What Is The Difference Between British and Dutch Mentality?

[♥ Lily ♥]

What Is The Difference Between British and Dutch Mentality?

Ross Boardman, lives in England

Answered 11th May 2018

I work in the Netherlands quite a lot. On the whole, I find their mentality refreshing.

A Brit will often bite their tongue or try and be diplomatic but the Dutchie will come straight out with it. This has started to rub off and I tend to be very direct when working with Dutch folks or in interactions when I am in the Netherlands but dealing with people from the UK.

There is a distinct pecking order in commuting. Cars give way to bike lanes, bikes give way to pedestrians on crossings over bike lanes. Some town squares are every man form himself but the general order is there. If you want to see truly integrated public transport then go to the Netherlands, they really get it. Trains run on time, are clean and cheap compared to UK. The train will often run alongside a motorway and a shipping canal and a bike track and people just walking along.

Politics? Don’t get them started, they don’t get born with a safety switch.

Status and status symbols. Generally the Dutch do not give a fuck about this kind of stuff. My perception is that they believe it’s crass to discuss or show off such things. Bosses tend to be very open to their staff and some frank conversations can happen without many repercussions.

Drinking? We are pretty close on that one but they organise holidays around it. Carnaval is a big thing in the south of the Netherlands, traditionally Catholic. It’s like Dutch Mardi Gras over a long weekend. Then there is King’s Day, which is the King’s birthday. Generally it goes something like this, Carnaval the south of the country gets very drunk for about 4 or 5 days. For King’s Day, the whole of the country gets drunk for one day but maybe make the weekend out of it. The Dutch love beer and they brew some of the World’s best beer. In the UK, we brew some amazing beer too but then fall back on foreign lager to get bladdered!

Burgers, steaks and donner kebabs. We both like those. Fries / Chips, pretty much a joint love there.

There is one minor annoyance and that is the pre-paid right associated with dog licences. A Dutch dog owner pays a lot of money each year, per dog, in the form of a fee. A number of dog owners just let their dogs crap anywhere. In the UK we go berserk about dog crap and try, ineffectually, to fine people for it, but we don’t have a licensing scheme anymore.

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Sascha Vojtiva

Updated 8th May 2019

I only know some superficial differences. One of the differences is that the Dutch learn three languages at school mandatory, English, French and German and in some schools Spanish and Chinese. The old British mostly speak no foreign language and the younger British only one.

The British are more conservative and more nostalgic than the Dutch. They love their culture and history. The Dutch are more concerned about money and they only think about the future. Their history does not play a big role in their life except the Second World War which is for the old people a big trauma.

British are more concerned about their language and culture. They preserve historical hangovers in spelling and they feel threatened by the use of American words. They are nostalgic and want to conserve their traditions and way of living. They are strategic in the choice of learning a language. And they expect that most people speak English especially in the Netherlands.

The Dutch lavishly use loanwords from other languages to sound more interesting, qualified and get the attention. But when they speak loanwords they not seldom have the wrong accent and the false pronunciation. They are like oak trees and they decorate themselves with chistmas bulbs to look like a christmas tree. Some of them have no respect for their language at all. And pessimists under them think it will finally disappear between two or three generations. They think themselves their language sounds ugly compared to Italian because of the guttering sounds. They think they have one of the most difficult language of the world and they are surprised if anyone speaks Dutch especially someone from the UK or America. Let it be clear. It is not my opinion of the Dutch language but it is the opinion of many Dutch have about their own language.

The British are friendly and polite. There is bigger difference between the social classes. Children wear schooluniforms for not being discriminating. The Dutch are more egalitarian and liberal. A schooluniform would be unthinkable for them. In the United Kingdom things the boss is expected to do something on the relations at work. In the Netherlands nothing will change if you do not take the initiative. And because of their egalitarian thinking they have to meet for many occasions. In this meeting they have to be the point to make their ideas and thoughts clear. Therefore the Dutch are learned from childhood to be assertive, which can be in the eyes of the foreigner direct or blunt, but which is not always their intention. When you are assertive you have to come up for your rights without offending someone else which can be very difficult.

In the Netherlands a church is only for prayers and sermons and not a place where your find memorials, names and flags of people who are killed during wars.

Many British have an island mentality. They see themselves as independent and they feel themselves threatened by laws of the EU. The Dutch are a player in the EU. They try to hold the fabric of European nations together. These are generalisations of the Dutch, the reality is more difficult. The British still use miles, inches and stones beside meters, kilos and centimeters. The Dutch use only centimeters, kilos, etc.

And their is more solidarity in the Dutch society. The differences between incomes are smaller in the Netherlands than in the United Kingdom.

And in the Netherlands you have the Bible Belt where people think they have seen the light and that other people go to hell because they are no christians while they call themselves so. You are protestant or catholic and nothing in between like the anglical church in the United Kingdom. It is not my intention to offend the British but the Dutch see it so.

Religion plays a role in politics. You have political parties who call themselves christian. Some of them are representives of people from the Bible Belt. In British politics you only have secular parties.

[♥ Lily ♥]

Simon North, British/Irish/Dutch national, lived in the Netherlands since 1984.

Answered 11th May 2018

The others have already given good answers so I won’t give a full answer, just add some things where I think they are wrong.

Meetings: one of the most frustrating things I have found about Dutch meetings over the past 30 years is that they are often a formality. The real decisions are made in the corridors to and from meetings and sometimes by people who weren’t even in the meeting. Also, just because a decision has been made in a meeting, that doesn’t stop it coming up in the next meeting again, and in the meeting after that, and the meeting after that, and the meeting after that, and ….

But, generally, the Dutch love to compromise. They aren’t as confrontational either the British (or the French) so a compromise is often the way they prefer (it’s even institutionalized as the so-called “polder model”.

The compromise solution works pretty well, but sometimes it can be a real disaster. To give you two examples. Firstly, in Dutch politics the government has been a coalition for decades. No party is strong enough to lead outright, so after the elections the parties hold secret talks and work out a manifesto between them. Often this has little to do with why they were elected or a fringe party will be brought in and some nutcase ideas turned into government policy just for the sake of a compromise (coalition). It makes Dutch politics very undemocratic and very unrepresentative and usually means the same old politicians come back time after time despite the fact that no-one wants them.

Secondly, the compromise approach can sometimes stand in the way of a real decision (or because the government doesn’t have the balls to make a decision). Whatever you might think, (soft) drugs are NOT legal in the Netherlands. Unwilling, or unable, to face down their neighboring* countries (Germany and France have always tried to pass off the blame for their own chronic drugs problems by blaming the Dutch), the Dutch have what they call a ‘gedoogbeleid’ (tolerance policy). This means that soft drugs are still technically illegal, but no-one is prosecuted as long as they don’t go over the top. Unfortunately, this leaves the policy at the whim of the local governments, who change or withdraw their policies, or impose conditions, whenever they feel like it. So, what was legal this week may not be next week. This means that the situation is totally stagnant. Where the Netherlands could now be leading the market in cannabis and hemp products it is muddling along as before and being eclipsed by countries who are really legalizing* it, like the USA.

Class. Forget it, Dutch society is JUST as class-ridden as the UK used to be back in the 80s when I emigrated. They have an aristocracy (a very, very rich one) but their real aristocracy is money-based. It’s a very ‘haves - have-nots’ society with virtually no mobility. Those who have power keep it and make damn sure they exclude everyone else. You live in the right place, have the right accent, go to the right schools and universities, and climb up the greasy pole to the top. If you are on the inside, you’re set for life. On the outside, forget it.

One big difference between the British and Dutch mentalities is the sense of tradition and old fashioned ideas of decorum and duty. While they are on the wane in the UK (I’m “old school”), they are virtually non-existent in the Netherlands. They have little respect for their architecture (unless it’s worth a lot of money), and they think it’s quite normal for the royal family to burst into tears and sing along with a maudlin pop song at a public occasion.

(*Pff, he states he's a UK/Irish/European national, yet he uses American English spellings. A genuine and proper British or Irish person would've spelt that as 'neighbouring', and not as 'neighboring'.)

(* 'Legalizing' pff... he's not British or Irish to spell English words like that. Bloody charlatans and poseurs pretending to be European.)

[♥ Lily ♥]

James W. Hoover, History Professor in the U.S. (2001-present)

Answered 22nd August 2019

I’m half-British and one of my graduate advisors was Dutch. I’ve known quite a few British and Dutch people over the years. Plus, as some may notice, my own last name is “Dutch” German (Hoover = Huber). So, what’s my take?

Dutch people are very straightforward, and if that’s a bit abrasive to you that’s your problem. If you’re stupid, a Dutch person will tell you exactly how stupid you are. It won’t be a judgment, but rather an empirical observation. On the other hand, the Dutch can be very reliable. Just don’t let them down. They expect results, and generally reserve judgement until they get some return on investment. Once you’ve passed the ROI test, you can build a good relationship.

British people are indirect about everything. We don’t like to cause offense even when that’s actually our goal. We can sometimes be a bit slippery. We don’t like to be let down, but we realize that sometimes that happens. We expect results, but everything is negotiable, within reason. We do, however, expect a return on investment, but are willing to cut you in on a slice if you can expedite matters. If you pass the ROI test, we still might blow you off because Brexit.

I hope that clarifies things for people.

[♥ Lily ♥]

Peter Huppertz, lives in The Netherlands

Answered 10th May, 2018

I could write a lengthy answer about this, but consider this:
England is traditionally a nation of engineers; The Netherlands has always been a nation of traders.

If you deal with an English engineering company, you may occasionally find it harder to get support for their legacy product, because the engineer has lost interest and is working on his latest development.

The Dutch are, in general, more pragmatic. There are many Dutch engineers, some of them are excellent, but they leave the non-technical stuff to people who understand the business side better.

A lot is said about the Dutch being blunt… and yes, we are. But we also have a pragmatic side. Much of the trade successes we had in previous centuries, especially in the Far East, came about because the Dutch were willing to adapt to the customs of their trading partners, rather than shout in English off the top of our lungs. This may also explain why the Dutch, on average, have a decent command of other languages - as a small country that relied heavily on trading, we’ve always had to have our windows open to the outside. The Netherlands was also one of the six founding members of what is now the EU, and we’ll still be in it in 2019.

Dutch society is also more classless, I think. In general, we have a hard time dealing with authority. Lucky for us, our authority figures also behave differently. A lot can be learnt, I think, by comparing British royalty to Dutch royalty.

The Dutch are, by nature, open to get conflicts resolved peacefully. Rather than having a standoff such as between Thatcher and Arthur Scargill, we tended to want to sit down and negotiate our way out of it. This tactic has worked well for us - we’ve never had British Leyland-scale disasters happening here.

Dutch society also has its dark sides. For decades, we were known as a very tolerant bunch, but during the last 20 years, this is proving to not be the case.

[♥ Lily ♥]

Jan Timmer, lives in The Netherlands (1957-present)

Answered 12th May, 2018

The difference in culture and mentality between a Dutchman and an Englishman is difficult to say on a general level. Both countries have differences per city, region or province. In addition, cultural differences due to the internet and globalization in the Western world are becoming smaller and smaller. The typical Englishman with bowler hat, paraplue, long coat and stiff upperlip no longer exists. This is also the tough Dutchman who walks on clogs and loves tulips and cheese.

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https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-di...utch-mentality

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Where Dutch Directness Comes From: https://www.theapricity.com/forum/sh...61#post6304961

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British Etiquette – A Guide for International Students and Visitors: https://www.theapricity.com/forum/sh...s-and-Visitors

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An Englishman describes how he finds the cultural way of life of living in the Netherlands, and explains how to understand the cultural differences without taking offence to the Dutch bluntness and directness in openly saying what they think.