10 Reasons Why I Love the Netherlands (As an American)

never thought I'd say this but I do like Dutch directness from one of the happiest countries in the world to more bicycles than people to the work-life balance to not having to compare myself all the time to the beauty of this country from canals to windmills to gyms inside of churches here are 10 reasons why I love the Netherlands do nor Mal or act normal this is a Dutch philosophy a phrase that I really appreciate because it's really about standing in versus standing out it's about not bragging it's about conforming and this is such a big contrast as compared to U.S culture where I'm from where it's really about being unique being the best that you can be and that can actually be a formula for unhappiness now it's not to say that the Dutch don't achieve they don't want greatness they do but they don't brag about it for example when I went to University here to do my masters when I got my exam grades I got 7 out of 10 and I was quite disappointed because well a 7 out of a 10 for me meant a c it was not good enough then I learned that seven was actually a pretty good score and then the Dutch classmates told me that they got a 6 out of a ten and they were quite happy because well they had just passed and it was good enough and it goes to show that here the mindset is that you can be just good enough and still live a great quality of life and there's probably a good reason why Dutch kids are the happiest kids in the world because well especially in education systems when you don't have super high expectations that can actually be a great thing when it comes to happiness and here's the really important thing that I do want to say about Dune or Mao is that I find myself a lot happier in this country because I find myself comparing myself less and less as compared to the US the US it's almost like this big competition comparison game of trying to be the best and people seem to judge you based on where you went to school what job you have what company you work for and the first question people ask you at a dinner party is what do you do and people do ask that question here and they do care but people don't seem to judge you based on what you do where you went to school and I think that's a big factor when we think about happiness when you're not comparing yourself as much you become a lot happier now you also see this in society the Prime Minister rides his bike to work also this Society it's very egalitarian meaning that I can call my professor by his first name that was a shock for me and so this philosophy of do normal act normal it's something that I really really appreciate Dutch people are some of the most direct people in the world and I've come to love it well because I tend to be a very indirect person when it comes to communication and ever since moving here I've learned to be more direct and it feels good it feels good to be able to say what I think to say what I feel now a lot of people tend to confuse directness with rudeness but there are two completely different things now it goes back to the fact that back in the days Calvinism used to be a big part of Dutch culture and that religion taught people to be very honest and so directness is really about being honest it's about saying what you think and what really helps in this culture is that there's not a lot of hierarchy and it's more egalitarian so you can say what you think to a boss to a CEO to a professor to an authority figure whereas in other cultures you have to be very careful what you say to someone else especially a boss and especially when it comes to negative feedback and so if you even look a bit deeper into Aaron Meyer's culture map she's done many years of research into cultural differences you can see that Dutch people are some of the most low context communicators this means community education is very direct simple and precise as compared to higher context cultures where communication is more nuanced more contextual you have to read between the lines for certain cultures there's another scale called the direct negative feedback scale and you can see that Dutch people are very okay with even giving direct negative feedback and I do think this is where Dutch people get that bad reputation of being rude because Dutch people are very okay giving positive feedback and also very okay giving negative feedback as well and that might be a shock for many people but again I do like the fact that you don't have to beat around the bush you can say what you think you can save a lot of time and especially for an overthinker like me it helps me Resolve many challenges about what someone else might be thinking so I really love the work life balance in this country as compared to the US where I'm from where Frankly Speaking people work longer hours now if work life balance is of importance to you which I believe it is the Netherlands is one of the best countries to live in when it comes to work life balance very very few people work long hours in this country I remember when I first arrived to this country I was connected to a friend's friend who transferred from Deloitte Consulting in Chicago to Delight Consulting in Amsterdam and I asked her hey what's it like to work in this country as compared to the US and she told me that she was shocked in her first week because at 5 PM the office was empty it was clear people left at 5 PM so tins you would never see that happen in Consulting in the U.S I was also shocked in my first week here as well because frankly people were leaving at 4 or 5 PM but the thing is people are very efficient and effective here people don't feel the need to stay longer than necessary the other shock that I had was that people actually use up all the vacation days here and people have a guaranteed minimum of vacation days in this country well in Europe it's 20 days in the Netherlands and people take the full 20-25 days however many you get as compared to the US I had five weeks of vacation in one company but I never fully used the full five weeks because well that's not part of the culture people feel like they have too much work to do or that they can't take the full vacation days and that's very different here people laughed at me my colleagues because I didn't take the full 25 days I frankly did not know how to take vacation in my first year in this country but now I wish I had six seven weeks because well that's part of the work-life balance in this country the other thing that I really appreciate is the fact that when you talk about mental illness and burnout this is the most one of the most friendly burnout friendly countries in the world because if you suffer from burnout which is recognized as a mental illness here then you can take sick leave and the company will pay 70 of your salary up to two years years so people are okay telling people that hey I was burnt out at a job I never heard anything about burnout in the U.S so that's a big difference the last thing that comes to mind is that a lot of people here work part-time in fact I think the Netherlands is the country with the most part-time workers in the world and especially women here as well hey there's work-life balance and I really like this country because of that fact what a beautiful country to live in from the windmills to the canals to the bicycles to the Steep stairs to the narrow houses there's something unique about this country especially if you come from a place like the US where it's a lot bigger the history and architecture a lot more modern and the cities are bigger and more like Metropolis is because living in this country feels like you're living in a very big small town even a place like Amsterdam for me seems like a big small town I remember when I first moved here I lived in this Dutch Canal House and that was such a unique experience because it was 400 years old and even walking up and down the stairs you could see that those stairs there were dips in those stairs because people had walked in those steps for over a hundred years and it's not just Amsterdam Amsterdam is beautiful but this country is full of hidden gems that most people don't know about Utrecht is like the Amsterdam without tourists the Hague I like going to the Hague because it's a big International city with a beach Rotterdam has a modern architecture delft is actually my favorite small town because well it's very small cute and it's known for delft blue delft Pottery actually I moved to this country because of my strict where I spent one year studying and I remember watching this YouTube video of Maastricht and I fell in love with it it seemed like a fairy tale and when I lived there I would go and cycle into the countryside one minute I'd be in the Netherlands lens the next I'd be in Belgium the next I'd be in the French speaking part of Belgium and something that comes to mind is in the winter time yes the weather sucks but sometimes the canals will freeze if it gets really cold and that is such a special experience where you see people ice skating on the canals and you could actually walk on the canals yourself as well and it just seems like you're in this walking painting you see all this old architecture around smiling faces such a special experience so the Netherlands a very small country but there's so much to see do and speaking of architecture did you know that 20 of all churches in this country have been converted into non-religious uses such as Apartments gyms bookstores what a cool way to make use of churches that are no longer in use when I lived in my strict I actually went to a gym inside of a church and I remember running on the treadmill lifting weights and looking around looking up and thinking to myself wow I'm lifting weights inside of a church who would have expected that but that was a really cool experience and the Dutch have this very Innovative sense of making use of space in this country because it's not the biggest country in the world so you really have to be creative in how you use space in this country did you know that in the Netherlands there are 17 million people and 23 million bicycles it's a country built for cycling I mean the country is flat For Better or For Worse but that's great for cycling and it doesn't take a doctor to tell you that if you cycle more that's going to be better for your health as well I remember when I lived in La I would drive two blocks just to go to my local supermarket and now I can't imagine not having a bike I bike everywhere from the supermarket to work to shopping I used to go to the gym just to cycle but now I cycle every day it's also quite efficient in terms of systems you have subscription Services where you can rent a bike for a day for a week for a month for a year using swap feeds at every train station they have these uh OV feed stations where you can rent a bike for a day for about four Euros and did you know that in the Netherlands 50 of all public transit trips start with a bicycle everything is connected this is sustainable Transportation the bike Lanes the roads the public transportation everything is connected so the bike Lanes feed people to go into public transportation and that's not only great for People's Health but that's also great for the environment as well I know yeah public transportation it's a beautiful thing for the most part when it works but from my experience it works most of the time the options are endless from trams to Metro buses trains bicycle by foot and it's a really small country you can get anywhere within a day when I used to live live in my strict I would do day trips to Amsterdam in the north and I would get there within three and a half hours and many stores they sell these day passes for 20 euros and you can travel anywhere in the country within 24 hours and if you work for a company many companies will often pay your public transportation costs if you need to commute to the office so sustainable public transportation it works in this country for the most part almost every single Dutch person I know speaks perfect English and that's because the Netherlands is a country with the highest level of English where English is the second language and it makes it easy very easy for someone to come travel here to do business here to work here to study here to live here because the Dutch speak great almost perfect English and it makes sense because well the Netherlands is a small country but they have a long history of being business people trades people and if you want to do business with people from around the world you need to be able to communicate and because the level of English here is so high it makes it easy for people to come work here to study here in fact I came here to do a masters English only in my strict and because it was an english-only program I was able to meet people from around the world from around Europe and also in the workplace the same is true as well in many International companies English is the method of communication in the workplace and that attracts a lot of people it creates this very diverse International mix which I really appreciate as well when it comes to safety the Netherlands is one of the safest countries to live in the world the crime right here is quite low and that's something I really appreciate the fact that I can go out Daytime Nighttime and feel safe women tell me this as well and even if I go to say a bad neighborhood in this country it doesn't even feel that bad or unsafe I've never felt unsafe in this country as compared to if I go into a bad neighborhood in the U.S I definitely do feel tense and a bit unsafe there are many factors one factor is that say something like guns are not allowed in the Netherlands whereas they are allowed in the U.S the other thing is the homeless population in the U.S I'm always shocked when I go back to a place like San Francisco and I see homeless people everywhere downtown many of these people have mental problems as well which is sad and when you have mental people walking around the streets uncontrolled for that can also be dangerous now when it comes to crime in the Netherlands your bike will probably get stolen but that's about it Penny theft and I'll take that any day over say the crime say in other countries and that's something I really appreciate about this country and for those of you who aren't from Europe and if you come from a place like the US one really cool thing about being in the Netherlands is that you are in the center of Europe and you can travel very easily I know for many it's not a surprise especially if you live in Europe but when you come from a place like California where you're driving six seven hours and you're still in the same state here in this country when you drive six seven hours you could be in two different countries and what I do love is being able to take a train from Central Station and Amsterdam and being in central Paris and Central London in four or five hours that's very unique and also being able to take these budget Airlines and getting from one country to another country within a few hours that's something that is very unique and amazing about living in the Netherlands there you have it 10 reasons why I love this country the Netherlands and I feel like I've only scratched the surface I've been here for about four years and I feel like there's still so much for me to learn about what makes this country great what about you what are the reasons why you love this country please leave them in the comments below and would love to hear from you take care

Channel: David Wen

Views: 405,060

Keywords: american in the netherlands, dutch culture, moving to the netherlands, life in amsterdam, life in the netherlands, moving to europe, moving to amsterdam, expat, doe normaal, dutch directness

Id: QMPp6h6r72M

Length: 15min 56sec (956 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 02 2022