Reaction To TRUTH or MYTH - Dutch React to Stereotypes 

It's how copper wire was invented...a Dutchman and a Scotsman, fighting over a penny...

The stereotype of Amsterdam being the entire Netherlands and the Netherlands being only Amsterdam is rather annoying. Also the immediate reference to weed and being stoned. People never once stop to consider how it is possible to design and live in such an efficient and healthy country if everyone is walking around stoned all the time. It's obvious that the stereotype doesn't make sense.

Directness is a thing. However, it's not true that everyone feels the need to just come out with their views and opinions. I feel that many Dutchies are relatively sensitive to the situation. If asked directly they will give their honest, no beating-about-the-bush, answer. If you can't handle that then don't ask in the first place. Sugar coating is not a Dutch thing. Once again, people don't say nasty things for no reason. And the interpretation of "nasty" is cultural, and not an inherently Dutch trait. On the contrary, Dutchies are in fact very open, down to earth and really lovely.

Yes, tourists don't get the concept of Dutch cycling. But they're far less annoying than those that join a sports club and use the bicycle paths as their personal race track, often in groups.

The weirdest stereotype comes from Americans, I’ve heard this one more than once: Dutch people ride a bike so much because they are too poor to afford cars. 🤨 I also, personally, know only 1 person who smokes weed. That’s out of my entire social circle, family, friends, colleagues etc. Most people I know kinda look down upon it. I don’t feel we are cheap, just responsible with money, why would you spend 20 euros on a product if you know you can get it for 10? And why not go for a discount if it’s there?

It is annoying that people think Amsterdam is the Netherlands, particularly since Amsterdam is not quite representative of the rest of the country. Just like London or New York are not representative of UK or US.

I am direct.. If I dont want to hurt someone with my honest opinion, I dont give a reply.. I just do not beast around the bush with fake positivity

Dutch directness has to do with efficiency and practicality, it saves time which contributes to a healthy work life balance.

Yes, we get annoyed when people call The Netherlands Amsterdam or Holland.

Hi, you ask questions all the time about what the Dutch think about certain things. Please take some time to share the reactions. I'm interested. Keep on the good work!

I am 71 and Dutch and never used drugs, not even weed.

Great vid and on point.

I wouldnt say we are cheap, but we do like to search for the best quality/price spot so a lot of us dont buy instantly. Besides that we often split the bills because there is always that person that only drinks expensive stuff while the rest of us drink normal beers. or youve got that one that gets 3 extra beers compared to the rest or the one that never pays for a round.

8:00. if you don't own a bike you're wierd XD

There is a joke that says that the Dutch are Scots who swam over (overgezwommen Schotten). Yeah, the Dutch can be very frugal and proud of it too.

One thing you must know Holland is just two of our provinces it's not the whole country.

There is quite a difference in mentality and directness in the Netherlands. In the west of the Netherlands, people are different compared to those in the north or south of the country. Generally, the Dutch are quite direct. The cycling infrastructure in the Netherlands is good everywhere, but I live in a small village. I don't feel like biking for half an hour to get somewhere, so I take the car. In the city, it's a different story. Life becomes impossible with a car. There are too few parking spaces, you're often not allowed to drive in many places, and there are speed cameras everywhere. A bike is then immediately the solution; you can ride anywhere, and park it everywhere, etc. Regarding marijuana use, many people have tried it at least once, and there are still quite a few regular users. However, in Amsterdam, for example, the city center is entirely focused on tourists, including the coffee shops. Many locals go to their own non-touristy coffee shops. By the way, hash and weed are quite expensive in the Netherlands; good weed costs at least 10 euros per gram. There are still home dealers who are much cheaper. Coffee shops can be found throughout the Netherlands, even in some villages, but as mentioned, they are pricey. Home delivery by a courier is also an option.

Three years ago, I suffered from neuropathic pain. That pain doesn’t respond to painkillers, including opiates. There is pain medication, but that takes 14 days before it starts to work. What helped a bit was, strange enough, bagpipe music. And THC. I ordered it online, THC gummy bears. Still have some in the kitchen drawer. Those two things made it bearable a bit.

Paying for or distributing drinks and food separately must be something out of town. When we went out, the drinks came from all over and went in all directions and we didn't think about money. If someone had picked it up, someone else would pick it up for him. No one stayed home

I had an international diplomatic meeting in Stockholm. The whole group of EU countries' representatives were invited in a pizza restaurant with self service. I (being Dutch) was at the counter first. Simple pizza and an orange juice. Right behind me was a Scot (Brexit did not happen yet). He had an even simpler pizza and a water. His bill was 20 Kronor less than mine. I asked him why. He said more was not necessary. To this day I feel my pain from that moment sometimes. 🙂

The most direct people live in West Netherlands, (the most big cities are also there) so in the southern, northern en eastern side of the country they are softer en friendlier I think, but most people live in West Netherland, and all the media is located there. People from East and North Netherlands also think people from the West are a littlebit too loud. ;)

Going Dutch originally came from the fact that in Dutch culture it is not uncommon that everyone pays for themselves for example if you have dinner with a group of friends. I can remember days where people had discussions about the bill, like ‘ you had the steak and I only had a salad so I should pay less’. But to be honest that isn’t as much prevalent as it was. These days a lot of people would simply split the bill evenly. I know in several cultures, paying the bill would rotate between friends that eat out on a regular basis, but the tradition of eating out wasn’t as common say 10-20 years ago. So back then it might happen you’d only meet once or twice a year and have to keep track whose turn it was to pay. So it was easier to let that go by just paying for yourself or splitting the bill evenly.

I'm multitasking now. In my ears I hear you about the Dutch. On TV I watch Switzerland - Germany and I zapp a lot to Scotland - Hungary. My pool entry was 1-2 and 3-1. Switzerland is making good progress. But Scotland? come on, hurry up.....

You do know how copper wire was invented no? That was two Scotsmen fighting over a penny.

we have more bicycles than people in the netherlands and we learn to cycle from a young age. most kids cycle to school and friends as soon as they are able to safely cycle there. tourist are kinda annoying because they don't know the proper cycling etiquette

We love a bargain I never used any drugs and neither have all my friends. It’s mostly youth on the night out and tourists that use them. I’ve got two bikes. One old one for shopping etc. and one for making bike trips.

I'm Dutch, but if I would ever have the audacity to propose going Dutch on a date, my mom would rise from her grave to slap me silly.

Going Dutch comes from our ancestors. WW2 was very bad for them and they had to scrape food together. I always remember what my great grandma always said: “You never know when there will be harder times!” So, jeah, we like to carry together. It’s also a scale thingy, he or she has done this for me, now I am in his or her debt. And no one wants to be in debt.

Yes we have lots of camping spots here. But wildcamping is mostly illegal here because of the density of the population but there are quite a lot of places that really do come close to the same expierence. So please, Let me know if you require any specific information if you consider to stay here?

why turn around it or taking the long way go directly same as your navigator shortest and fast route go directly to the point

Come to Bunschoten-Spakenburg. On the 1e Saterday of September. It's Fishingday in Spakenburg. Going back in time. The noordpont of the province of Utrecht.

I have never send a tikki. Young people share more. We like good prices.

Of course we are great at camping. Do you know what a hotel costs?

Im from the north of the Netherlands in Friesland. For dutch standards we northern people are direct especially frisians. So outside of the Netherlands for sure. But not necessarily blunt. We are also known as very hospitalble. So it's something to get used to but most people come to appreciate it Oh and netherlands is holland is just amsterdam. Its so annoying. Amsterdam isnt even a good representation of the rest of the Netherlands. If you visited Amsterdam, you can stripe Amsterdam of your list, not the Netherlands

I grew up on the poor side two, and alway's had less then my friends. Bud they did share a pint entre fee or some snack's on a night out. Bud i am responsible for my own cost's, and had to wigle my way tru corners tho keep up with my spending's. Great channel, keep it up.🇳🇱

With family, I don’t use tikkie, with friends, it depends on the situation. But with colleagues we definitely use tikkies. When one colleague goes out to get sandwiches for more people, they just send tikkies. As they should, they’re nice enough to use their own car to get them, so i surely pay my own sandwich. I’ve never ever smoked anything. I don’t cycle, I’m lazy and I love on top of one of the few hills (south Limburg)

9:06 what the guy said about the North of Netherlands, NOT Holland !!!!!

I,m half Scotisch and half Dutch but i,m not cheap. If I have money it will be spend.

We got our kids a balance bike for their second birthday and a year later a normal bike without supporting wheels

Riding a bike while intoxicated is illegal in the Netherlands. Not that you'd ever know by the lack of enforcement.

Iam from Rotterdam, we have a rivalry with Amsterdam. Everywhere i go and mention iam from the Netherlands, its: 'aahhhh Amsterdammm!! 😁😎😍' Me: 🤢😤😤

Nothing as annoying as being confused with Germans, like that one dude mentioned. Dutch vs Deutsch, BIG difference! And to Germany: bekommen wir noch unsere Fahrrader zuruck? 😉

5:46 that's what you call an echo chamber right there. I know like 1 person who has used weed. thats it. depends where you live and who the people are you surround yourself with. I mean less than 20% of the population smokes so its safe to assume claiming that every dutch person tried weed once is nonsense. Another wacky take from him is at 9:30. By far, most dutch people speak perfectly fine english. the accent might be a bit weird but its hard to find someone who isnt a child or elderly person who cant speak english.

If u have ur own word for being cheap....u gotto be pretty frugal...

Dutch like camping, yes. The good thing about camping in the Netherlands is that you don't need to worry so much about inclinations. The ground is flat.

4:30.. yeah its so easy having Tikkie

Dutch is a wrong word in the title of this video. Amsterdam would be better. As all the people in this video apperently live there. Having no clue about Netherlands outside the Randstad arear.

Dont think dutch people are cheap but most people now a days dont make enough money for a decent living and need to go cheap where everything is getting more expensive

Or when they say your from Holland? No i'm from the south.

6:20. yeah you'd suspect for every dutch person to have atleast smoked weed once in their life... but there is like 18million people here... not everyone has done it XD would olso not recommend it to everybody... when they say its not adictive they wrong..! but that only depends on the persons themselfs...

I can say, we love to get things cheaper then they were before and we like to brag about it. The standard here is not: "oh look what I got! a new Gucci bag from that fancy new place, it cost me 500 euros, look how rich I am!" But it is: "Look what I got! These super cool pants from an unkown brand and they only cost me 20 euros! I researched the price online and they're worth 50!" (usually we also mention the store to people so that they can get a cheap pair of pants for themselves too.) Tikkie is an app you use for easy transactions. For example, if you've had a few beers and snacks (bitterballen) with friends, most likely one person will pay and say "i'll send you a tikkie". The person who paid will then eighter: - send everyone a tikkie transaction request individually for the amount they spent (like if I had 2 wine that cost 2,50 each he will send me a request to pay 5 euros) But this is not often done because they'd have to remember what each individual had to drink/eat. - sent everyone the same request with the same amount calculated by dividing the bill by the amount of people they were with. (like a 100 euro bill divided by 5 people would be 20 euro per person) This option is best if people drink the same drink and the same amount but thats not always the case so it could be that you pay a little more or a little less depending on the drink and the amount you had. We're not that cheap. - or they sent a photo of the receipt in the group chat and and open transaction request and you pay what you had. (Open requests are requests where you can choose what amount you pay.) I often find this one the easiest one but its a risk for the person who payed the bill because you have to trust people's memories on what drink they had.

8:45.. yea its sooo enoying... like i said before not all dutch people are stoners XD

Als ik €5,- van mijn Oma kreeg. Waren mijn ouders, meteen! Je moet 1/4SPAREN! Dat was met alles wat ik verdiende. Het heeft wel geholpen. 16, Zundapp 50? Honda MB? 17 speedboat 19 een BMW 318I. 22, kocht ik mijn eerste huis.

should be 99 prcnt

GO TIKKIE👍👍💪

I’m from South-Holland, but I lived in Maastricht (south east) for some years. I’m very direct. The people in Maastricht were very much not. I couldn’t get used to all the double speech. All the forced politeness, that turned into toxic gossip behind your back. No thank you.

alot of fake and defencive duchies in the comments, time to write a honest dutch opinion, do you have a couple hours? XD hold on..... - blunt: mostly a bad trait imo, it is convenient at times to be able to skip certain social rules, most people are also able to understand the timing to not become offensive, i.e. during a fun foreigner meeting. but a huge portion simply lacks the empathy to use that skill in neutral or hostile situations and proudly use "directness" or the lightest iritation as an excuse to start verbally dominating each other which is problematic, especially for introverts. - tall: more a fact then a steriotype, its true on average, im sadly not tall but i did get the nice blond and blue combo...well scratch the blond cause im starting to grey already im only 30ish, fuck me XD. - "go dutch": if the price is neglectable we gift, if the price is huge we could decide to gift, but if the price is mediocre it has to be personal to be a gift, like buying movie tickets to someones favorite movie. if its not personal when i.e. teens go out with a friend for a random movie its not financially neglectable nor huge nor personal, so why not just split the bill over the friends??? eventually when you start a job with good income you switch from splitting to gifting movie tickets cause at that point it dropped to the neglectable category. - stoned: we have the biggest seaport of europe and theres alot of illigal produce too. weed is literally LEGAL to buy, kids dont just try alcohol before their 18th, they get blunts from their 18y friends too.....why are all the dutchies so dismissive on this one? theyre totally right to assosiate us with stoners, chatgpt says near top 10 for weed usage and inside the TOP 5 for party drugs out of ALL countries in the world. 25% have tried weed specifically and 10% are using it regularly, those are rediculous numbers. that said the statement that all dutch including the 75% who never touched drugs like to get stoned is obviously wrong. - bike: disagree, supermarkets are often in walk distance(unless you decide to live next to the cows) and public transport is very well connected and cheap(even free for students) can be nice, but a quick and free busride is also fine. although the girl does make a solid remark about drunk people being able to get home alot faster haha. good bike costs a fortune 2000ish euro only bike you can get cheap is some shitty 2nd hand one that requires alot of effort to get speed and breaks down randomly and still costs 200ish, ye nevermind that, ill just ride the free bus. if the statement was we use alot of bikes, then yes we do indeed, we own more bikes then we have people :) - annoying: none of the above, they are all true and we deserve them, especially weed, definitely weed one that does annoy all of us is being compared to germans or their language. altho we are similar we are arch rivals when it comes to sports and contests. so being called german is almost offensive haha. also our language is close but not the same, we cant understand each other and while we have a soft way of pronouncing things german has plenty of yt videos making fun of its overly harsh pronounciation of words so definitely dont be saying we sound like germans unless you want minus 100 social credits. 9:25 thats just rehearsing the being blunt statement 9:30 completely wrong, pretty much everyone besides the grannies speak great english, perhaps not fluent but definitely a very large vocabulary, most do have quiet an embarassing dutch accent tho, we call it dunglish 9:40 see? the traumas of dutchies being called german is real XD hes also warning you to not lose your social credits haha 9:45 yeeeeee thats not happening mate, camping is illigal. the only camping allowed is on dedicated campsites where theres toilets electricity already provided, are we good campers? maybe good at setting up a tent, but not at surviving in the wild lmao.

been smoking spliffs for nearly 35 years now on a mostly daily basis. but, only in the evening after I did all my chores etc. Makes me sleep really well. never am stoned all day long. Makes me way to passive.. As a citizen from Amsterdam I can confirm the tourist are HORRIBLE on bikes. I spot them 100's of meters in front of me due to there speed/swaying left and right and not paying proper attention to traffic. Wish it would be illegal for them to rent a bike, there just dangerous.

About the bikes. Im a guy from Netherlands 🇳🇱 and and truth is Yes we do have a bikes and a really good infrastructure for. But the thing is not EVERYTHING IS BY BIKE. People from Amsterdam are not going to ride their bike from the city to the other place in Netherlands. Its mostly in their city center. Most people travel by car or Public transport. But only by bicycle if they see the need for it. Look the Netherlands does have a nation wide bicycle infra you can technically go from Groningen a big North dutch city to Maastricht a big dutch south city. But no one does that. Also here in the Netherlands the scooter or mopet for people outside Netherlands along with the ebikes and fatbikes are recent far more common here in Netherlands. Because sadly people here are becoming more lazy. Also Amsterdam and some other cities in Netherlands are actually the only good place you can go cycle. Amsterdam is actually quite dangerous now and stand at like 5th place in Netherlands for cycling. Nr 1 is Utrecht. Also Rotterdam our second biggest city looks and is the total opposite is Amsterdam. Its a big, concrete and glass jungle infested by car infrastructure, heavily bombed in the past and now is really ugly and mostly rude people. Also the chance you get robbed or stabbed in Rotterdam is far more higher.

Dutch are not direct, they are blunt. Dutch always fingerpoint others, but cannot take any criticism themselves. Dutch take pride in anything or anyone remotely ‘Dutch’ without further reference.

You can't smoke weed at the coffeeshop. Best place to smoke is either at home or outside in nature.