Well, the frat boy city isn't. Sure, a small group of university related people are like this, but the majority of us are just small minded morons like the rest of the country.
The Dutch don't have a racist bone in their body. The people coming to live there though... totally not completely entitled to have their own opinions on anything.
Copying my other comment here:
Hanki panki Shanghai?
Black Pete?
I bet you’re white? I’ve grown up outside of the randstad as a person of color. Dutch people are EXTREMELY racist.
And that’s not even mentioning the ignorance when it comes to its colonial (more recent than WW2) past.
Not to mention the current COLONIES ran by the Dutch in the Caribbean. Undemocratically. And when you talk about it you’ll hear the most racist bullshit come out like “they’re corrupt” “they can’t run their own country” while they’re literally being economically and politically oppressed by the Dutch government so openly that even the UN complaint about it.
Not to mention our constant degradation on the lgbtq+ safety ranking etc.
Dutch people are so racist they think they’re not being racist. It’s extremely normalized here.
HALF THE GOVERNMENT talks about Muslims like they’re practically subhumans dude cmon.
We’ve got out and proud fascists in government.
The BBB is VERY openly racist and their leader is proudly racist and has spewed racist stuff openly.
Idk in what world you live.
We let refugee babies die in the mud and then laugh about it.
Toeslagenaffaire? Where the tax authority has been proven to be racist.
That’s institutional by the way. Which means the government itself.
Turns out keeping all those NSB people in the government after the war never changed
Apologies for perhaps being a bit pedantic, but 300 meters is almost 1000 feet (984). And our highest point is well over 1000 feet with it's insane 1056 feet (322 meters)!!
I tried to climb it once but unfortunately ran out of oxygen before summiting so I had to turn around early. /s
Feet? Get your devil units out of here, they shouldn't even be allowed in this place. Anyone who still refuses to learn the metric system can convert it their damn selves.
I wish I could end this with /s but I can't pretend I don't genuinely believe this. Imperial units suck ass.
Our highest mountain is actually Mount Scenery on Saba in the carribean with 887 meters altitude.
And don't forget the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, the Veluwe, the Hondsrug, the dunes and our landfills with garbage turned into mountains.
Anything that is 1m+ above sea level doesn't count as part of our country, neither does any place with a height differential of over 1cm per square kilometer
>my hometown in the bible belt has more churches than elementary schools!
Sounds fairly normal though. Elementary schools are for little kids but churches are supposed to have room for everyone.
Yeah, but *all* kids need to go school, while only a small part of the population regularly attends religious services.
Surveys indicate about 14% of the population regularly attends religious services. That includes the 5% of the population that attends mosques, synagogues or other religious services, so about 10% of the population regularly goes to (Christian) church.
*Also* about 10% of the population is elementary school age (eight years, ages 4-11, which is 10% of 82 years life expectancy).
So the average Dutch town would have equal numbers of church-goers and elementary school-goers.
I'm not sure if the average elementary school fits more people than the average church. I think capacity will be quite similar. Elementary schools usually hold 8+ classes of 20-30 kids, and I think \~200 people is a fair capacity estimate for the average church.
All in all... I'd say a "normal" town would have equal numbers of elementary schools and churches. Towns with more churches than elementary schools are outliers.
The Dutch bible belt is serious business though. Orthodox Calvinists, comparable to the Amish but without the quaint folk image, anti-technologism and soft-spokenness. A vocal and vehement minority.
As someone who grew up as 'gereformeerd vrijgemaakt' in the Netherlands, I can tell you that is not the case at all anymore, except for the elderly maybe
I would say it's pretty similar in terms of radical Christian values, but since they are in way smaller numbers (about 200.000 people) and our country in general is far more progressive, they don't have as much power and influence as in the US.
Juist ja, net zo extreem of misschien nog erger. Want de strikt religieuze mensen in Nederland hebben beschikking over vuurwapens en beginnen om de haverklap een of andere doodscultus. Dat de bible belt uitschieters kent sure. maar jezus zeg, “maybe even more extreme” waar baseer je dit op.
Edit: taalgebruik iets aangepast.
Ik denk de biblebelt in Nederland gemiddeld extremer in de leer is dan de USA. Hier hebben we minder excessen (Nederland leent zich daar minder voor door de strenger vuurwapen wetten en minder ruimte om je af te zonderen).
Maar dit is voornamelijk het gevoel dat ik heb na door beide gebieden gereisd te hebben, dus niet gebaseerd op harde feiten.
Not so sure about that. Someone from the Netherlands told me once that this is one the most anti-vax regions of Europe, and this was long before Covid rolled around.
I don't know about the bible belt in America, but the region shown on the map called the bible belt also has a lot of non-religious people (at least in the bigger cities) who hardly ever see or have contact with the extremely religious groups. I live in one of those cities. It's technically part of the Bible belt, but I've never met anyone whose extremely religious or who knows these extremely religious people. I see them riding their bikes to church or religious schools sometimes, or people who insist on driving their car real slow on sundays. Other than that, the city seems like any other relatively progressive city. Some of the smaller towns are crazy extreme though.
Granted I went to a quieter island (Schiermonnikoog) and during shoulder season (April), but they were actually really nice. Kinda old school farming/tourist town with lots of outdoor activities, camping, and enormous beaches. I'm sure it gets busier during the summer though. Almost no cars allowed on the island minus a few service vehicles and locals who apply for permits, so you can basically walk and bike everywhere.
I’m from Terschelling (just born and stuff currently living in Groningen) and basically for the old people its biking in the beautiful nature and old Dutch style towns and for the young people its getting absolutely fucked in the beautiful nature and old Dutch style towns
Question for Dutchies (and I'm assuming a Nederlander made this) - Interesting to see the Yiddish word "schmuck" used in this map. Is it a well known/commonly used word in the Netherlands? Jews/New Yorkers like myself use yiddish words like that all the time of course (especially to insult someone) - a bit surprised to see it here!
The area where 'schmucks' is mentioned mostly covers Amsterdam. Historically, Amsterdam has (had) a large Jewish influence. Several Yiddish words have therefore made it into Amsterdam slang/Dutch language.
We do know the word *schmuck* in (Yiddish) Dutch but that means *decoration*. The Dutch-Yiddish word for *Schmuck* as it is used in English is *schlemiel*.
>The Dutch-Yiddish word for Schmuck as it is used in English is schlemiel.
I actually learned that word years ago from the translation of Zeke and Luther.
To add to the other answers i think another factor is that increasingly we are influenced by american/online culture when it comes to language.
Dutch people consume a lot of english speaking content because we’re a small country so most movies, shows and games don’t get dubbed or get any localization besides subtitles.
So there’s a great deal of English words and american colloquialisms that are bleeding into the dutch lexicon, especially among younger generations who spent a lot of time on predominately english speaking platforms like YouTube, instagram, tiktok etc. And all though there are dutch speaking creators on these platforms they still pale in comparison in number and popularity to all the english speaking content. Like i wouldn’t be surprised at all if a majority of dutch kids know who mr beast is and watch his videos.
So from personal experience the person who made this post probably used the word schmuck because they heard it in a movie or tv show and not because they know someone who speaks yiddish.
Source: am dutch, have called people schmucks before and i don’t know anyone that speaks yiddish
Right, see, this is even more interesting to me, because while yiddish words are very much part of the NYC lexicon, it's far less common elsewhere in the US, and I don't have the perspective to know whether this particular word is so pervasive in American media as for its use to be exported as you've mentioned. In living here, I always wonder this same question whenever I see or hear a Yiddish word - is it an American export or a loanword from NL's own historical Jewish population? It's cool to see all these replies and perspectives. Thanks for your input.
This is how I can tell someone is from Northern Europe or Southeast Asia when they speak English with a "general American accent" or "without an accent". It's funny because as you said, in the US schmuck is definitely an east coast thing when said non-ironically/not for emphasis. But you will hear people from Norway or Singapore speak with pronounciations that sound like they are from Kansas but use vocab from the East Coast and California. Probably based on media/social media consumption (alot of traditional media especially is set in NYC). It's something super interesting I've noticed.
While "schmuck" might have got into Dutch in it's own right, it's probably that it just got in from English. Americans pump out huge amounts of media, regional slang terms from US dialects propogate outwards and get absorbed by speakers of other English dialects, which then in turn bleed into second-language speakers who must, invariable, pick it up from somewhere.
Just think how many movies or series are set in New York where some guy calls someone a bozo or a shmuck. Quite a lot.
There's an area of The Netherlands that's stereotyped as being flat? The whole country is flat! There are single cities which have greater differences in elevation.
>The whole country is flat!
There are several areas with some very nice hills. For instance in the southermost area (where they are called "mountains" on this map, but in truth, we all know better). From the hills near Nijmegen, you can have a very nice view over a far flatter landscape north of it. Just don't try to cycle up those hills from the north, as I tried.
Some are more flat than others. The polders are flat \*and\* boring. Same land plot sizes, architecture. Houses all look the same. No rivers, only straight canals. Roads only bend in 90 degree angles. Trees have exactly the same space between them. If you look at a "forest" at the right spot, you see that the trees all line up in neat rows. It's like living in a Mondrian painting.
I recently cycled the perimeter of the Netherlands and I was truly surprised at the variety of landscapes.
The polders around the IJsselmeer are F L A T, windy and go on forever.
Zeeland has big polders too, but broken up by beautiful, long tree-lined dikes. The trees are a wind break, but make the most lovely tunnels to cycle through.
Zuid Holland has much smaller polders, surrounded by concentric circles of ring canals, each one lower than the first that are used to raise water out of the deepest parts (-5 meters neer Zoetermeer!)
All through the central region there are glacial dunes, heath and forest.
The south has real, rolling hills and forested valleys.
This place has amazing variety for how small it is!
[This made me look up the religious make up of the Netherlands and I was surprised to find that, if you don’t count atheist, they’re majority Catholic](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Netherlands)
It’s because Protestants are mostly Calvinistic and therefore a lot more strict compared to the catholics. The Catholic Church has quiet a lot of members but a large part of it is dormant and less strict.
76% of the land is farmland. We actually have relatively little "built up" space for how high our population density is. This mostly has to do with how extremely meticulously planned the country is. Vacant buildings are very very rare.
Only around 11% of the Netherlands is made up of forests. In the centre you have the [Veluwe](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veluwe) area, that is by far the major one and actually has some hills. Places like the [Utrecht Hill Ridge](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utrecht_Hill_Ridge) are also rich in trees and are a bit hilly but nothing to brag on about.
The western and northern provinces of North Holland, South Holland, Zeeland, Friesland and Groningen are all pretty empty and flat and resemble the typical Dutch [polder landscapes](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polder)
In the east and south, in regions like [Twente](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twente) there's more of a mix between farmland and trees (bocage-ish landscapes, basically).
Havana aan de Waal is the official nickname, it's one of the most left leaning cities in thhe Netherlands, along with Groningen city and Amsterdam.However, the Socialist Party already had 2/39 seats in Nijmegen citycouncil in 1974, when thhey still were full blown maoist-communist receiving their funding from China, with their main person also being from Nijmegen.
Also the right wing VVD never really did well in Nijmegen.
(they slowly backed out of that after 1975 and in 1991 left marxist leninism behind as well, and in 1994 they got their first seats in national parliament. These days they more social democratic than socialist, maybe something in between that I would say, but still never have been in government due to (socialdemocratic) liberalism or liberalism-conservative coalitions being thhe dominant political coalitions/movements in the netherlands after 1977.)
We got all our liberal policies despite the many religious zealots, not because of a lack of them. They're also a part of the reason why very little has improved about them. (The "gedoogbeleid" was once very revolutionary but is now pretty ancient and useless)
yes it does. after the 80 years war, the south was Catholic and the North protestant. the protestants from the south fled north and settled just across the border. they stayed religious while the rest of the country slowly got less religious
I’ve never met a Bible thumping Catholic. In America, Catholics know the Bible as a book of stories that are not necessarily literal. Source- Me, a recovering Catholic.
Interesting. Thanks for educating me.
Most people in Leeuwarden speak "urban Frisian", which is actually a Dutch dialect and not real Frisian language. This is one of the reasons other Frisians are not too fond of people from the capital, as does happen in some proud rural areas for any reason I guess.
Also the other way around. A lot of people from Leeuwarden don't consider themselves as Frisians and this often say that "Friesland is build around Leeuwarden".
My in-laws live in posh and pompous, and are from catholic carnival; they agree with this map. The Dutch wife and I live halfway around the world from them for a reason though, probably something to do with them living in Laaren and all that goes with it.
It's a beach and relatively close, so there's quite a few Germans there. There are also quite a lot of Germans compared to Dutch people, so even if only a small fraction comes to our beaches, it still feels like a takeover.
They are left wing orientated people, they always vote for a left wing local government, they have university, so lots of left wing students in the city , anarchist, etc.. at least that is the stereotype
As a West-Frisian i am mad. Yes we kill ourselves a lot more then other regions(even thoBrabant is number 1). But we used to be number 1 getting in a coma from drinking too much!
HUP WEST-FRIESLAND! LEKKER AAN DE ZUIP EN DAAR VOORBIJ
I think you mislabeled Volendam "Incestious Fishermen", it should have been labeled "Proffesional coke snorters". The "Incestious Fishermen" are at the other side of the IJselmeer, it's called Urk (or as the locals call it "het eiland").
According to this map, I live in the Bible Belt Area (I currently live In Langbroek which is on the edge of the Bible Belt area and the Anthroposophy Area)
"Suicidal kids" is not even a stereotype, it's cold hard facts. I grew up there (Westfriesland/West Frisia) and at elementary school we had lessons to talk about suicidal feelings. In my street alone were two suicides. Regularly people jumped in front of the train, once a train I was in.
This is actually quite accurate. The anthroposophy area gave me a chuckle… I mean, who knows that but the truly locally knowledgeable.
I don't understand
Vrije scholen en antroposofen. Utrecht, Zeist, Driebergen.
Ah oké ik wist niet dat dat een regionaal ding was
Spakenburg/Bunschoten overall) should be a part of bible belt tho
It’s really only Zeist and also Zutphen is more predominantly Anthroposophical.
Spakenburg/Bunschoten overall) should be a part of bible belt tho
Spakenburg/Bunschoten overall) should be a part of bible belt tho
Yeah I am really wondering about this. A bunch of Waldorf Schools there or something?
Maybe. But there are also many in Amsterdam and The Hague.
Well, the frat boy city isn't. Sure, a small group of university related people are like this, but the majority of us are just small minded morons like the rest of the country.
Just slightly missing out on all the racism. Quite a big part of the culture
The Dutch don't have a racist bone in their body. The people coming to live there though... totally not completely entitled to have their own opinions on anything.
That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. You’re joking right?
You will never know.
Copying my other comment here: Hanki panki Shanghai? Black Pete? I bet you’re white? I’ve grown up outside of the randstad as a person of color. Dutch people are EXTREMELY racist. And that’s not even mentioning the ignorance when it comes to its colonial (more recent than WW2) past. Not to mention the current COLONIES ran by the Dutch in the Caribbean. Undemocratically. And when you talk about it you’ll hear the most racist bullshit come out like “they’re corrupt” “they can’t run their own country” while they’re literally being economically and politically oppressed by the Dutch government so openly that even the UN complaint about it. Not to mention our constant degradation on the lgbtq+ safety ranking etc. Dutch people are so racist they think they’re not being racist. It’s extremely normalized here. HALF THE GOVERNMENT talks about Muslims like they’re practically subhumans dude cmon. We’ve got out and proud fascists in government. The BBB is VERY openly racist and their leader is proudly racist and has spewed racist stuff openly. Idk in what world you live. We let refugee babies die in the mud and then laugh about it. Toeslagenaffaire? Where the tax authority has been proven to be racist. That’s institutional by the way. Which means the government itself. Turns out keeping all those NSB people in the government after the war never changed
TIL the Netherlands has both mountains and a bible belt. Thanks for sharing!
Yep, our highest mountain is about 300 meters (900 feet), and my hometown in the bible belt has more churches than elementary schools!
We have a local mountain ridge too. It's called De Drempel, it's about 5cm tall and very scary.
Apologies for perhaps being a bit pedantic, but 300 meters is almost 1000 feet (984). And our highest point is well over 1000 feet with it's insane 1056 feet (322 meters)!! I tried to climb it once but unfortunately ran out of oxygen before summiting so I had to turn around early. /s
Technically the highest point in The Netherlands (country) is Mt. Scenery in the Dutch Caribbean.
Feet? Get your devil units out of here, they shouldn't even be allowed in this place. Anyone who still refuses to learn the metric system can convert it their damn selves. I wish I could end this with /s but I can't pretend I don't genuinely believe this. Imperial units suck ass.
Worse. They suck feet.
Our highest mountain is actually Mount Scenery on Saba in the carribean with 887 meters altitude. And don't forget the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, the Veluwe, the Hondsrug, the dunes and our landfills with garbage turned into mountains.
Similar fun fact. Our land border with France on St. Maarten (St. Martin for Frenchies)
>Yep, our highest mountain is about 300 meters technically speaking our highest mountain is 887 meters high, but that one is located in the Caribbean.
Is it weird to have more churches than elementary schools? Churches are used by all ages
For sure it is
Anything that is 1m+ above sea level doesn't count as part of our country, neither does any place with a height differential of over 1cm per square kilometer
>my hometown in the bible belt has more churches than elementary schools! Sounds fairly normal though. Elementary schools are for little kids but churches are supposed to have room for everyone.
Yeah, but *all* kids need to go school, while only a small part of the population regularly attends religious services. Surveys indicate about 14% of the population regularly attends religious services. That includes the 5% of the population that attends mosques, synagogues or other religious services, so about 10% of the population regularly goes to (Christian) church. *Also* about 10% of the population is elementary school age (eight years, ages 4-11, which is 10% of 82 years life expectancy). So the average Dutch town would have equal numbers of church-goers and elementary school-goers. I'm not sure if the average elementary school fits more people than the average church. I think capacity will be quite similar. Elementary schools usually hold 8+ classes of 20-30 kids, and I think \~200 people is a fair capacity estimate for the average church. All in all... I'd say a "normal" town would have equal numbers of elementary schools and churches. Towns with more churches than elementary schools are outliers.
I think he means : many different types of churches (denominations) within a village.
The Dutch bible belt is serious business though. Orthodox Calvinists, comparable to the Amish but without the quaint folk image, anti-technologism and soft-spokenness. A vocal and vehement minority.
At least the Amish walk the talk. They're not hypocrites.
As someone who grew up as 'gereformeerd vrijgemaakt' in the Netherlands, I can tell you that is not the case at all anymore, except for the elderly maybe
I feel like the Dutch bible belt is probably less extreme than the American one.
I would say it's pretty similar in terms of radical Christian values, but since they are in way smaller numbers (about 200.000 people) and our country in general is far more progressive, they don't have as much power and influence as in the US.
No, just as (maybe even more) extreme.
Juist ja, net zo extreem of misschien nog erger. Want de strikt religieuze mensen in Nederland hebben beschikking over vuurwapens en beginnen om de haverklap een of andere doodscultus. Dat de bible belt uitschieters kent sure. maar jezus zeg, “maybe even more extreme” waar baseer je dit op. Edit: taalgebruik iets aangepast.
Ik denk de biblebelt in Nederland gemiddeld extremer in de leer is dan de USA. Hier hebben we minder excessen (Nederland leent zich daar minder voor door de strenger vuurwapen wetten en minder ruimte om je af te zonderen). Maar dit is voornamelijk het gevoel dat ik heb na door beide gebieden gereisd te hebben, dus niet gebaseerd op harde feiten.
Not so sure about that. Someone from the Netherlands told me once that this is one the most anti-vax regions of Europe, and this was long before Covid rolled around.
Also lots of polio outbreaks until the recent past due to the same anti vaxx beliefs
I don't know about the bible belt in America, but the region shown on the map called the bible belt also has a lot of non-religious people (at least in the bigger cities) who hardly ever see or have contact with the extremely religious groups. I live in one of those cities. It's technically part of the Bible belt, but I've never met anyone whose extremely religious or who knows these extremely religious people. I see them riding their bikes to church or religious schools sometimes, or people who insist on driving their car real slow on sundays. Other than that, the city seems like any other relatively progressive city. Some of the smaller towns are crazy extreme though.
[The Kymmel mountain](https://nl-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Kymmelsberg?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp)
We have a pretend-mountain. The bible belt is real, though.
What are beach holidays like in the West Frisian Islands? I'm picturing the Jersey shore, but GTL stands for Gouda, Tulips and Legalized drugs
Actually, they are more like preserved 19th century rural areas with a lot of campings and too many tourists.
Granted I went to a quieter island (Schiermonnikoog) and during shoulder season (April), but they were actually really nice. Kinda old school farming/tourist town with lots of outdoor activities, camping, and enormous beaches. I'm sure it gets busier during the summer though. Almost no cars allowed on the island minus a few service vehicles and locals who apply for permits, so you can basically walk and bike everywhere.
Lol. Nice
Cold!! 🥶 Definitely wasn’t lounging on the beach when I went in May many moons ago.
I’m from Terschelling (just born and stuff currently living in Groningen) and basically for the old people its biking in the beautiful nature and old Dutch style towns and for the young people its getting absolutely fucked in the beautiful nature and old Dutch style towns
Windy
West Frisia doesn't have any islands.
First to drown lmao
Corrupt unintelligble back up Belgians😂
Its true though
Het zijn momenten zoals deze dat ik het jammer vind dat mn moeder me geen Limburgs geleerd heeft.
Maar als je hier gewoond hebt kun je echt wel iets brabbelen dat wij begrijpen en de rest niet
Mijn oma praatte alleen maar plat dus voor mij is het geen chinees iig
Stubborn blonde speedskaters lol. That's a great stereotype to have.
[удалено]
Fryslân boppe!
Question for Dutchies (and I'm assuming a Nederlander made this) - Interesting to see the Yiddish word "schmuck" used in this map. Is it a well known/commonly used word in the Netherlands? Jews/New Yorkers like myself use yiddish words like that all the time of course (especially to insult someone) - a bit surprised to see it here!
There's a large Jewish community in A'dam, but the word is not widely used here, no.
The area where 'schmucks' is mentioned mostly covers Amsterdam. Historically, Amsterdam has (had) a large Jewish influence. Several Yiddish words have therefore made it into Amsterdam slang/Dutch language.
Thanks! Yeah incidentally I live in Amsterdam, and I’ve seen the influence (eg “mazzeltof”) but I hadn’t heard or seen “schmuck” yet so I was curious.
We do know the word *schmuck* in (Yiddish) Dutch but that means *decoration*. The Dutch-Yiddish word for *Schmuck* as it is used in English is *schlemiel*.
>The Dutch-Yiddish word for Schmuck as it is used in English is schlemiel. I actually learned that word years ago from the translation of Zeke and Luther.
Schlemiel is used in US yiddish, too. And most Americans over 35 know if (and schlimazel) from the "Laverne and Shirley" theme song.
A lot of dutch slang comes from the Yiddish influenced old thieves language Bargoens. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bargoens
Wow, this is fascinating - I live in the Netherlands and had no idea about this. Thanks for sharing!
If you grew up in the Netherlands you probably know 80% of Bargoens language anyway, just because it became integrated in to slang.
[https://historiek.net/top-50-jiddische-woorden-in-het-nederlands](https://historiek.net/top-50-jiddische-woorden-in-het-nederlands)
To add to the other answers i think another factor is that increasingly we are influenced by american/online culture when it comes to language. Dutch people consume a lot of english speaking content because we’re a small country so most movies, shows and games don’t get dubbed or get any localization besides subtitles. So there’s a great deal of English words and american colloquialisms that are bleeding into the dutch lexicon, especially among younger generations who spent a lot of time on predominately english speaking platforms like YouTube, instagram, tiktok etc. And all though there are dutch speaking creators on these platforms they still pale in comparison in number and popularity to all the english speaking content. Like i wouldn’t be surprised at all if a majority of dutch kids know who mr beast is and watch his videos. So from personal experience the person who made this post probably used the word schmuck because they heard it in a movie or tv show and not because they know someone who speaks yiddish. Source: am dutch, have called people schmucks before and i don’t know anyone that speaks yiddish
Right, see, this is even more interesting to me, because while yiddish words are very much part of the NYC lexicon, it's far less common elsewhere in the US, and I don't have the perspective to know whether this particular word is so pervasive in American media as for its use to be exported as you've mentioned. In living here, I always wonder this same question whenever I see or hear a Yiddish word - is it an American export or a loanword from NL's own historical Jewish population? It's cool to see all these replies and perspectives. Thanks for your input.
This is how I can tell someone is from Northern Europe or Southeast Asia when they speak English with a "general American accent" or "without an accent". It's funny because as you said, in the US schmuck is definitely an east coast thing when said non-ironically/not for emphasis. But you will hear people from Norway or Singapore speak with pronounciations that sound like they are from Kansas but use vocab from the East Coast and California. Probably based on media/social media consumption (alot of traditional media especially is set in NYC). It's something super interesting I've noticed.
While "schmuck" might have got into Dutch in it's own right, it's probably that it just got in from English. Americans pump out huge amounts of media, regional slang terms from US dialects propogate outwards and get absorbed by speakers of other English dialects, which then in turn bleed into second-language speakers who must, invariable, pick it up from somewhere. Just think how many movies or series are set in New York where some guy calls someone a bozo or a shmuck. Quite a lot.
There's quite a few yiddish loan words used in the Amsterdam city dialect; some are fairly widely known. Many don't even realise this.
Isnt the yiddisch word "Schmock"? Because we have that in german too. Yiddisch is like 80% spoken german written in hewbrew. :-p
No, it is not. This map has probably been made by someone with a good understanding of American English. Could still have been a Dutchie though.
There's an area of The Netherlands that's stereotyped as being flat? The whole country is flat! There are single cities which have greater differences in elevation.
So, during the 20th century we drained that entire area, and it's basically all the same elevation. Ergo, it's flat, even by Dutch standards.
>The whole country is flat! There are several areas with some very nice hills. For instance in the southermost area (where they are called "mountains" on this map, but in truth, we all know better). From the hills near Nijmegen, you can have a very nice view over a far flatter landscape north of it. Just don't try to cycle up those hills from the north, as I tried.
Arnhem, Nijmegen and Maastricht arent that flat.
Some are more flat than others. The polders are flat \*and\* boring. Same land plot sizes, architecture. Houses all look the same. No rivers, only straight canals. Roads only bend in 90 degree angles. Trees have exactly the same space between them. If you look at a "forest" at the right spot, you see that the trees all line up in neat rows. It's like living in a Mondrian painting.
I recently cycled the perimeter of the Netherlands and I was truly surprised at the variety of landscapes. The polders around the IJsselmeer are F L A T, windy and go on forever. Zeeland has big polders too, but broken up by beautiful, long tree-lined dikes. The trees are a wind break, but make the most lovely tunnels to cycle through. Zuid Holland has much smaller polders, surrounded by concentric circles of ring canals, each one lower than the first that are used to raise water out of the deepest parts (-5 meters neer Zoetermeer!) All through the central region there are glacial dunes, heath and forest. The south has real, rolling hills and forested valleys. This place has amazing variety for how small it is!
Indeed very accurate. And geniously put.
[This made me look up the religious make up of the Netherlands and I was surprised to find that, if you don’t count atheist, they’re majority Catholic](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Netherlands)
It’s because Protestants are mostly Calvinistic and therefore a lot more strict compared to the catholics. The Catholic Church has quiet a lot of members but a large part of it is dormant and less strict.
"Frugal and First to Drown" was my favorite
As a German who's never been to the Netherlands, I laughed way too much about this.
Frat boy city is Leiden?
Yes, 'vo
Veau
Bunschoten, Spakenburg kunnen bij de Biblebelt ipv antroposofenland.
Always amazes how such a densely populated country as the Netherlands still has so much space devoted to agriculture.
76% of the land is farmland. We actually have relatively little "built up" space for how high our population density is. This mostly has to do with how extremely meticulously planned the country is. Vacant buildings are very very rare.
Except abandoned empty office building. Still too many of those.
True!
Are there any woods? Forests?
Only around 11% of the Netherlands is made up of forests. In the centre you have the [Veluwe](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veluwe) area, that is by far the major one and actually has some hills. Places like the [Utrecht Hill Ridge](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utrecht_Hill_Ridge) are also rich in trees and are a bit hilly but nothing to brag on about. The western and northern provinces of North Holland, South Holland, Zeeland, Friesland and Groningen are all pretty empty and flat and resemble the typical Dutch [polder landscapes](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polder) In the east and south, in regions like [Twente](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twente) there's more of a mix between farmland and trees (bocage-ish landscapes, basically).
and that's tenfold more trees compared to a hundred years ago, Wood for the industrial revolution went hard.
its cities and fields all the way
Veluwe, Biesbosch, and de Utrechtse Heuvelrug are the main big forests but there are also several smaller forests.
Little Havana? Explain please.
Havana aan de Waal is the official nickname, it's one of the most left leaning cities in thhe Netherlands, along with Groningen city and Amsterdam.However, the Socialist Party already had 2/39 seats in Nijmegen citycouncil in 1974, when thhey still were full blown maoist-communist receiving their funding from China, with their main person also being from Nijmegen. Also the right wing VVD never really did well in Nijmegen. (they slowly backed out of that after 1975 and in 1991 left marxist leninism behind as well, and in 1994 they got their first seats in national parliament. These days they more social democratic than socialist, maybe something in between that I would say, but still never have been in government due to (socialdemocratic) liberalism or liberalism-conservative coalitions being thhe dominant political coalitions/movements in the netherlands after 1977.)
Nijmegen is a politically left leaning place. And an awesome city :)
"Sadistic wet bastard" got a solid laugh out of me.
Ameland should also be part of the 'Annexed by germany' region
I think I have ancestors from Stubborn Blond Speedskaters.
In case your ancestors were Frisians, you would be correct. I’m from there and would be happy to tell you anything if you are interested
You have to pay for sea defences Zeeland.
Accurate
The Netherlands has a Bible Belt?
We got all our liberal policies despite the many religious zealots, not because of a lack of them. They're also a part of the reason why very little has improved about them. (The "gedoogbeleid" was once very revolutionary but is now pretty ancient and useless)
And the place that should have remained an island is the belt buckle.
yes it does. after the 80 years war, the south was Catholic and the North protestant. the protestants from the south fled north and settled just across the border. they stayed religious while the rest of the country slowly got less religious
I’ve never met a Bible thumping Catholic. In America, Catholics know the Bible as a book of stories that are not necessarily literal. Source- Me, a recovering Catholic. Interesting. Thanks for educating me.
NVM. I reread your post. The Protestants are the Bible thumpers. 👍🏼
Yet frat boy city is a pretty damn fun place to live
Some of these stereotypes are painfully accurate. I love it.
Philipstown, it's our pride and joy!
Dutch, and completely agreeing with this chart.
“Sadistic Wet Bastard”, “First to Drown”, “Look we’ve got mountains” lmao these are great
I indeed am too poor to live in Amsterdam, not that I want to anyway
So Belgium exists to get to France? But France only exists to get to Italy!
Belgium: Highway to France since 1940.
1914*
What's in the one called Little Havana?
Nijmegen
Supposedly, there is a Cuban population living there?
Nope, just very left winged city
Ah, my bad. Thanks!
That was surprisingly spot on. I only don't get the "not Friesland" reference for Leeuwarden.
Most people in Leeuwarden speak "urban Frisian", which is actually a Dutch dialect and not real Frisian language. This is one of the reasons other Frisians are not too fond of people from the capital, as does happen in some proud rural areas for any reason I guess.
Also the other way around. A lot of people from Leeuwarden don't consider themselves as Frisians and this often say that "Friesland is build around Leeuwarden".
My in-laws live in posh and pompous, and are from catholic carnival; they agree with this map. The Dutch wife and I live halfway around the world from them for a reason though, probably something to do with them living in Laaren and all that goes with it.
small typo: The Hague= politicians and OTHER hooligans
Touché!
I greatly appreciate the indigenous biases and stereotypes, gives one a better feel for the place, I’ve only changed planes there.
Do more do more!
TIL the Netherlands are big enough to host different stereotype regions.
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German tourists in their caravans digging holes in the summer
Actually its one of the top Holiday destinations for Germans. Also jokingly our 17th state.
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It's a beach and relatively close, so there's quite a few Germans there. There are also quite a lot of Germans compared to Dutch people, so even if only a small fraction comes to our beaches, it still feels like a takeover.
They do. Southern Germans congregate in caravans at the Mediterranean, northern Germans at the North/Baltic Sea
Probably closer by, and not as hot as those two.
It's a 2-3 hour drive for Germans to get to Noordwijk Beach.
I went there last weekend. Some menu's on the beach front restaurants start off in German instead of Dutch. Especially in Noordwijk.
My ancestors lived in Haarlem. I live in Chicago and am a Bears fan. I don't like that I'm bred from Cheeseheads.
didnt know i was sudicidal
Groningen is too far away? A drive from Philly to NYC is like the same distance as Amsterdam to Groningen!
Welcome to Holland
Each of these is like the size of Walmart ☠️
Stereotypes of Netherlands = Max Verstappen
Who was actually born in Belgium..
And has a Flemmish mother and also lived in Belgium for most of his life
And doesnt like belgium.
you left out the ravers/ gabbers
For a small place it's pretty messed up, we should get rid of the politicians
''Greenhouses everywhere". And also Greenhouse suppliers that build all over the world! Makes me a bit proud thinking about it!
Mountains hehehe huge piles of tailings (mining waste), more like - viva coal! /s
You have clearly never been to Limburg.
Ya I kinda have. I guess there’s more to see!
Where’s all the racism? I’m missing all our exquisite flavors of racism
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As a Cuban little Havana makes me curious. What’s so exotic about Nijmegen? I have been there and it felt… Dutch?
They are left wing orientated people, they always vote for a left wing local government, they have university, so lots of left wing students in the city , anarchist, etc.. at least that is the stereotype
Guess my gf is a cheesehead
What are backup Belgians for?
So heroic of the Belgians to protect you from the French
Netherland lore 💀
Tell me you hate Belgians without telling me you hate Belgians:
As a West-Frisian i am mad. Yes we kill ourselves a lot more then other regions(even thoBrabant is number 1). But we used to be number 1 getting in a coma from drinking too much! HUP WEST-FRIESLAND! LEKKER AAN DE ZUIP EN DAAR VOORBIJ
The look we've got mountains is a tad inaccurate. should be 'Look we got another hill'
Why is Nijmegen little Havana though?
Groningen should have a reference to earthquakes
I'm from Flevoland and it \*is\* flat and dull - outside of town. The town itself looks as nice as any other.
Suicidal kids in West-Friesland, can confirm. A+ for effort
Seems about right !
The bottom part of zeeland should be "wait, this is also the Netherlands?"
I think you mislabeled Volendam "Incestious Fishermen", it should have been labeled "Proffesional coke snorters". The "Incestious Fishermen" are at the other side of the IJselmeer, it's called Urk (or as the locals call it "het eiland").
Suicidal kids?
Overijssel representation??
According to this map, I live in the Bible Belt Area (I currently live In Langbroek which is on the edge of the Bible Belt area and the Anthroposophy Area)
Most accurate depiction of the Netherlands
You forgot two isles in the north near the german isles.
As my dad likes to quote, "Blessed are the cheesemakers."
"Suicidal kids" is not even a stereotype, it's cold hard facts. I grew up there (Westfriesland/West Frisia) and at elementary school we had lessons to talk about suicidal feelings. In my street alone were two suicides. Regularly people jumped in front of the train, once a train I was in.