10 prejudices about the Dutch (and the truth about them)

There are a lot of prejudices about the Dutch. Some a little bit true and some are just too much fun to take seriously. I’ve collected 10 prejudices about the Dutch and Holland and explain why they are true or false!

Dutch people are greedy
They say the Dutch are greedy. It has even lead to the term ‘Going Dutch’ that indicates that each person participating in a group activity pays for themselves, rather than any person paying for anyone else, particularly in a restaurant bill. It’s true that many Dutch people like to split the bill. It is also true that we are not great tippers abroad, mainly because we don’t have a tipping culture in Holland. 

Dutch people are the tallest in the world
Yes, we are tall. We have an average height of 1.85 meter. We might be the tallest nation on earth, but there are tribes in Africa that are even taller than us!

Dutch people are all talk and no action
To be acknowledged as a small country only talk and no action wouldn’t do the trick. Rotterdam is seen as the city with the strongest work ethic. Why? After the second world war the city was completely destroyed by bombings. Within a short amount of time they reconstructioned and modernised the city. It is now the skyline city of Holland.

Dutch people walk on wooden shoes
We’d like to walk on all kinds of shoes, but wooden shoes or clogs are usually not one of the options! Yes, there are still farmers and other people that walk in them, but it is not common at all.

Dutch people travel in groups
We like to go camping. We usually go somewhere with our own caravan and bring the entire family. But next to that we like to go on our own as well! Dutch people are quite adventurous and can be found all over the world!

Dutch people are all very, very liberal
They think Dutch people smoke weed all day long, visit the red light district often and are all pro euthanasia and abortion. It is true that these things are legalised, but it says nothing about how we deal with things. Most people don’t care about coffee shops and the opinions about life ending are very diverse.

Dutch people are very direct
Yes, we speak our minds. It is just how we interact with each other. It doesn’t mean we are being rude all the time. We just like to be clear. Our culture is not hierarchy based, so we address our employer or sometimes even parents with their first name.

Dutch people speak different languages
With only 16.7 million Dutch people we have a language that is not spoken by a lot of people. We are used to learn other languages early on. Next to Dutch we learn English, French and German at school. Some schools also teach Greek and Latin. And then there are also people in the province Friesland that speak Frisian. It’s the Dutch second official language.

Dutch people are loud
Are we? Maybe we are just very enthusiastic. 😉 I think this prejudice is true for many countries. But yes, we don’t whisper. We talk clearly!

Dutch people eat weird foods
Well, we have some atypical foods.. (have you seen our blog about the 10 Dutch foods you should try once?) That’s true! But usually we’d like to eat foods that keep us warm and feed us well. A typically Dutch plate includes meat, potatoes and vegetables.

Do you know other prejudices about the Dutch? Let me know, I am very curious!