6 Things Americans do that Dutch people find weird!

hi everyone my name is Ava and I'm an American living in the Netherlands and today I wanted to tell you about a few things at those darn Americans do that Dutch people think are weird so just like any place America is also unique in doing certain things that makes the rest of the world go huh and let me tell you as an American living abroad I get to hear about these things all the time people keep asking me Ava I've noticed Americans do this why do you do that well I can't promise you that I'll answer these questions in this video but I wanted to share some of these things that I keep hearing over and over and also things that I've noticed that my partner my wife finally getting a little bit more used to saying wife instead of girlfriend so that's progress my friends so these are things that she has also noticed and we've talked about so let us get into it the first thing that I wanted to share with you has to do with the American way of conversing American conversation styles are so interesting to me well actually as a linguist I find conversation Styles in different cultures just very interesting there's a lot to say and each culture does it a little differently and America is no exception I've made videos about this but here's another thing that I have not mentioned before and that is when you say how are you in America first of all every all the Europeans and everybody else in the world is like what why do Americans do that why do you say how are you when you don't actually ask the question I do want to say that there's the how are you when you're sort of passing somebody or when you're like on your way to doing something and it really just means hello then and it also has a different intonation it's more like how are you and it's a different intonation it's also really fast but then there is the how are you you know where you really get it as an interlocutor that is a question Americans do also use how are you in that way isn't that mind-blowing that Americans will ask this question and actually expect a response it shouldn't be that shocking you know Americans are also people not all of them are sociopaths they want to know how you're doing and in those moments it is a genuine question what is interesting is the responses that Americans give in this case an American is taught that the proper response to how are you is good and how are you and as much as you might think that this sounds like something you learn in English class it is very much a thing that people do I also immediately respond good how are you like very quickly I don't even stop to think about it now the thing is Americans I find typically don't mean what they say or rather they say one thing and mean something else so when an American says good and how are you or I'm doing good so basically with the word good they're saying they're doing fine there is nothing out of the ordinary to report so keep that in mind because in the Netherlands if you say yeah that means you are like doing well you know you're thriving things are going good for you which is what the word good means but in America it doesn't mean that it means fine okay nothing out of the ordinary now if an American response okay when they say I'm doing okay just like that where it's supposed to sound really normal that my friends is a cry for help you need to drop everything and be there for this person because they've admitted to only being okay as opposed to good that is a big thing in America that's not a normal thing to say whereas in the Netherlands if I said yeah Prima and some people even say oh prima or like I'm doing fine and fine is good enough in the Netherlands but not in America in America you want to be doing good or great so if you say I'm great that means you're doing good you're thriving so you see my friends in America we like to up our game a little bit so we have high expectations so that no matter what we do we will always come short and be unhappy about it so the second thing I wanted to talk about is breakfast now breakfast Customs around the world can lead to feuds people are always in debate and argument about what is the best breakfast is to eat or different cultures will find different restrictions on breakfast or different ways of eating breakfast strange and you know my opinion on this is like to each their own and if I like something I will not hesitate to adopt it into my own diet because I am a big foodie loving different cultures comes with loving different types of food but this does not stop the world from sort of comparing breakfast notes with each other and that also holds true for the Netherlands and the United States so Americans find Dutch breakfast interesting do I find us breakfast interesting abso freaking lutely because for instance the idea of eating chocolate sprinkles for breakfast seems outrageous and so scandalous whereas in America we do have Pop-Tarts chocolate chip muffins chocolate chip pancakes and uh cereal all of these things that are also quite sugary oh and not to mention that we are pretty okay with spreading Nutella on our toast but when it comes to chocolate sprinkles oh no no know know how scandalous add similarly in the Netherlands Dutch people find American breakfast extremely interesting and the thing I've heard over and over again is No not the portions but yeah the portions but surprisingly the fact that Americans eat potatoes for breakfast when my wife and I were living in the U.S and we had people from the Netherlands visit us well visit her so her friends and we would take them out to brunch we both me and my wife loved getting like scrambled eggs toast and home fries you know that was just the combination that we loved and when these friends would go out to brunch with us and they would ask us hey what do you like to eat at this place we would tell them and then they would be shocked to their very core they couldn't believe that we were eating potatoes for breakfast because in the Netherlands potatoes are something that Dutch people like to have primarily for dinner it is part of this typical meal of our Apple place that's a thing which is potatoes uh vegetables and meat that's like what people think of when they think of like Dutch standard food other than the mushed and fried stuff so time after time every time we went out for brunch they were Dutch people who would be completely completely shocked and only a few of those brave souls actually tried the home fries for breakfast now after moving to the Netherlands I do have to say say that I'm surprised by how shocked people were because I live in Utrecht pretty centrally and when I go like out into the city center wandering around especially on the weekends in the afternoon around lunchtime I see hordes of Dutch people with fries so uh I just think that people are used to what they're used to and then when things are a little different it can be a bit shocking at a first and you have to get used to the idea but I think once you do it's just a very nice thing and if you are in the US I will encourage you to have the home fries for breakfast because they are really very good number three has to do with when you go out to eat in the U.S and if you are Dutch you will be shocked by this and that is when you go to a restaurant and it's time to pay they will take your credit card away from you and they will go run the numbers uh and come back and then you'll get a check with the tip you know portion left blank and then you have to fill it in I didn't think this was that weird until I lived in the Netherlands and I realized it is so much more convenient when they actually come to you and you don't give them your credit card to take with you they bring the machine to you so everything is just done very quickly on the spot so not only is it efficient it also prevents things like someone copying your credit card numbers that happens all the time how have Americans not figured this out yet anyway so every time we have Dutch people in the US they always get a little surprise where they're like okay here's my credit card I guess I will trust you to return it thanks so I now that I've lived in the Netherlands I do think like there there is a better system why don't you just bring the machine to us I mean aren't we all about customer service in America so the next couple of things that I wanted to talk about have to do with grocery shopping now in the Netherlands when you go grocery shopping you typically only grab a few things you don't plan your meals like for the whole week you maybe think about your meals like for the next couple of days and you go grocery shopping pretty frequently I I personally go three to four times a week I know some Dutch people who go every day you know they don't find it too much of an inconvenience because there are plenty of grocery stores around you on your way to and from work or when you're just out and about in the city so that is how things are done here Now in America it is very very different I never went grocery shopping more than twice a week and I only did that because I lived in cities where I didn't have a car and I don't drive so there's also that but I didn't have a car so there's only so much you can carry as one person but in America you have these stores like that sell super sized food items and it is shocking so you can buy things in bulk so these bulk stores are pretty popular pretty common I'm talking BJ's Costco's the works and they're definitely more common in Suburbia but they're also to be found in cities when there's space to have them because like I said everything is in bulk food items even just everyday things like sunscreen you don't buy one at these stores no no you buy a pack and I love it because you tend to be able to save money when you get all these things in bulk and that is the point of these stores also people who live in the suburbs maybe Americans have these you know big families that's the traditional idea and then they can just go do their grocery shopping for the week save money while doing it and people are driving anyway so it's not inconvenient and then they just load up their cars and they're good for I don't know however many weeks but that is so common in America whereas here I don't even know where I would go to do that if I wanted to like if I buy something that's like super sized here at the store it's just it's like instead of this big it's this big like when I'm talking about shampoo or something whereas in America oh my God at BJ's you could get these shampoo bottles that are this big and then there's like a little uh squirty thing on top what do you call like a nozzle but like you know the one that you push down for like your soaps but then it's huge and that's great because it's so it's like relatively cheap and it's huge you never run out of it but I don't know if that would fly here in the Netherlands for Dutch people and Dutch people always find American super sizes totally weird now the next thing that American grocery store shopping involves that Dutch people find weird is the fact that when you are checking out your items there is a cashier and that cashier doesn't just check out your items they also put it in a bag for you or sometimes there is a separate person bagging up your groceries and this is fairly common I wouldn't say every single shop or grocery store offers it but it is really very common because they will just scan your item and instead of giving it to you and leaving you to your own devices they will just put it in a bag for you in the Netherlands that is not the case this would never fly I think Dutch people find this very range and I know because all those Dutch people who visited Us in America and my wife when she first moved there she thought she was so embarrassed she was like I felt so bad they were bagging up my groceries and I was like yeah that's their job they're happy to do it they don't want you to put the eggs at the bottom you know makes sense and she was like no I can do that myself I am outraged that they would bag my groceries for me and the final thing I wanted to talk about was how Americans like to drive everywhere and that drives the patients of Dutch folks through the roof because Dutch people don't understand why Americans need to drive for five minutes to buy groceries why do they do that why do they do that Ava they ask really shocked and surprised and Confused do Americans not like to use their legs or muscles would they just prefer to be sitting the whole time well maybe but honestly living in cities I didn't get the sense that Americans drove everywhere but my parents parents now live in Suburbia and I also have friends who have siblings moving out or friends themselves moving out into the suburbs and then you see why it is that people drive everywhere and that is because they have no choice so I was talking to a friend on my recent trip to the US and his siblings had just moved out to the suburbs and he was like yeah you know they live near the train station and that is the plus of them moving there that's why they chose this location that's great but it is a five minute drive from their house to the train station and if they were to walk that that would be 40 minutes and at first I was surprised but then I remembered all of my experiences in the suburbs even living in New York City there's suburbs around it and it's really not very safe or convenient to walk because you often just see highways and busy roads and then you can't walk in because it's too dangerous I do have to say that not everybody hates driving they do really like it especially if you grow up driving everywhere people really get a lot of joy out of it so I don't want to diminish that it's not that just because I prefer walking doesn't mean other people should so I know lots of people who are very happy driving everywhere and they do like to go outdoors and into the parks where they live and get their exercise and movement that way so that was what I had to share with you for today if I left anything out please feel free to let me know in the comments down below and as usual until next time foreign

Channel: Dutch Americano

Views: 32,929

Keywords: USA, America, Netherlands, The Netherlands, moving to America, life in America, Holland, American culture, American things, American habits, living in America, American in the Netherlands, Cultural differences, American girl

Id: qR_sDYk3uMU

Length: 14min 31sec (871 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 19 2023