How did I manage my first year living in the Netherlands? So far, so good! But I have a few reflections and tips that may help my fellow Italians living in the Netherlands, or anyone planning to move here.
Driving in the Netherlands: Dutch Road Signs, Motorways and Roundabouts
Although I have no problems driving, my orienteering skills are practically non-existent. You may say, ‘There are Google Maps or Waze!’ Well, you don’t know me! And you don’t know the Dutch road signs.
The good thing is that there are motorways (snelwegen) all over the place, and accessing them is very easy, since there are no toll booths where you have to stop or slow down to pay a fee.
My problem is the white road markings: there are solid white lines, dashed white lines, but also curved solid and dashed lines that intersect the straight ones, usually where you have five or six lanes. Not to mention the arrows with a round belly… Aye, there’s the rub!
With my orienteering skills and being new to the Netherlands, my first driving experiences were quite traumatic. I basically always ended up in the wrong lane, everybody honked at me, and I became even more confused because I couldn’t understand what I had done wrong.
Some roundabouts also have two or three lanes, sometimes separated by a low curb instead of a long line. Guess which lane I always choose!
However, I’m managing much better now. My advice? Find a car, stick to it, and do what the other driver is doing. That may help if you’re heading in the same direction!
Food Culture in the Netherlands: Italian Meal Times vs. Dutch Eating Habits
Coming from Italy, I was born and raised in a food culture, where food means everything: a powerful way to socialize, a business tool, a courting strategy, and a family affair.
Lunch and dinner are both substantial meals, often consisting of a first and a second course. During meals, you talk about everything. You eat slowly, enjoy the food, and appreciate the company of the people sitting around the table.
Unlike the Dutch, Italians can eat pretty late: dinner may be between 7.30 and 9 p.m. (meaning that you may start eating at any time between those two hours).
After moving to the Netherlands, the shock of different meal times was probably the hardest cultural difference for me to adapt to. I simply wasn’t hungry at 6 p.m., which was usually the time when I would have a cup of tea and biscuits in my home country.
On top of that, many food combinations are different. If I drink coffee or tea and dip biscuits into it, people look at me strangely and make comments. But what are biscuits for, if not for dipping into hot beverages?
On the other hand, having dinner so early has its benefits: an evening snack at 9 p.m. is one of them. Just watch your diet, though. Try eating fruit instead of those fantastic, delicious cakes covered in whipped cream that fill the supermarket fridges!
Learning Dutch as an Italian: Language Challenges and Practical Tips
Nobody can deny that Dutch is a difficult language to learn, with its harsh, guttural sounds, super-long words or, on the contrary, very short ones, such as er, even, maar, echt, erg, and wel. Not to mention all the verb prefixes and suffixes, such as aan-, op-, ver-, and -mee, just to name a few.
However, don’t be scared, and keep trying!
My advice? Watch TV. Commercials are great for learning complete, relatively simple phrases. You might sound a bit like a TV advert at first, but with practice, you’ll get better and better.
Supermarket brochures are also very useful. You can learn vocabulary related to food, drinks, and clothing. They were my first reading materials, and I even took them to bed to read a little before going to sleep!
Finally, expose yourself to Dutch as much as possible. Try speaking it whenever you have the opportunity, watch children’s programs or the news to begin with, listen to the radio, and watch the weather forecast (a real passion for many Dutch people!).
Keep practicing, stay curious, and you’ll gradually become more comfortable with the language. Before you know it, you’ll be understanding more Dutch than you ever thought possible!
Written by Nicoletta Gueli
