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Loyalty to yourself or to the group? – about individualism vs. collectivism

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Dennis is a Dutch sales consultant that lived in India as an expat. During his daughter’s birthday in India, the family hadn’t lived there long. Unlike his colleagues he didn’t live on a compound with other Dutch people. Instead, his family lived in the same neighbourhood as the locals.

Dennis and his wife didn’t know many people and decided to have a small celebration for their daughter’s birthday. They invited around 20 Indian friends to the party. They went to the grocery store to prepare and bought enough for the people they had invited. Everything was looking good and accounted for, until the doorbell rang, and an unexpected 80 people showed up. Apparently, everyone has decided to bring their family with them.

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“Very interesting…” – about the cultural differences between the UK and the Netherlands

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The United Kingdom is just an hour away by plane from the Netherlands. You would expect we wouldn’t have that many cultural differences when working together. Dutch are known for their fluency in English and are similar in their kind of humour. Unfortunately, mistakes still happen, for example in doing business. Because why can’t the English just say what they mean?

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Typical Dutch

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Like many countries, the Netherlands has several subcultures. You can look at the Netherlands and the rest of the world from many different cultural points of view. However, there is a worldwide general image of the Netherlands, just as Dutch people have their believes about the Germans, Americans, Japanese, Russians etc. What do people form other countries find typical Dutch?

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Cultural differences between the Netherlands and the USA

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The difference in client-focus was one of the firs things that American intercultural coach Lisa Ross-Marcus noticed when she came to the Netherlands 30 years ago: “The first time I went to a restaurant here I couldn’t believe the reaction the waitress gave when I approached her. She literally said, ‘can’t you see I’m busy?’” According to Lisa, there are numerous reasons for the difference in client focus between the USA and the Netherlands.

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What are stereotypes? How are biases formed? What is the difference between discrimination and racism? And what does “white privilege” actually mean?

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Everyone has them: stereotypes and biases. All day our brain is busy with the structuring and labelling of things, happenings, and living beings. At the same time, these stereotypes often aren’t true, and we unwittingly pass unfair judgement convinced by our own righteousness. Discrimination is present in all cultures the world over. According to neuroscientists, everyone is unconsciously guilty of being racist in one form or another. For this reason, it’s important to understand these themes. What are stereotypes? How are biases formed? What is the difference between discrimination and racism? And what does “white privilege” actually mean?

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Intercultural communication: low-context cultures vs high-context cultures

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Imagine you are invited to a birthday party. Most Dutch visitors will be pretty straightforward in accepting or denying the invitation.  For example, they would say:

“Thank you for your invitation! I will be there.” or
“ No, I am sorry, I can’t make it. Maybe next time.” or
“ I have to check, but I will let you know as soon as possible. “

When preparing a party, the Dutch usually know how many people will join the party and how many groceries to buy.
In other countries …

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“I trust you” – the Different perspectives of time, trust, and hierarchy

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Imagine you are on your way to an important meeting, a job interview for example. You want to be on time and leave a good first impression. On your way you run into someone you admire, someone you respect, for example you former boss. He or she starts a long story, while you have to be at your appointment. He talks and talks and in the meantime you start to feel uncomfortable. If this conversation continues like this, you are going to be late. What do you do?

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