Let us be objective… Dutch are unfriendly

They say “to be objective” means “not being influenced by personal feelings, interpretations, or prejudice but rather consider things based on facts”. However, I once sat in a lecture on improving one’s research abilities and an issue raised was that true objectivity does not really exist. There is always some subjective influence. Does this mean that being objective is not about being unbiased but, rather, having multiple views on an issue without declaring which side of the field you are playing on?

If one came up and said something like “Dutch people are unfriendly”, one might be called biased. (I am hoping that the Dutch people reading this shall stick to their usual way of hearing out the story to the end and then reacting.) Well, since I came to study here a year ago, I have heard this statement more than a couple of times from a number of international students. My personal reaction, on returning home for holiday and being asked how I found Delft: “I found it cold. I found the temperature and people cold.”

“Why would people say something like that?” you might wonder. Perhaps it is because the people I have been talking to were all holed up in the spaceboxes where they felt no contact with others. Perhaps it’s the fact that a boy tried to get in the groove with a Dutch girl and it did not work out like it does at home. Whatever the case, this “biased” view seems to be commonplace with a lot of foreign students.

With this in mind, I talked to a friend of mine about writing this article. Being the objective person she is, she advised me to take into consideration the history of the Netherlands to aid in getting a better understanding of Dutch mentality. So I delved into a brief on Wikipedia about Netherland’s history and find out about “80-year’s war” and “the bombing of Rotterdam”. My objective friend says these incidences made the country one that was somewhat scared of getting involved in other people’s business and that this is what is reflected in everyday encounters with people or the law. In the train you shall not be bothered by anybody and in Amsterdam you can smoke all the marijuana that you want! Same things I read in the “Living in the Netherlands” guide book that I received on my first day here.

While we might attempt to run off with all kinds of complicated explanations, I wanted to go with a simpler one. Everybody living in the Netherlands is way too busy! The lives of Dutch people are extremely full that they are running from one stop to the next and have agendas that are full of appointments for the entire next month. If you add this to the fact that they are reserved, then you surely have a recipe for “unfriendliness”!

However, all these explanations are just that… explanations. They still do not change the fact that it is hard to get to know Dutch people or that many foreign students do not feel very welcome. In the end, I cannot and I am not even attempting to give a solution to this. It is just the way it is. What to do? Deal with it! Get more understanding of the country and find your niche. That aside Dutch people are not that unfriendly. I have known a couple to go into endless conversation when I said a simple “Hello”. Maybe I have become biased now!

Mulo Emanuel, second year Master Computer Science (EWI faculty), from Uganda, East Africa.

(Illustratie: Floris Wiegerinck)

They say “to be objective” means “not being influenced by personal feelings, interpretations, or prejudice but rather consider things based on facts”. However, I once sat in a lecture on improving one’s research abilities and an issue raised was that true objectivity does not really exist. There is always some subjective influence. Does this mean that being objective is not about being unbiased but, rather, having multiple views on an issue without declaring which side of the field you are playing on?

If one came up and said something like “Dutch people are unfriendly”, one might be called biased. (I am hoping that the Dutch people reading this shall stick to their usual way of hearing out the story to the end and then reacting.) Well, since I came to study here a year ago, I have heard this statement more than a couple of times from a number of international students. My personal reaction, on returning home for holiday and being asked how I found Delft: “I found it cold. I found the temperature and people cold.”

“Why would people say something like that?” you might wonder. Perhaps it is because the people I have been talking to were all holed up in the spaceboxes where they felt no contact with others. Perhaps it’s the fact that a boy tried to get in the groove with a Dutch girl and it did not work out like it does at home. Whatever the case, this “biased” view seems to be commonplace with a lot of foreign students.

With this in mind, I talked to a friend of mine about writing this article. Being the objective person she is, she advised me to take into consideration the history of the Netherlands to aid in getting a better understanding of Dutch mentality. So I delved into a brief on Wikipedia about Netherland’s history and find out about “80-year’s war” and “the bombing of Rotterdam”. My objective friend says these incidences made the country one that was somewhat scared of getting involved in other people’s business and that this is what is reflected in everyday encounters with people or the law. In the train you shall not be bothered by anybody and in Amsterdam you can smoke all the marijuana that you want! Same things I read in the “Living in the Netherlands” guide book that I received on my first day here.

While we might attempt to run off with all kinds of complicated explanations, I wanted to go with a simpler one. Everybody living in the Netherlands is way too busy! The lives of Dutch people are extremely full that they are running from one stop to the next and have agendas that are full of appointments for the entire next month. If you add this to the fact that they are reserved, then you surely have a recipe for “unfriendliness”!

However, all these explanations are just that… explanations. They still do not change the fact that it is hard to get to know Dutch people or that many foreign students do not feel very welcome. In the end, I cannot and I am not even attempting to give a solution to this. It is just the way it is. What to do? Deal with it! Get more understanding of the country and find your niche. That aside Dutch people are not that unfriendly. I have known a couple to go into endless conversation when I said a simple “Hello”. Maybe I have become biased now!

Mulo Emanuel, second year Master Computer Science (EWI faculty), from Uganda, East Africa.

(Illustratie: Floris Wiegerinck)