Dutch Culture & Society

Report about the culture and society of the

Netherlands and my own experiences

(Andrea Navarro Moreno, 204803)

 INDEX

1. Introduction
2. Issues to be addressed

2.1. Social aspects:

● 2.1.1. Bicycles
● 2.1.2. Gastronomy
● 2.1.3. Drugs and Prostitution
● 2.1.4. Gedogen

2.2. Geographical aspects:

● 2.2.1. Weather

2.3. Historical aspects:

● 2.3.1. King’s day

2.4. Economical aspects

3. Conclusion
 1. Introduction

In this report it will be shown the differences between various aspects of

Dutch culture and life with the culture of my home country, Spain. In this way
you will get to know the cultural differences and the different aspects of each
culture, and my opinion and perception of them. Several points will be
covered, which will be those that have surprised me the most during my stay
in the Netherlands, which is from September 2021 to June 2022.

2. Issues to be addressed

2.1. Social aspects

2.1.1. Bicycles:

This is one of the things that surprised me the most when I arrived in the
Netherlands, and according to what I believe, it also surprises the rest of the
people who come to this country from all over the world. Before, it was a great
uncertainty for me why they were used so much in this country, and not only
in the big cities or tourist areas, but in every city of the country you can find
them; now that I have learned in the lectures about their history, I am still
surprised that after so many years they are still used so much, even with the
advance of technologies.
A few days after arriving in the country, some Spanish guys I met told me: you
should rent a bicycle. I was not sure about it, as cycling was not one of my
strong points and I was afraid of not knowing how to use it around a country
that was not my own. Besides, what I knew about cycling was a hobby, as a
child I might have used it, but only for a ride in the countryside or something
similar, not like here, to go to university, to go shopping, to party, etc. So this
was a big change for me as soon as I arrived. On the other hand, I decided to
get one because there was also something here that surprised me a lot:
public transport is very expensive for non-residents. I was used to the fact
that in Spain, you can get a regular bus for 1.50€ at the most, and if you have
a discount card (e.g. student card), it can be as low as 60 cents. But here, I
was quite surprised because it's more than 4€ every time you get on the bus.
So in my case, as I live far away from the university, I couldn't afford that
amount of money every day, because according to my calculations, going to
and from the university every day would cost me approximately 216€ per
month, unlike the bicycle, which costs 14,50€ per month. So I immediately
opted for the second option and the truth is that I'm glad about it because it's
a good method of transport: it's healthy, it helps to reduce pollution and you
get everywhere fast. As for the disadvantages (you always have to talk about
the good and bad points), for me the worst of them is the time. I will deal with
this later but it really deserves to be discussed at this point because the worst
thing about having a bicycle as your only method of transport is that the
weather is even worse than when you walk. It's much colder, the wind is often
so against you that riding a bike is quite a physical effort and you can get wet
in a matter of seconds. On the other hand, it can also cause accidents as
some people do not respect the rules of the road properly, whether they are
bicycles, cars or motorbikes, so if we go into this area it can even be
dangerous.

To conclude, the topic of bicycles was something very new to me but it is a

new experience that I could adopt for my daily life in Spain.
2.1.2.Gastronomy:

Another interesting topic in this report could be gastronomy. It is another point

quite different from my own country, because there, the gastronomy is quite
good and healthy, as we deal with natural and home-grown products. We also
use the famous olive oil, which spices up most of our food. Here it is quite
different, dutch people usually eat unhealthy food, such as fried food:
bitterballen, fries, sausages, fried cheese, etc. The truth is that it is quite good
but not healthy at all.
On the other hand, I was also surprised by the fact that most of the meals,
especially lunch, are usually fast food, such as sandwiches, paninis,
baguettes or things like that, unlike in Spain where we usually spend 2 hours
cooking a dish, because they are much more elaborate meals, since lunch is
our main meal. However, dinner is different and much lighter for us because
as we usually eat late, we prefer to eat something lighter so that we have time
to digest, and here, as far as I have been able to see, it is the opposite and
more emphasis is given to dinner. In conclusion, meal times are different, and
so is the cuisine.
 (Poffertjes in Volendam)

2.1.3. Drugs and Prostitution (dutch tolerance):

Another interesting aspect that is worth talking about is the topic of drugs.
When we talk about drugs in the Netherlands, we are mainly talking about
cannabis. In the Netherlands, it is legal to possess up to 5 grams of cannabis.
This is governed by the Dutch drug policy, which is officially based on four
main objectives:

1. To prevent recreational drug use and to treat and rehabilitate

recreational drug users.
2. To reduce the potential harm caused by the drug.
3. To eliminate the nuisance that drug users may cause, namely
nuisance to public order or public safety.
4. To combat the production and trafficking of recreational drugs.
(DrugPolicyFacts, 2021)
According to many media reports, the Netherlands has become one of the
world's leading producers of synthetic drugs (DW, 2019), which means that it
has become a 'world power' in this type of activity. In addition, many tourists
come to the country, especially to the city of Amsterdam, to consume these
drugs (cannabis) freely without being followed by any law.

(Picture of a coffeeshop in Amsterdam)

In short, what they have done in this country is to regulate the use of these
drugs, because just as they are consumed here, they are consumed in every
country in the world, so the Dutch government has preferred to regulate the
use of these drugs, making sure that it is done in the right way and controlling
the consumption, because it is still going to be consumed in one way or
another.

This is quite different if we focus on my home country, because like in most

countries in the world, the consumption of these drugs is illegal, but on the
other hand, you could say that the consumption of cannabis in my country is
even higher than in the Netherlands, because being a bigger country, there is
more movement of drugs, and on the other hand not being legal, people are
more incited to consume them. This can be seen in the Netherlands, as it has
been shown that drug use in the Netherlands is not as high as in other
countries. Dutch people have also shown that a policy of tolerance (dutch
tolerance) does not necessarily lead to massive drug use, because although
the sale of marijuana and hashish in coffeeshops is allowed, not everyone
consumes these substances.

"We are not in favour of drug use, but we are pragmatic and aware that drugs
are not going to go away, so we try to reduce the damage as much as
possible," says researcher Van Laar. (BBC News, 2010).

The same goes for prostitution. It has been legal within the country since
2000 and is best seen in Amsterdam's Red Light District. Legal prostitution is
worth over 2.5 billion euros every year, which is equivalent to 0.4% of the
Dutch GDP, more than the country's cheese industry (ElDiario, 2015).
In this way, the Dutch government also decided to legalise prostitution,
because it was also exercised without any control, and in this way, they can
regulate it, giving the women (prostitutes), the security they need with all the
documents in order, and being at their disposal for whatever they need in
terms of security. Moreover, most of them do this work of their own free will,
which is very different from other countries in the world, such as mine, where
the prostitution centres are on the outskirts of the cities, hidden and without
any kind of security body to regulate if everything is working properly inside
the establishment.

(Red Lights District, Amsterdam)

2.1.4. Gedogen:

Following from the information mentioned above, we come across the Dutch
term "gedogen". This word, as we have studied in the lectures, does not have
a concrete meaning, but we could define it as: It roughly means “tolerated,”
but in a wider and different sense of the word. The word is used of a situation
or activity that technically is illegal, but which is actively tolerated as a matter
of government policy — since everyone knows the issue (DutchAmsterdam,
2007). In this way and as mentioned in the previous aspects it is remarkable
that Netherlands is quite a tolerant country in terms of things that are "illegal"
so to speak. Furthermore, it was also the first country in Europe to accept
homosexual marriage, which shows that it has allowed such things since
2001, without fear of being criticised by other countries. They also have
euthanasia as legal, which has been a dispute in many countries, as is the
case in my country. The differences are noticeable because here, as we can
see, most people are willing to respect these aspects, but in my home
country, when dealing with issues like these, there are always conflicts and
there is a division between two sides, those who are for and those who are
against. So it is often difficult to decide some issues because people are
never going to be 100% satisfied, so it is difficult to decide something. From
my point of view, this way of looking at "illegal" things should be applied in my
country and deal with them from a more colloquial point of view, i.e.
"gedogen" should be adopted.

2.2. Geographical aspects

2.2.1. Weather:

This topic may be irrelevant for many people, but for me, it was also quite
shocking at first because I, used to live in a country with sun all day long,
especially in the south of Spain (where I live), here I was surprised that the
weather is quite bad, that is, most of the time it is cloudy or raining, which is
quite good compared to the south of Spain, where we always have droughts
and the crops are not cultivated properly, so it also means losses for the
people who work in the fields. In addition, the lakes and canals here are
always full of water, unlike where I live, where most of the time they are dry.

On the other hand, it is a country where there is very little sunlight, which is
also surprising for me, because unlike in my country, there is light everywhere
and we even have to close the windows. Besides, the difference in
temperature here is quite noticeable, being a country close to the north of
Europe.

2.3. Historical aspects

2.3.1. King’s day (Koningsdag):

Following on from another important aspect of this country that may surprise
newcomers is King's Day. This day is so normalised that most of the residents
celebrate it, which in my opinion can be quite shocking as the King is treated
in a very colloquial way, and he also acts as if he were a citizen, which is quite
different from other countries. For example in my country, the issue of the king
can cause quite a lot of disputes between people in the same country,
because many people prefer to have a republic because they feel that the
king's behaviour is not appropriate, and currently what we have is a
monarchy.

It is also a national celebration (celebrated since 2014) attended by

thousands of people and is celebrated in most cities, or especially in the most
important ones. It is such an important festival that hotels must be booked in
advance because they are in high demand at that time.
One aspect that I find curious is that everyone dresses in the king's colour:
orange. This is because the king's name is William of Orange (translated in
English), so everyone dresses in this colour to commemorate him. It is also
the colour of the national team and of many of the festivals celebrated in this
country, so it becomes a national emblem.

This is a very remarkable difference with my country, where there is no colour

that is a national emblem, but each political party has its own colour (red,
blue, green, purple), which each person uses according to their political
ideology, so there are many clashes between them.
2.4. Economical aspects

Another aspect that can be considered important is the economy.

The Netherlands has a highly developed economy that is characterised by
stable industrial relations, low unemployment, an expressive trade surplus,
and plays a key role in Europe's economy as an important trading centre
(DeNederlandscheBank, 2021).

As everybody can see, the Netherlands is a country that is well developed

economically, and for me this explains the price of many things, as this was
something that also shocked me a lot when I arrived in this country. The
prices of daily life things are higher than the prices in my country. After
several months here, I understood that this country is much more developed
economically and that people's salaries are also higher. I was also quite
surprised that most of the people here have a job, that is, even the students.
In Spain, when you are a student it is very difficult to work because finding a
part-time job is quite difficult because you work long hours and not in the best
conditions (with this I am referring to jobs such as waiter in a bar). So it is
very difficult for students to be able to work. But here, it is quite different
because the jobs are adapted to the students' timetable allowing them the
greatest possible flexibility and paying quite well, so this would be impossible
to find in Spain, and it is something that disappoints me a lot because we
could take the example of countries like this one, and teach young people to
work from an early age. In this way, I can understand why products are more
expensive, as the country has more wealth.

On the other hand, I was also surprised not to find homeless people in this
country, which is quite common in Spain, as there are many homeless people
who have to beg for money or go to social canteens to be able to survive.

3. Conclusion

After doing this report and attending the lectures, I have learned a lot about
the Dutch culture and their way of life, customs, festivities, cuisine, etc.
Furthermore, through my experience living in the country I have also been
able to see that it is a country quite different from mine, but it also has similar
aspects, which is also a good thing since the daily life is really very similar.
From my point of view, some aspects of this country could also be adopted
and applied in my country, such as the issue of dutch tolerance (gedogen).
On the other hand, there are also issues I don't agree with, such as the use of
public transport and the fact that it is so expensive for non-residents.

As a conclusion, in the end both are European countries so many aspects are
similar and there is not so much difference, but when we go a bit deeper into
the culture and ways of living, is when we find notable differences between
one country and the other, which also serves as a learning experience to
open your mind and realise that what you have always seen does not mean
correct, but that there are different points of view and you have to learn to
respect them all.

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