Dealing with the Dutch

Here is my final report about the Dutch Culture,

I based this on the experiences I have lived in the Netherlands and my personal knowledge about the country. Notably based on a book of Jacob Vossestein Dealing with the Dutch.

Introduction           

The Netherland, a disillusionment : from the canal, flower and little houses pictures to a proper and unique culture. In this difficult atmosphere full of social economic problems, we are fighting different crisis : economic, financial, social but also a european crisis, this last one is an identity crisis. European fellow didn’t realise their citizenship and frustration increase the development of extremism, particulary in the East Europe.

This is during this context that I started my international exchange in the Netherlands.

Because of this circumstances and also of my convictions, I tried by many way to understand and observe the Dutch people. This is a work to achieve, indeed an erasmus exchange drive you into a new country and it culture but also those of all the other exchange student.

Therefore all my work will be based on my Dutch professor, my dutch friends, merchants, and even aboriginal. But also media, reading, museum and of course my Dutch Culture class.

All of this gave me the true overview I have now about Nederlands, the Dutch stereotype we have in my home country : France, is far from reality and perfectly describe in the book. And I m glad to have the opportunity to refute the french vision in this assessment.

I will start by broach the economic and social subject then few topics came by themselves, so to extend my vision I decide to write             about dutch caracteristics: pragmatic, rational and momney-minded, then about  images and stereotypes . And finally I will also speak about nationalism and the intenational outlook.

I – The Netherlands overview

Economy

The Netherlands one of the smaller country in Europe is also one of the richer. So first of all I have to persent in few data keys this little country. In 2012, For 16 630 732 inhabitants the PIB of The Netherlands was evaluated at 594,7 billion, the net export at 49,4 billion. The main important aspect of the economic structure of the country is it’s implanting in foreign country and trade : the amsterdam stock exchange is considerate as the oldest stock exchange in the world (established in 1602 by the Dutch East India Company). But the dynamic of the economy also depends on the country’s company and not only because of the density of multinational corporation that have decide to come settle in the Netherland.

The largest industries are the food-processing industry, chemicals, petroleum refining, and electrical machinery. Agriculture is highly mechanized and employs only 4% of the workforce population. The Netherlands is the third largest agricultural exporter of world even with it’s territory size of 33 783 km2. The high activity of Dutch agriculture is farming which occupies nearly half of the farms. In number of farms, horticulture and market gardening are in second place.

The country has experienced one of the first bubbles: the tulip mania. The country is also famous because of few of its marginal policies. Tolerated the sale of cannabis through coffee shops is a significant influx of money since many foreigners (mainly from Belgium, France and Germany) are doing their small purchase because the laws of their countries do not allow them to procure legally. But since the 1st mai a law dating from the 1st january 2012 prohibits differents foreign citizen to buy canabis.

The sense of business is deeply present in Dutch people, this fact is also a feeling.

After spending several months in the country, I can say that many Dutch people have naturally a talent for trade. By many aspect of their behavior they are already adapted at the logic of business.

According to Jens Høj, chief economist at the OECD and specialist of the country « In the Netherland, we start work very early ». So the insertion into the labour market is much more natural than in France by example.

Trade, Flexibility, or flower aren’t the only success, the port of Rotterdam, Fourth largest port in the world and the first European fori its capacity, Rotterdam saw transit 130 million tons of goods in 2010 and this is one of the most modern in the world.

Investor are attract by many aspect of the country but one of them is the people capacity to consensus, labor union are stable and government almost never need to interfere in their business.

Society

How could I describe the Dutch society, a difficult task to achieve. According to my observations during a whole semester, Dutch people are often polite and helpful, they are always incline to give you informations or advice. There is a facility to start talking with Dutch people, probably their good english, but also their good languages skills in generally. Even if immigration issue is a really important debate in the netherlands today, they are really welcoming people and they don’t give bad impression as in country in France. Dealing with the Dutch by Jacob Vossestein is a funny and usefull book, where you can find many original facts. To make a comparison, I m going to give a french one in order to have a better overview of The Netherland.

In Paris, in what we call the “kiosque à journaux” which is little shop for news paper and magazine. They recently start few years ago, to paste publication for tourist saying “NO INFORMATION FOR TOURIST”, more by laziness than xenophobia, this reaction show how much patient and comprehensive can be Dutch people. I don’t think that this part of their behavior is highlight enought.

 

I also visited FloraHolland center recently, this was not only a good example of Dutch company and economy, but also a good image of Dutch society : diversity, integration, reliable, professionalism, or even coordination which imply many other skills and factors.

This image can be resume by hundred of companies working together in the same place. The center has been create as a part of the chain of floriculture market and where many process are handle, as transportation, warehousing, research and even the stock exchange.

Dutch people know how to handle many thing in the same times, but they did, in the right time and in the right way.

 

II- My personal opinion

            A. Pragmatic, rational and money-minded

Dutch characteristics are extremely related to their history and their social and economic factors. Their permanant capacity to be realistic, acting in business with calmness and determination, we can say that can people have often pragmatic people. They want to see thing to trust them, they need real evidence, they want to have concrete facts to make a decision or even simply act.

This could be consider as an advantage, but this characteristic is also responsible of disruptive behavior. Dutch people are rarely taking risk, and they miss of openess with people they meeting. They don’t take into consideration the opportunities to broaden their friends and familly circle. They don’t really look interest by their interlocutor personnality and story. We can say that they may are the promise of  efficiency, but this promise imply trouble in relationships that could need to be solve.

 

Rationality follow their pragmatism,  this logical channel has to be detail. Dutch people are rational, when they are doing business they want to see immediately the results, they need a clear vision in the situation in order to take decision. But this characteristic is also responsible for good affects on Dutch behavior. Their sense of business force them to be honnest and answer in time to question or project. This sense drive them to high performance and quality in relationships but they expect the same behavior from their foreign partners. And when something happen like that in a wrong way, Dutch people are obviously very annoyed when people don’t respect their commitments. An interesting observation is written in the book, the greatest Dutch painter Rembrandt and Vermeer painted normal and regular people from the city, they were already trying to show reality.

Calvinism is one of the reason give to explain why Dutch people are money minded. Calvinism orient people to don’t make waste or mess, it also asking to do not make loan by example. Dutch are used to ask price directly, but I have to precise few things about this characteristic. If Dutch people could be money minded, they are the opposite of selfish people. They are one of the highest donors country in the world, and they well-know how to spend their money in holidays.

All these characteristics are defining a part of Dutch population. A lot of them are completely different. Anyway they are good characteristics, but they can lead to few problems sometimes We (Belgium) always find the best hotel for our Dutch colleagues during the visit to our headquarters. They always find an economic nearby Motel for us (pragmatic.. and/or money minded)”. Of course these type of issue happens really rarely.

            B. Images and stereotypes

Jacob Vossestein succeeded to wrote an effective, expert and funny books about Dutch people, he gave a light-hearted look on their society. He also try to have an objective opinion, so he not only worked with Dutch people but with foreign people.

In this chapter the international opinion is important and it’s also the chapter who make me realize how bad was my vision on Dutch people.

My old vision wasn’t completely wrong, rain is always here, and there is little house with flower in every cities. But it’s a very reductive vision of the Netherland. To me it’s also the huge RaboBank tower of Utrecht by example.

There is only one image that I can confirm, the bike … Why Dutch people are they using so much their bike ? Because of the geographic structure of the country ? The politic choice who have been made a half century ago? Probably both and many other reasons. But this is a fact, people are completely educated and used to support bike everywhere. This is one of the most important loveliness of the Netherland but this is also responsible of many good external results as the environnmental effect.

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People generally also observe the liberty in the country, I m making a reference for drugs and prostitution. Dutch people do tolerate them, but this part of their culture can be explain. First the country is smaller than country as France where control and framing are harder or impossible to done correctly, the second reason is the historic implementation of this marginal choices. Could they do this again today ? And more important Would they do it again? They are significant revenu, but they are also at the base of a lot of problem, less obvious of course but they exist. Moreover this feeling of freedom is partially wrong, there is not particulary more liberties than in any other European country.

According to our lecturer during the month of may, we can opposite one theory of the book, this theory consider that Dutch people care about the image of haven for immigrate and political refugees. Geert Wilders is the embodiment of this opposition.

Fear and intolerance increase with crisis, frustration is always at the origins of anger. Their anger is probable badly oriented but this is became a very sensitive subject in the country.

To resume the rest of the images and stereotypes that people can have, I can evoke the football team (even if the results aren’t great recently), the nature of their economy and their holidays in the south of the France.

 

            C. Nationalism and International Outlook

Dutch people never been affraid from foreign and unknown countries, seven centuries ago they were already trading and doing business all around the world. They start travel long time ago, and they keep traveling nowadays. They even particulary love trip, they study guide book before at the opposite behavior from country like US.

Socialy and economically open, The Netherlands has given refuge for famous people running away from their country, the french philosopher René Descartes : creator of the famous “cogito ergo sum”, I think, therefore I am, we could related this discovery to the rational personnality of Dutch people. Anyway, a lot of important artist, writer, painter, etc. Have been in the Netherlands in order to benefits from their tolerance but at long terms influence the country.

This  is likelihood a reason why they are founder of the European Union. And today, the Dutch government is handling high responsability in international role (NATO, EG, various UN peace missions). Their influence can also be explain by their old colony, New York was New Amsterdam during a times …

They don’t care about this legacy, at the opposite of country like France or Hungarian, they are not really interest on their history, they prefere to be oriented in the present where the real pride is. They should be more interested, even if they won’t admit it, they care about their image, and they always love things that can help the world vision about them.

Even if they don’t look like, Dutch people care a lot about their country, they denounce policy issue and they give importance to their image. Despite their traits like realism and pragmatism they don’t all realize how an exceptionnal country they are. They show it by few times during the year. The best one is probable the queens day, where every people are dress in orange, but there is other, like the football match for the world or European cup.

Conclusion

In my work, I tried to include my own vision of the Dutch culture, but also other opinions, and the most related chapter of the book Dealing with the Dutch by Jacob Vossestein to my thought, in order to structure and explain my vision.

The Dutch people are incredible by many aspect, capable of charity and money minded in the same times, their culture has proven how liberal society can works. They are the perfect example of how a country can handle economy, culture and integration in the same times. They succeed every transition and challenge they met during the 6 last decades.

They are able to focus their system on economy and to respect values as equality or generosity. Dutch people have maybe some difficulties to open themself to other people, but they are open-minded, realistic and honnest people. They have a lot of procedures and laws, there is a lot of barriers to truly understand and meet a Dutch person, but at the end it worth it.

Mostly because of the course, the book and the excursion than by myself, I do know how to handle main of the situations who could happens during a work context in Holland. I won’t be surprised by their reactions and behavior. Of course their behavior during work is in opposition of how I imagine a place of work. Their many characteristics as money minded or pragmatic drive them to be isolated at work, they don’t look the work place as a place where they have friends. A famous sentence will better illsutrate “Business come before the girlfriends”.

But this is not this only limits who will stop my desire to come work in the Netherlands one day. The perspective to work in the Netherlands is possible for me, I always wanted to work abroad, and their sense of business is not just a way to improve my skills, it’s a pleasure to work with them. According to a close parent working in Banking sector, Dutch people are the best negotiator in the world. I can’t say if it’s true but I know that Dutch people know what they are doing when they are dealling with someone, this is why I expect to be ready to work with them now.