D-I-E Netherlands

Written by Fiona Mwacharo

I have been in Netherlands for about a week and I love it. It is quite different than Finland. The city in which I am staying in, Groningen, is a student city with over 20 000 students. The average age is approximately 34 years for the residents here so there are a lot of young people and activities for young adults here. So here is my D-I-E experience

Describe

The Dutch are incredibly good at small talk, so much so that they end up talking about, what I feel is, super personal things just a few minutes after having met them. For example, my student group at the school was tasked with giving a small ppt introduction about themselves. Most people gave the usual information about their age and their hobbies but for the Dutch they went a step more. One of the Dutch students told that he was a Christian and had recently proposed to his girlfriend and that they would be married at the end of the year. Having lived in Finland for the past 10 years, I have become accustomed to the Finnish culture and I know that there is no way a Finnish student would discuss something so personal in front of people they had just met. Another Dutch student also talked about being engaged. Plus with other conversations with other Dutch people, I have seen that they are incredibly open people and can more or less give their life story after meeting someone for the first time. This is incredibly shocking for me.

Interpret

After encountering a handful of Dutch people who have been just as open, my interpretation is that this is a common thing in Netherlands. The people are overall incredibly friendly and just want to get to know other people. Maybe for them, giving such details is not too personal and they are not shy to give all kinds of details about their life.

Evaluate

After some googling I found that this is a typical Dutch stereotype. They are known for being open minded and being friendly and also discussing everything and anything under the sun even after meeting someone for the first time. Overall, this is something that at first made me feel weird but I am learning to adapt and be just as open as they are.