The biggest misconceptions and stereotypes about the Netherlands

1. The biggest misconceptions and stereotypes about the Netherlands

Dana Kairatkyzy BA-19.600
October
2019

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3. DUTCH PEOPLE SMOKE WEED ALL THE TIME

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4.

It’s pretty original. Of course, there
are some people who smoke weed.
But, here comes the
misunderstanding. Because weed is
tolerated in The Netherlands (not
legal, keep this in mind), they don’t
find it appealing. Thus, the
addiction rate is actually way lower
in The Netherlands than in many
other countries where weed is
prohibited.
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5.

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6. HOLLAND IS THE SAME AS THE NETHERLANDS

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• There is a problem with this as even the name
of their official tourism board is called
Holland.com. So, it is easy to make this
mistake as a foreigner. But no, it is not
correct.
• Noord (North)-Holland and Zuid (South) Holland are the names of two provinces that
have the name Holland. In many languages,
their country is referred to as Holland. So not
everyone knows the correct name of country
which The Netherlands is.
• In general, people do not mind if you say
Holland, but they prefer you to call country
The Netherlands. They have ten more
provinces besides Noord and Zuid Holland.
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8. DUTCH AND DEUTSCH ARE THE SAME

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9.

Say this to a Dutch person
and there is a big chance
you end up with a broken
jaw. Dutch is the English
name for Netherlands.
Deutsch is the German
name for German. So how
can it be the same?
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10. WEED IS LEGAL AND YOU CAN SMOKE IT EVERYWHERE

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This is another misunderstanding about The
Netherlands. Weed is tolerated in The Netherlands,
meaning that the police can spend their time doing
more important things. Having up to 5 grams of weed
is tolerated, anything above that is illegal. Besides
this, all other soft -and hard drugs are forbidden in
The Netherlands. You cannot smoke weed
everywhere in The Netherlands, it is only permitted in
the shops. Not even in Amsterdam. But many visitors
in capital city smoke outside the coffee shops. Which
is not the point. Because they do that it is way too
much work for the police to tell all of them they are
not permitted to do that.
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12. ENGLISH IS THE PRIMARY LANGUAGE HERE

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No. They speak Dutch as their first language in The Netherlands. English is second. German and/or
French third or fourth. But, in other parts of The Kingdom of The Netherlands Dutch and Papiamento
are the first languages (Aruba, Bonaire). On Curacao; Dutch, Papiamento, and English are the official
languages. And on Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius they are both Dutch and English.
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