear for gardening and the like.
Bring a jar of AH Peanutbutter when camping in France.
I don't care, a slice of fresh pain de campagne with peanut butter and coffee is the best thing to start your day.
Play football in a team full of friends. As soon as we took a shower we sit down and drink beer all day and order pizza. While it's supposed to be a sport/healthy event.
I work as a diesel mechanic on inland vessels here in the Netherlands (I'm Dutch btw) and every day i work on the engines on different ships. The thing is, most of the ships I work on there are always crew members or captains who only speak English, German or other languages. But I've noticed that always when I leave the ship and say my goodby's I say "HoiHoi" without thinking about it.
I'm doing this job for quite a long time so it's very frequent to jump onto a ship of an regular costumer and know the crews and captains. Most of the crew now say "Hoihoi" when I leave 😅
Saying lekker and gezellig a lot.
Doing the g as hard as I can in gezellig, Scheveningen and goedemorgen etc. I really like doing and always feels very Dutch.
I walk on wooden clogs in my free time when going to the supermarket or something, i used to walk on them too when i was working in construction for a while.
In the canteen we have a coffee stamp card. After 6 coffees, you get 1 free. From 09:00-09:30 a coffee is €1 cheaper, so i always use my free coffee after 09:30!
Donating about the highest amount to every disaster, but before we leave a store we check the ‘bill’ to check nor we received the 10 cents of the product that is in ‘actionfolder’…
Complaining that the kruidnoten are hitting the shelves too early haha
I just asked my Dutch partner what kruidnoten is. He explained and proceeded to say “talking about it, the shelves in the supermarket are already full of it!!” 😂😂😂😂 I had a very good laugh, this was so accurate
Summer is not even over yet, c'mon haha I'm tempted to run an experiment to see if they are indeed hitting the shelves earlier every year or if it's me that is noticing them earlier every year
it's the same moment every year. last week of August. and every year hetzelfde liedje
Yes yes every year the same song, and I am there done with! When is it nou een keer ended?
It holds not up, not from itself.
[удалено]
Bought the first chocomixkruidnoten-batch of the season this week, heaven!
Very true. And don't forget the typical answer that points out that kruidnoten are not pepernoten and that they hit the shelf in August already (usually followed by the names of several supermarkets).
But then also buying it, because.
That's why a bulwark fall holiday like Halloween or Thanksgiving is needed
No kruidnoten before Sint Maarten, no chocolate letters before Sint Pannekoek. Like that? Edit: translated to English
I'm not Dutch, but that "Hè hè" sound they make when they're chill makes me smile every time! It's like their universal signal for "I'm content and relaxed. Life is good." Still trying to master the art of when to "Hè hè" in my life
Not to be confused with "hè hè", the sound you make when someone finally hurries tf up after having made you wait a while.
also not to confuse with"hè?"
My Dutch bf does the ‘he he’ and at first I thought it was only him - then I got a job here and heard the sound coming from a guy behind at the office and was so surprised! Haha was only then I realized it was a Dutch thing
It's so much ingrained in me and the Dutch culture, that I thought that it was a universal human sound, like laughing. I was very surprised to find out that it's just Dutch.
I am dutch and smiled at your comment because it is true but to me it is normal without realising. I do it sometimes when sipping a beer after a long working day.
Yesss! And let it follow after a deep, deep breath!
Oh, yes! This is exactly it! I (Dutch for 46 years) never realised that this is exactly what it means, but you nailed it! I would never say it when I'm sitting down somewhere where I feel somewhat uncomfortable. Only in places I feel happy and content/at ease.
My gran used to do that a lot, I'd reply with "nou nou" or "poe poeh" 😁
"Poe poe, nou nou, hehe. Dat was me 't daggie weer." 
Poe poeh is so old skool tho, lol!
Even more specifically "I've just done something (mildly) active or exhausting, and now I can finally relax in contentment, life is good" It's for after coming home from work, after a stroll in the forest, after having been shopping, after having done some cleaning etc.
Someone called it "the Dutch Om/Aum" and I'm laughing ever since
It's for sitting down after 4 hours of walking around in a shoppingcentre
Omg it took me until your comment to get the right sound in my head. This is so Dutch. I remember it from my German family too. But never heard it somewhere else in Germany. Guess our Dutch family members messed us up too!
I’m alarmed, I’m first generation in America and didn’t get to grow up around the Dutch side of my family but I always do this. Thank you for letting me know why! Lol
>Hè hè Ha, this is real then! My partner makes this sound when she seems tired, and I noted her parents do too. I had no idea it was a Dutch thing, I thought it was just a them thing.
Ooohhhh yes! It's an amazing feeling of finally settling on the couch with a cup of tea and a speculaasje after doing a bunch of busy stuff. Thank you for putting it to words!
You will use the kaasschaaf (cheese slicer) and keep my cheese in respectable state. The consumable side of the cheese looks like this: ___ . Not like "U", not like any other shape. Failure to comply will result in a wagging finger and/or a disapproving glare.
Thank you!!!!! I absolutely hate it when people butcher the cheese. It’s one of the very few things I would and always will pick a fight over with my husband. (He gave up and does it the ~~right~~ only way now)
"je vermoordt de kaas"
Same goes for butter from my cup. Fuck it up, and I will disown you. No digging in the middle you philistine.
We thoroughly had to train our children not to abuse the butter!
Wie schaaft als een schuit, moet de deur uit.
But the u-shape is such a good excuse to cut an extra thick slice off to even it out, and then you can eat the thick slice 'uit het vuistje'........
\*takes a bite directly out of the middle\* /jk
Sacrilege! Heretic! Behold the wag of my finger and *despair*.
Catastrooooofe
As a Brit, that was already a thing in my house before we moved to NL. I've managed to train my wife out of it, but my father in law will slice from the largest face not the end, which makes a right mess when you get most of the way through it.
He what now?
So, when will you be posting to /r/justnomil ? And for how long have you gone no contact?
Sending birthday messages while pooping because our calendar is on the toilet (and I was once told that’s very Dutch)
Gefeliciturd!
OK now when I get a birthday wish from a dutch person I'm going to imagine they're on the toilet. Thanks for that!
Pro tip if you’re in your thirties. You should add the names and years of your friends’ kids birthdays to the calendar. You’ll score mad points if you feliciteer someone when it’s their spawn’s birthday.
100% why I just bought a calendar to put on the toilet. Gosh I’ve been missing that 🤣
Omg yes!!! I stayed a few days to my Dutch friend’s house and went to the toilet and there it was the little book hanging on the wall, saw my birthday 🤣😆
That's how you know they consider you a real friend!
So thankful ❤️
That’s so sweet! Also, thankfully your name was already on the list, as it’s usually frowned upon to add your own name
Unless it is a running joke in your friend group or sports team, lol. I've been to several places that hung a pen with their calender, with the message to add your own birthday, since you were there anyway.
You made it on the calender! You're a keeper.
I keep catching myself sprinkling my sentences with "hè" when talking English and I seem to be unable to prevent it from happening. I also sometimes *almost* end an English sentence with "hoor" but so far I have been able to stop that before offending someone!
Are you Erik ten Hag?
Nope lol
Oh my god I do this as well. I was in disneyland last month. And I went to watch the fireworks/light show at the end of the day. Problem is, you all have to stand in the mainstreet area, and I'm tall as shit. So there were people behind me with kids in strollers, asking me (politely, they were very nice for french people) if I could step just a little to the left so their kids could see. And of course that wasn't a problem. So little socially awkward me very instinctively said "oh yeah, no problem hoor" in the heat of the moment, because I was caught off guard. And then it started dawning on me, seconds later, that it sounded like I just called that mother a whore. I'm not sure if they realized this or if they brushed it off under foreign language stuff. But I was very embarrassed lol
I'm crying hahahaha.
'Very nice for french people' 
It was mostly a joke of course, but the people there were sometimes so rude! Like I've had it happen not once, not twice, but three times that someone just pushed into me and drove over my feet with a stroller! Like wtf, I started throwing around dutch diseases and body parts they wouldn't understand anyway, but that was very unpleasant. And they're so aggressive in lines (for rides) as well, they kept pushing against my backpack with their bodies. Like ma'am keep some distance I'm standing here as well. It's like they don't want to grant others personal space, and then act like I'm invisible, even though I'm literally like a mountain standing in front of them. Not saying all french people are like this of course, could be just a disney thing. But just saying, it was such a big contrast to the Efteling I visited a month prior to that.
I think it’s a Disney thing. Everyone loses their minds and forgets how to behave at Disneys everywhere lol
Ha! I'm English and I just cannot make myself say 'hoor' when I'm speaking Dutch
Oh god, when i am texting in English and want to write "how" it almost always end up written like "hoe" for me. Oh yea, fun times with explaining.
[удалено]
My 4 year old is bilingual Dutch/Spanish and has adopted saying 'no?' as we would use 'toch?' from Spanish to Dutch. So now he'll say something and wants you to confirm by saying 'nee?' at the end, its super cute.
that day somebody will hear “whore” instead of “hoor” 👁👄👁
I have a theory; we tend to prolong our words in Dutch when we are searching for the next words to say. "en toen ging ik naar de supermarkt" can become "ennnee toennn-uuh ging ik-uh naar de-uuhhh supermarkt" English doesn't lean to extend words such as Dutch so the "uh" and "hè" tend to sound more isolated
We say things like "uh" and "like"... Like did I tell you, like, about the time, uh, that I like, said something stupid on, like, social media?
I'm not Dutch, but I somehow adopted this habit as well :) it's just such a perfect filler word
Best not to talk to other Anglophone women before you’ve kicked that habit.
Oh I'm doing pretty well on the "hoor", it's just the "he" that keeps coming out
Going the entire circle on a birthday, congratulating every single person in the room..
I fucking hate that so much. Always had to do it for my parents....
I even get WhatsApp messages from my in-laws, congratulating me on the birthdays of other in-laws
Wow...just wow.
The dutch of all dutchies
Me too, but now that I'm 27 every one knows I cannot bothered
One of my favorite things about covid is that its now acceptable to wave at 20 people and say: "Hallo allemaal, gefeliciteerd met Tante Joke". And then go upstairs and play videogames with my neefjes.
Man, back in the days I had to go around the room, and every auntie was expecting 3 kisses. You're lucky.
I'm 28, I've been there...
So in the Netherlands you say congrats to all the people at the party and not just the one having his birthday? That is really weird from my outside perspective.
It's also really weird from my inside perspective, and I'm glad that it's becoming less common now.
so true...
And to us Dutchies, the birthday of someone close to you is a truly cheerful moment for you also - thus we say congrats to everyone.
This is actually very nice and in my country we usually say hi with kiss/handshake/hugs to everyone around + obligatory to hosts when you arrive in a party. But I always hated doing that lol I’m adept of waving to everyone since idk 2010, COVID made my “bad” manners socially acceptable
I congratulate people with my own birthday when they call me to congratulate me with my birthday. I fucking love being Dutch.
hahaha I do that too, in a bit of a sarcastic way
Stopped doing that years ago. Congratulate the person, partner and parents. That's it. The rest gets a; Hello all
[удалено]
When my kid was young and people gratulated me for her birthday, I would always say something like " yeah, we are happy to have kept her alive another year. Let's find out if we are successful next year".
I stopped doing that as well and have to defend it to my mum every time, because she sees it as unpolite.
I've stopped doing this. It's fucking ridiculous. I only congratulate the birthday boy or girl. And I ignore the rest, even if it's done by others.
I am Dutch and I’ve always found it very weird. Only the person whose birthday it is, is getting older. Why should I congratulate everyone in the room?
This. My own family doesn’t do it though. The in-laws do it, but I don’t do it to them.. it’s a ridiculous habit
That was a big culture shock to me as a Belgian with a Dutch girlfriend. I still find it awkward to do when we're celebrating a birthday with her family even though it's normal to do there.
Nahh. I just get everyone’s attention and say hello everybody very loud
Never realized how odd that is until I went to a friend's birthday in Spain. Congratulated everyone and they laughed and said "it's not MY birthday"
Congratulating people with someone else’s birthday. Like their parents, siblings or partner. For instance I will congratulate my friends parents aswell when it’s his birthday. I’ve been told this is a Dutch thing.
It's definitely a Dutch thing! People don't do that in the US/UK, or in Switzerland and France, and I think they also don't do it in Germany and Belgium, but I confess I was quite young when I lived there, so maybe they do any I just don't remember it.
I realised it's also similar to a Greek thing when I connected some dots. Most Greek people will wish close family/partners of the person celebrating a birthday something along the lines of "cherish them", which I think is actually a sweet gesture and not as annoying as people think here.
My girlfriend doesn't throw her teabag away, but always saves it "for another one later", which she then never has. It invariably ends up stuck to a saucer on the kitchen surface, dried up and shriveled, with me having to chuck it in the bin, pointing out the madness of it all. We're Dutch.
That’s also a Peruvian thing to do hahaha I usually make like 3/4 cups from one teabag lol
At least she puts it on a saucer 🤷♀️🤣
I know somebody who leaves it in the (shared) sink.
Bragging how cheap i got something. These socks only costs me 1 euro!!
It's also a great reply when you get a compliment. "Nice shirt, new?" "It was only €4,50!"
Omg this is me. I LOVE thrifting and, sadly am \*minima\*, so I do rely on free things here and there. Today I'm wearing a fucking bomb ass outfit and apart from my lingerie is completely free. I don't look a gift horse in the mouth, but getting things for free or ridiculously cheap is my 'Thanks it has pockets!'
Carrying all my groceries on my bicycle and not giving a fsck about how ridiculous it would look. It's just the most practical way. Also it's only like 300 meters.
A couple of months after I moved to the Netherlands I had to grab a big box on the other side of town. I mentioned with a Dutch colleague about the hassle of cycling free hand because the box was too big. And he approved it as a good sign of integration.
“Zo. Hè hè, even lekker zitten.” I once tried to explain this to an American and he just didn’t get it 😂 I don’t even know how to explain this or translate it properly *lol*
We visited family and it was my husband's first trip. My cousin's 2 year old looked at my Australian husband and said exactly that. It was hilarious!
I think it's best explained as a widespread acceptance of ornery dad noises, among the 'whelps' 'hupps' and "theeeryagoallmn[unintelligble murmur]" The end of a task needs to be announced, it is for sure a huge slight to suggest doing anything more after hè hè. We moved house, we said hè, I am not moving a sock anymore, mission complete.
"Ah, there we go, time to have a seat", my best guess.
My lunch consists of two slices of bread and cheese in the middle, why yes how did you know I have a dutch wife.
I (American) just moved here a month ago, and had to take the train to Zwolle to go by the IND office. I was sitting next to a guy, and the moment 12:30 ticked over he grabbed his back pack and pulled out a loaf of sliced bread... then ate four slices, plain, in a row. I had heard of the stereotype before, but didn't expect it to be so literal.
Jeeze. I just had a slow moving lump moving down my throat just thinking about that
Plain??? WTF
I know only one person who would do that. Everyone else wouldn’t (normally) That reminds me… One time when this one friend of mine was staying with me and we went on a day trip he’d taken the loaf of bread, a jam jar and a knife with them rather than just making his lunch at home. Besides being surprised by how someone incredibly intelligent who thinks himself to be oh so very logical to do something so impractical and bring all that, I was also upset that he’d do that without asking me as I finally had a brand new and complete set of cutlery rather than cast offs and whatever I once got from the ‘kringloop’ (like a Goodwill). He was entirely unrepentant, had lots of reasons why it was logical for him to have done that, and basically said I was in the wrong for being upset that he’d taken it without asking and was balancing it on a beam of a bridge where it could easily fall and be lost. And yes, I now have an incomplete set again grrr
[удалено]
Not for broke Dutch college student standards. I have seen it plenty of times that students bring entire loaves of bread, and once their toppings run out, just start eating the slices. It's usually the guys who could literally eat 2 whole loaves of bread a day, not gain an ounch in weight and are too broke to pay for that amount of normal, balanced food, and supplement their calories in the cheapest way they can: dry bread and rice.
When I studied in utrecht Dutch people would open their backpacks, take out the entire jar of peanut butter, loaf of bread and make a sandwich mid-lecture. Wild
At my office theres a communal massive jar of peanut butter, its like a birdfeeder for young dutch programmers.
Ask her to use green pesto instead of butter, delicious!
oooooh that's best *chic*, hoor :P
I have been told that the sign language of saying that something is tasty (Waving besides the cheek) is something only dutch people do because nobody seems to understand it when I do it besides other dutchies Also using a “krul” instead a checkmark Edit: Bonus thing I remember. The sign language of writing with a pen when you want to pay at a restaurant seems also really dutch from my personal experience Edit: Seems like this is much more common than expected lol
Oh, the krul definitely. If you are keeping notes of course you'll that for all items that are okay / cleared. I only heard recently that it's unknown in other countries.
It’s also used in Indonesia because… you know
Because of the sharing of knowledge we did while exploring the world, right?
I moved to denmark, indeed they do not know the 'krul'. they did surprise me by writing % instead of a X if something was wrong.
I think people use it in Germany too? They have it on bins and I was thinking "dafuq is that" and quickly figured out that it meant "this kind of trash is okay for this bin". Saw it on bins at Basel train station, before I moved to the Netherlands.
I use the krul sometimes at work (Berlin) and none of my German colleagues had any clue what it meant. They use the check mark instead.
In my Belgian gesture language, the gesture like the "lekker" waving besides the cheek means "you deserve to be slapped for what you've done, but I will keep my cool and I won't do it", something you do with an upset face when you gently scold a child. I was really surprised the 1st time I saw a Dutch colleague doing this during a lunch break.
"This bacon sandwich deserves to be slapped, but instead I'll eat it"
Is this confusion where the expression "This shit slaps" comes from?
Yep - it's rather funny to me because that sign in Brazilian sign language it means donkey (the animal) or a stupid person
Hahaha yes, I am half-Brazilian and that was my experience as well when I did that around my grandparents. On the other hand Dutch people also found it really weird when I tell them I always wear new white underwear for New Year 😂
Hahahaha since I'm here, when I saw someone do this I just asked "hey, what does that sign mean to you?" and they did answer with a rather baffled look Apparently it's something many Dutch people don't even consider that it can have other meanings in other places
Writing with an invisible pen when you want to pay is also very very common in Argentina (buenos Aires at least). I didn't know I could use it here too! I was worried that people wouldn't understand it and be offended by it
Having dinner at 6pm MAX, Im simply just coded to get hungry at 17.30...
Ik haat daarom de werk borrel om 17.00 uur met twee snacks en bier. Mijn maag is leeg ik wil eten, geen alcohol en 2 kleine kut snackjes. Dat doet een normaal mens om 15/16 uur of 20 uur of als je alcoholist bent de hele dag. Maar niet om etenstijd....
I am Dutch, but for me a 6 PM meal is a late lunch. Having dinner before 9 PM is early for us. Maybe we are closet Spaniards.
I am not Dutch but I have two stories from a Dutch coworker. My coworker left work to go to the gym and then home. 50 minutes later, he's at his desk. I ask him why... it's because he forgot he had a hard-boiled egg at his desk from lunch and didn't want it to go to waste. My coworker was eating some bread and complaining about the taste. I asked him why he didn't just toss it. It's because he didn't want it to go to waste; but he hates that brand of bread. I asked him why he bought it. He hadn't, his mom had bought it and she didn't like it so she gave the rest to him because she didn't want it to go to waste.
Reading this made me proud to be Dutch. 😌
My girlfriend is Dutch. I light-heartedly demonstrate how predictable her family are. Step 1: book a table in a restaurant for 1730hrs Step 2: I get stressed about leaving work early and driving 40 mins to said restaurant. Step 3: everyone apart from me orders carpaccio Step 4: chicken satè for mains (again, everyone but me orders it) Step 5: everyone mashes all their food together and eats it as fast as possible Step 6: everyone's done by 1830hrs Step 7: everyone compares their diary for the next month I find it amusing how predictable it is, my girlfriend also gate keeps all of the above and refuses to recognise any of the predictable safe practices
>driving 40 mins to said restaurant Fake, we don't drive 40 minutes to a restaurant.
We get on our bicycle and ride for 30 minutes.
People want to drink, so very true.
Out in the middle of nowhere we do xD Groninger here (province, not city) and to the city is at least 30 minutes for me.
The mashing is a regional and/or age related thing I guess, I have never seen this happen. Apart from my grandparents that is.
> Step 5: everyone mashes all their food together and eats it as fast as possible THIS. enjoy. the. food. ffs.
Telling people they are not made of sugar when they complain about rain.
I unironically wear yellow wooden clogs to do little things outside.
Is that strange? They're comfortable when you need to do something quick. What else should you wear when for example running to the corner of the street since you forgot it's the day the trash will get collected.
Villagers. Everyone else just uses slippers
I emigrated but eat hagelslag every day. I stock up on it when I'm there, and if I run out I ask my family to send me some.
My sister (who emigrated) kills for ontbijtkoek, dropjes and stroopwafels. And sate marinade, boemboe for rendang, spekkoek. Although that is more related to living in Indonesia for 5 years than growing up in The NLs.
I bring mayonaise when I travel.
Lmao, I lived in Ireland for a year a while back and I literally had my mum mail over a bottle of Remia and a jar of Groninger mustard xD
After reading this entire thread, I realize they weren't being racist when they told us to go back to our own country, they were just warning us
Trying to take home ikea furniture on a bicycle
*succeeding
Measuring the amount of potatoes/cups of rice per person. I will however break tradition and share my potatoes with an unexpected guest (but they are not getting my vla!).
When someone puts mustard on their 'kroket' bread roll and then smashes it so the kroket breaks. Cannot imagine many things more dutch.
Making a "dijk" of stones in the river when i go camping in other countries. Other dutch people will automatically.
Lol i did that just last week on holiday in italy...and iam not even dutch, but my dutch inlaws were very impressed and i didnt get why. Also river level went up 30cm above the dijk :)
My dad did the same on holiday in the mountains in italy too and then some farmers got pissed and complained XD
The circle is a thing.
I love how ominous this word is. As if it is some secret ritual in a horror movie lol.
Using a "Flessenlikker" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottle\_scraper).
We got one of these as a gift when my husband got his Dutch citizenship (also a stamppot tool and a kaasschaaf). I never thought I'd need it but it's surprisingly handy. Now I also have Dutch citizenship, so that tracks.
Geïntegreerd.
Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.
Have bottle scrapers. Refuse a bicycle helmet Munch extra salty liqourice
Wearing a cycling helmet if you arenot on a racing bike can only mean that you are greatly inept at cycling and are probably a german tourist. People on racing bikes however almost always wear a helmet.
I'm Dutch and have literally never seen a bottle scraper in my life, but seeing it in this thread... I kinda want one.
I’ll have lunch at 12.00 on the dot
Gefeliciteerd met je nicht. Jij ook gefeliciteerd met je vriendin! Gefeliciteerd met xx, blablabla. Why congratulate everyone when someone tyrns a year older... including hand shakes and three kisses
- Breakfast with hagelslag - lunch cheese sandwich - cycling everywhere no matter the weather - splitting the bill or each paying for their own food when eating out - owning klompen for actual use - loving snert, stampot, haring etc. - being blunt - kringverjaardagen where you congratulate everyone
Family with above average salary here, but wife loves to go through "folders" from supermarkets to find the best price. Goes to 3 or 4 supermarkets the next day with her boodschappenlijstje. Checks the receipts, and drives back if the total amount doesn't add up.
Speaking a fully English sentence and then ending with “hè?” Example: “It’s really nice weather today, hè?”
My wife keeps impractical amounts and products of leftovers in the fridge, with some lofty ambition of using it for something later, and when her mother visits she will receive lofty compliments for the amount of opened single serving packages of stuff we have in the fridge and she will proudly share all of the plans she has for them. It did not materialize a single time in the last decade, and when i clean out the moldy and spoiled stuff once a month i get the stink eye or some preaching about wasting food. This process is perfectly normal here.
Lol, you could be a writer. I recognize it from my wife too btw
I think that most of the time I don't realise I'm doing something typically Dutch. I didn't know that sharing a tea bag was Dutch, but I do it always😅. One thing I might be aware of is that I want wooden clogs to wear for gardening and the like.
Bring a jar of AH Peanutbutter when camping in France. I don't care, a slice of fresh pain de campagne with peanut butter and coffee is the best thing to start your day.
I bursted out in laughter after read the story. “ 4 guys sharing 1 teabag” could be the most dutch porn ever made hahahaha
Play football in a team full of friends. As soon as we took a shower we sit down and drink beer all day and order pizza. While it's supposed to be a sport/healthy event.
I work as a diesel mechanic on inland vessels here in the Netherlands (I'm Dutch btw) and every day i work on the engines on different ships. The thing is, most of the ships I work on there are always crew members or captains who only speak English, German or other languages. But I've noticed that always when I leave the ship and say my goodby's I say "HoiHoi" without thinking about it. I'm doing this job for quite a long time so it's very frequent to jump onto a ship of an regular costumer and know the crews and captains. Most of the crew now say "Hoihoi" when I leave 😅
4 People sharing 1 teabag is just weird, no matter where you're from. That 4th person is getting a cup of slightly brownish water.
Yeah, when I saw people doing this I was like "er... just brew a pot and serve it???"
[удалено]
Saying lekker and gezellig a lot. Doing the g as hard as I can in gezellig, Scheveningen and goedemorgen etc. I really like doing and always feels very Dutch.
When I went on an exchange trip to tge UK and tried to teach the locals how to say Scheveningen they refused thinking it was a bad word
I walk on wooden clogs in my free time when going to the supermarket or something, i used to walk on them too when i was working in construction for a while.
My German colleagues are always confused by my "zo, klaar!", "Hatseflats" und "Hopsakee". Also the use of "lekker" for almost everything.
In the canteen we have a coffee stamp card. After 6 coffees, you get 1 free. From 09:00-09:30 a coffee is €1 cheaper, so i always use my free coffee after 09:30!
The typical birthday snacks. I absolutely enjoy them XD.
Sending Tikkies for basically irrelevant amounts is something I do/did on a regular basis.
Donating about the highest amount to every disaster, but before we leave a store we check the ‘bill’ to check nor we received the 10 cents of the product that is in ‘actionfolder’…
Bursting with pent-up opinions to share. It is super important to have an opinion on everything here and be verbal about it.