DUTCH CULTURAL SHOCKS I faced after moving to The Netherlands | Expat in Amsterdam

hello everyone welcome to my youtube channel i'm beatriz an expat living in amsterdam and in today's video we're gonna talk about the biggest and weirdest cultural shocks that i faced when i moved to the netherlands [Music] but before we start if you are interested in seeing more videos about x-pac living in the netherlands or just about the life in amsterdam in general make sure to subscribe to my channel follow me on instagram where i post a lot of content and also leave a like in this video so you can support me so the first cultural shock that i face and i'm gonna put this one in the first place because i don't see that many people talking about it and me as a portuguese i was shocked with this is the relationship of dutch people with food if you're from a country with a very good relationship with their foods that likes to take their time to eat then you're probably gonna relate with this one so basically what shocked me here is that dutch people don't take that much time to eat so for example at lunch they like to have a sandwich and they don't spend that much time at the table having dinner with their friends or family so usually they eat they finish eating and then they go into their lives or if they're having dinner together they finish eating and then they go for drinks for me this is a big cultural shock because where i come from portugal we really really appreciate food and we take our time to eat so for lunch we won't ever have a sandwich i refuse to have a sandwich every day for lunch maybe i'll have it like once a month but i like to have a proper lunch and i like to take my time to eat slowly where i come from we really see meal time as an opportunity to socialize with our friends and family and to take our time to enjoy our food and hang around the table for example it's very common in portugal and i know in other countries also to have a big lunch on sundays with the whole family where you stay at the table for like four hours or so just eating and drinking all the time and then you don't even have dinner because you're too full for that so yeah this was a big cultural shock for me the second one and this one is a really funny one and i swear i had no idea about this one i had never read this anywhere else was that when you go to spas you need to be naked i mean yeah i was also shocked when i learned this but basically i was booking a spa day for me and my boyfriend for his birthday and then for some reason i decided to read the terms and conditions i never do this but i don't know maybe it was destiny or something so then i read that it is mandatory to be naked in order to use the spa so then i did my research and what happens is basically that spas are naked all week and then you have one day where you can come with your swimsuit but then that day is extremely crowded and has lots of teenagers so people usually don't recommend going on those days after living here for quite some time i now get this because the netherlands is a very free country people are free to be themselves and i also have a lot of confidence in their bodies also everyone is the same we all have very similar bodies so now i kind of get dutch people i've never been to one of these spas myself but a male friend that i know went and he's also portuguese and he told me that it was a very different experience but it wasn't weird because everyone is naked so you're just another naked person there and it ends up being fine the third cultural shock is the fact that mail service here will leave your mail at your neighbors if you're not home without your authorization i was very shocked when i learned this because that would never happen where i come from we always suspect our neighbors and we are afraid that our neighbors will keep our mail our package but in the netherlands people just trust their neighbors and neighbors are very used to this system where the mailman will just deliver the package to the neighbor in case you're not home so then what happens that you come home and then you have a little paper stating that the mailman delivered your package to your neighbor and then you just go there knock on their door and ask for the mail honestly i'm not unhappy with this it's much better to just go and knock it to your neighbor zord than having to go all the way to the mail service center and then get your package there so yeah this is really cool the fourth cultural shock for me and this is like a technological one is that on the one hand you need to pay waste tax and on the other hand you need to have a card and scan it on the waste bin in order to open it and put your trash out yeah this is really weird guys so basically you have to pay away stacks and i never knew that you needed to pay one because usually this is covered in other bills that you pay for your house but not in the netherlands this is actually a separate bill that you need to pay and it's kind of a high cost it turns out to be about 30 to 40 euros per month so yeah it's a lot and if you do not pay your waste tax you won't be able to scan your card in a way spin and put your trash out so when i moved here and then i first wanted to put my trash out i was like okay how do i open this waste bin because it wasn't opening it was locked and then i asked my landlord and they said oh but there's a cards there that you can use i left it in your house then i looked and there was a weird card there then i went to waste bin again i scanned the card and then it just opens and i was like oh my god i never knew this was possible but it's a very weird and fun fact i guess the fifth one and i'm sure that you probably already heard this is that dutch people are very very direct and honest now this can be seen from a very positive side but for me i was not used to this because where i come from we do not give honest and direct feedback so it is much better when people give you honest indirect feedback however what usually happens is that dutch people can come across as cold people but this is not the case they are just giving you their direct feedback and this happens everywhere and here we don't have that rule that the customer is always right and i'm so glad that rule doesn't exist because that's just a rule for karen's am i right so it's really cool that dutch people are very direct at first you're gonna be like um are they not being that nice to me but then you'll get used to it and you'll probably start also being more direct because you learn from dutch people by being direct they're also being very efficient and helping you so yeah take their feedback and improve yourself the sixth cultural shock that i want to tell you guys about is that dutch people's windows are always wide open and i mean they do not have blinds they do not have curtains and you can see everything that's going on inside their house i was really shocked when i first came here and i was able to see the interior of every person's house i mean i even have some friends whose neighbors are always naked inside the house and they can see everything but dutch people just do not mind they really value the sunlight and the sun so they keep their windows open with no blinds or curtains so that the light can come in and they can enjoy it the seventh cultural shock is the fact that here you need to have a bike when i first came here and i saw all the people biking around i just couldn't believe it it was like a different line of traffic biking around is not something that people do for enjoyment they do it because they need it on their daily life just go to work or to go to a shop or to a restaurant they do it they use their bike to do everything so if you're coming to the netherlands you probably don't need to have a car it is sufficient to have a bike and this was a cultural shock for me because i was just used to driving around and i was not used to biking i was not used to being under the rain when just going from one place to the other but that's something you also get used to and that's what raincoats exist for the eighth cultural shock and this is a really really good one and very good for families is the papada and mamadach so this is the father's day and the mother's day except no it's not once every year it's actually once every week so if you have a kid in the netherlands you are able to work just four days a week both the mother and the father so this is really good because then the child just has three days where they need to be at childcare and then the mother and the father get to spend more time with their child and this can be done until the child is eight years old just be aware that you won't get a salary for that today but usually that's not a problem because salaries here are quite high so then people end up really taking the moms day or papa's day the ninth cultural shock is that here you can pay everything with card and when i say everything i mean literally everything so if you just want to buy like a pack of gum that costs 50 cents with a card you can do it so here you don't really need to have money to go anywhere this was quite a cultural shock for me because in portugal i was very used to carry cash around because most places not accept cards but here in the netherlands everyone does which is perfect because then you don't ever need to worry about having cash in your wallet and finally the 10th cultural shock and this is also very specific one is the fireworks in new year's eve guys this is crazy if you ever come to the netherlands in new year's eve you'll see what i'm talking about so basically this is the only day in a whole year where people can use fireworks and what happens is that because this is only once a year everyone goes crazy this looks like a war scene everyone is shooting their fireworks even little kids it's so noisy there is so smoke you cannot see anything on the street everyone is really going crazy with the fireworks i mean this is something that i find funny but i would never shoot a firework myself because i have seen many horror stories and if you decide to do this please be very very careful but i also know that a lot of people are bothered by this because then it's dangerous walk on the street if someone shoots a firework they can hit you and it can be really really bad so if you decide to do this when you come here please be careful and yeah this is a very big cultural shock i will have never expected the netherlands to allow people to do this but apparently they do and they go crazy um but yeah it's definitely worth seeing even if it's just on the video okay guys so these are my vegan weird cultural shocks that i faced when i moved here i hope you liked them and that you had some fun with this video if you'd like to see more videos about living in amsterdam and in the netherlands as an expat make sure to subscribe my channel you will support me a lot if you do leave a like in this video leave a comment and follow me on instagram and 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Channel: Beatriz Paula

Views: 14,670

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Id: 7EhYDnwv7zI

Length: 13min 33sec (813 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 07 2021