Americans are fake and the Dutch are rude (2022)

Post by DonHopkins » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 2:43 AM UTC

dr_dshiv wrote: post #49

technothrasher wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a cultural question I've been wondering since I visited Amsterdam as an American- I was walking along an up hill street in the evening, and I saw a young lady talking to her friends and smoking, with a baby in a stroller. The stroller started to roll down the hill slightly and she didn't seem to notice. It then picked up a little speed, so I moved to intercept it, and rolled it back up to her. When I delivered…

Hill? In Amsterdam? Suspicious detail!

Post by bee_rider » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 2:51 AM UTC

Jensson wrote: post #108

bee_rider wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing I don’t really like about the “kind but not nice” formulation is that (as someone from the Northeast), it seems to give us, like, the obviously good trait. At least I read it as implying pretty heavily by separating out “kind” and “nice” that “kind” is the authentic and important thing and “nice” is some superficial and therefor not as good trait. So I would feel too self-congratulatory, using it. I pr…

> it seems to give us, like, the obviously good trait That is from your perspective, everyone think that their culture is the "obviously good one", we value what we were taught to value. You value those traits since you came from that culture, a person from a "show happiness and spread warmth" culture will think that their way is the obviously superior one and that the culture you think is superior is making the wors…

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 2:58 AM UTC

avhception wrote: post #96

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I first visited the US in 1981, I was pretty convinced (as a young, naive and somewhat ignorant Brit) that the differences between someone from New Orleans and someone from Portland, Maine were far greater than anything you could find between any two parts of Europe. Decades later, that's clearly an exaggeration or just plain wrong, but it is certainly true that people do underestimate cultural differences withi…

Case in point: in German, we even have the same words. They are mildly antiquated, but "Gesellig" and "Geselle" are almost 1:1 translations from the Dutch "gezellig" and "gezel". As a German who has worked in the Netherlands, I never felt a big difference in everyday attitude (though I have to admit the company is based very near to the German border, so maybe the differences would be bigger when compared to Amsterda…

Post by rufus_foreman » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 4:09 AM UTC

floxy wrote: post #3

Nevin1901 wrote: post #2

As someone who recently moved from The Netherlands to USA, I found this article to be really great at explaining the reason why many Europeans find Americans to be fake. I myself had experienced all of the social experiences the author talked about, and found myself confused as to what a "friend" was in The USA. I also find it very interesting how the author described emotions as cultured - not just something which w…

Cultural differences aren't limited to international interactions either. Here's an interesting thing about exclamation points. Apparently there are (at least) two cultures of exclamation point usage in English. Apparently one culture uses them frequently as a marker of expressing general excitedness. The other culture sees them akin to yelling, which is appropriate only a small fraction of the time. https://news.yco…

Post by SoftTalker » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 5:22 AM UTC

j7ake wrote: post #65

SoftTalker wrote: post #15

American living in America. I've encountered all types of people. Some are taciturn, some are very direct, some dance around the subject for fear of offending, some are excessively friendly. We're a mix of cultures and I don't think you can say that all or even most Americans have the same social/emotional tendencies.

Nowhere in American is asking “how are you today” to a cashier abnormal. But the article suggests that it is indeed abnormal from a a Dutch perspective. There are distinctly American customs and cultures that Europeans would look as stereotypically American.